PEX 8532 Applications
PLX Technology, Inc.
2.2
Applications
Suitable for host-centric and peer-to-peer traffic patterns, the PEX 8532 can be configured for a wide
variety of form factors and applications, as described in the sections that follow.
2.2.1
Host-Centric Fan-Out
The PEX 8532, with versatile symmetric or asymmetric lane configuration capability, allows
application-specific tuning to a variety of host-centric applications.
Figure 2-2 illustrates a typical server-based design, where the Root Complex provides a PCI Express
link needing to be broken into a larger number of smaller ports for a variety of I/O functions with
different bandwidth requirements.
In this example, the PEX 8532 contains one x8 upstream port, and as many as seven downstream ports.
The downstream ports can be of differing widths, if required. Figure 2-2 also illustrates various ways
that the ports can be bridged to provide PCI or PCI-X, using ExpressLane PCI Express bridges (such as,
the PLX PEX 8114 or PEX 8111).
Figure 2-2. Fan-In/Fan-Out Usage
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ExpressLane PEX 8532AA/BA/BB/BC 8-Port/32-Lane Versatile PCI Express Switch Data Book
Copyright © 2007 by PLX Technology, Inc. All Rights Reserved – Version 1.6
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