Samtec FireFly™ PCIe® Optical Flyover Cable Assembly Fully Supports PCIe 4.0

by donpedro

PLDAThe technical collaboration between Samtec, a privately held $625MM global manufacturer of a broad line of electronic interconnect solutions, and PLDA, the industry leader in PCI Express® interface IP solutions, provides a groundbreaking solution for PCIe 4.0 endpoint development by combining PLDA’s PCIe 4.0 hardware and IP with the Samtec’s PCUO PCIe® Optical Flyover Cable Assembly.

The PLDA PCIe 4.0 Platform Development Kit (PDK) is a complete development platform based on PLDA’s PCIe compliant XpressSWITCH IP and PLDA’s XpressRICH4™ controller IP for PCIe Gen4 technology running on a Xilinx® Virtex® UltraScale™ FPGA. This new product provides the first PCIe Gen3 x8 (upstream) to PCIe Gen 4 (downstream) Integration Backplane. By working with the PLDA Gen4SWITCH, early developers of PCIe 4.0 technology can be among the first to test PCIe Gen4 architecture for Endpoint/PHY/boards with their own software, designs and boards in a real system.

Samtec’s PCUO FireFly™ PCIe® Optical Micro Flyover Cable Assembly leverages MMF technology to support the PCIe Gen4 links of up to 100 m. Samtec FireFly™ solutions offer high-density, ease-of-routing and optimized signal integrity. The PCUO series features a x4 optical engine enabling aggregation for x8 and x16 PCIe® links. The PCUO also offers support for bidirectional reset and cable present sidebands for both transparent and NTB applications.

Key features of the combined solution include:

  • Gen4SWITCH is based on a Xilinx Virtex UltraScale XCVU065-2FFVC1517E FPGA and features:
    • One PCIe Gen3 x8 electrical Upstream
    • One PCIe Gen4 x4 electrical Downstream
  • Gen4SWITCH FPGA includes PLDA XpressSWITCH IP configured with:
    • 1 PCIe Gen3 x8 US port connected to Gen3 capable computer
    • 1 PCIe Gen4 x4 DS port connected to external DUT
    • 1 PCIe Gen4 x4 DS port connected to PLDA PCIe Gen4 IP as PCIe Gen4 x4 embedded EP
  • Gen4 DUT is connected to Gen4SWITCH via Samtec PCUO FireFly™ PCIe Optical Flyover Cable Assembly

Samtec will display the PLDA PCIe 4.0 PDK with the PCUO FireFly™ PCIe Optical Flyover Cable Assembly at the upcoming SC16 November 14-17, 2016 in Salt Lake City, UT. Please stop by Booth #2522 for further details.

To learn more about the Samtec PCUO PCIe® Optical Flyover Cable Assembly, please download our PCIe® Mid-Board Optics eBrochure or visit www.samtec.com/firefly.

To learn more about the PLDA PCIe 4.0 PDK featuring the Gen4SWITCH platform, please visit https://www.plda.com/products/pcie-solutions-asicsoc/pciefpga-prototyping/gen4switch.

Samtec, Inc.
www.samtec.com

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