PLX Technology

PLX Technology

180px
Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1994
Headquarters	Sunnyvale, California
Products	PCIe components
Parent	Avago

PLX Technology is an integrated circuit company based in Sunnyvale, California. PLX products are focused on PCI Express and Ethernet technologies.

Avago Technologies completed acquisition of PLX Technology on August 12, 2014.

Products

PLX supplies components for interconnecting parts of computer systems.

PCI Express

File:RouterBOARD RB14e, close-up.jpg

PLX Technology PEX8606 PCI Express switch on a PCI Express ×1 card, creating multiple endpoints out of one endpoint and allowing it to be shared by multiple devices

The Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus evolved into a family of technologies standardized by the PCI-SIG standards group. Software compatible with the previous, parallel technology, the switched serial PCI Express (PCIe) technology became a popular way to connection building blocks of most computer systems by 2008.

Switches: Since PCI Express is a point-to-point serial interconnect standard, it requires a switch to connect a single PCI Express port from a processor or chipset to multiple end-points. PLX started with the PCIe 1.0 family at 2.5 Gigatransfers per second in 2004, followed by PCIe 2.0 products in late 2007, where the data rate doubled to 5.0 Gigatransfers per second. The company offers more than 18 PCIe 3.0 products at 8 Gigatransfers per second.

Bridges: PCI Express bridges allow devices with other standards to be used in systems that need to interoperate with PCI Express. These bridges facilitate connection back to conventional PCI for upgrading. Applications using these bridge devices include servers, storage host bus adapters, graphics, TV tuners and security systems. PLX also offers several legacy bridges that translate general purpose serial and parallel ports. PLX announced a controller that connects PCI Express to USB 3.0 in January 2011.

Consumer

PLX, through its acquisition of Oxford Semiconductor in January 2009, designed and manufactured network-attached storage and direct attached storage hardware and firmware for consumer storage but divested its research and development team in Abingdon-on-Thames, UK, in October 2011 to OCZ Technology Group.

Ethernet

PLX purchased the Teranetics company in September 2010 for about $26 million. Products from this merger supported physical layer connection to 10 Gigabit Ethernet known as 10GBASE-T, using Category 6 cable or Category 7 cable. PLX divested this team in September 2012 to Aquantia Corporation.

External links

• DMA in PCIe Switches Boosts Performance in Demanding Applications (Electronic Products - SemiApps magazine)
• The PCI Express switch and bridge landscape. Switches expand into bridging, and Gen 2 offers simplification opportunities (Electronic Products magazine)
• Expanding Atom's PCI Express lanes (Small Form Factor magazine)
• Get bandwidth relief in PCIe systems (Embedded Systems Design)
• PCIe Switching Technology Tackles Industrial Market (Semiconductor Applications–Hearst)
• IO Virtualization and Convergence in Consolidating Data Centers (Data Center Journal)
• Dualcast and Multicast Unblock Bottlenecks in Diverse Applications (Computer Technology Review)
• System Performance in Host-Centric Applications (EE Times)
• Crossing the Bridge to PCIe Switches (Electronic Design Europe)
• Free up bandwidth in PCI Express designs (Embedded.com and Embedded Systems Design)
• PCIe switches with integrated instrumentation speed product development (Embedded Computing)