PCIe Switches Support Multicast/Multi-Root Partitioning October 14, 2008
The company’s second-generation PCI Express switches enlist a unique architecture that enables support for multicast and multi-root partitioning, reportedly an industry first. Via a partitionable switching architecture, users can perform dynamic assignment of PCIe slot and I/O peripherals for on-the-fly resource sharing and load balancing among multiple root complexes. Multicast support allows any switch port to simultaneously send identical data to two or more switch ports and ensures consistency in data and table information among multiple host processors. Five available devices with support for multicast and multi-root partitioning include 64-lane/16-port, 48-lane/12-port, and 32-lane/eight-port devices for data traffic and 34-lane/16-port and 22-lane/16-port devices for control-plane traffic. Additionally, dedicated evaluation and development kits are available for device testing, analysis, and system emulation. Samples are available now. INTEGRATED DEVICE TECHNOLOGY INC., Santa Clara, CA. (800) 345-7015.
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