PLX to Chair SSD Track at Flash Memory Summit, Demonstrate Its PCIe Gen3 Switches With Marvell

SUNNYVALE, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 08/20/12 -- PLX Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLXT), a leading global supplier of high-speed connectivity solutions enabling emerging data center architectures, today announced a demonstration of its solid state drive (SSD)-proficient PCI Express (PCIe) Gen3 switches through a collaboration with Marvell® Semiconductor, Inc., and that it will chair a key technical session focused on designing high-performance SSD-enabled storage systems at Flash Memory Summit, held August 21-23, 2012, Santa Clara Convention Center.

In the session titled "Designing Storage Systems in the SSD Era" (Track 202-B), experts from PLX, STEC, Marvell, Samsung, SolidFire, and Skyera will provide insight and advice to designers of hard disk drive (HDD)-based systems on how they can enhance their platforms to make best use of high-performance SSDs. The session -- chaired by Larry Chisvin, PLX® vice president of strategic initiatives -- will help designers choose the optimal interface for specific applications, maximize system bandwidth, modify their systems to combine SSDs and HDDs, prevent common bottlenecks and errors designers face when using SSDs, and provide attendees with recommendations on how best to determine a real-world return on investment in their new systems. Track 202-B will be held on Wednesday, August 22, 9:45 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

The PLX and Marvell demonstration focuses on the industry-leading performance of Marvell's 88NV9145 PCIe-to-NAND controllers, enabled by PLX ExpressLane™ PCIe Gen3 switches, in an enterprise storage application. The PLX switch's multi-host feature allows the device to be partitioned into two virtual switches, with data streaming to and from multiple servers, thus reducing cost by eliminating the need for a second switch. PLX PCIe x16 port-to-server support offers 16GB/s data transfer capacity in each direction.

"With key support enabled by PLX, the Marvell demonstration features eight virtual machines running on a standard two-socket server ultimately sharing our native PCI Express SSD reference card," said Shawn Kung, director of product marketing, enterprise storage at Marvell Semiconductor, Inc. "Each virtual machine is capable of achieving I/O performance up to an astounding 90K IOPS."

The PLX PCIe Gen3 switch portfolio today offers 14 devices ranging from 12 lanes and three ports to 96 lanes and 24 ports. Designers choosing the PEX8796 switch -- touting 96 lanes and bandwidth of 8 Gigatransfers per second, per lane, in each direction -- can achieve throughput of 1,536 gigabits per second (192 gigabytes/s), delivering performance that challenges all other interconnect technologies.

For more information visit www.flashmemorysummit.com.

More Information:

• Article: PCIe goes Clockless -- Achieving independent spread-spectrum clocking without SSC isolation (EE Times)
• Article: PCI Express over optical cabling: Performance, simplicity, efficiency (Network World)
• Article: PCI Express Enhancing SSD Performance (Computer Technology Review)
• Videos: plxtech.com/support/videos
• Databooks and collateral: plxtech.com/gen3

About PLX
PLX Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLXT), based in Sunnyvale, Calif., USA, is an industry-leading global provider of semiconductor-based connectivity solutions primarily targeting the enterprise and consumer markets. The company develops innovative software-enriched silicon that enables product differentiation, reliable interoperability and superior performance. Visit PLX on plxtech.com, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

ExpressLane, PLX and the PLX logo are trademarks of PLX Technology, Inc., which may be registered in some jurisdictions. All other product names that appear in this material are for identification purposes only and are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Add to Digg Bookmark with del.icio.us Add to Newsvine