PCIe 4.0 supporting optical cable assemblies by Samtec

Samtec has collaborated with PLDA in developing a optical cable assembly to connect PLDA developed PCIe Gen4 links of up to 100 m. The Samtec’s PCUO PCIe Optical Flyover Cable Assembly. PLDA is offering a product called "PCIe 4.0 Platform Development Kit (PDK)" based on its PLDA’s PCIe compliant XpressSWITCH IP and 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. PCIe 4.0 technology developers can test PCIe Gen4 architecture for Endpoint/PHY/boards with their own software, designs and boards in a real system by working with PLDA Gen4SWITCH. Samtec’s PCUO FireFly PCIe Optical Micro Flyover Cable Assembly uses MMF technology to support the PCIe Gen4 links of up to 100 m. 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 co...