Microsemi Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Microchip Technology Inc., announced sampling availability of its Switchtec Gen 4 PCIe switches, enabling customers to build next-generation high performance, low latency interconnect solutions in high growth markets including machine learning, data centre servers and storage equipment.
The new generation of PCIe switches, which offer high density and reliability as well as low power, provide customers a quick time to market solution with field-proven Switchtec firmware and a chip architecture enabling significant re-use of customers’ investments in Switchtec management software, drivers, firmware and system design.
Highly reliable solution
“Server, storage and general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) architectures are increasingly growing their use of PCIe infrastructure and our new Switchtec Gen 4 PCIe switches provide a high-reliability solution to address this increasing demand,” said Andrew Dieckmann, vice president of marketing and applications engineering for Microsemi’s Data Center Solutions business unit.
The Switchtec Gen 4 PCIe switches are GPU-optimised with low pin-to-pin latency and low latency variation for optimal machine learning workload performance
“With significant intellectual property reuse from our Gen 3 to Gen 4 PCIe switches, our customers can leverage much of their Switchtec management software, drivers, firmware, and development tool investments—providing a lower risk, quicker time to revenue solution.”
Integrated high-performance DMA engine
The Switchtec Gen 4 PCIe switches are GPU-optimised with low pin-to-pin latency and low latency variation for optimal machine learning workload performance. Other features include up to 100 line-rate capable PCIe lanes as well as an integrated high-performance cut-through direct memory access (DMA) engine. High-reliability features include hot- and surprise-plug support, end-to-end data integrity and best-in-class debugging with the ChipLink diagnostics tool.
“Data centre architectures are increasingly growing their use of PCIe infrastructure due to its high performance and low latency benefits,” said Ogi Brkic, General Manager, Radeon Professional Graphics - AMD. “We’re pleased to see the Gen4 PCIe switching investment by Microsemi to strengthen the ecosystem and drive broader deployment of PCIe solutions.”
