PLX Technology, Inc., the global leader in PCI Express silicon and software connectivity solutions enabling emerging data center architectures, today announced a key presentation detailing PCI Express (PCIe) use as the backbone of a data center fabric. Held next week at the Linley Tech Data Center Conference, Larry Chisvin, PLX vice president of strategic initiatives, will outline why designers are replacing Ethernet and other fabric standards with PCIe due to its high performance, low cost, low power, and simplicity. Chisvin's presentation, titled PCI Express is the Natural Next-Generation Data Center Fabric, will take place during the Fabric Technologies for Data Centers track, February 5 at 11:50 a.m.

"The interest level in using PCI Express as a data center fabric has increased significantly in the past several years, as global designers began looking for an affordable mainstream interconnect without the unwelcome baggage of the current solutions," said Chisvin. "PLX has the advanced switching technology developed through many generations of PCIe switches, and is currently developing the products that can address this market. The company is working with early adopters on its ExpressFabric solution, which includes the switches necessary for building a state-of-the-art fabric, as well as the complementary development and software building blocks."

PLX is the worldwide market leader in PCIe switch products, with 18 ExpressLane PCIe Gen3 switches already in production or sampling, with many more in development -- including planning for PCIe Gen4 products. ExpressFabric is a strong alternative in small- to medium-sized data center clusters -- 20 to 1000 nodes, in one to eight racks -- and allows for optimization of numerous bridges and switches in converged-rack applications. These applications anticipate co-existence with large-scale fabrics like Ethernet and InfiniBand for scale-out.

"Designers are increasingly faced with the challenges of improving performance while lowering cost and power in the data center, and the established PCI Express Gen3 standard is a very appealing option," said Jag Bolaria, senior analyst at The Linley Group, and co-author of the report A Guide to Server Processors. "PLX has continually shown innovation and leadership in PCI Express with its switch technology and PCI Express has the potential to satisfy requirements of a data center fabric."

The influential Linley Tech Data Center Conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara, Calif., February 5-6, 2013. The free, two-day conference targets network-equipment vendors, server OEMs, network service providers, system designers, enterprise-network managers, software developers, press, and the financial community. To register for free, visit www.linleygroup.com/data-center-conference.