PLX Technology Powers High-End Graphics Interconnect in New ASRock Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 Motherboard

ASRock selected the PLX® PEX8608 for the Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 motherboard to enable one of the Z68’s built-in PCIe lanes to connect directly to the switch and fan out to various endpoints: two x1 PCIe slots, a Gigabit Ethernet port, PCIe-to-PCI bridge. The Z68 chipset itself links directly to the Z68 Extreme4’s x4 PCIe slot.

“Our Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 was designed to deliver the optimal user experience in gaming and high-end graphics, which required a PCI Express switching solution that was up to the task,” said James Lee, ASRock vice president of sales and marketing. “PLX has a long history and worldwide reputation for PCI Express technology that we felt was a perfect match for the Z68 Extreme4 Gen3, as the PEX8608 switch takes full advantage of the Z68 chipset and other cutting-edge technology we’ve built into the platform.”

“PLX PCI Express switching continues to be the interconnect technology of choice in high-performance, bandwidth-demanding applications, which ASRock is demonstrating through its selection of the PEX8608 for the powerful Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 platform,” said Gene Schaeffer, vice president of global sales at PLX. “We’re pleased to have ASRock among the legion of valued worldwide customers for PLX interconnect solutions and look forward to future design projects with that company.”

Conforming to the PCI Express Base Specification Rev 2.0, the PEX8608 features eight PCIe Gen2 lanes capable of configuring up to eight flexible ports. The switch boasts the industry's lowest latency (140ns) and offers two virtual channels for traffic prioritization in the system. Its large packet memory (2048 byte maximum payload size) and non-blocking internal switch architecture help the PEX8608 realize full line rate on all ports. The device also supports both host-centric and true peer-to-peer traffic, and features an on-chip non-transparent port for dual-host and failover applications, along with support for dual-clock domain operation by virtue of support for Spread Spectrum Clock (SSC) isolation.

The Z68 Extreme4 Gen3 motherboard, based on the Intel Sandy Bridge processor platform, features onboard interface controllers (PCIe-to-PCI bridge and Gigabit Ethernet), along with the two PCIe x1 slots enabled by the PEX8608, which share one of the Z68’s eight PCIe lanes. The board also features four DDR3-2133 memory slots; 7.1 channel audio; LucidLogix's Virtu software for real-time graphics switching; Smart Response Technology for SSD caching, allowing an SSD to pair with one or more hard drives, and multiple display outputs -- D-Sub, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort.