APC Hero ready to support the transition from PCI to PCI Express with Oxford Semiconductor’s Expresso Family

The OXPCIe95x devices deliver high performance, reliable, industrial-grade PCI Express-based connectivity expansion solutions to interconnect system processors with multiple serial peripherals.

Driven by the transition in processor-based systems and associated chipsets from PCI to PCI Express as the main peripheral bus, the Expresso family of OXPCIe952, OXPCIe954, OXPCIe958, and OXPCIe840 targets the PC peripheral, industrial control, point of sale, server, communications, and embedded systems markets with 2, 4, and 8 serial port options plus a standalone parallel port device.

The new devices offer considerable performance, time-to-market, and system cost enhancements over competing solutions, including PCI SIG certified PCI Express compliance, WHQL certified device drivers, CPU overhead savings of up to 70 percent for 8 ports at 1Mbps, easy device customisation with the company’s Oxide customisation tool, and 30 – 40 percent BOM savings.

Oxford Semiconductor is very well established in the PCI market, having shipped compatible serial bridge chips for more than a decade. The company’s proprietary UART solution is recognised as one of the world’s fastest and is integrated into the new PCI Express product range, enabling the Expresso devices to achieve optimal system performance and meet industrial temperature and quality requirements.

All devices are supported by complete kits that include everything needed to evaluate the devices from a PCIe board to software and device drivers. The kits also include sample devices and all required cables.