Pentek - Carrier Board Enables High-Performance Applications in the Emerging PCI Express Environment

Pentek, Inc., today released the 7800 series of high-performance I/O boards built upon a versatile half-length x8 PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 carrier board. The carrier board hosts a PMC/XMC module to fulfill a wide range of software radio, data acquisition and beamforming applications. Now designers can utilize PCI Express, FPGAs and high-speed interfaces in low-cost PCs as well as in blade servers.

“While there are many PCIe carrier boards in the market, we quickly discovered there were none built with high-performance applications in mind,” said Rodger Hosking, vice president, Pentek. “Data flow requirements, cooling considerations and power consumption needed to be addressed to fulfill the performance demands of our customers. The new 7800 carrier boards are complete system solutions that satisfy all of these requirements,” he concluded.

Design Features
• In addition to the x8 PCIe interface, the 7800 carrier board features a number of high-speed gigabit serial connectors for inter-board communication. Using protocols such as Xilinx Aurora and Serial Rapid I/O, these interconnections support communication between multiple 7800 Series boards completely independent of the backplane. This provides a critical advantage for high-connectivity systems such as radar and beamforming applications, where significant data must be transferred across multiple boards.
• A built-in fan provides forced-air cooling that can be invaluable in dissipating heat developed by high-speed A/Ds, D/As and FPGAs, without requiring an extra slot.
• A 4-pin standard disk drive power connector accepts power directly from the PC power supply to augment PCIe slot power. This supports modules with power consumption as high as 50 watts or greater.

Pentek's new 7800 Series PCI Express boards bring Xilinx high-performance FPGAs to the PC environment–significantly broadening the market, said Tom Feist, senior marketing director, ISE Design Suite, Xilinx. In addition, Pentek provides flexible, custom FPGA development options with their GateFlow Design Kit enabling users to get their application design completed more quickly, he added.
The new 7800 carrier board includes an x8 PCIe 2.0 interface capable of plugging into an x8 or x16 slot in a PC or a blade server. As a half-length board approximately 6.5 inches long, it fits virtually in any PC.