The MXH950 Gen4 PCI Express NTB Host Adapter is our medium performance optical interface to external processor subsystems. Based on Microchip® Gen4 PCI Express bridging architecture and Samtec PCIe Gen3 FireFly® optical engine, the MXH950 host adapter provides advanced features for non-transparent bridging (NTB) over long distance PCIe.

For high performance application developers, the MXH950 host adapter combines 128 Gbit/s performance with an application to application latency from 500 nanoseconds. Inter-processor communication benefits from the high throughput and low latency. Using the latest SmartIO technology software from Dolphin, applications can now access PCIe devices located in computers up to 100 meters way as if they was attached to the local system.

The MXH950 performs both Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) and Programmed IO (PIO) transfers, effectively supporting both large and small data packets. RDMA transfers result in efficient larger packet transfers and processor off-load. PIO transfers optimize small packet transfers at the lowest latency. The combination of RDMA and PIO creates a highly potent data transfer system.

Dolphin’s software suite takes advantage of PCI Express’ RDMA and PIO data transfer scheme. Delivering a complete deployment environment for customized and standardized applications. The suite includes a Shared-Memory Cluster Interconnect (SISCI) API as well as a TCP/IP driver and SuperSockets software. The SISCI API is a robust and powerful shared memory programming environment.

The optimized TCP/IP driver and SuperSockets™ software remove traditional networking bottlenecks, allowing standard IP and sockets applications to take advantage of the high performance PCI Express interconnect without modification. The overall framework is designed for rapid development of inter-processor communication systems.

The MXH950 card comes with a full license to the Dolphin eXpressWare software. The PXH852 Gen4 Adapter card does not include any software license and is well suited for high performance Transparent IO Expansion applications. The MXH950 card is fully supported in eXpressWare 5.18.0 and newer.

Supported topologies

Using the MXH950 card, you can connect two systems using PCIe Gen4 x4, x8 or x16 depending on the throughput requirements. You can also connect 3 systems using a x8 cable between each system or 5 systems using x4 cables.

Variants

The card is available in several variants with reduced number of FireFly optical modules mounted. The maximum performance and supported topologies for these cards will vary. Details can be found in the following table:

Fiber Patch Cables

The PXH85x cards are carefully designed for maximum cable length and supports fiber cables up to 100 meter optical cables. The x8 FireFly device configuration requires two MPO female, 24 strand, OM3 50/125, Key up - Key up (Type C) cables. The x4 FireFly device configuration requires two MPO female, 12 strand, OM3 50/125, Key up - Key up (Type B) cables.

Features

• PCI Express® 4.0 compliant - 16.0 GT/s per lane to board , 8.0 GT/s to front panel connectors
• Slot compliant with Gen1, Gen2 and Gen3 PCI Express
• Samtec Gen3 FireFly optical engine
• MTP connectors
• Four x4 Gen3 PCI Express cable ports that can be configured as:
  • One - x16 PCI Express port
  • Two - x8 PCI Express ports
  • Four - x4 PCI Express ports
• Four NTB ports
• RDMA support through PIO and DMA
• Clock isolation support
• Non-transparent bridging to cabled PCI Express systems
• Low profile PCI Express form factor
• EEPROM for custom system configuration
• Link status LEDs through face plate