The MXS924 is Dolphin's fourth generation PCIe switch product and enables users the ability to create a scalable PCIe fabric solution using standard PCIe cables. PCIe solutions running over back planes can now easily be enabled to run over external cables. Larger PCIe configurations can be realized by interconnecting multiple MXS924 switches. By loading the appropriate firmware, the MXS924 supports both transparent and non transparent bridging (NTB) use cases for clustering and I/O expansion applications.

The MXS924 is the high-end switching component in Dolphin's new PCI Express 4.0 product family. This 24 port 1U cluster switch delivers 64 GT/s of non-blocking bandwidth per port at ultra low latency. Up to 4 ports can be combined into a single x16 / 256 GT/s port if higher bandwidth is required. Each connection is fully compliant with PCI Express 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 I/O specifications. The MXS924 is based on the latest Microchip Switchtec PCIe Gen 4 PFX fanout switch technology.

Applications that does not need PCIe 4.0 x16 speed can alternatively use the 24 port PCIe x16 Gen 3.0 MXS824 switch.

PCIe IO Expansion

The MXS924 switch used in combination with the MXH932 will support standard IO expansion, connecting one server to many PCIe Devices or PCIe Expansion chassis. Additional configurations supporting multiple hosts and switch partitioning, fail-over configurations will be supported in the future. Management and configuration of the PCIe fabric will be done through the Ethernet port. The figure below shows a typical IO Expansion setup using the MXS924.

PCIe Clustering / Networking

For host to host communication, the MXS924 can be combined with Dolphin’s MXH930 Host Adapters. Operating in Non Transparent Bridging mode, Dolphin has solved the strict power on requirements normally associated with PCI Express. Hosts, cables, and the switch can be hot-swapped and power cycled in any order, providing real plug and play as normally expected from networking components. The figure below shows a typical 6 node network.

The MXS924 supports Dolphin’s extensive PCI Express Software libraries to create a powerful and reliable communication solution for applications that benefit from an ultra-low latency, high performance cluster interconnect. Dolphin’s PCI Express Software enables standard and embedded Linux, Windows, RTX and VxWorks network applications to benefit from PCI Express performance without modification. This comprehensive solution is ideal for real-time, technical and high performance computing, cloud computing, and enterprise business applications.

Composable Hardware Infrastructures

The MXS924 can be used to develop composable hardware infrastructures. In this environment, it functions as a top of rack switch which connects both I/O and processing.

Reflective Memory

The MXS924 supports large reflective memory configurations and multiple multicast groups. Customers using older reflective memory solutions from Dolphin will have en easy migration to the new platform.

Cables and ports

The MXS924 switch has six quad SFF-8644 cable connectors and supports standard PCIe 4.0 cables. Each quad port can be used as four independent x4 links, two independent x8 links or one x16 link (in total up to 24 x4 links).Copper cables up to 2 meters and AOC cabeles up to 100 meters are supported. More information on cables fro the MXS924.

Management

The MXS924 comes with a built in management processor. The processor enables Ethernet based firmware upgrade, switch re-configuration and monitoring. All configuration data is stored in non volatile memory so the processor is not required to bring up a configured product.