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PXI, PXI Express, PXIe, PXI Express System

Introducing PXIe Chassis for PCIe Gen 4

nVent Electric plc (NYSE:NVT) (“nVent”), a global leader in electrical connection and protection solutions, today announced it will launch a PXIe chassis for PCIe Gen 4 later in 2021. With the recent approval of the specification by PCI-SIG, including all the essential user information and design specifications, the requirements for new developments are now in place. This PCIe Gen 4 solution will complement the existing nVent SCHROFF PCIe Gen 3 solutions featuring eight Gbit/s per differential pair bandwidth.

The new specification PCIe Gen 4 will double the transfer rate to 16 Gbit/s per differential pair, with two GB/s date rate per lane. It will reduce the system latency and improve the scalability for additional lanes, as well as the I/O virtualization and platform integration. The PCIe Gen 4 specification features full backward compatibility, so devices designed for earlier specifications will continue to function correctly with the new technology.

PCIe Gen 4 is well suited for applications with extremely high data volumes, such as video data processing (e.g., drone surveillance and reconnaissance, video data from complex industrial processes such as high-speed recordings for crash tests or simulations during aircraft construction). To support these extremely high data volumes, the new Gen 4 systems will feature one x8 link configuration and one x16 link configuration. These will require a switch that has many ports. nVent SCHROFF will offer 96 ports, supporting a two-link configuration.

With development underway, the nVent SCROFF team is sourcing suitable chips and finalizing design guidelines for the backplane. The backplane will have a completely redesigned transmission path with printed circuit board and contact material, signal traces and connectors to support the increased speed requirements. As with all nVent SCHROFF backplanes, in house simulations and modeling will be conducted to ensure optimal signal integrity and throughput.