PXH820 XMC Adapter

PCIe Gen3 XMC NTB Adapter

The Dolphin Express PXH820 XMC Adapter brings up to 128 GT/S connectivity and advanced connection features to embedded computers and carrier cards that support XMC mezzanine cards. The cards provide external connectivity with a Quad SFF-8644 connector that supports standard MiniSAS-HD or PCIe 3.0 cables.


  • x4, x8 or x16 PCI Express host port
  • PIO and DMA RDMA
  • Quad SFF-8644 cable port
  • VITA 42.0 XMC 1.0
  • Prepared for Rear IO
  • x4, x8 or x16 PCI Express cable port
  • Up to 9m Copper Cables
  • Up to 100m Fiber Cables
  • Transparent bridging
  • Non Transparent Bridging
  • Up to 128 Gbit/s Performance
Scale out PCI Express with the MXS824

Product Data

The PXH820 XMC 1.0 x16 Gen3 PCIe XMC adapter expand the capabilities of embedded systems by enabling very low latency, high throughput cabled connections using standard PCI Express over cable. The PXH820 x16 front panel I/O SFF-8644 connector presents a standard interface for point to point or switched connections using the 24 port PCI Express MXS824 switch between systems.

The adapter cards quad SFF-8644 cable connector supports the new PCI SIG External Cabling Specification 3.0 for connections to compliant Dolphin and third party PCIe cabled systems. PCs and expansion chassis connections are achieved using Dolphin’s PXH830 PCI Express host adapter and standard cables. More information on cables for the PXH820.

The PXH820 comes with Dolphin’s comprehensive PCIe NTB eXpressWare software suite that reduces time to market for customers. eXpressWare software includes several protocals to support connecting systems, SOCs, FPGAs, and GPUs. The Shared-Memory Cluster Interconnect (SISCI) API is a robust and powerful programming environment for easy use of shared memory in multi host/root systems. The optimized TCP/IP driver and SuperSockets™ for Linux and Windows removes the traditional networking bottleneck and enables standard applications to take advantage of the high performance PCI Express interconnect. Shared memory applications can easily benefit from 0.54 microsecond remote memory latency and more than 13 Gigabytes/s throughput. Sockets applications benefits from a 1 microseconds remote application latency. These powerful features make the adapter an ideal interconnect for applications such as military and industrial systems that seek high performance and flexibility.

In NTB mode, the adapter offers remote PIO and Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) for high performance system to system communication. Data transfers are conducted through either Direct Memory Access (DMA) for larger packet sizes and processor off-load or Programmed IO (PIO) for small packets at the lowest latency. The combination of DMA and PIO creates an optimal data transfer solution.

The PXH820 also support system clock isolation, by isolating the system clock. Users benefit from improved signal quality, reliability, and cable distances. For custom configurations, the card also includes a DIP switch to select between several configuration options. Any mix of PXH820 and PXH830 cards can be used with the MXS824 switch to create up to 60 node clusters for general use and reflective memory systems.

In transparent mode, the PXH822 XMC adapter can be configured as either an upstream or downstream device supporting transparent and non-transparent bridging.

The PXH820 comes with Vita 42 XMC 1.0 connectors suitable for PCI Express Gen1 and 2. This will also work well in some PCIe Gen3 environments. The XMC connector provides 12 mm stacking height when assembled on a carrier/CPU board configured for 10 mm stacking heights. A proprietary bezel design allows this configuration to work without modifications to the front panel.

Please note that the XMC 1.0 and 2.0 is not mechanically compatible. Carefully check your carrier card specification before placing the order and contact Dolphin for clarifications. Dolphin also offer the PXH822 VITA 1.0 adapter for traditional transparent operations.

The XMC card is also prepared for READ-IO. Please contact Dolphin for specifications, variants and ordering information. The PXH820 card is bundled with the Dolphin eXpressWare software. If you only need a transparent connection, please purchase the PXH822 XMC adapters.

Feature Description
Link Speed 32 GT/s per port, total 128 GT/s
Application Performance

0.54 microsecond latency (application to application)
> 13 Gigabytes/s DMA transfers
130 nanoseconds cut through latency port to port

Active Components Broadcom / PLX Gen3 PCI Express Switch with DMA
PCI Express Specifications

Base Specification 3.0
External Cabling Specification 3.0

Vita Specifications, PXH820

VITA 42.0-2016
VITA 42.3-2014

Topologies

Point to Point,
3 nodes without switch
Up to 60 nodes with MXS824 PCIe switch

Cable Connections Quad SFF-8644 connectors
MiniSAS-HD copper copper cables, 0.5 - 9 meters
PCIe 3.0 cables
PCIe Fiber optic cable (AOC) support, up to 100 meters
Power Consumption TBD
Mechanical Dimensions TBD
Operating Environment Operating Temperature: 0°C - 55°C (32°F - 131°F)
Operating Temperature with AOC: 0°C - 45°C (32°F - 113°F)
Air Flow: 150 LFM

Relative Humidity: 5% - 95% (non- condensing)
Software SuperSockets™ Berkley Sockets API
Microsoft WinSock2/LSP support
SISCI API
TCP/IP Driver
Regulatory Compliance CE Mark
FCC Class A
RoHS compliant
UL94V-0 compliant
EMC Test Standards

EN 55032:2012
EN 55035;2017
EN61000-3-2:2014
EN610000-3-3:2013

Operating System Windows
Linux
VxWorks
RTX

PXH820 - NTB + Transparent Host and Target adapter, VITA 42 connectors
PXH822 - Transparent Host and Target adapter, VITA 42 Connectors
Contact Dolphin for REAR IO variants.

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