The PCI-SIG PCI Express® External Cabling Specification for Gen1 and Gen2 data transfer rates addresses extended applications, such as split-systems or I/O expansion by means of a suitable copper cable, available e.g. for a x8 PCI Express® link, up to 7m length. When used with an AOC (Active Optical Cable), distances of up to 300m can be bridged between host and target systems. Beyond the PCI-SIG cabling specification, the Samtec PCIEO series of AOC addresses also Gen3 speed up to 100m.

The advantages of PCI Express® compared e.g. to 10Gbps Ethernet are higher data transfer speed at lower latency, and primarily merging distributed subsystems virtually into a single PCI Express® based computer assembly.

Being mainly a powerful PCI Express® packet switch, the SXC-LOOP is organized similar to a CompactPCI® Serial system slot controller card, however restricted to the PCI Express® resources of the CompactPCI® Serial backplane.

• PCI Express® external cabling target side adapter
• PICMG® CompactPCI® Serial (CPCI-S.0) system slot controller (PCIe resources only)
• Single Size Eurocard 3U 100x160mm², front panel width 4HP
• cPCI-S Backplane connectors P1, P2, P5 for 2 PCI Express® Gen3 links
• Peripheral slots organized x8/x8
• Clamshell available for extremely rugged applications e.g. ATR & conductive cooled assembly (CCA)

• PCI Express® External Cabling Specification x8 connector 68-pos. (front panel)
• Full sideband support
• Suitable for CompactPCI® Serial target systems to be controlled by a remote host
• Split-systems, hybrid systems, or system expansion applications
• Suitable for any host system with PCI Express® x8 external cabling host adapter
• Copper cable assemblies 0.5m to 7m length available
• PCIe® Gen2 active optical cable assemblies (AOC) up to 300m length available (Samtec)
• PCIe® Gen3 active optical cable assemblies (AOC) up to 100m length available (Samtec)
• AOC half cable assemblies available iPassT to MTP male/female (Samtec)
• PCIe Gen3 x8 allows for up to 64Gbps bandwidth
• PCIe Gen2 x8 allows for up to 40Gbps bandwidth

• Gen3 PCI Express® 24-lanes packet switch on-board
• Upstream port Gen3 x8 (to host system)
• Two downstream ports Gen3 x8 (to backplane)
• CompactPCI® Serial peripheral slots organized x8/x8 Gen3
• Recommended 3-slot backplane (system slot + two 'fat pipe' slots)

• For lowest latency at fastest speed connected systems
• Distributed computing - host to target system hierarchy
• Peer to peer computing - special TCP/IP stack (Dolphin) available
• Split-systems, hybrid systems, or system expansion applications
• Direct host to target device connection (e.g. PCIe® sed remote NVMe mass storage)
• Recommended 3-slot backplane (system slot + two 'fat pipe' slots)
• Mating host system adapter board available for CompactPCI® Serial (SX5-STREAM)

• Long term availability
• Rugged solution (coating, sealing, underfilling on request)
• RoHS compliant 2002/95/EC
• Commercial and industrial temperature range
• Humidity 5% ... 95% RH non condensing
• Altitude -300m ... +3000m
• Shock 15g 0.33ms, 6g 6ms
• Vibration 1g 5-2000Hz
• MTBF 77.9 years
• EC Regulations EN55022, EN55024, EN60950-1 (UL60950-1/IEC60950-1)