ESCONDIDO, Calif., 5 July 2012. One Stop Systems Inc. in Escondido, Calif., is introducing a PCI Express x8 Gen 3 cable adapter that functions as a switch in I/O expansion applications to fan out the PCI Express signal to several I/O devices like data storage devices and expansion enclosures.

Systems designers can add an optional mezzanine card to the adapter card to add two more PCI Express x8 cable connectors. The adapters also are field-programmable for host and target applications. The PCI Express x8 cable adapter also can network applications by adding the ExpressNet 2.0 driver installed on each PC in the network. ExpressNet 2.0 is sold separately (story continues below).

The single-board networking switch has one PCI Express x16 edge connector and two PCI Express x8 cable connectors on the slot cover. The switch is field-programmable to enable the different ports to receive or transmit data.

In an I/O expansion application, the card can receive data from one server and transmit it to two I/O points. In the networking application, the ports can be set to non-transparent (NT), enabling server-to-server communication.

The four-port card consists of the two-port card with two cable connectors and a mezzanine card with two more cable connectors.

This card supports communication between five servers with the addition of the One Stop Systems ExpressNet driver installed on each server. It also can be used in I/O expansion applications installed in a host server and cabled to four downstream end points.

For more information contact One Stop Systems online at www.onestopsystems.com.

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