Critical I/O in Irvine, Calif., is introducing a Fibre Channel interface that complies with the VITA 42.3 XMC with PCI Express host interface standard. The XMC interface provides 4 gigabits per second Fibre Channel connectivity to PCI Express-based systems. The combination of the XMC hardware and its supporting drivers and libraries are for performance-driven networking and storage applications. The Critical I/O Model FCA2440 is 100 percent software compatible with the Critical I/O’s PMC Fibre Channel interfaces; customers do not have to rewrite software or learn new technology and can immediately leverage the mature drivers and libraries refined by Critical I/O. PCI Express eliminates the performance limitations imposed by the PCI databus, providing sustained data rates of 1500 megabytes per second, 10-microsecond RDMA data transfers, and as many as 300,000 I/O operations per second. “The new XMC standard with multi-lane PCI Express (VITA 42.3) will drive system performance to new heights,” says Jack Staub, chief executive officer of Critical I/O. It also allows embedded systems to remain in lockstep with commercial enterprise-computing markets where PCI Express fabrics are rapidly displacing the legacy PCI databus. The FCA2440 XMC is part of Critical I/O’s sixth generation of Fibre Channel interfaces. This hardware interface dissipates only five Watts but provides two independent 4-gigabit Fibre Channel ports, 4-lane PCI Express host interface, and extensive integrated hardware BIT. It is supported by a full complement of library and drivers for VxWorks, Linux and Windows. It is compatible with X86, PPC, and DSP-based embedded processor boards. For more information contact Critical I/O online at www.criticalio.com.