SOPC
System On Programmable Chip
Via Rocca di Papa, 21 –00179 Roma, Italy
Email: info@geb-enterprise.com - Web: www.geb-enterprise.com

PCI Express on Cable UpStream Board: PCIEU-1X
The PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG), developer of the PCI and PCI Express (PCIe) specifications,
has recently announced the PCIe External Cabling 1.0 Specification, which extends PCIe bus connection
outside the computer box. Cabled PCIe is a cabled serial bus used for high-performance interconnection
of PCIe system components. Since “cabled PCIe” is based on PCIe standard, it provides a scalable, highbandwidth, low-latency bus performances. The possibility of extending PCIe over a cable creates valuable
design opportunities in those high-performance measurement and automation applications which would
use a host PC for data processing and analysis.

Features
Upstream “PCIe on cable” interface
Peripheral to host wake up support
Host to peripheral remote power on support
Remote down stream board hot insertion
support
3 LED Indicators:
o TX Link Active LED
o RX Link Active LED
o Remote Present LED

PCIeu1x

PCIed-15-IO

Description
This product embed one of the first architecture aiding the high-end embedded applications in
implementing a PCIe compatible cable expansion/extension. PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
Express (name PCIe) is a scalable I/O serial bus technology set to replace parallel PCI bus. Using a PCIe
cable is possible to extend the PCI Express bus to approximately six to seven meters from the host CPU
module and without any circuitry usually implemented for signal equalization and to suppress the
inherent signals noise.
Transmitting the host PCIe bus over copper cables opens a new world of applications, now available for
the product’s users. The PCI Express Cable allows the user to split the PCIe host, included in a high-end
computing core, by the remote embedded I/O subsystems. This makes easier to fulfil the environmental
and thermal requirements of both sub-systems. Moreover, the host and I/O system may have different
form factors, better suited to the location or performance that each sub-system requires. For example, a
high-end, dual Intel Xeon class host system could provide the user with computing power a high-speed
data link to a high-end embedded I/O subsystem based on MicroTCA, PC/104, 3U CompactPCI Express,
or proprietary form factor.

Custom
I/O

PCIED-15-IO
DOWNSTREAM
BOARD

Up to 7 meters cable

UPSTREAM
PCIE on Cable
BOARD

PC HOST

A compelling application of PCI Express Cable includes an expansion system and a set of products that
extends the host bus of a system on a arbitrary distance from the host enclosure to an expansion
enclosure. This approach enables designers to insert more add-in boards into the system than the host
system was originally designed for. For example, consider an expansion system using an host interface
board, cable, and 19-slot expansion chassis to extend a 4-slot ATX motherboard host system to a 20-slot
system. Expanded systems in excess of 100 add-in boards are likely possible utilizing the PCIe expansion
boards. Compared with the expansion systems currently on the market, the “PCIe cable” solution has a