PLX PCIe Switch Unleashes Maximum Throughput on Revolutionary ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 Graphics Cards

Business Wire, Feb 19, 2008

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- PLX Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLXT), the leading global supplier of PCI Express[R] (PCIe[R]) switch and bridge silicon, today announced its PEX 8547 PCIe switch is being used for high-performance fanout in AMD's (NYSE:AMD) innovative new high-end ATI Radeon[TM] HD 3870 X2 Dual-GPU graphics cards, now officially released and targeting extreme-gaming enthusiasts.

The PLX[R] ExpressLane[TM] PEX 8547 PCIe switch was designed specifically for intense graphics applications like the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2, and offers 48 lanes, three ports, remarkably low latency (only 110 nanoseconds), true peer-to-peer traffic, large packet memory (1024-byte maximum payload size) and a non-blocking internal switch architecture that provides a full line rate on all ports for performance-hungry graphics applications.

"AMD's ground-breaking ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics cards, supported by PLX PEX 8547 PCIe switches, have demonstrated terrific performance in chart-topping computer games.1 AMD chose the PLX chip for its industry-leading PCIe features, allowing high-bandwidth peer-to-peer communication between its two powerful next generation Radeon graphics processors leveraging ATI CrossFireX[TM] technology on a single board," said Matt Skynner, vice president of marketing, Graphics Products Group, AMD. "PLX has provided AMD with enhanced flexibility and performance in our designs. Their technical proficiency and top notch customer experience has been a great asset to help create the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics cards."

"PCI Express switches and multi-GPU implementations are complementary and logical for enabling the highest-end gaming and enthusiast PC market segments," said Shane Rau, research director, International Data Corp. (IDC). "It is in these segments where you'll find a counter-trend against relentless integration and instead find the most sophisticated discrete components."

"Being the perennial leader in PCI Express switch silicon, we have a deep understanding and commitment to the technology and its broad scope in growing market segments including this intense AMD graphics application," said David Raun, PLX vice president of marketing and business development. "We enjoy the engaging relationship with AMD and look forward to participating in their exciting future designs."

PLX's PCI Express switches and bridges provide board and system designers with the industry's most extensive and proven lineup of products to address a wide and growing variety of market segments with well over one million chips shipped today. The company's Gen 1 and Gen 2 PCIe switches range in density from three to 12 ports and from five to 48 lanes, and offer backward compatibility supporting legacy designs. All PLX PCIe products are fully supported with a combination of hardware and a highly customized software development kit (SDK) containing powerful new tools to help customers design efficiently and quickly.

Available Now in Large Volumes

The PEX 8547 is in full production today and shipping in large volumes. For detailed information on the ExpressLane switch family, please visit www.plxtech.com/pcie or contact sales at www.plxtech.com/contact.> The ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 is industry's first teraflop gaming card, and industry's first Microsoft DirectX[R] 10.1 enthusiast solution. With this new leading graphics solution gamers can advance to superior performance on the latest HD games and experience life-like realism thanks to Microsoft DirectX[R] 10.1 capabilities and plug-and-play ATI CrossFireX[TM] multi-GPU upgradeability.

Press Graphic

A downloadable high-resolution press graphic of the ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 hosting the PLX PEX 8547 switch can be found on the AMD Website at www.amd.com.

About PLX

PLX Technology, Inc. (www.plxtech.com), based in Sunnyvale, Calif., USA, is the world's leading supplier of PCI Express and other standard I/O interconnect semiconductors to the communications, server, storage, embedded-control, and consumer markets. The company provides a competitive advantage through an integrated combination of experience, high-performance silicon, hardware and software design tools, and global partnerships. These innovative solutions enable our customers to develop equipment with industry-leading performance, scalability and reliability that allows them to bring designs to market faster.

ExpressLane, PLX Technology and the PLX Technology logo are registered trademarks of PLX Technology, Inc. All other product names that appear in this material are for identification purposes only and are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others.

AMD and Radeon are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

(1)Based on comparisons of ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 vs. GeForce 8800 Ultra using an AMD Phenom 2.6GHz processor-based system, 2GB DDR2-800 (5-5-5-12 timings), on a MSI K9A2 Platinum motherboard, running Catalyst 8.4 and ForceWare 169.28 Beta. At default 3DMark06 settings and at a variety of settings in popular games such as "Call of Juarez", "Crysis", "Call of Duty 4", "Half-Life 2: Episode 2"," Supreme Commander", and "Unreal Tournament 3" the ATI Radeon[TM] HD 3870 X2 performs better than the GeForce 8800 Ultra.