PCI Express shifts into gear

Several companies have recently announced product support for PCI Express. Nurlogic (www.nurlogic.com) is developing OpalLink, a 0.13-micron PCI Express "hard"-IP (intellectual-property) core operating at 2.5 Gbps/lane with a power consumption of less than 80 mW per lane. OpalLink will be available for licensing in the second quarter. PureSpec from Denali (www.denali.com) allows chip designers to model and verify presilicon compliance and interoperability for PCI Express designs. Two protocol analyzers are available: the PETracter from CATC (www.catc.com) and the Bus Doctor PCI Express from Data Transit (www.datatransit.com).

In another PCI development, Intel has published Introduction to PCI Express: A Hardware and Software Developer's Guide. The guide, by Intel engineers Justin Schade, Ron Thornburg, and Adam Wilen, is available at various computer stores or online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.