Highlights
  • Supports PCI Express 4-lane Specification Revision 2.1
  • Four independent 10/100/1000M/2.5G Gigabit Ethernet (POE) ports
    • Support IEEE 802.3at for PoE+ (Power over Ethernet Plus)
    • Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) design, provides data and up to 60W of power on four Ethernet ports
  • Supports jumbo frame to 16K bytes
  • Two Virtual Channels (VC) and Eight Traffic Class (TC) support
Introduction

The GE2PX4-PCIE4XE301 is 4-port 10/100/1000M/2.5G Ethernet (POE+) to PCI Express x4 Gen 2 Host Card.

GE2PX4-PCIE4XE301 is designed with Two key components.

  • 6-Port/8-Lane PCI Express Packet Switch (Configured as upstream PCIe x4 to four downstream PCIe x1).
  • Four 10/100/1000M/2.5G Ethernet  to PCI Express x1 Host Controllers.

Utilizing the standard PCI Express Switch, the 6-Port / 8-Lane PCI Express Packet Switch provides the most efficient fan-out solution for integrating four 10/100/1000M/2.5G Ethernet to PCI Express Single Chip Host controllers into a small board design. Each 10/100/1000M/2.5G Ethernet to PCI Express Single Chip Host controller takes advantages of 4-lane PCI Express bus in both directions and is fully compliant with PCI Express Base specification r1.1. This solution provides full PCI Express and 10/100/1000M/2.5G Ethernet functionality and performance.

The 10/100/1000M/2.5G Ethernet controller combines a four-speed IEEE 802.3 compliant Media Access Controller (MAC) with a four-speed Ethernet transceiver, PCI Express bus controller, and embedded memory. With state-of-the-art DSP technology and mixed-mode signal technology, it offers high-speed transmission over CAT 5 UTP cable or CAT 3 UTP (10Mbps only) cable. Functions such as Crossover Detection and Auto-Correction, polarity correction, adaptive equalization, cross-talk cancellation, echo cancellation, timing recovery, and error correction are implemented to provide robust transmission and reception capability at high speeds.

The 10/100/1000M/2.5G Ethernet controller supports the PCI Express 2.1 bus interface for host communications with power management, and is compliant with the IEEE 802.3u specification for 10/100Mbps Ethernet and the IEEE 802.3ab specification for 1000Mbps Ethernet and the IEEE 802.3bz specification for 2500Mbps Ethernet.

The 10/100/1000M/2.5G Ethernet controller is fully compliant with Microsoft NDIS5, NDIS6 (IPv4, IPv6, TCP, UDP) Checksum and Segmentation Task-offload (Large send and Giant send) features, and supports IEEE 802.1P Layer 2 priority encoding and IEEE 802.1Q Virtual bridged Local Area Network (VLAN) and IEEE 802.1ad Double VLAN. The above features contribute to lowering CPU utilization, especially benefiting performance when in operation on a network server.

Technical Specifications

PCI Express
  • Standards compliant
    • Compliant with PCI Express Base Specification Revision 2.1
    • Compliant with PCI Express CEM Specification Revision 2.0
    • Compliant with PCI-to-PCI Bridge Architecture Specification Revision 1.2
    • Compliant with Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI) Specification
    • PCI Power Management Spec r1.2
  • PCI Express Power Management
    • Link power management states: L0, L0s, L1, L2/L3 Ready, and L3
    • Device states: D0 and D3hot
    • Active state power management for L0s and L1 states
  • Port Arbitration Round Robin (RR) and Weighted RR and Time-based Weighted RR
  • Extended Virtual Channel capability
    • Two Virtual Channels (VC) and Eight Traffic Class (TC) support
    • Independent TC/VC mapping for each port
    • Provides VC arbitration selection: Strict Priority, Round Robin (RR) and Programmable Weighted Round-Robin
  • Supports Isochronous Traffic
    • Isochronous traffic class mapped to VC1 only
    • Strict time based credit policing
  • Supports Cut-through”(Default) as well as “Store and Forward” mode for switching packets
  • Peer-to-peer switching between any two downstream ports
  • Supports up to 256-byte maximum payload size
  • Enhanced Features
    • 150ns typical latency for packet running through switch without blocking
    • Supports Access Control Service (ACS) for peer-to-peer traffic
    • Supports Address Translation (AT) packet for SR-IOV application
    • Supports OBFF and LTR
Ethernet Feature
  • Integrated 10/100/1000M/2.5G transceiver
  • Support 2.5G and 1G lite mode
  • Auto-Negotiation with Extended Next Page capability (XNP)
  • Compatible with 2.5GBase-T Alliance PHY Specification
  • Supports PCI Express 2.1
  • Supports pair swap/polarity/skew correction
  • Crossover Detection & Auto-Correction
  • Supports 1-Lane 2.5/5Gbps PCI Express Bus
  • Supports hardware ECC (Error Correction Code) function
  • Supports hardware CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) function
  • Transmit/Receive on-chip buffer support
  • Supports PCI MSI (Message Signaled Interrupt) and MSI-X
  • Supports power down/link down power saving/PHY disable mode
  • LAN disable with GPIO pin
  • Self-Loopback diagnostic capability
  • Thermal management
  • Supports ECMA-393 ProxZzzy Standard for sleeping hosts
  • Supports LTR (Latency Tolerance Reporting)
  • Supports PCIe L1 substate L1.1 and L1.2
  • Compatible with IEEE 802.3, IEEE 802.3u, IEEE 802.3ab
  • Supports IEEE 1588v1, IEEE 1588v2, IEEE 802.1AS time synchronization
  • Supports IEEE 802.1Qav credit-based shaper algorithm
  • Supports IEEE 802.1P Layer 2 Priority Encoding
  • Supports IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging
  • Supports IEEE 802.1ad Double VLAN
  • Supports IEEE 802.3az-2010 (EEE)
  • Supports IEEE 802.3bz (2.5GBase-T)
  • Supports Full Duplex flow control (IEEE 802.3x)
  • Microsoft NDIS5, NDIS6 Checksum Offload (IPv4, IPv6, TCP, UDP) and Segmentation Task-offload (Large send v1 and Large send v2) support
  • Supports jumbo frame to 16K bytes
  • Supports Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ)
  • Supports quad core Receive-Side Scaling (RSS)
  • Supports Protocol Offload (ARP & NS)
POE + Feature
  • Supports IEEE 802.3at Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE)
  • Operates from a 54 V supply
  • Provides PD real-time protection through the following mechanisms: overload, under-load, over-voltage, over-temperature, and short-circuit.
  • Auto mode – allows turning PDs on and off automatically.

Power Input for POE

 Step-Up 12V from the following source (A, B, C)
  • A. From PCIe Slot
    • 25 W Slot (Max. 25W)
    • 75 W Slot (Max. 48W)
  • B. From  IDE Big 4 pin Power Connector or/and SATA Power Connector
    • IDE Power (Max. 60W)
    • SATA Power (Max. 48 W)
  • C. From Mini-Fit Jr. Dual Row 6pin Power Connector (Max. 60 W)

Jumper

Virtual Channel 1
Disable: The unused VC1 queues (buffer) can be reassigned to VC0 and enable each of
the ingress ports to handle more data traffic bursts. This virtual channel resource
relocation feature enhances the performance of the PCIe Switch further.
Enable: Isochronous traffic class mapped to VC1 only
LED Indicators
  • Right LED  (Green)
    • On: Port Power On (normal operation--with POE)
    • 0.4Hz Blink: Power Management event
    • 0.8Hz Blink: Port Over Load / Port Short Circuit / Port failed at Startup
    • 3.3Hz Blink: Vmain_Out of Range or Over Temp
    • Off: Port Off
  • Left LEDs (Green & Orange)
    • Green: 10/100/1000M Link
    • Orange: 2.5G Link
Number of Ports
  • Four 2.5G Ethernet (POE) ports
    • 2.5GBASE-T Single-Port Magnetics/RJ-45 with POE
Computer Platform
  • Computer with PCI Express slot ( x4, x8, x16)

    • Note:
    For the best performance (5.0 Gbps), It should be installed in a PCIe Gen 2 compliant slot in the host computer.
Operating System Requirements
  • Windows 7/ 8/ 10
  • Linux kernel 3.x
Physical Dimensions
  • 101mm(H) x 168mm(L)
  • NW: 150.7g (Unit Package:247g)
Certifications
  • CE Test: Pass
  • UKCA Test: Pass
  • FCC Test : Pass
  • VCCI Test: Pass
  • RCM Test: Pass