Blade Chassis PCIe Switch Module

The NextIO switch module solutions are intended to be an alternative to existing I/O fabric solutions within server blade chassis. The modules, with their I/O personality adapters, fit mechanically into the same switch bays in the rear of the chassis as today's fabric switches. By choosing a shared I/O chassis solution, customers gain the benefits of greater I/O flexibility, simplified chassis management and lower acquisition and TCO costs.

I/O Flexibility

Traditional blade server designs limit users to only one additonal I/O technology from the integrated ones on the motherboard. This legacy design forces users to remove power from their blades and physically replace the I/O daughter cards to change or update their I/O technology. Additionally, if a new I/O technology is chosen for the blade, a fabric switch for the chassis I/O is typically purchased to extend the technology within the datacenter.

With NextIO's PCI Express shared switch module solution, blades only need to extend PCIe from their chipset through the chassis midplane to a module bay. In a chassis module bay, a NextIO shared I/O module provides users the ability to offer multiple I/O technologies to one or more blade servers and to reassign or change I/O technologies without powering down blades. All shared I/O devices are compatible with existing operating systems and device drivers without modification.

Simplified Chassis Management

The NextIO Shared I/O module solution limits chassis management contention by eliminating the need for I/O fabric switches in the chassis. Additionally, the elimination of I/O fabric switches reduces the "out of box" setup time to ensure the chassis fabric is compatible with the datacenter fabric.

Lower Acquisition and TCO costs

By extending the server chipset's native PCI Express interface to NextIO's shared I/O module and not purchasing an I/O device per server blade, a Shared I/O module solution presents users the lowest cost acquisition path to I/O enablement for their chassis. By eliminating fabric switches in the chassis for each I/O technology, users are presented with a lower cost of management to maintain their chassis.

Shared I/O Switch Module with Fibre Channel Personality Cards