6533b836fe1ef96bd12a0845

RESEARCH PRODUCT

A PCI Express optical link based on low-cost transceivers qualified for radiation hardness

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In this paper we want to demonstrate that an optical physical medium is compatible with the second generation of PCI Express. The benefit introduced by the optical decoupling of a PCI Express endpoint is twofold: it allows for a geographical detachment of the device and it remains compliant with the usual PCI accesses to the legacy I/O and memory spaces. We propose two boards that can bridge the PCI Express protocol over optical fiber. The first is a simple optical translator while the second is a more robust switch developed for connecting up to four devices to a single host. Such adapters are already working in the control and data acquisition system of a particle detector at CERN and hence they had been qualified for radiation hardness. The positive outcomes of the radiation tests of four types of off-the-shelf transceivers are finally reported.