LAS VEGAS - Mobility Electronics Inc., an independent manufacturer of docking solutions and power products for notebook computers, announced a partnership with Molex Inc. As a result of this partnership, Molex has developed the high-speed connector and cable portion of Mobility`s new patented Serialized Peripheral Connection Interface (PCI) Split Bridge technology. This technology from Molex allows Mobility to provide true universal 32-bit docking solutions for today`s market.
Split Bridge technology is based on a Mobility chip that splits a standard PCI-PCI bridge chip. The chip was developed in partnership with Philips Electronics. The Split Bridge design requires a cable technology that can accommodate high data transmission speeds in order to support data-intensive applications, such as Ethernet and video. To prevent per-formance issues caused by data transfer bottlenecks, Mobility and Molex have teamed to develop cabling and connector technology that supports the Split Bridge architecture with enough bandwidth for users to experience portable computer performance equal to that of a desktop system.
The result of the partnership is cable and connector technology capable of bidirectional data transfer rates of 1.25 Gbps, which is 100X faster than USB technology. This proprietary cable is very flexible, only 0.188" in diameter and up to 15` in length. The cable and connector technology has been incorporated into Split Bridge and allows for the extension of a computer PCI bus to a remote device with little or no performance degradation and no software requirements.
"The 1.25 Gbs Serialized PCI Split Bridge system is a breakthrough in connectivity technology," said Gary Manchester, strategic product manager at Molex Inc. "Utilizing the Split Bridge technology, our cable and connector allows mobile computer users to run video, 10/100Base-T Ethernet, and many other data-intensive applications and peripherals simultaneously without experiencing any drop in performance. This will further allow OEMs the opportunity to standardize on one small 20-pin docking connector that can provide universal docking with even the smallest laptop or hand-held computer device."
Mobility and Molex continue to collaborate on the development of a variety of new potential applications for the Split Bridge technology, including a number of OEM-specific implementation and alternative mobile requirements.
