Oxford Semiconductor is first to market with PCI Express end-point silicon

MILPITAS, Calif., October 19, 2007-Oxford Semiconductor has announced it has begun sampling the world’s first PCI Express end-point to serial RS232, 422 and 485 device.  Engineering samples are with lead customers now and the first of a complete family of new parts is scheduled to enter full production in January 2008.

Adrian Braine, Oxford Semiconductor’s Marketing Manager for Connectivity Solutions said, “This single chip solution will be great news for any OEM wanting to migrate products from PCI to PCI Express.  Until now, designers had to use two bridge chips, one for PCI Express to PCI and another for PCI to UART; eliminating the intermediate bridge enables a more cost effective solution.”

Shipping PCI compatible serial bridge chips for more than a decade, Oxford Semiconductor is already well established in the product sector. The company’s own UART solution, the 16C950, is recognized as one of the world’s fastest and is integrated into the new PCI Express product range.

About Oxford Semiconductor

Oxford Semiconductor is a global leader in storage and connectivity technology and provides a broad portfolio of semiconductor “System on Chip” products enabling electronic devices to exchange or back-up data and share resources.

The company’s high performance connectivity solutions are an essential ingredient in a diverse range of highly differentiated end products, from external data storage and mobile phones to printers and point-of-sale equipment.

Oxford’s market leading product portfolio includes:

.  Direct-attached (FireWire / USB / RAID) and network-attached storage (NAS) controllers.
.  Serial communication bridges for PCI, miniPCI, Compact Flash and PC Cards.
.  USB host, peripheral and On-The-Go controllers.
.  Network connectivity controllers.

Founded in 1992, Oxford Semiconductor is a privately held fabless company headquartered in San Jose, California with its key design center in Abingdon, UK and sales support offices worldwide.  For more information visit http://www.oxsemi.com.