Texas Instruments Incorporated announced today the first x1 PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge and PCI Express 1394a integrated circuit (IC) samples.

The PCI Express 1394a IC enables one of the industry’s first ExpressCard modules that is based on PCI Express instead of legacy I/O. The new PCI Express devices, which TI will demonstrate at the Intel Developer Forum, helps desktop and notebook PC designers build adaptable products for their customers, the companys aid.

TI’s new XIO2000 IC bridges an x1 PCI Express Bus to a 32-bit, 33
MHz/66MHz PCI Bus capable of supporting up to six PCI devices downstream. The device supports PCI Express rates of 2.5Gbps. The PCI Express Bridge will aid add-in card manufacturers, desktop and notebook PC designers in developing equipment that includes a high speed serial bus with improved performance and quality of service, according to the company.

The XIO2200 PCI Express 1394a device is a two port open host controller interface (OHCI) 1394a integrated link/physical layer device that interfaces to the PCI Express Bus.

Both the XIO2000 and XIO2200 are sampling now with volume production scheduled for the first half 2005, TI said.