Product category:
VMEbus Boards and Assemblies
News Release from: Mercury Computer Systems | Subject: Myriad-4130
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 30 May 2005
Half-slot host optimised for military
applications
The Race++ Series Myriad-4130 is a conduction-cooled hybrid host and carrier module.
New from Mercury Computer Systems, the Race++ Series Myriad-4130 is a conduction-cooled hybrid host and carrier module The single-slot 6U VME board can function simultaneously as a system host, with a rich set of I/O, and as a carrier card for a Mercury dual-processor compute node daughtercard, while still supporting a PCI Mezzanine Card (PMC) site for added configurability
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 30 May 2005 at 8.00am (UK)
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"The Myriad-4130 is the latest example of Mercury's innovation in bringing conduction-cooled products to market", said John Hanton, Senior Product Manager at the Mercury I/O Centre of Excellence, located in Silver Spring, Maryland.
"The Myriad-4130 'half-slot host' can stand independently as an integrated VME host and carrier for compute nodes and I/O nodes".
"Adding direct Race++ connectivity for high-bandwidth data movement enables the Myriad-4130 to easily integrate into Mercury multicomputers without using a daughtercard position".
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The Myriad-4130 features a 600MHz Freescale MPC8540 PowerQUICC III processor with 500Mbyte RAM, and up to 1Gbyte of Flash memory.
Standard capabilities include a dual Race++ backplane fabric connection, MIL1553 support, and Gigabit Ethernet.
Additional general-purpose I/O, including serial, console and TTL, is user-selectable and uses VME P0 connectivity.
The Myriad-4130 contains the essential system controller functionality and I/O needed by military applications in the space of one half of a VME 6U card.
This makes the Myriad-4130 literally a half-slot host, as it frees the remaining board real estate for use as both additional processing, via a standard Mercury J-style compute node daughtercard, and I/O functionality, via a standard PMC interface.
A variety of PMCs including Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, and video can be accommodated in the 4130's PMC site.
The half-slot host concept represents a new level of optimisation for military applications in which there are inherent constraints on space, weight and power.
Computation needs on the Myriad-4130 are addressed through the addition of a conduction-cooled compute node daughtercard, ranging from a dual AltiVec 7410 at 400MHz to a dual AltiVec 7447 at 800MHz.
An array of Mercury compute node daughtercards can provide a common target for Mercury's software environment, including hand-tuned algorithm, data management and middleware libraries.
"Our next-generation airborne ISR architecture requires higher computational density in a rugged, conduction-cooled form factor", said Dan Henry, Director of Advanced Architectures at Recon/Optical "The Myriad-4130's combination of low power consumption and increased functionality allows us to implement higher-order image processing functionality using fewer chassis slots".
Over the years, the Mercury I/O Centre of Excellence has worked closely with Recon/Optical, a provider of aerial reconnaissance products, on an array of projects.
"Understanding their application needs has helped us to create a product that provides both enhanced reliability, via a native dual-Race++ connection, and a nominal power consumption of only 1.5A at 5V", Hanton added.
"Furthermore, the Myriad-4130's unique ability to support Mercury compute nodes and PMC-based I/O lets Recon/Optical tailor the product for multiple roles".
Beta prototypes of the Race++ Series Myriad-4130 are scheduled to ship this month, with production availability scheduled for Q3 2005.
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