Product category:
Design and Development Hardware
News Release from: Momentum Computer | Subject: 970FX evaluation platforms
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 02 March 2004
Platforms provide early evaluation of
64bit MPU
Momentum Computer has been singled out by IBM to provide the evaluation platform for its newest PowerPC offering, the 64bit 970FX processor.
Momentum Computer has been singled out by IBM to provide the evaluation platform for its newest PowerPC offering, the 64bit 970FX processor Momentum's ATX-style motherboard, designed for and in conjunction with IBM Microelectronics, will provide developers with a unique insight to the performance and functionality of these new processors
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 20 Feb 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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As part of the 970FX evaluation platform programme, Momentum will provide support, documentation and downloads, as well as online forums in addition to the board itself.
This will include initial demonstration of capabilities as well as provision for schematics, Gerber files and open-source code.
Available in two different packages, Momentum will offer the evaluation platform as either: a full system with dual 1.4GHz 970FX processors, 1Gbyte DDR SDRAM, 400W ATX power supply, 20Gbyte IDE hard drive including the 970 file system and CD-ROM drive in a clear acrylic ATX case; or a development net-boot system with dual 1.4GHz 970FX processors and 400W ATX power supply mounted on an acrylic support plate that leaves the board exposed for easy probing and diagnostics.
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Both configurations include boot images, scripts and busybox file system preburned into the M-Systems' DiskOnChip, the Design Package CD and ongoing access to Momentum's update server with the latest soft-copy version of all information from the 970FX evaluation package.
The Design Package CD includes schematics in both Orcad 9.2.3 and PDF formats, bills of material, gerber files, monitor source code, startup code, application notes and assembly drawings.
"We are honoured that IBM selected Momentum to provide the Evaluation Platform for this exciting new chip and look forward to working with the embedded development community.
It will be fascinating to watch the applications that will result now that 64bit computing is available for embedded applications.
In addition to the reference design program, we plan to leverage our efforts to offer standard products based on the 970FX chip in the coming months", observed Momentum's President, Harry White.
With power consumption as low as 12.3W at 1.4GHz, the 970FX processor (referred to as the 90nm PowerPC G5 by Apple Computer in its Xserve G5 systems) is the first to bring high performance computing to the embedded market.
Based on IBM's award-winning Power4 architecture, the 970FX processor achieves high system performance with a dual-channel front-side processor bus of 1GHz and very fast hypertransport interconnections.
The device gives developers 64bit computing power while assuring legacy support by running 32bit applications natively.
The new processor's dual independent buses, ability to address vast amounts of memory and superscalar execution core enable processing of hundreds of instructions in parallel.
These characteristics will provide performance advantages for data intensive applications in high performance computing markets such as bioinformatics, high-precision simulation and any applications incorporating enhanced multimedia, graphics and data movement or requiring especially high bandwidth.
Because Momentum has developed and built custom board-level computers for demanding markets including data/telecommunications, military and aerospace, it has a unique collection of building blocks that can be used to satisfy similar applications and reduce time to market.
With the new 64bit computing capabilities offered by the 970FX and associated components, Momentum's engineering team can analyse customers' specific applications and often suggest solutions that will meet their requirements with minimal development time and significantly lower cost than a fully custom development.
Momentum's "building blocks" include platforms with a number of different configurations and processors in addition to the PowerPC family, including: Pentium, MIPS, UltraSparc, CompactPCI, PICMG 2.16, VME, PMCPr, ATX and Advanced TCA.
Available in mid-March, pricing for the 970FX evaluation platform packages starts at $4500 for the development net-boot system and $6000 for the full system with drives and case.
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