Pentium III CPU boosts CompactPCI systems

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Nov 13, 2001

With the new compact CP603 board, PEP Modular Computers reckons it's setting a new milestone in the performance of CompactPCI CPUs.

With the new compact CP603 board, PEP Modular Computers reckons it's setting a new milestone in the performance of CompactPCI CPUs that are capable of the highest demands of computer-intensive applications in industrial automation, image processing, military, telecommunications, Internet and medical applications.

Using innovative technology for the highest levels of integration this robust design is ideally suited for harsh and rugged industrial environments with -25 to +75C extended temperature options.

Intel's latest Pentium III processor powers this 6U CompactPCI CPU system controller and the board supports all Intel Socket 370-pin FCPGA processors up to and beyond 850MHz with 256Kbyte on-die full-speed L2 cache.

It offers significant benefits by combining outstanding performance with embedded technology and low power consumption and is suitable for use in the high-performance range.

The CP603 comes complete with the standard PC interfaces such as PS/2 keyboard, mouse, enhanced parallel port (EPP), LPT, two IDE, floppy disk, two COM and two USB interfaces.

Enhancement options include memory expansion ranging between 64 and 768Mbyte, DiskOnChip Flash module of up to 96Mbyte of SRAM, two Fast Ethernet interfaces, an UltraWide SCSI interface and a slot for a P1386 compatible PMC mezzanine module.

The onboard AGP/VGA graphics controller provides a maximum resolution of 1600 x 1200pixel with 4Mbyte of video RAM.

Superior reliability and data integrity are assured by using the latest SDRAM memory technology that incorporates the use of error correction code (ECC) and enables a cache-able memory of up to 768Mbyte via three DIMM sockets.

66 and 100MHz front-side bus with 32 or 64bit 33MHz CompactPCI interface permits a maximum transfer of 264Mbyte/s for the highest level of performance and throughput.

Rear I/O option is available on the 32bit CompactPCI interface version only.

The CP603 incorporates extensive I/O support with a unique rear I/O feature that allows the on-board and front panel I/O interfaces for peripherals to be accessed via the CompactPCI P3, P4, P5 connectors.

A rear I/O transition module, the CP-R106-02, brings these signals out to standard connectors at the rear panel.

Ordinarily, only seven CompactPCI slots can be addressed from one CPU, however, the CP603 features a second PCI-to-PCI bridge that permits the connection of up to 14 CompactPCI slots.

Hot-swap support is provided to allow other peripheral boards to be removed or added with power on making it particularly suitable for telecommunications applications.

For the highest level of integration the CP603 can be ordered with an optional IDE-compatible hard disk module or a Flash-disk module available either as a DiskOnChip Flash or as an IDE-compatible 512Kbyte Flash module that supplies abundant storage potential and provides data integrity in harsh operating environments.

There is intelligent hardware monitoring in the form of onboard temperature, fan and voltage supervision and for applications where safety is critical a battery-buffered real-time clock and a software programmable watchdog are provided.

The CP603 supports most off-the-shelf operating systems including Windows NT, VxWorks, QNX and Linux.