VMEbus board boasts dual PowerPC processing power

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Apr 30, 2003

The VG5 is the latest addition to the SBS family of high-performance 6U VMEbus single board computers.

The VG5 is the latest addition to the SBS family of high-performance 6U VMEbus single board computers.

Configured with dual processors, the VG5 delivers the speed and bandwidth needed for performance-oriented applications such as real-time control, post video processing and signal processing subsystems.

Dual processors offer the highest level of performance in single board computer configurations, and SBS improves upon this paradigm by offering the VG5 with a choice of one or two integrated 800-1300MHz Motorola MPC7455/57 PowerPC processors featuring AltiVec technology.

This highly integrated ASMP design permits two computing platforms with independent operating systems to work in parallel within one slot.

Because each processor has its own memory and chipset, one processor node can accomplish number crunching DSP tasks while the other processor works as a general purpose CPU and facilitates the I/O functions on the board.

"High performance embedded applications in both the commercial and government markets have ever growing demands for raw processing power, ever shrinking slot availability, and the need to interface to I/O using a variety of technologies", said Dave Greig, Chief Operating Officer of SBS Technologies "The VG5 packs two complete processor subsystems on a single board enabling it to handle the workload of two boards.

The VG5 also supports SBS' Ready Driver programme that assures out-of-the box interoperability with many popular I/O interface cards within the extensive SBS portfolio".

Each processor node on the VG5 has an external 2Mbyte L3 cache, up to 1Gbyte DDR SDRAM with ECC, and a Marvell MV64360 chipset.

The MV64360 provides two high-speed multiprotocol serial controllers supporting transfers up to 10Mbit/s, one Gigabit Ethernet port, one Fast Ethernet port, 2Mbyte of ultrafast SRAM, up to 128Mbyte soldered Flash memory, and four 32bit timers.

This gives the VG5 high bandwidth capabilities for communicating with other devices.

Dual processor configurations support three independent onboard 64bit PCI buses.

One 64bit/66MHz PCI-X bus is dedicated to communications between the two processor nodes; another is used exclusively for interfacing to a 64bit/66MHz PMC slot.

The third is used by the onboard VMEbus bridge and the 64bit/33MHz PMC site.

Additional VG5 features include serial ATA interface, UARTs, user programmable FPGA for customised rear I/O, and optional PCI over P0 via PMC1.

The FPGA is used for synchronisation in dual processor mode and allows GPIO lines to be shared by each node.

The FPGA also contains dual-port RAM and up to 32 interrupt-capable general-purpose I/O lines.

The internal system clock can be synchronised by an external clock source at 16.66MHz.

Optional rugged features are available for applications operating in harsh environments impacted by temperature, shock, vibration, humidity, dust, salt or mist.

Options for ruggedisation include: extended temperature range of -40 to +85C, conduction cooling, conformal coating, stiffener bars and wedge locks.

Software support is expected to be available for VxWorks, Greenhills and LynxOS operating systems.

The VG5 will be available July 2003.