VMEbus Board runs VxWorks real-time applications.
Press Release Summary:
Model V160 Liberty CPU board includes additional Ethernet port, 2 PMC expansion ports, 2 additional serial ports, and IDE interface. Drop-in replacement board, based on Pentium III/Celeron processors and 440GX chip set, provides full 64-bit VME64 interface utilizing Tundra Universe II device. Unit can function as VMEbus master, slave, or system controller, and offers 1 GHz clock speed, 1 Gbyte main memory, and 256 kbytes of on-die L2 cache.
Original Press Release:
Pentium III VMEbus Board Provides Low-Cost, High-Performance Drop-In Replacement For Legacy 68K/PowerPC VMEbus Boards
New Pentium VMEbus Board Runs VxWorks Applications 250% Faster For Half The Price
Rancho Cucamonga, CA. November 18, 2002. General Micro Systems today announced a new high-performance Pentium III VMEbus CPU board that can be used as a drop-in replacement for legacy 68040, 68060 and PowerPC VMEbus CPU boards running the VxWorks real-time operating system. The new Pentium board, known as the V160 Liberty, runs VxWorks applications 250% faster at a cost of just $1200, half the price of Motorola's fastest VMEbus CPU boards. The V160 also adds new functionality not available on the Motorola boards, including an additional Ethernet port, two PMC expansion ports, two additional serial ports, and an IDE interface.
The V160 is based on the Pentium III/ Celeron processors and 440GX chip set, provides a full 64-bit VME64 interface utilizing the Tundra Universe II device, and can function as a VMEbus master, slave, or system controller. Featuring a maximum clock speed of 1 GHz, the V160 is equipped with up to 1 Gbyte of main memory (upgradeable to 2 Gbytes) and 256 kbytes of on-die L2 cache. The V160 also features two 10/100Base-Tx Ethernet channels, an Ultra Wide SCSI interface, and two PMC ports, which support up to five PMC expansion cards.
The V160 supports all the legacy I/O functions needed to run Windows and VxWorks out of the box, including four serial I/O ports, two USB ports, a floppy port, mouse port, keyboard port, and four 32-bit timers. The V160 also provides two IDE DMA-33 ports, which support current rotating media drives up to 100-Gbytes, or 20 GBbytes of flash drive, all within a single VMEbus slot. Other system I/O features include optional Compact Flash, 4 Mbytes of system BIOS/user flash, 256 bytes of serial EEPROM (for VxWorks boot parameters) up to 16 Mbytes of optional bootable disk-on-chip flash, and up to 8 kbytes of battery-backed nonvolatile RAM.
"Not only are the 68k and PowerPC 750 dogs when it comes to embedded applications, they're being discontinued," said Ben Sharfi, president of General Micro Systems. "The V160 makes it easy to migrate to Pentium platforms by providing a drop-in replacement for 68k and PowerPC 750 VMEbus boards that not only runs two to three times faster, but costs half as much. The ultimate PowerPC 750 killer."
The V160 features a detailed diagnostic and failure reporting system, providing full Power-On-Self-Test (POST) diagnostics that utilize eight binary front panel displays to indicate status for the POST function currently executing. The V160 also monitors key onboard and CPU parameters such as voltage and temperature, using front panel LEDs to report failures. The V160 also uses a watchdog timer that can prevent lockups by terminating the current task, generating system interrupts and resetting the CPU or I/O devices.
The V160 runs Windows NT/2000, VxWorks, Solaris x86, and Linux. The V160 also runs Windows NT Embedded, including the deterministic Real-Time Extensions offered by Venturecom.
The V160 equipped with an 850 MHz Celeron CPU and 64 Mbytes of SODIM SDRAM costs $1195 in single-piece quantity. For more information on the V160, please contact General Micro Systems, Inc. at 8358 Maple Place, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730. Phone: (909) 980-4863. Fax: (909) 987-4863. E-mail: sales@gms4sbc.com. World Wide Web site: www.gms4sbc.com
