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News & Events : Press
Releases : C2000
Provides Solution To Access Third Party Video Products
Making It Cost-Effective To Add High-End Imaging Functionality
GMS Announces Dual-Pentium III Board Providing Standard AGP Interface,
Eliminating Need For Expensive, Custom PMC Graphics
March 7, 2003
Rancho Cucamonga, CA.
General Micro Systems has announced the industry's fastest CompactPCI
CPU board. Known as the Millennium C2000, the new dual-Pentium III
board is also the first to provide a standard AGP graphics/video
interface, eliminating the need for expensive, custom, PMC video/graphics
modules.
The C2000 features a pair of Coppermine-256 Embedded Pentium III
processors, each operating at speeds as high as 1GHz, and each equipped
with 256 kbytes of on-die L2 cache. The two processors are connected
directly to an Intel 82443 BX (or GX) North Bridge, whose 100MHz
Front Side Bus (FSB) provides high-speed access to upwards of 2
Gbytes of 100MHz SDRAM / RSDRAM.
To accommodate third party, off-the-shelf AGP (Advanced Graphics
Port) graphics and video cards, such as those from ATI and Asus,
the C2000 provides a standard AGP connector, which connects directly
to the North Bridge via a dedicated 32-bit, dual-edge, 66MHz graphics
bus. Unlike traditional PCI-based AGP graphics implementations,
which utilize the PCI bus for data transfers between the graphics
subsystem and host processor, the C2000's dedicated bus boosts performance
by eliminating arbitration delays and speeding data transfers by
4x.
The C2000's PCI bus, which also connects directly to the North
Bridge, provides high-speed access to two 10/100-Mbit/sec Fast Ethernet
ports and an Ultra-Wide SCSI port. The PCI bus also connects to
an Intel South Bridge, which provides access to standard PC peripherals
such as a mouse, keyboard, two Ultra IDE DMA-33 interfaces, two
USB ports, a 120-Mbyte Super Floppy interface, and two serial ports.
All of the C2000's I/O, with the exception of one USB port and one
serial port, is made accessible via a rear panel transition module,
which eliminates the need for front panel I/O and costly custom
interconnects. This module also accommodates a mounted 2.5"
IDE flash disk, which enables the C2000 to be used in rugged environments
requiring diskless operation.
"The C2000 is the industry's fastest CompactPCI CPU board,"
said Ben Sharfi, president of General Micro Systems. "Moreover,
its standard AGP interface eliminates the need for expensive, limited-function
PMC modules, providing access to third party video products that
make it cost-effective to add imaging functionality such as camera
interfaces and video capture to CompactPCI systems. Now, designers
can take advantage of a vast selection of the most advanced off-the-shelf
graphics and video cards, at a fraction of the cost of comparable
PMC products, and without the integration and obsolescence headaches."
The C2000 features a detailed diagnostic and failure reporting
system, including full Power-On-Self-Test (POST) diagnostics utilizing
eight binary front panel displays to indicate status for the POST
function currently executing. The C2000 also monitors key onboard
and CPU parameters such as voltage and temperature, using front
panel LEDs to report failures. The C2000 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 C2000 supports all major operating systems, including Windows
NT/2000/XP, VxWorks, Solaris x86, QNX and Linux.
For more information on the C2000, including pricing and availability,
please contact General Micro Systems, Inc. at 8358 Maple Place,
Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730. Phone: 1-800-307-4863 or (909) 980-4863.
Fax: (909) 987-4863. E-mail: sales@gms4sbc.com. World Wide Web site:
www.gms4sbc.com
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