News & Events : Press Releases : C269

General Micro Systems First To Deliver Multiprocessor CPU Board Based On Intel's ®New Xeon-LP Pentium IV Processor

Industry's Fastest CompactPCI Board Uses Switched Fabric To Overcome Traditional PCI Local Bus Bottlenecks

March 10, 2003
Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

General Micro Systems, a leading supplier of VMEbus and CompactPCI board-level products and systems, announces the C269 Equinox, the first hot-swappable industrial CPU board based on Intel's ®new Xeon-LP ®Pentium ®IV Processor. Featuring dual 3.0-GHz Xeon-LP CPUs, Equinox is the first CPU board to utilize ServerWorks' new Hub-Link controller, which gives the CPUs high-speed access to all of the C269's key memory, mass storage, I/O, multimedia, and networking subsystems.

"The C269's dual Xeon-LP CPUs make it the fastest CompactPCI processor board on the market," said Randall Sucamele, vice president of sales and marketing for General Micro Systems. "But what really sets it apart is its Hub-Link internal architecture, which overcomes traditional PCI local bus bottlenecks and makes the Xeon's processing power available at a system level."

Intel developed the Xeon-LP specifically to address the high-performance, low power requirements of the embedded market. Featuring a peak performance of 3.0 GHz, 512 kbytes of on-die L2 cache, and a 533-MHz Front Side Bus, Xeon processors consume 50% less power than their desktop counterparts. They are also socket-able, enabling them to be upgraded, and offer a minimum life cycle of five years, both keys to supporting the long life cycles common to embedded designs. As an added bonus, Intel is currently working on a dual-processor Xeon-class device that will fit into the same socket as the current Xeon-LP processor. This gives Equinox users the option of upgrading to a quad-processor Equinox at a future date.

The C269's Hub-Link controller uses a four-port switched fabric to eliminate the bottlenecks associated with traditional PCI local bus architectures. Instead of providing arbitrated access to a shared bus resource, the Hub-Link controller provides dedicated point-to-point connections between the CPUs and key subsystems, each operating at 2.4 Gbyte/sec. The two CPUs access the controller via a common 533-MHz Front Side Bus. The hub's first port connects to a 128-bit-wide memory bus, which provides no-wait-state access to 16 Gbytes of DDR SDRAM. The second port connects directly to a dual PCI-X controller, which provides high-speed access to two Gigabit Ethernet ports, Ultra Wide SCSI, and the CompactPCI bus. The third port provides access to system I/O functions like USB, video, and IDE mass storage. The fourth port connects to a 4-Gbyte/sec SAM TM -III (Special Application Module) I/O expansion bus, which provides access to custom external I/O, networking, multimedia, and networking modules.

Equinox provides a full complement of standard desktop interfaces, including keyboard, mouse, and floppy, two COM ports, and six USB ports. The C269's dual-mode display controller supports both analog RGB and flat panel displays (through a DVI-D connector), features a video resolution of 1280 x 1024 in true color, and provides an integrated Bit-BLT engine.

Mass storage support for the C269 includes an Ultra Wide SCSI 160/320 interface, which supports transfer rates of up to 320 Mbyte/sec in single-ended or differential modes. The SCSI controller is equipped with 32 kbytes of non-volatile RAM, which can be used to store RAID tagging data for Raid-1 applications. Equinox also provides two IDE DMA-133 ports, which can be used to add a variety of mass storage options, including an external or onboard 2.5-inch, 100-Gbyte hard drive, or an integrated 20-Mbyte flash drive. To support diskless operation, Equinox also provides 64 Mbytes of Disk-On-Chip flash memory.

Equinox provides two 10/100/1000Base-Tx Gigabit Ethernet channels. These channels can be accessed via standard RJ45 jacks for standard LAN operation. They can also be configured as a PICMG 2.16 Ethernet Packet Switched Backplane (cPSB), which facilitates Ethernet backplane communications between multiple boards or chassis. Equinox also provides a third 10/100Base-Tx Ethernet interface, which is ideal for use as an external debug or control interface.

The C269's 4-Gbyte/sec SAM TM -III expansion bus provides four times the throughput of conventional PMC expansion interfaces, making it ideal for high-performance multimedia, I/O and networking applications. GMS and its partners will offer a variety of SAM TM -III options, including high-end graphics with 3D rendering, Fiber Channel communications, triple PCI-X expansion, and multi-channel PMC expansion. Most SAM TM -III options will require no additional CompactPCI slots.

The C269's health monitoring system complies with the PICMG Baseboard Management standard, which defines a standard protocol for managing and reporting key system parameters such as processor temperature, on-board voltages, and fan speed. To optimize cooling performance, the C269 provides separate variable speed control circuits for each of its fans, complete with a separate tachometer.

Software support for the C269 Equinox includes Windows 2000/NT/XP, Solaris x86, Linux, QNX and VxWorks.

The C269 Equinox equipped with a 1.6-GHz Xeon-LP CPU and 256 Mbytes of RAM is a common configuration. For more information on the C269, including price 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