SMALLER, COOLER, FASTER
The
PA6T-1628M has generated quite a bit of
interest, especially for compact, high-performance form factors like VPX (VITA 46).
The 3U form factor requires high-density
layouts. However, cooling tends to be a
major issue. This makes the clock-gated
chip ideal for a 3U VPX single-board computer (SBC).
Extreme Engineering Solutions' XPedite8070 is one of the first 3U VPX SBCs
available. Possibly along with one of its
siblings, it fits nicely into the stylish
XPand1000 development system (). The XPedite8070 features a single 1.5-GHz dual-core PA6T1682 chip with 2
Gbytes of DDR2 memory, 32 Mbytes of
NOR flash, and 1 Gbyte of NAND flash.
The board only needs 34 W. The fabric
interface uses PCI Express or a 10-Gbit
Ethernet XAUI fabric interconnect. Also,
the board brings out dual SGMII and dual, isolated Gbit Ethernet
ports. The serial ports are
accessible via USB interfaces.
Software support is available
for Linux and WindRiver's
VxWorks.
Also in the 3U VPX arena,
Curtiss-Wright Controls
Embedded Computing's VPX3125 uses the same 1.5-GHz
single- or dual-core chips with
a similar DDR2 complement. It
has 128 Mbytes of NOR flash,
1 Gbyte of NAND flash, and
512 kbytes of nonvolatile
memory (NVRAM).
The VPX3-125 exposes the
serial ports, a pair of x4 PCI Express
lanes, and a pair of 1-Gbit Ethernet
ports. The board also has a USB 2.0 host
port and digital I/O ports. Expansion is
possible via an XMC/PMC site. It comes
in a VPX-REDI (VITA 48) form factor.
As the Extreme Engineering Solutions
and Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded
Computing offerings indicate, PA Semi
has struck a chord with its high-performance, low-power solution. Expect to see
quite a few additions to this list, especially in other form factors where the Power
architecture is already popular.
Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded
Computing www.cwcembedded.com
Extreme Engineering Solutions www.xes-inc.com
PA Semi www.pasemi.com
PA Semi PA6T-1682M
Architecture: 64-bit Power
Speed: 2 GHz
Cores: one or two
Memory: dual DDR2 controllers
Cache: 64-kbyte instruction and 64-kbyte
data L1 per core, 2 Mbytes L2 shared
Power: 13 W typical, 25 W max at 2 GHz;
6 W typical, 10 W max at 1 GHz
Peripherals: three SMbus, two UART,
boot bus
High-speed peripherals: 24 configurable
SERDES, 8x PCI Express lanes for dual 10Gbit Ethernet, quad 1-Gbit Ethernet