Blue Wave Delivers First Quad Processor PowerPC Board For Defense Applications.CARROLLTON, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 24, 1999--Blue Wave Systems, (Nasdaq/NMS:BWSI), has developed its first ever non-DSP based signal processing product, the VME/4100, a quad processor PowerPC board for high-performance defense applications. Ruggedized and conduction cooled, the new board is suitable for use in aircraft weapons control, mission computer, array processing, FLIR FLIR Forward-Looking Infrared (Radar) FLIR Forward Looking Infrared Radiometer FLIR Forward Looking Infrared Radar FLIR Forward Looking Infra Red and other high-end computing systems. The PowerPC design excels at complex decision-making RISC processor operations with comparable performance in certain applications for processing intensive DSP-type functions, much like a conventional DSP/RISC board combination. Unlike combination systems, the use of a single PowerPC platform provides a unified development environment simplifying system development and reducing board count. "The adoption of an all PowerPC platform to execute both DSP- and RISC RISC in full Reduced Instruction Set Computing Computer architecture that uses a limited number of instructions. RISC became popular in microprocessors in the 1980s. processor-type functions has definite advantages in certain applications," said Matt Muzzin, defense product marketing manager for Blue Wave Systems. "By unifying the VME/4100's development environment, embedded designers no longer have to work with different types of code or tools. Instead, they need only be familiar with industry-standard PowerPC development tools." Four superscalar A CPU architecture that allows more than one instruction to be executed in one clock cycle. See pipeline processing. (architecture) superscalar - A superscalar architecture is a uniprocessor that can execute two or more scalar operations in parallel. Motorola MPC (1) (Mobile PC) A handheld or laptop computer. See handheld computer, laptop computer and Ultra-Mobile PC. (2) (MultiPath Channel) See multipath. 603r PowerPC processors operating at 200MHz (MegaHertZ) One million cycles per second. It is used to measure the transmission speed of electronic devices, including channels, buses and the computer's internal clock. A one-megahertz clock (1 MHz) means some number of bits (16, 32, 64, etc. form the engine of the VME/4100. Connecting the processor nodes together is an on-board PCI bus for rapid inter-processor communication and data transfers. For code and data storage, each node has access to local banks of 8Mbytes SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) A type of dynamic RAM (DRAM) memory chip that has been widely used since the late 1990s. SDRAM chips eliminated wait states by dividing the chip into two cell blocks and interleaving data between them. and up to 8Mbytes of Flash. Off-board communications are provided through Fibre Channel, Ethernet and RS-232 serial interfaces. The Fibre Channel I/O supports SCSI SCSI in full Small Computer System Interface Once common standard for connecting peripheral devices (disks, modems, printers, etc.) to small and medium-sized computers. SCSI has given way to faster standards, such as Firewire and USB. FC-AL (Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop) See Fibre Channel. FC-AL - Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop. and lightweight protocols at a sustained transfer rate of 100Mbytes/sec. A standard Ethernet link permits network connection for software development, debugging and testing and RS-232 interfaces have been provided on each processor node. The VME/4100 is available in three levels of ruggedization. These include: commercial for benign environment usage, extended temperature air cooled for more demanding environments and rugged conduction cooled for extreme temperature, vibration and shock conditions. The fully ruggedized VME/4100 has been designed specifically for airborne and vehicular use. Vibration performance has been validated at 0.12g2/Hz (g squared)(20 to 2000Hz) for 2.5 hours (operational) and thermal cycling is rated at 2000 cycles 100-degrees C delta. All three ruggedization levels are the same design and software compatible, providing a clear migration path from development to deployment. This new PowerPC board is backed by comprehensive software support that includes bootcode, power-up Built-in Test (BIT), boot monitor and a VxWorks OS board support package. The bootcode initializes hardware, while the BIT power-up routine verifies the readiness of the VME/4100 board, checking and reporting on board operational status. In the event of a system failure, the BIT module will enable the board to continue operating in a reduced functionality mode. "The VME/4100 is an ideal product for today's military applications," Muzzin concludes. "It offers the same levels of versatility, performance and ruggedization found in most DSP/RISC combination boards, but is much easier to develop with." Prices range from $12,000 to $18,000 in OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) The rebranding of equipment and selling it. The term initially referred to the company that made the products (the "original" manufacturer), but eventually became widely used to refer to the organization that buys the products and quantities depending on the level of ruggedization. Editors notes: Blue Wave Systems (Nasdaq/NMS:BWSI) is the world's leading supplier of DSP (1) (Digital Signal Processor) A special-purpose CPU used for digital signal processing applications (see definition #2 below). It provides ultra-fast instruction sequences, such as shift and add, and multiply and add, which are commonly used in math-intensive solutions and provides digital signal processing See DSP. Digital Signal Processing - (DSP) Computer manipulation of analog signals (commonly sound or image) which have been converted to digital form (sampled). (DSP) boards and subsystems to more than one-half of the world's top 40 companies. Blue Wave Systems is principally involved in the development and sale of embedded DSP computers for a variety of industries, with a strategic focus on telecommunications, defense and instrumentation. The Company resulted from the merger of Mizar Inc. and Loughborough Sound Images Ltd. in April 1998. |
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