Force Computers Unveils Market's Fastest PowerPC Boards for VME and CompactPCI.SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 8, 1998-- Latest Force Platforms Deliver "Plug In and Go" Upgrade Solutions for Telecom, Data Comm, and Industrial Control Customers Looking to Boost System Speed Force Computers Inc., a Solectron subsidiary (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :SLR (1) (Scalable Linear Recording) A line of magnetic tape drives from Tandberg Data that evolved from the QIC Data Cartridge format. See QIC. (2) (Single Lens Reflex) A camera that uses the same lens for viewing and shooting. ) and a leader in embedded computing, today unveiled the fastest PowerPC(TM) based single-board computers (SBCs) available on the market -- the PowerCoreCPCI-6750 for CompactPCI(R) and the PowerCore-6750 for VMEbus environments. The newest Force platforms feature a next-generation PowerPC 750 processor built with an advanced copper-based CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) Pronounced "c-moss." The most widely used integrated circuit design. It is found in almost every electronic product from handheld devices to mainframes. process technology, which both drives up the processor's clock speed to an unprecedented 400 MHz and drives down power consumption. They are also based on Force's core architecture, which maintains full software compatibility with the entire PowerCore product line. According to Gerhard Mayr, product marketing manager at Force, "The PowerCoreCPCI-6750 and PowerCore-6750 thus represent true 'plug in and go' upgrades that will enable Force's 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 customers to boost the performance of their systems without having to change a single line of application code." Mayr noted that Force has achieved two major objectives with these latest product introductions. "First, we've reaffirmed our technology leadership in the overall board arena by rolling out new CompactPCI and VME (Virtual Machine Environment) An operating system from Fujitsu Services (formerly ICL) that runs on its Series 39 mainframes. Introduced in 1975, VME is a comprehensive product that provides a variety of utilities for datacenter operations. platforms that significantly outperform the competition," he said. "Just as important, we are continuing to deliver embedded computing solutions to meet the needs of telecommunications, data communications, and industrial control customers so that they can migrate to the high-end quickly and reap the considerable competitive benefits of faster time-to-market." In the telecom and data comm segments, a blazing clock rate is vital for meeting real-time processing requirements in demanding applications such as wireless infrastructure, including base-station controllers and base-transceiver stations, and high-performance data-packet switches. The same real-time processing capability is just as important for robotics, test equipment, and other industrial control systems. Low power consumption -- and therefore low heat dissipation -- is equally critical in these applications arenas for enhancing system reliability. Plus, low heat dissipation eliminates the need for large, expensive fan units. With the PowerCoreCPCI-6750 and PowerCore-6750, telecom, data comm and industrial control OEMs can design higher-performing, more reliable systems that take up less space in the cabinet or on the factory floor while reducing system costs for end users. Both the PowerCoreCPCI-6750 for CompactPCI and the PowerCore-6750 for VME environments offer up to 256 Mbytes of synchronous DRAM (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. ) -- twice as much SDRAM as competitive products -- and support the fast memory access requirements of real-time embedded computing applications. The CompactPCI board has been compliant to the PICMG An industry consortium that develops specifications for backplanes and interconnects for electronic equipment in the industrial and telecom fields. It was founded in 1994 as the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group, hence the acronym. "hot-swap" specification since its introduction. Additional features of both products include up to 1 Mbyte of Level 2 cache See L2 cache. level 2 cache - secondary cache and up to 8 Mbytes of flash memory for demanding I/O (Input/Output) The transfer of data between the CPU and a peripheral device. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another. See PC input/output. I/O - Input/Output applications. A Fast Ethernet interface, two serial channels, a real-time clock, watchdog timer, and dual expansion slots for off-the-shelf PCI Mezzanine Cards (PMCs) deliver complete, flexible I/O functionality. Pricing and Availability Force's new PowerCoreCPCI-6750 and PowerCore-6750 products will be available beginning in Q1'98. The pricing of the 400 MHz CompactPCI board starts at $4150 with 64 Mbytes SDRAM. Pricing for the VME version begins at $5595. About Force Computers Force Computers (www.forcecomputers.com) was founded in 1981 and is a leading worldwide supplier of open, scalable system and board-level computer platforms for the embedded market. The processor-independent company delivers products based on SPARC (Scalable Performance ARChitecture) A family of RISC CPUs from Sun that runs mostly under Sun's Solaris, but also under Linux and BSD operating systems. After development began in the mid-1980s by David Patterson of the University of California at Berkeley and Bill (R), Pentium(R) and PowerPC(TM)technologies. An ISO (1) See ISO speed. (2) (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iso.ch) An organization that sets international standards, founded in 1946. The U.S. member body is ANSI. 9001 certified company, Force Computers practices Total Quality Management principles in all phases of the company's global operations. The company, along with its parent company, Solectron Corp., is the 1997 winner of the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is given by the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology. Through the actions of the National Productivity Advisory Committee chaired by Jack Grayson, it was established by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality for Manufacturing. Force's corporate headquarters is located in San Jose. Force's European headquarters is located in Munich, Germany, and the company's Japanese headquarters is located in Tokyo. Note to Editors: All brands are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. |
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