GENERAL MICRO SYSTEMS ANNOUNCES 1-GHZ PENTIUM III COMPACT PCI BUS SINGLE-BOARD COMPUTER WITH UP TO FIVE PMC SLOTS.

General Micro Systems has announced the Mariner II C158, GMS' third-generation Pentium III CompactPCI bus single-board computer.

Featuring a peak performance of 1 GHz, the Mariner II C158 provides up to five PMC expansion slots and targets high-performance telecommunication applications.

Mariner II C158 is available with three processor options: Celeron, Coppermine-128, and Coppermine-256. The Celeron, equipped with 128 kbytes of on-chip cache, operates at speeds of up to 500 MHz, providing an excellent low-cost option for embedded applications that require a balance of high availability, performance, and low power consumption. The Coppermine-128 and Coppermine-256, available with up to 256 Kbytes of on-chip cache, operate at speeds of up to 1 GHz, providing the ultimate in high-performance Pentium III processing.

"The Mariner II is the most versatile CompactPCI bus single-board computer on the market today," said Ben Sharfi, president of GMS. "Mariner's Celeron and Coppermine processors provide a range of price, performance, and power consumption options to choose from. And its five PMC slots make it easy to equip with a broad range of I/O, networking, graphics, and mass storage options."

The Mariner II C158 provides up to 256 Kbytes of on-die L2 cache, 512 Mbytes of field upgradeable SODIMM main memory, a 10/100Base-Tx Ethernet interface (with Wake-On-Line), and dual Ultra DMA-33 IDE hard driver interfaces. The Mariner also provides a pair of USB ports, two comm ports, a printer port, a floppy port, mouse/keyboard interfaces, and up to 144 Mbytes of Disk-On-Chip flash, which can be configured as a bootable drive for diskless systems.

The Mariner II's five PMC slots provide an inexpensive means of adding plug-and-play communications, graphics, mass storage, and industrial I/O options. Two of the slots are mounted directly on the card. Three more slots can be added by plugging a three-slot module into a PMC expansion connector.

The Mariner's PMC slots can accept any industry standard PMC module. GMS' Angelo module, for example, provides a plug-and-play option for adding high-performance AGP graphics. The module, equipped with 8 Mbytes of memory, provides 32-bit color with resolutions of up to 1600 x 1200. GMS also offers a variety of PMC mass storage options, including a field replaceable, 2.5-inch, 6.4-Gbyte IDE hard drive, and a 1-Gbyte IDE flash disk.

The Mariner's external I/O connectors are available via the front panel, which is ideal for applications like telecom that have tight space constraints. The Mariner also provides an 80-mm transition I/O module to support rear-panel I/O, which is ideal for applications requiring unimpeded front panel access (i.e., for service personnel).

To ensure safe and reliable operation, the Mariner II provides a System Health Monitor (SHM), which reports critical operating parameters such as the processor temperature, on-board voltages, and fan speed to the operating system. The C158 also provides Power-On-Self-Test (POST) diagnostics with dual binary LEDs, which convey the status of 50 tests that are performed each time power is applied to the board.

Software support for the C158 includes Windows NT 4.0, VxWorks, Linux, Solaris and QNX. The Mariner also provides 100 percent Power-On-Self-Test (POST) diagnostics, which includes monitoring of all on board voltages, temperature, fan speed and other critical parameters. Two binary LED displays on the front panel are used to indicate test results and error codes.

The Mariner II C158 starts at $1995 in single-piece quantity. It is available immediately from stock. For more information on the C158, please contact General Micro Systems at 8358 Maple Place, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730. Phone: [phone]. Fax: [phone]. Email: [e-mail]. World Wide Web site: www.general-micro-systems.com