Thales Computers Announces Flexible, Low-Cost Connectivity Engine for High-Performance Systems.

Business/Technology Editors

RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 13, 2002

VCE405 Offers High-Performance, Low-Power, Rugged PowerPC Solution

for Critical Environments

Thales Computers, a leader in providing PowerPC and Pentium-based VME computing solutions to OEMs and System Integrators, today announced at the 2002 Embedded Systems Conference in San Francisco, the release of the VCE405 Connectivity Engine, a versatile off-the-shelf CPU with two PMC slots for maximum I/O flexibility. The 6U VCE405 offers a PowerPC solution where high compute power and low power consumption and dissipation are a concern.

At the core of Thales Computers' VCE405 is the powerful 375 MIPS/266MHz IBM PowerPC 405GP(TM), a 32-bit RISC embedded controller featuring typical power consumption of just 1.5 watts. This, coupled with the high-performance ALMA2e PCI-64/VME bridge, makes the VCE405 well-suited for critical environments such as aerospace systems and medical equipment.

Because of the board's low power consumption, it does not require massive heat sinks. This makes the board ideal for applications such as flight control systems on helicopters, where there is a weight restriction for rugged electronic components. Combine the board's high-performance electronics with its low power consumption and rugged design and you've got what it takes to perform sensor and data computations in harsh environments encountered in military and aerospace applications. The VCE405 board does not require a conventional heat sink because of its low power consumption, typically 6.5 watts. It consumes so little power that it cools by natural convection in an 85(Degree)C environment.

Medical equipment applications also benefit from the VCE405's heat dissipation feature, especially in applications where it is critical to sustain temperatures without the benefit of a cooling fan, such as x-ray systems and blood analysis machines. The commercial grade VCE405 is cooled with natural convection.

In addition to aerospace and medical applications, the VCE405 VME solution is a competitively priced option for industrial and automotive systems. In addition, peripheral integration of the 405GP and dual 64-bit PCI bus (PMC) expansion slots make the device ideal for wired communications and other pervasive computing applications.

Pricing and Availability

The 266 MHz VCE405 Connectivity Engine from Thales Computers is available now starting at a list price of $2835 in single quantity (64MB of SDRAM). For volume pricing, please contact Thales Computers. A conduction-cooled version is also available.

Product Details

Thales Computers' VCE405 Connectivity Engine is based on IBM's 375 MIPS, low power consumption PowerPC 405GP. The PPC405GP is powered by a PowerPC 405B3TM embedded core which tightly couples a 266 MHz CPU, MMU, Instruction and Data cache (16 KB I-cache, 8 KB D-cache) and debug logic. This finely-tuned core reduces data transfer overhead and minimizes pipeline stalls to greatly improve performance. The general architecture of the 405GP consists of a 64-bit, 133 MHz Processor Local Bus (PLB) and a 32-bit, 44.33 MHz (133/3) MHz On-Chip Peripheral Bus (OPB).

The VME64 and the bridging with the dual 64-bit PCI bus Mezzanine (PMC) expansion is managed by the ALMA2e, the latest release of the highly integrated, low power single chip designed from the collaboration with IBM.

The VCE405's Real-Time Clock (RTC) function is provided by a Dallas Semiconductor DS1602 Elapsed Time Counter. This device can keep track of over 125 years worth of seconds in each of its two 32-bit counters.

The local memory of the card consists of two banks of 32 MB each making 64 MB of Synchronous DRAM with optional Error Control and Correction. The board is also available with two banks of 64 Mbytes for 128 Mbytes total. The SDRAM is directly controlled by the processor using a 32-bit /133 MHz bus. In addition, the VCE405 provides one FLASH memory array which is composed of two, equal-sectored Intel 28F320J5a-110, 2 Mbits x 16 Flash EPROMs for a total of 8 MB.

Thales Computers' VCE405 provides 100Base-TX Ethernet with auto-negotiation to 10Base-T when connected to networks not capable of 100 Mbps operation. The Ethernet media access controller of the PPC405GP is a generic implementation of the Ethernet Media Access Controller (MAC) protocol complying with ANSI/IEEE 802.3 and IEEE 802.3u Supplement.

The Connectivity Engine provides a total of six serial lines. Two asynchronous RS-232 lines are supplied by the PPC405GP itself. Two Enhanced Serial Communications Controllers (ESCC) from Zilog provide four additional RS-232/422/485 configurable serial lines - two synchronous/ asynchronous serial lines and two asynchronous serial lines at data rates up to 3.69 Mbit/sec.

The board design provides two PMC sites; both sites can support a 64-bit PCI bus. Should additional features be required by your system, Thales Computers provides an extensive choice of COTS PMC cards for commercial grade or harsh environment applications - networking (Ethernet, ATM), additional serial lines, parallel I/O, graphics, etc. The VCE405 supports VxWorks.

About Thales Computers

Thales Computers, a Thales Group company, is headquartered in Toulon, France, and Raleigh, North Carolina. Thales Computers is the leading developer of commercial and ruggedized VMEbus hardware and software solutions based on PowerPC and Pentium microprocessors. Thales Computers is ISO 9001 certified for its design, manufacturing, sales and servicing operations. The company's products are optimized for a wide variety of applications in military, aerospace, communications and industrial markets and are in active use by customers worldwide, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Toshiba, EADS, British Aerospace, Ericsson, Alcatel and the Thales Group.

For more information about the VCE405 Connectivity Engine, please contact us at 1-800-848-2330 or refer to www.thalescomputers.com.

Thales Computers, the Thales Group and the Thales Computers logo are registered trademarks of Thales Computers. All other names mentioned are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective companies.