RapidIO Connections Newsletter - Fall 2005In this issue...RapidIO Product News:Summary of product and news announcements about RapidIO Technology. EE Times Ultimate Products Underscoring the significant impact the RapidIO standard is having in the market, three of EE Times' "Ultimate Product" top ten new logic/programmable logic products feature RapidIO technology. EE Times solicits input from its readers in ranking the "Ultimate Products" based on their features and performance capabilities in seven categories. The products are nominated by the technical editors of eeProductCenter. Category-specific ballots are sent to up to 1,000 targeted product users, soliciting ratings of the editors' selections. Xilinx: Virtex-4 FX60 FPGA 'first' to feature multi-gigabit serial transceiver eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: " Xilinx Inc. is shipping Virtex-4 field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA) that it claims are the first to integrate multi-gigabit serial transceivers that support speeds of 622-Mbits/s to 10.3125-Gbits/s. The Virtex-4 FX60 FPGAs support all major serial standards, including PCI Express, Serial RapidIO, Ethernet and Fibre Channel. Virtex-4 FX RocketIO transceivers provide advanced equalization features such as 3-tap transmit pre-emphasis, linear receive equalization, 6-tap decision feedback equalization (DFE) and integrated AC-coupling capacitor to enhance signal integrity at all speeds." http://www.xilinx.com Tundra Semiconductor: Serial RapidIO gains momentum as second switch hits the market eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: "Following its introduction in February of the industry's first serial RapidIO switch, the Tsi568A, Tundra Semiconductor Corp. has added to its product portfolio another device that is cheaper and smaller but delivers the same performance to build high-performance communications systems. The Tsi564A serial RapidIO switch measures 21-mm x 21-mm compared with Tsi568A's package size of 27-mm x 27-mm package. It offers low-power multiple port widths and speed configurations, and supports 40-Gbits/s aggregate bandwidth." http://tundrasemiconductor.com Micro Memory: CoSine SoC relieves DSPs eeProductCenter's Ismini Scouras says: " Engineers designing with custom logic should take a good look at this highly integrated system-on-chip (SoC) from Micro Memory. CoSine is a SoC that performs real-time field programmable gate array (FPGA) processing. It is the closest thing to a structured ASIC without the latency problems associated with using a bus translation bridge. CoSine bridges two high-speed interfaces - PCI-X or PCI-Express and Serial RapidIO through a multi-port DDR controller, enabling access to a user programmable logic (UPL) block without any difficulty. Engineers can focus only on application specific state machine processing in UPL block. With CoSine, they don't have to code other modules or perform complicated SoC integration or verification. Its IP cores, memory controllers, specialized DMA engines, embedded processors and surrounding logic are configured in the factory." http://www.micromemory.com Artesyn Communication has announced the Pm8560, a new octal E1/T1 ProcessorPMC protocol engine based on the PowerQUICC III MPC8560 communication controller. Equipped with 512 Mbytes of SDRAM, 32 Mbytes of flash memory, and a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port, the new module is optimized for protocol processing applications such as SS7/SIGTRAN signaling and ATM AAL-5. Freescale's PowerQUICC III MPC8560 provides the compute and protocol engine for the Pm8560 and includes a 64-bit PCI/X/PCI controller, RapidIO port, and a pair of 10/100/1000 Ethernet controllers. For more information, visit http://www.artesyn.com/media/pdfs/Pm8560_061605.pdf. Jennic, a supplier of system-level intellectual property (IP) cores and semiconductor solutions for the communications market, announced the launch of its first chip-level IP solution, a Serial RapidIO® to PCI Bridge. The Serial RapidIO to PCI Bridge appears as a bi-directional, transparent bridge between the two interfaces. By using address mapped windows, programmable translation parameters and integrated DMA controllers, data transactions between the two interfaces are handled with the minimum of host processor intervention. This allows the user to extend the functionality and performance of their existing PCI bus based systems by providing the capability to connect into a switched Serial RapidIO architecture. http://www.jennic.com. Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY) announced the industry's first VME host board to support dual PowerPC®7448 processors and the RapidIO fabric (VITA 41.2), or a PCI Express™ interconnect (VITA 41.4) on the VXS multi-gigabit P0 backplane fabric connector. Delivering tremendous configuration flexibility to system designers, the Momentum™ Series VPA-200 will combine host, signal processing, and I/O carrier functionality in a single slot. The VPA-200 provides a flexible, multi-function feature set for price-sensitive, entry-level military embedded applications, and paves the way for higher-end implementations that require high-speed backplane interconnects made available by the new VXS standard. For more information, visit http://www.mc.com/mediacenter/pr/news_details.cfm?press_id=2005_09_11_0900_084702_476958pr.cfm. PMC-Sierra, Inc. (Nasdaq:PMCS) announced the immediate availability of a complete Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI(TM)) reference design that provides Base Station vendors with a significant time to market advantage by allowing low-cost prototype CPRI solutions to be quickly developed and validated. PMC-Sierra's complete CPRI reference design is comprised of three main components including a 10 Gigabit Ethernet Serializer/Deserializer (SERDES) which supports a broad range of applications for high speed serial links such as XAUI, OBSAI RP3, Serial RapidIO, PCI Express, and Infiniband 4X. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=74533&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=718174&highlight= Thales Computers announced the PowerMP4-60, a Serial RapidIO system for the embedded computing market place. The PowerMP4-60 system combines PowerPC and Pentium-Intel technology and takes advantage of outstanding compute power to power dissipation ratio of the PowerPC technology as well as the wide spectrum of software tools available on PC platforms. For more information, visit http://www.thalescomputers.com/newsdetail.asp?ID=41. Tundra Semiconductor Corporation (TSX: TUN) announced it has signed an agreement with Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC), under which it will receive a seven million dollar investment to accelerate the research and development of next-generation RapidIO System Interconnect products. For more information, visit http://www.tundra.com/NewsRoom/PressReleases/2005/pr_09_15_05.cfm. |