SBC Claims 60% Performance Boost Over Other PowerPC Designs

Based on the new PowerPC 604e3, the VMPC4b is a VME single-board computer that reportedly offers up to a 60% boost in performance over previous generation PowerPC designs. The board, a member of firm's PowerEngine 4 family, benchmarks at 12.5 SPECint and 7.7 SPECfp for the 300-MHz version, delivering high performance while consuming less than 8W of power. It integrates a 100-Mbps Ethernet connection, ensuring high-speed network connectivity commensurate with the steadily evolving speeds of PowerPC microprocessors. The board also includes 4 to 16 Mbytes of user Flash and 1 Mbyte of system Flash memory, 1 Mbyte of Level 2 cache, up to 256 Mbytes of DRAM, streamlined system design, and in-field firmware updates.In addition to the PowerPC processor and various memories, the VME64-compliant board also includes: ALMA V64, a high-performance ASIC handling the VME64 interface; two serial ports and a parallel printer port; a 100-Mbps Ethernet interface; keyboard and mouse interfaces; a Fast/Wide SCSI interface; and a PCI mezzanine card site.