cPCI Blade Triples Horsepower Of Conventional Processor Cards

Communication applications converging on packet-based architectures are the target of a new CompactPCI packet switching backplane (cPSB) processing blade. Driven by three independent, 800-MHz PowerPC 750FX processors, the Katana3750 processing blade allows OEMs to triple the processing power in the same space as traditional CPU boards. Fully compliant with PICMG 2.16 cPSB specs, the high horsepower blade also features a local GbE switch that automatically routes IP traffic to the appropriate processor for core on-card communication. It assigns up to 512 MB of double-data-rate SDRAM to each processor, as well as up to 64 MB of linear flash. There is a real-time clock with super cap backup on all processors and a 512 KB bank of boot flash memory on the primary processor. The unit provides a 32-bit, 33-MHz local PCI bus for initialization and control and a 10/100BaseT Ethernet maintenance port with front access. Volume pricing for Katana3750 starts at $5,200. ARTESYN COMMUNICATIONS PRODUCTS, Madison, WI. (608) 831-5500.