Rugged Connectivity Engine Consumes Little Power

The 6U VCE405 connectivity engine, an I/O-oriented single-board computer (SBC), employs the IBM PowerPC 405GP and the ALMA2e PCI-64/VME bridge. The 405GP 32-bit RISC embedded controller tightly couples a 266-MHz CPU, MMU, 16 kbytes of instruction cache, 8 kbytes of data cache, and debug logic. This architecture reduces data transfer overhead and minimizes pipeline stalls. The connectivity engine suits applications requiring high computing power as well as low power consumption and dissipation. Typically consuming only 6.5 W, the board eliminates the need for massive heatsinks. The VCE405's low power cools the board by natural convection in an 85°C environment. Its real-time clock function can keep track of over 125 years worth of seconds in each of the two counters. The connectivity engine provides six serial lines, and its two PMC sites can support a 64-bit PCI bus. With 64 Mbytes of SDRAM, pricing for the VCE403 starts at $2835 in single-unit quantities.

Thales Computers
www.thalescomputers.com; (800) 848-2330