Trenton Systems Introduces New Purley Platform Skylake-SP Host Boards

Intel's next-generation Xeon Gold and Silver processors (formally known as Skylake-SP) developed under the family code name 'Purley' have now been released and Trenton Systems is pleased to be  launching a range of new products based on this architecture.

The Intel Xeon Gold and Silver processors are supported on the new SEP8253 system host board (SHB). The SEP8253 is the latest module in Trenton Systems’ HDEC Series® High Density Embedded Computing family of backplanes, host boards and rugged aluminium 19” rackmount chassis.

A drop-in replacement for the popular HEP8225, the SEP8253 brings support for dual Intel Xeon Gold and Silver processors and 8 DDR4-2666 memory DIMMs for up to 1TB of memory to the HDEC platform. 

It delivers 88 lanes of PCI Express 3.0 to an HDEC Series backplane, delivering the ultimate in flexibility when designing COTS PCIe embedded computing solutions that take advantage of FPGA and GPU co-processors, fabric interfaces like 50 or 100GbE, Infiniband or NVMe storage. 

Onboard interfaces include 4 USB 3.0, 2 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, 2, 10GbE interfaces, VGA and Serial COMM support, with 6 additional USB 3.0, 6 SATA/600 and various serial, USB 2.0, GPIO, fan speed monitoring and I²C bus signals passed to the backplane.

The SEP8253 single board computer is designed, built and integrated by Trenton Systems in the USA to exacting quality and longevity standards. All Trenton's board products with a 5-year warranty, 15 years of processor availability, and free, in-house, lifetime technical support.

Please visit the Trenton Systems website for more information: www.trentonsystems.com.

New 2U 19" Rackmount Modular Blade Computer from Trenton Systems

Always striving to be at the forefront of innovative technology, Trenton Systems has designed a brand new modular blade system providing a flexible solution for a wide range of projects.

The MBS2000 supports up to 4 single or dual-processor modular blade cards, and is ideal for those applications needing increased compute density while keeping system size, weight and power (SWaP) to a minimum.

More Information

This 2U modular computer installs into standard 19" racks, and the housing for each modular blade card is enclosed in either a 1U or 2U metal carrier. Each carrier slides into the MBS2000 to support quick system re-configurations that enhances system scalability and flexibility.

MBS2000 2U modular computer features include:

• Secure 4-in-1 modular computer design
• Scalable design allows you to place just the right amount of computing power to work
• Easily deploy 1, 2, 3, or 4 independent, single or dual-processor blade cards
• Single Processor - MBK8257 is a long-life, designed and Made In America single board computer featuring a choice of an embedded Intel® processor
• MBK8257 Intel® Xeon® E3-1275 v5/v6, Intel® Xeon® E3-1225 v5/v6, Intel® Core™ i3-7101E (additional Skylake/Kaby Lake-S options available) 
• Dual Processor - MSL8256 will be available later in 2017 and this single board computer will support dual embedded Intel® Xeon® processor options
• MSL8256 featuring next generation Intel® Xeon® processors (code name: Skylake)
• Built-in expandability enhances and preserves your hardware platform investment
• 2U modular blade option supports up to two PCI Express full-height plug-in cards
• Smart System Management (SSM) software enables remote monitoring
• Standard 5-year factory warranty
• Made In America

Sarsen Technology has the only demonstration unit here in the UK. If you’d like to see the system in action please get in touch with our team and we can arrange a visit.

A 1U version and a modular blade server tower are also available.
Trenton Modular Blade Server Products

VersaLogic Releases 'Raven' - Embedded SFF Computer based on Intel Bay Trail Processor

The team at VersaLogic has just announced the release of the Raven - a compact and rugged embedded x86 computer built around the Intel Bay Trail processor.

See Raven datasheet (pdf)

This is VersaLogic's fourth product released in the Embedded Processing Unit (EPU) format. EPU's combine processor, memory, video, and system I/O into an extremely compact full function embedded computer.

The Raven, equipped with an Intel Atom 38xx processor, is designed to withstand extreme temperature, impact, and vibration. It has been engineered and tested to meet the military and medical industries' evolving requirements to develop smaller, lighter, and lower power embedded systems while adhering to stringent regulatory standards.

Available in single-, dual-, and quad-core versions, the Raven provides great performance and I/O features, moderate power consumption (6 to 8W typical depending on model), and a compact package. The Raven provides compatibility with a broad range of standard x86 application development tools for reduced development time.

Features

• Wide Range Voltage Input
  Accepts 8 to 30 volts DC with OVP, reverse polarity protection, and RF noise filtering.
• High-performance Video
  Integrated Intel Gen 7 graphics core supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 4, and H.264, MPEG-2 encoding/decoding. Mini DisplayPort and LVDS video outputs. LVDS backlight control.
• Network
  Dual Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) with remote boot support.
• SATA
  3 Gb/s SATA port supports bootable SATA hard drive.
• Mini PCIe Card Sockets
  Dual full-sized sockets. Supports A/D, Wi-Fi modems, GPS, MIL-STD-1553, Ethernet, flash data storage with auto-detect mSATA flash storage support, and other mini PCIe modules.
• MicroSD Socket
  Supports removable microSD card solid-state drives.
• Industrial I/O
  One USB 3.0 port and four USB 2.0 ports support keyboard, mouse, and other devices. Four RS-232/422/485 serial ports, three 8254 timer/counters, and I2C support.
• Analog + Digital I/O
  On-board data acquisition support. Eight multi-range analog inputs and eight 3.3V digital I/O lines.
• SPI Interface
  Supports SPI and SPX devices, including low cost analog and digital modules.
• Intel Atom "Bay Trail" Processor
  Up to 1.9 GHz clock rate. Quad-, dual-, or single-core options. Low power consumption.
• Fanless Operation
  No moving parts required for CPU cooling in most configurations.
• Trusted Platform Module
  On-board TPM security chip can lock out unauthorised hardware and software.
• RAM
  Up to 4 GB soldered-down DDR3L RAM.
• FLASH
  Up to 8 GB of on-board eMMC flash storage.
• Industrial Temperature Operation
  -40° to +85°C operation for harsh environments
• MIL-STD-202G
  Qualified for high shock/vibration environments.
• Software Support
  Compatible with a variety of popular x86 operating systems including Windows, Windows Embedded, Linux, and VxWorks.

The Raven is a newly released product. It may be available in limited quantities. Please contact Sarsen for more details.

X-ES Now Offering NXP QorIQ ARM Processor-Based Boards with Up to Eight ARM Cortex®-A53 64-bit Cores

Once again, our friends at Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) are at the cutting edge when it comes to new technology releases.

The latest announcement from the X-ES team is the introduction of their first NXP QorIQ ARM-based boards: the XPedite6401 XMC/PrPMC mezzanine module and the forthcoming XPedite6370 3U VPX Single Board Computer (SBC).

Read full press release

Introducing the NXP QorIQ ARM Processor

The NXP QorIQ ARM processors, built on the revolutionary Layerscape architecture, provide next-generation processing performance and an array of I/O, including multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports, multiple PCI Express ports, USB, and SATA.

The LS10xx and LS20xx processor families on X-ES ARM-based single board computers and processor mezzanines are available in two, four, and eight-core configurations for scalable processing power and minimal power consumption, offering the most advantageous blend of performance.

XPedite6401
The XPedite6401 XMC/PrPMC is the first ARM-based processor module from X-ES. It features the latest NXP QorIQ 64-bit multicore ARM processor, targeting the LS1043A quad-core ARM A53 processor. The board has been designed with a focus on long life cycle support and future compatibility with the recently announced NXP LS1088A octal-core A53 and LS1046A quad-core A72 processors. The XPedite6401 will provide a scalable processing solution to meet a range of project needs and thermal requirements.



Coming Soon - XPedite6370
The XPedite6370 is a 3U VPX-REDI single board computer based on the NXP (formerly Freescale) QorIQ LS2088A processor. The LS2088A offers eight ARM® Cortex®-A72 CPUs, running at up to 2.0 GHz and integrates a 128-bit NEON™-based SIMD engine for each core. Wind River VxWorks, Linux, and Green Hills INTEGRITY Board Support Packages (BSPs) are available.

For more information please contact Sarsen Technology on 01672 511166, or send us an email - info@sarsen.net

VersaLogic Announces New PC/104-Plus Computer with Intel "Bay Trail" Processor at Embedded World 2016

VersaLogic has used their attendance at embedded world 2016 to announce the release of the newest PC/104 board in their product line.

You can see the board for yourself on the VersaLogic stand at embedded world - Hall 4 - 550.

The "BayCat" is a rugged PC/104-Plus single board computer (SBC), based on Intel's highly successful "Bay Trail" System-on-Chip (SoC). BayCat combines high performance, low power consumption, enhanced security, and backwards compatibility with systems using PC/104-Plus ISA or PCI expansion.

Features

• Intel Atom "Bay Trail" Processor
  Up to 1.9 GHz clock rate. Quad, dual or single core options. Low power consumption.
• High-performance Video
  Integrated Intel Gen 7 graphics core supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 3, and H.264, MPEG-2 encoding/decoding. Analog and dual DisplayPort video outputs; both outputs support multiple display modes including Extended Desktop and Clone.
• Trusted Platform Module
  On-board TPM security chip can lock out unauthorized hardware and software.
• RAM
  Up to 8 GB DDR3L socketed memory (one SO-DIMM).
• Network
  Dual Ethernet interfaces, autodetect 10BaseT / 100BaseTX / 1000BaseT with remote boot support.
• Industrial I/O
  One USB 3.0 port and four USB 2.0 ports support keyboard, mouse, and other devices. Dual RS-232/422/485 serial ports, three 8254 timer/counters, I²C, PWM output, and audio support .
• Digital I/O
  Twenty-four 3.3V digital I/O lines
• SATA
  3 Gb/s SATA port. Supports rotating or solid state SATA drive.
• Mini PCIe socket
  Supports Wi-Fi modems, GPS receivers, flash data storage with auto-detect mSATA flash storage support, and other mini PCIe modules.
• SPI Interface
  Supports SPI and SPX devices, including low cost analog and digital modules.
• Main Power Input
  5V Input ±5%
• PC/104 Expansion
  Legacy PCI connector, stack-down
• PC/104 Expansion
  Legacy ISA connector, stack-down
• Industrial Temperature
  -40° to +85°C operation for harsh environments
• PC/104 Form Factor
  Industry-standard PC/104-Plus expansion
• MIL-STD-202G
  Qualified for high shock/vibration operation
• OS Compatibility: 10 Windows/8/7/XP, Windows Embedded Std. 7/XPe, Linux, VxWorks, QNX, DOS

As with all VersaLogic products, the BayCat is designed to support OEM applications where high reliability and long-term availability are essential. From application design-in support, to its 10+ year extended life programs and the 5 year warranty, the BayCat provides a durable embedded computer solution with an excellent cost of ownership.

Contact Sarsen Technology for more information.

Altera Ships 20nm Arria 10 SoCs

Author - Laura

Altera has confirmed its leadership position in SoC FPGA products by shipping its second-generation SoC family. Arria® 10 SoCs are the industry’s only programmable devices that combine ARM® processors with a 20 nm FPGA fabric.

Embedded developers have a clear migration path with Altera for enhancing their next-generation systems. Arria 10 SoCs are fully software compatible with Altera’s previous 28 nm SoC product family allowing seamless software migration between generations. Arria 10 SoCs provide up to 50% higher performance and up to 4% lower power than the previous generation.

Altera SoC FPGAs enable smarter embedded systems by enabling single-chip product differentiation in both hardware and software. Combining ARM processors with FPGA fabric provides greater system value through reductions in power, costs and board space.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jeff Milrod, President and CEO of BittWare, says, "Altera’s Arria 10 is a true game changer. Native floating-point engines on these devices give system designers access to massive floating-point resources with tremendous ease-of-use and power efficiency in an FPGA. Classic signal processing applications can now interface analog signals directly to Arria 10 and process them there in floating point. For HPC and acceleration applications, FPGA algorithms no longer need to be ported to fixed point, nor do they need to be inefficiently implemented in fixed-point emulation of floating point. The Arria 10's native floating point provides more than 40 GFLOPS/W with a higher Fmax, while using only one-third of the logic resources. It is easier to use, lower power, faster, and less resource-intensive than any other alternative previously available.”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

For more information please contact Sarsen Technology - CONTACT US

Christmas comes early for the Sarsen Team...

We received a wonderful package in the post this week.

Our friends at VersaLogic have sent us a lovely hamper all the way from Oregon, full of locally sourced sweet treats and naughty nibbles to keep us going this festive period.

 

With yummy goodness including Peanut Butter Pretzel Pieces, Caramel Moose Munch (my personal favourite) and Raspberry Galettes we really have been spoilt!

Thanks to everyone at VersaLogic, and we look forward to a successful 2014.

Merry Christmas!

VersaLogic Corporation is a leading provider of rugged industrial computers to OEMs for embedded control and industrial control applications. Selecting an embedded hardware vendor can be a decision that affects a company for years to come. As an industry leader for more than 30 years, VersaLogic stands by its business practices as part of its commitment to outstanding service and strong values.

All New OpenCL Development Bundle now Available from BittWare

The OpenCL Development Bundle.

It’s new.

And it’s only available from BittWare.

BittWare joined the Altera Preferred Board Partner Program for OpenCL in May, and they have created the OpenCL Development Bundle for customers who want to take advantage of the benefits offered by using a Stratix V PCIe COTS board with Altera’s SDK for OpenCL.

Only certified boards are optimised for the most current Altera device architectures and design software. Altera works closely with selected partners to ensure that their certified boards continually meet these standards. BittWare’s S5-PCIe-HQ board has been certified by Altera to support the OpenCL SDK, and is available as part of the Development Bundle.

Included in the Development Bundle (BUN-OPENCL-001)-

• BittWare S5-PCIe-HQ Altera Stratix V GSMD5 or GSMD8 half-length PCIe board with two banks of 4GByte DDR3 SDRAM.
• S5PH-Q Board Support Package.
• BittWare BittWorks II Toolkit application development software for BittWare COTS boards.
• BittWare Breakout Board (BWBO) providing front panel access to signals and interfaces on the S5PH-Q.
• Altera Quartus® II software.
• Altera Software Development Kit (SDK) for OpenCL.
• Altera USB Byte Blaster to download configuration or program data into the Stratix V.

For more information about pricing, availability or technical support please give us a call on +44 1672 511166, or email us - info@sarsen.net.

What is OpenCL?
The OpenCL (Open Computing Language) standard is the first royalty-free, open standard framework that enables users to write programs that execute across heterogeneous systems including CPUs, GPUs, DSPs, and FPGAs. It allows the use of a C-based language for developing code across these different platforms.

Sarsen Wishes Debbie Simpson Best of Luck at the Start of the Marathon des Sables

Following our blog post from last summer, the time has finally arrived for Debbie Simpson to make her way to the start line of the Marathon des Sables.

Debbie leaves for Morocco tomorrow, reaching the Sahara by Friday. She will have some time to prepare in camp on Saturday, completing her admin and medical checks, and then the race begins Sunday 7th April, finishing Saturday 12th... 156 miles in total!

The MdS began in 1986, after Frenchman Patrick Bauer, at the age of 28, set off alone across an uninhabited section of the Sahara carrying a pack weighing 35kg containing all his food and water. He travelled on foot for 12 days and covered 350km. From this experience sprang his idea to set up the challenge which became known as the Marathon des Sables.

“After a year of training in which I've run, jogged, trotted, shuffled, stumbled and trudged 1500-2000 miles I am relieved to be contemplating the start line injury-free ... not so delighted with my starting pack of around 10kg - trying to run with the equivalent of 10 bags of sugar is not fun but I'll look forward to my pack getting lighter as the miles tick by ...”.

Debbie's kit weighs around 10kg at the start of the race

Debbie is raising money for Facing Africa, a charity that funds life-saving surgery for children affected by Noma. Noma is a gangrenous infection of the face, which leads to tissue destruction and ulceration. The progression of the disease can be halted with the use of antibiotics and improved nutrition; however, its physical effects are permanent and require reconstructive plastic surgery to repair. This is why charities like Facing Africa are so important.

“A huge thank you to everyone for your amazingly generous sponsorship - my total is now over £11,000, including the £5000 from Sarsen Technology. This is enough to fund surgery for more than 15 children afflicted with Noma. Heartfelt thanks to everyone for the wonderful support over the past year, so many people in numerous ways have encouraged, advised, teased, questioned, fed and hugged me .. How could I possibly not succeed? ”

We will catch up with Debbie when she returns to the UK to find out how she got on in the equivalent of six regular marathons!

Debbie, the Sarsen Team wish you the best of luck!!

It's Medical March!

So we've had Green January and Financial February.... Now it's Medical March! We'll be bringing you all the coolest tech available from Sarsen, as well as application stories and innovations from this market sector.

Pretty exciting stuff I know!

Many of our manufacturers have products that are specifically designed with medical applications in mind. There are many factors that designers need to take into consideration when designing an embedded system for medical use, and one of the most important is long term availability. Once a product is designed in, and has undergone rigorous testing and approval processes, it could be in production or need support for upwards of 10 years.

 

VersaLogic Corp design a range of embedded computer products with guaranteed long term availability, as well as offering product life-cycle management to help eliminate product redesigns.

The Falcon EPU module from VersaLogic is an extremely small and rugged embedded computer, which been engineered and tested to meet the Medical industrys evolving requirements to develop smaller, lighter, and lower power embedded systems while adhering to stringent regulatory standards.

It's one of the smallest boards on the market, around the size of a credit card, and it's less than 1" thick so it is a great option for space constrained high reliability applications in the medical sector.

VL-EPU-2610 'Falcon' from VersaLogic

For more information get in touch with the sales team here at Sarsen. You can call the office on +44 1672 511166, or drop us an email - info@sarsen.net.

Something lovely in the post this week!

As a reflection of the Sarsen Teams’ hard work in promoting their 5 newest boards VersaLogic have gifted us some delicious Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir. Their Pinot noir bottlings are frequently awarded "Outstanding" scores from the Wine Spectator and Wine Advocate critics, so I’m sure it will pass the taste test with our educated palates!

Thanks to VersaLogic for our lovely wine!

A Little Bit of History
Established in 1987, Domaine Drouhin Oregon is owned by famed Burgundy producer, Maison Joseph Drouhin. Hand-crafted by fourth generation winemaker, Veronique Drouhin-Boss, the distinctive Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays of Domaine Drouhin are prized for their elegance, balance and finesse, as well as their ability to age. Ninety acres of the 225-acre estate are now planted, with over 3100 vines per acre.

VersaLogic manufacture a range of rugged industrial computers, designed for embedded applications across a variety of markets.
The latest boards cover the complete form factor range available from VersaLogic.
Tiger – VL-EPM-24 – PC/104 with Intel Atom Z5xx processor
Iguana – VL-EPIC-25 – EPIC with Intel Atom D525 or D425 processor
Copperhead – VL-EBX-41 – EBX with Intel Core i7 processor (quad or dual core)
Newt – VL-EPIC-17 – EPIC with Vortex86DX processor
Falcon – VL-EPU-2610 – EPU, based on COM Express Mini, with Atom E6*0T processor

For more information please give us a call on +44 1672 511166 or drop us an email.

Sarsen Spotlight Series ... This week, All You Ever Wanted To Know About 'Our Tim!'

Tim Norris
Tim's Twitter Feed
Tim's LinkedIn Profile
NAME – Tim Norris
ROLE – Sales Account Manager
TIME SERVED – 7 years

Tim is one of our longest serving inmates, and has been a part of the Sarsen sales team for nearly 7 years. Tim manages some of our biggest accounts, across a variety of market sectors. He has been focussing on our HFT customers recently, winning some significant business with the BittWare Altera Stratix V boards.

Because he’s been here so long, Tim is a walking repository of useful information. (Mostly.) He is able to help with queries about any of our 10 manufacturers, and is pretty handy with a screwdriver when the situation arises and we have to get intimate with the hardware!

Tim’s Hobbies
Tim has recently learnt to ride a bike….. down hills, through mud, over ramps. He’s a keen mountain biker, and spends his weekends on 2 wheels around Wiltshire and Wales. Tim is also captain of his local pool team. When he has a spare 5 minutes, he takes pictures with one of his many cameras.

Tim’s Favourite things -

Favourite music – (Very) Loud Guitar Rock
Favourite Colour – Black
Favourite Food – Mexican
Favourite Movie – True Romance
Favourite book – Jaws (Peter Benchley)
Favourite flavour Crisps – Smoky Bacon

Final Insight
What did you want to be when you were little? - A ZooKeeper

If someone were to make a movie about your life, who would you hope to play you? – Hugh Jackman.
(We actually did a scientific experiment on an unnamed app, and Hugh Jackman was the first name out. Tim – “He wouldn’t have to work out much more to be as muscly as me”).

Every Tuesday we shine the spotlight on an area of our lives at Sarsen Technology; whether it's a type of technology, one of our manufacturers, or as we have today, giving you a peek into the (sometimes strange) world of our staff!

If you'd like to get to know us even better, give us a call on +44 1672 511166, or drop us an email. We look forward to hearing from you!

Green Month Feature - Wind Turbine Technology from United Electronic Industries

Did you know that the UK is the windiest country in Europe?
*Insert your own joke here*

Wind has been the fastest growing renewable energy source in the last decade. China plans a 60% increase in the next three years, and the US a massive six-fold jump by 2030! The EU wants to produce 20% of its energy through renewables by 2020, with the majority coming from wind. One wind turbine can generate up to 6.5 million units of electricity each year: enough to run a computer for 2,250 years. Thats quite a long time.

It's really very simple -

• Wind turbines convert kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy.
• The blades catch the wind and turn the rotor, which is connected to the nacelle which houses all the workings for the turbine.
• The rotor turns a shaft which is connected to the gear box.
• The gear box is connected to a generator which converts the mechanical energy into electricity.
• The electricity is then sent to the National Grid.

With all this going on, it's really important to ensure these turbines operate safely, so strict monitoring is necessary. This usually involves a variety of sensors, including accelerometers, encoders, temperature sensors, oil/liquid level sensors, particle counter, voltage, current and humidity sensors.

UEI Cubes, and in particular, the UEIPAC, are ideal solutions for monitoring and controlling wind power generators. They are powerful enough to provide control for everything from blade angle to output voltage, and log everything from wind speed to power output. The UEIPAC’s easy access to Ethernet means it can easily run as a slave to a primary host PC when desired, but can take over and run stand-alone if anything happens to the primary communications link. The Cube’s rugged environmental specification eliminates the need for any heating or cooling in the control rack.

The standard UEIPAC cubes are tested from -40° to +85° C, at 50 g shock, 5 g vibration and altitudes up to 70,000 feet. All the I/O is also fully isolated from the controller, so the UEIPAC is almost totally immune to the glitches and spikes commonly seen in the grounds of an industrial environment.

We've also been speaking to customers who use UEI’s Cubes and RACKtangles as remote communications links in wind farms, where the system needs to consolidate RS-485 data from a series of turbines and send the data to the supervisory computer.

If you are working on an application that might benefit from a little more knowledge please get in touch with the Sarsen team on +44 1672 511166, or drop us an email.

Have a great weekend!

Embedded Enviro-Tech - the way forward?

In recent years, scientists have been carefully examining the ways that people affect the environment.

Huge advances have been made in the technology we use for environmental monitoring, in particular the electronic devices used to monitor, control and conserve the natural environment and resources, and to curb the negative impacts of human involvement.

When it comes to harnessing renewable energy, increased operating efficiency is achieved when embedded computing platforms are tasked with monitoring and controlling assets such as wind turbines, solar panels and transmission grids.

Trenton Systems Inc supports Smart Grid applications with its range of embedded motherboards, SBCs and backplanes.

Mark Lovett of Trenton Systems has written a White Paper titled 'Embedded Computing Enables Smart Grid Technology'.
It's full of great info about how this technology area is helping shape the future of power generation and management.

Check it out here!

Have a great weekend, check back on Tuesday for our new Spotlight section. First up, Robbie Burns!!

Happy New Year from Sarsen Technology!

Happy New Year!

If you’ve been away over Christmas, welcome back. If not, did you miss us?

The Sarsen Team have enjoyed a few days off over the holiday period, but we’re back in the office now, and looking forward to all the exciting things we have coming up this quarter. We have visitors coming from across the pond, from United Electronic Industries and BittWare, and lots of new technology to tell you all about.

Look out for our new blog feature; ‘Under the Spotlight’, every Tuesday, when we shine a light on a Sarsen sector, be it one of our manufacturers, a specific technology, or even a member of staff!

Also new to the blog this quarter is our monthly market focus. January is ‘Green’ month, where we’ll be bringing you information on renewable energy, utilities management and environmental technology available from Sarsen.

As always, if there is anything you would like more information about please get in touch with one of the team on +44 1672 511166 or email us.

Happy New Year and best wishes for an exciting and prosperous 2013.

T'was the night before Christmas..... by Sarsen Technology!

T'was the night before Christmas, we were still at the shop.
The town was deserted; you could hear a pin drop.
Our families were at home, the egg-nog was flowing,
And outside the window it had just started snowing.

T'here was still work to do, and orders to place
We were working away at a furious pace!
Sarsen Technology was so busy in December,
When last this much to do we couldn’t remember!

T'he team was still smiling (it was more of a scowl),
And our moods were becoming increasingly foul.
When outside the office a roar did sound,
An engine, getting closer. Our heads turned around….

T'he moon was shining on the new fallen snow,
And it lit up the ground and the houses below.
Then what to our tired eyes should appear?
The boss parking his car, full of good cheer!

More jolly than Santa, he strode up the stairs,
And entered the office to a faceful of stares.
Under our breaths we asked “Why's he so cheerful?”
And why was he here? We were suddenly fearful...

Had we not done enough of the workload this eve?
We’d nearly completed what we set out to achieve.
We had no idea about what was his game,
Then to our surprise he called us by name!

Now Laura! Now Colleen! Now Angela and Tim!
And of course not forgetting Robbie and Lynn!
You’ve worked really hard, and you deserve a big cheer,
Take some time off, come back after New Year!

As we packed up our stuff, and put on our coats,
Our hats and our gloves, and wrapped scarves round our throats,
We heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Sarsen Technology!
We will be back in the office on Wednesday 2nd January.

The Sarsen Technology Christmas Party - In Photos

Christmas comes but once a year, and the Sarsen Technology Christmas party was the perfect way to get us all in the festive spirit.

The gang at Komedia, Bath
L-R - Angela, Nigel, Tim, Laura, Lynn and Colleen

There was someone important missing from the party - Robbie couldn't make it unfortunately, but we tried our best to enjoy the evening without his sparkling company....

Angela and Nigel

Tim and Colleen

Laura and Tim

Clive and Lynn

We all had a good time on Friday, thanks very much to Colleen for organising a great night out!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

Yes, its Christmas party time again.

Tonight the Sarsen Team are off to Komedia in Bath to eat, drink and get merry. I mean, be merry.

Its a good time to review the highs and lows of 2012; it's been an interesting year, with successes in new markets, a host of new boards from all our manufacturers, and loads of new brand new technology to get our little heads around.

But there's no rest for the wicked; there will be even more happening in the New Year!

Thanks very much to our manufacturers for their continued support, and we look forward to another exciting year in 2013.

Have a great weekend!

The Twelve Days of Christmas. Sarsen Style.

Today is the twelfth of the twelfth of the twelfth. So we're carrying on the theme and bringing you the Twelve Days of Christmas, in our own special way.

(Feel free to join in....)

On the first day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

A BittWare Anemone

On the second day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the third day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the fourth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the fifth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the sixth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

Well done guys, half way through....

On the seventh day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the eighth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Eight Amazon Streamstors,

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the ninth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Nine Tech Source Condors

Eight Amazon Streamstors,

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the tenth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Ten General Standards boards,

Nine Tech Source Condors

Eight Amazon Streamstors,

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

Nearly there, keep going!

On the eleventh day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Eleven Iguanas,

Ten General Standards boards,

Nine Tech Source Condors

Eight Amazon Streamstors,

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the twelfth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Twelve Trenton Backplanes,

Eleven Iguanas,

Ten General Standards boards,

Nine Tech Source Condors

Eight Amazon Streamstors,

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone!

Hurrah! Next up, We Wish You a Merry Christmas.......

BittWare's Anemone - A New Approach to Floating Point DSP

Ah-ne-MO-nee
It’s a word that is quite often mis-pronounced.
It’s not Ane-No-Me. Or worse – An-En-ema. Definitely not that!

BittWare’s first generation Anemone chip, the Anemone104 (AN104) is a completely scalable multicore processor with 16 eCores that provide a total sustained performance of 19.2 GFLOPS while consuming only 1 Watt of core power.

Featuring the Epiphany architecture from Adapteva, the BittWare Anemone combines the best assets of both FPGA and floating point DSP technology, thereby offering a completely new approach to floating point digital signal processing. The FPGA handles all the memory, I/O interfacing, protocol processing, and special functions, in addition to any computational tasks it may perform. This leaves the Anemone free to perform the complex processing tasks that DSPs are ideal for.

The AN104 features an internal high-throughput mesh network, with separate data paths for on-chip and off-chip communications. Total on-chip, inter-core bandwidth is 76.8 GBytes/sec full duplex, with an additional 8 GBytes/sec of off-chip bandwidth.

The BittWare Anemone Evaluation Kit provides a cost-effective way to begin evaluating the Anemone co-processor for FPGAs, featuring an Anemone104 and Altera Stratix III FPGA based evaluation board - ready to use out of the box, with the Ubuntu Linux OS and Anemone development tools installed on an included laptop.

This is pretty new technology – if you would like more information give the Sarsen sales team a call on +44 1672 511166 or send us an email.