Giving VMEBUS a new lease of life with the 4th Generation Intel Core i7 Haswell processor

VMEBUS is a 30 year old technology that has seen a rise in popularity recently, partly thanks to customers looking to refresh legacy systems rather than invest money in newer technology.

Far from seeing VME as on old technology, Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) offers Intel VME, PowerPC VME, and QorIQ VME Single Board Computers (SBCs) and carrier cards for embedded computing applications.

With both air-cooled and conduction-cooled boards, these products can be applied to a wide variety of embedded applications across military, communications, and commercial/industrial markets. X-ES have gone as far as to incorporate the new 4th generation Intel® Core™ i7 Haswell processor onto a 6U VME SBC.

The XCalibur4530 provides up to 32 GB DDR3L-1600 ECC SDRAM in two separate channels, two PrPMC/PrXMC slots, and up to 64 GB of NAND flash. The XCalibur4530 also hosts numerous I/O ports, including Gigabit Ethernet, UAB, SATA, graphics, mezzanine I/O, and RS-232/422/485 through the backplane connectors.

If you’re looking to refresh a legacy design, or if VME is simply your favourite and you can’t bear to look at another technology, give us a call – we can offer a range of form factors and technologies, including the new 4th Gen Core i7 processor.

Contact us on +44 1672 511166 or email us – info@sarsen.net

SUMIT - I/O Expansion Module Development Made Easier....

Stackable Unified Module Interconnect Technology (SUMIT ™) is a stackable, form-factor independent expansion format that includes both high and low speed bus signals. The SUMIT spec is targeted for products using state-of-the-art serial buses and legacy chipset expansion buses all in the same form factor.

The specification is an I/O-centric approach, which defines the connector and stacking method, but it doesn’t address the specific location requirements for the connectors on any specific form factor boards. Only the location (placement) of one connector relative to the other is specified, to ensure proper routing of signals that are passed from one connector to another as they continue up the stack.

A SUMIT stack is designed to be processor independent, as it focuses on bus and interconnect technology rather than any single processor or DSP architecture. Two connectors are used on each module, SUMIT A and SUMIT B. These connectors carry multiple high-speed serial PCIe and USB 2.0 buses and include Low Pin Count (LPC), Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), and SMBus/I2C for legacy requirements. While the optional SUMIT B connector carries mostly PCIe interfaces, the SUMIT A connector carries a single x1 PCIe and four USB 2.0 buses, as well as the legacy interfaces.

With no hardware configuration needed to route multiple interfaces, SUMIT gives designers a solution for creating embedded expansion modules that require high-speed interfaces as well as legacy support.

VersaLogic's EBX, EPIC and PC/104 SUMIT platforms are combined with an optional ISA connector to support legacy PC/104 expansion modules. The signals available on VersaLogic's CPU boards include PCI Express lanes, low speed signals such as LPC and SPI, and legacy USB and ISA signals. VersaLogic currently offer 3 SBCs featuring optional SUMIT expansion –

• Komodo - A dual core SBC on a SUMIT-EPIC™ platform. The Komodo features a very high performance Intel® Core™2 Duo processor, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and high performance integrated video.


• Ocelot - An Intel Atom™ based embedded computer in a SUMIT-104 format. The Ocelot uses an industrial temperature Atom version to provide high performance (1.6 GHz) at very low power (7 Watts). The Ocelot, at only 90 mm x 96 mm, is compatible with most SUMIT and PC/104 expansion boards, and is available in both standard (0º to +60ºC) and extended (-40º to +85ºC) temperature versions.


• 'Brand New' Copperhead - The Copperhead is a high-performance embedded computer powered by a 3rd Generation Intel Core i7 processor. Based on the industry-standard EBX format, the Copperhead is available in either quad- or dual-core models (17 to 45W power dissipation). It features several heat management configurations and offers options for I/O interfaces and interface connectors.

VersaLogic Komodo

For more information please give us a call on +44 1672 511166 or drop me an email and we'll answer any questions you might have.

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