Tundra Semiconductor's Tsi148 Interconnect Bridge for New VME Solutions Selected by GE Fanuc Embedded Systems

The V7865 is compliant with the ANSI/VITA 1.5-2003 specification, also known as VME320, a VME standard that implements a bus protocol called 2eSST (2 Edge Synchronous Source Transfer). Introduced in 1997, 2eSST provides a significant performance improvement and is capable of achieving sustained data transfer rates of up to 320 Mbytes per second in a full chassis of up to 21 cards. Equivalent to a 2.5Gbytes per second increase or representing more than an 8 times improvement over conventional VME32, 2eSST enables the VMEbus to support new high-performance applications.

Tundra's Tsi148, the successor to Tundra's industry-leading Universe™ II, provides this increase in performance on legacy backplanes thereby transparently enabling the high-performance distributed processing that new applications demand. This increased bandwidth in the VME backplane enables distributed computing - the connection of multiple processing cards through the backplane. The Tsi148 supports legacy cards because it is backwards compatible; capable of operating in VME64, 2eVME (VME160) and 2eSST (VME320) modes and so it is plug and play compatible with any other VME card in the chassis. This provides an easy upgrade path for data intensive applications such as medical imaging, radar systems, and graphics processing and ensures the preservation of legacy functionality, which is critical to these market specific applications.

As VME systems begin to deploy serial interconnect technologies such as RapidIO® for the data plane, significantly larger amounts of data flows through these serial connections. This increase in data rates result in a corresponding increase in control traffic. With its 2eSST capability, the Tsi148 provides significantly better performance for these applications that demand it. Tsi148 supports legacy cards but will truly excel as VME based systems continue to increase in performance and capability.

The V7865 is GE Fanuc Embedded Systems' flagship Core 2 Duo VMEbus single board computer. Operating at processor speeds up to 2.16 GHz, it is optionally available in ruggedized form, making it suitable for a wide variety of deployments from commercial applications in benign environments to military and aerospace applications in harsh environments. It meets the ANSI/VITA 1.5-2003 standard, based on the Tundra Tsi148, and supports a bandwidth of up to 320 Mbytes/second along the full length of a 21-slot backplane.

We see increasing customer demand for greater overall system performance while at the same time preserving VMEbus legacy, said David K. Pepper, Senior Architect & Technologist, GE Fanuc Embedded Systems. With Tundra's Tsi148 2eSST-compliant interconnect, we can provide customers with a backward compatible solution which preserves VME64 functionality and protects existing investment, while offering an overall computing system upgrade in capability, capacity and performance to their current VME systems.

GE Fanuc Embedded System's selection of the Tsi148 is confirmation that an industry need is being met with the deployment of the Tsi148. As an existing Tundra VME customer, GE Fanuc recognizes our extensive commitment to VME, providing both industry-leading products and world-class customer support, said Benny Chang , Chief Technology Officer, Tundra Semiconductor. The rapid rate of adoption of 2eSST by the VME community implementing this newer protocol into their products, further confirms that Tundra's next generation VME bridge is the interconnect of choice for the critical systems market.