Microprocessor Upgrades Single-Board Computer
Those who build and integrate embedded computers have traditionally benefited from silicon developed for notebook computers and other mobile applications. The latest Intel mobile microprocessor, integrated into Inova Computer's new ICP-PM single-board computer, enables a new class of embedded computing platforms. The Pentium M is designed to provide computing that is on a par in performance with the first Cray supercomputers and compatibility with applications requiring minimal or even passive cooling.
The Pentium M microprocessor is suitable for performance-hungry embedded applications. All the processor performance in the world, however, is useless unless it is effectively put to work, and the ICP-PM single-board computer keeps the Pentium M busy servicing many devices communicating over a great diversity of interfaces.
A hot-swappable 3U CompactPCI board, the ICP-PM equips its Pentium M microprocessor with an expansive complement of cache and main memory, plus an extensive array of I/O, most of it routed to both the front and rear panels for interconnect flexibility. Optimized for the shock, vibration, and temperature extremes of harsh industrial environments, the single-board computer can perform as either a system master or system slave, with its proper function automatically determined by its physical location in a CompactPCI backplane.
The ICP-PM also features an intelligent I/O configuration utility and a backup BIOS. The former enables error-free configuration, automatically recognizing rear I/O and switching I/O signals accordingly. The latter, serving as a safety feature, is a second Flash BIOS, which can be selected if a BIOS update in the field causes problems.
The single-slot configuration of the SBC provides two USB interfaces, for example: USB 1.1 off the rear panel and USB 2.0 off the front panel, the latter useful for booting from an external mass-storage device such as a CD or DVD, hard or floppy disk drive. A VGA port is also provided on the front-panel. Two independent Ethernet interfaces are, further, built-into the 3U CompactPCI SBC, which is remotely bootable over Ethernet. One combination Fast/Gigabit Ethernet port resides on the front panel, and one Fast Ethernet port is available at the front or rear panel. By means of an optional dual-slot front panel, the ICM-PM's complement of front-routed I/O can be expanded to include two more USB 2.0 ports, a PS-2 mouse/keyboard interface, and two configurable COM ports. The 8-hp configuration also includes a carrier that supports an IDE Flash-memory drive or a standard 2.5-in. hard disk drive, as well as a standard IDE connector.
The unit features a Phoenix BIOS and an SiS chipset with support for up to 1.5 GBytes of 333 MHz DDR-RAM, yielding a memory bandwidth of more than 2.16 GByte/sec. It supports up to 2 Mbytes of L2 cache. A CompactFlash socket with a standard IDE interface is also included on-board.
For systems requiring multimedia capabilities, an optional piggyback board is available, providing AGP 4x video and graphics, along with MPEG-2 hardware decoding and multiple display support. Routing of analog VGA signals from the piggyback is provided off the front or rear panel, while DVI-D or GigaStar signals can be provided off the front. Display screen resolutions up to 2048 x 1536 pixels can be accommodated with full DirectX support.
For transfer-intensive applications, such as those in cluster computing or telecommunications, the ICP-PM can be configured for 64-bit CompactPCI, boosting the bus's maximum theoretical transfer rate from 135 MByte/sec to 270 MBytes/sec. The single-board computer is X86 compatible and can host operating systems such as Linux, QNX, VxWorks and the Windows suite. Extended temperature range versions are also available, as are models based on the higher-power Pentium 4M.
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