Industrial grade servers
Across numerous industries and vastly different market sectors, one subject both elates and disturbs users of embedded computing technologies: technological advancement. Advancements in embedded computing technology can provide a path to greater efficiency; however, due to obsolescent issues of previous versions, it can also negatively affect the numerous industrial applications employing the older technology. Frequent modifications to hardware configurations can generate additional expenses and work stoppage, which adversely affect productivity and profitability.
To demonstrate our understanding of this real concern of customers, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms has announced several products within its industrial product line that addresses the requirement for long production lifecycles and minimizes the total cost of ownership. The new line of industrial grade servers, the bCOM2-L1000 Type 2 COM Express module, and the sATX-Q35-ER ATX single board computer benefit from GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms’ industry-leading Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) program. The optional program guarantees hardware continuity for five years – thus eliminating the time and cost incurred by customers in regularly re-certifying hardware caused by component and subsystem obsolescence. PLM also provides customers with influence over revision control and configuration management.
Industrial grade servers combine the functionality and flexibility offered in commercial-grade servers with a robust chassis capable of withstanding the shock and vibration found in many industrial environments. Both the IS-100 and IS-200 offer an optional set of extended operating temperature, extended shock and vibration specifications, plus optional remote maintenance and BIT functions.
IS-100
 The IS-100, 1U industrial server, is powered by the latest Intel® 64-bit Xeon® single-, dual- or quad-core processor coupled with the new San Clemente server-class chipset. With a 1333/1066 MHz Front Side Bus and up to 8 GB DDR2 ECC SDRAM, the Intel® 5100P/ICH9 San Clemente chipset offers throughput unavailable in previous generation compute cores. Internal peripheral resource controllers include a 3 Gb/second SAS controller with software RAID 0/1 support, a 3 Gb/second S-ATA controller with hardware RAID 0/1 support, plus an XGI Z9 graphics controller with 32 MB video RAM. Hardware RAID 0/1 is available for SAS hard disk drives with an optional SAS controller. The most demanding of flexibility requirements are accommodated by the IS-100 with four 3.5" Hot-swap SAS/SATA drive bays; full-height, one half-length PCI-X expansion slot; and a slim drive bay supporting either an optional DVD-ROM drive or an optional floppy drive.
IS-200
 The IS-200 2U industrial server features either one or two Intel® 64-bit Xeon® single-, dual- or quad-core 1333/1066 MHz FSB processors coupled with the San Clemente chipset. The server hosts up to 32 GB DDR2 SDRAM, a 3 Gb/second SAS controller with software RAID 0/1 support, a 3 Gb/second S-ATA controller with hardware RAID 0/1 support, plus an ATi ES1000 graphics controller with 32 MB video RAM. Hardware RAID 0/1 is available for SAS hard disk drives with an optional SAS controller. The IS-200 demonstrates application flexibility through provisioning of eight 3.5" hot-swap SAS/SATA drive bays; four full-height, half-length PCI-X expansion slots; three half-height, half-length PCI-X expansion slots; and a slim drive bay supporting either an optional DVD-ROM drive or an optional floppy drive.
Both servers sport local peripheral ports, including Gigabit Ethernet keyboard, mouse, USB, COM, and video. Keyboard, mouse, USB, COM, Gigabit Ethernet, and VGA connectors are located on the rear panel. Front panel power switch, reset button, five LED indicators, and two USB receptacles provide easy operator monitoring and control interfaces. The IS-100 and IS-200 support the Windows® XP/2000/2003 Server and Linux software environments.
Cost-saving programs are effective only if the product they serve is affordable and applicable. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms recently announced highly affordable, embedded computing solutions developed to offer customers the flexibility to design in the optimum solution for a wide range of applications.
sATX-Q35-ER
The sATX-Q35-ER is GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms’ first ATX platform, and is the first in what is planned to be a broad range of ATX and ITX products designed to enable optimum solutions for a wide range of applications. It is an ATX single board computer with PCI Express and PCI expansion slots, and features a choice of Intel® Core™ 2 Quad or Core 2 Duo processors; up to 8 Gigabytes of DDR2 on-demand memory; two Gigabit Ethernet ports; twelve USB ports; two COM ports; a choice of SATA or IDE storage devices; and a wide range of multimedia implementations via the PCI Express x16 expansion slot. The sATX-Q35-ER also offers support for various RAID levels.
bCOM2-L1000
 The bCOM2-L1000 is GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms’ first COM Express platform, and is designed for applications including industrial, simulation/training, test and measurement, gaming and transportation. It offers a choice of Intel® Core™2 Duo, Core™ Duo or Celeron® processors with up to 2 Gigabytes of memory, and is supported by the CCAR-L1000 carrier board for customer evaluation of the bCOM2-L1000.
The choice of three processors allows users to select an appropriate option depending on the power/heat dissipation and performance characteristics of the intended application. The Intel® Celeron® M option – which sees the processor soldered to the board for even greater reliability – is specifically designed for temperature-critical environments. Two serial ATA ports and an IDE port provide the bCOM2-L1000 with the ability to handle extensive, high performance hard disk storage.
Optimum graphics performance for the bCOM2- L1000 is provided via integrated analog CRT and LVDS interfaces, DVMT 3.0, Intel® Dual-Frequency Graphics Technology (which reduces integrated graphics chipset power) and dual independent display pipes.
The ATX form factor CCAR-L1000 complements the bCOM2-L1000 with a single x16 PCI Express slot, two x1 slots and four PCI 2.3 slots. Rear panel interfaces include mouse/keyboard, serial, Ethernet, USB, VGA and audio, while onboard support additionally includes a parallel interface, CD-in, S/PDIF in/out and IrDA.
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GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms Announces NETernity™ RM981RC Gigabit Ethernet Switch
Cost-effective, high performance unmanaged switch
- Full L-2 wire-speed Gigabit Ethernet switching
- Up to 24 ports
- Support for copper, fiber or both
- 10/100/1000Base T, 1000BaseX or 1000Base SX
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA April 15, 2008 With the company’s announcement today of the NETernity™ RM981RC unmanaged Layer-2 Gigabit Ethernet switch, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms continued to broaden its already-extensive range of communications solutions. The 6U VMEbus RM981RC is available in no fewer than nine configurations, with build options specifying number (up to 24) and type (10/100/1000Base T, 1000BaseX or 1000Base SX) of ports, media (fiber, copper or both), front panel and conformal coating. It is designed to be a cost-effective switch for a broad range of networking applications where high performance and high reliability are important to the application.
“NETernity Gigabit Ethernet switches bring cost-effective, high-speed network connectivity to a wide range of challenging applications,” said Rubin Dhillon, Communications Product Manager for GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. “We continue to develop embedded switches that deliver the performance, port density, features and form factors that our commercial, industrial and defense customers request.”
The RM981RC delivers full L-2 wire-speed Gigabit Ethernet switching, and is available as either a single slot (12-port) or dual slot (24-port) solution. Features include auto address learning, auto address aging and support for Jumbo Frames. Copper and fiber ports may be mixed in groups of four. It is RoHS-compliant.
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GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms Announces New ExpressCard® Products For Avionics Testing
Company first to bring ExpressCard technology to MIL-STD-1553, ARINC 429 and AFDX/ARINC 664 for portable testing of critical avionics systems: will demonstrate at AMC 2008
- ExpressCard interface leverages higher performance of new generation laptops
- Commercial and military applications
- Range of available configurations
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA April 14, 2008 Responding to the requirement for powerful, portable solutions for avionics testing applications, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms today became the first company to announce a range of three ExpressCard® interfaces for testing critical aircraft systems. The R15-EC is a dual port MIL-STD-1553 Express Card Interface; the RAF-EC is a dual port ARINC 664 ExpressCard Interface; and the RAR-EC is a multichannel ARINC 429 ExpressCard interface. The three new cards, which are all RoHS compliant, will be demonstrated on GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms’ booth (#13) at AMC 2008 (April 14 – 17, Tulsa, Oklahoma).
The ExpressCard interface has largely replaced the older PCMCIA interface for laptop computing, and gives users access to much higher performance in a laptop environment than was previously possible, leveraging the higher bus speeds that are especially important in the commercial avionics market which utilizes AFDX/ARINC 664. They enable bus traffic capture through the high performance of ExpressCard technology.
“The testing of critical avionics systems is becoming increasingly demanding, especially in the area of AFDX in commercial avionics,” said Ben Daniel, Avionics Product Manager at GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. “By bringing the latest high performance laptop ExpressCard technology to market in these three new products, we are providing the kind of high throughput, high portability, high reliability solutions our customers are asking us for.”
The three ExpressCards are available in a range of configurations, including card only, card and appropriate analyzer, and a full turnkey portable analyzer system that includes the interface card, protocol analyzer and semi-rugged laptop.
The R15-EC MIL-STD-1553 ExpressCard Interface provides one or two 1553 channels integrated with powerful API software that provides instant access to all 1553 databus functionality. Standard features include IRIG-B Receiver (AM or DC/TTL), Generator (DC/TTL), real-time bus playback (with ability to edit out RTs), aperiodic message insertion, error injection/detection, conditional BC branching, 45-bit timetags and “Oneshot” BC operation. The Bus Monitor mode provides 100% bus monitoring of a fully loaded 1553 bus.
The RAF-EC ARINC 664 ExpressCard Interface is a high performance interface for monitoring, generating and analyzing full-bandwidth AFDX-ARINC 664 protocol traffic. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms’ exclusive pipeline architecture maximizes packet throughput using parallel controllers and efficient DMA transfers, thereby avoiding the bottlenecks of CPU-based interface solutions. Configurable as either one dual-redundant AFDX/ARINC 664 interface or two independent ports, users have complete access to all frame and header data. Each incoming packet is tagged with a 20 nsec resolution, 64-bit time-tag. Real time traffic generation is highly accurate. An IRIG-B receiver/generator is included for synchronization to external IRIG-B time sources and for synchronizing multiple CNIC boards. In addition, I/O triggers, error detection/injection, BIT, and link/protocol statistics are provided.
The GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms RAR-EC is an intelligent, high-density, ExpressCard interface that provides up to seven receive and four transmit fully independent ARINC 429 channels, along with up to four bi-directional avionics level I/O discretes. Features include programmable data rates and parity, error detection, multiple buffering modes, timetagging and automatic transmit slew rate adjustment. Configuration options include selection of channel count, a mix of ARINC 429 and ARINC 573/717, and a Dataloader configuration.
All three products benefit from GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms’ comprehensive software support to significantly reduce development and integration time.
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GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms Selected By Telephonics Corporation For RDR-1700B Multi-Mode Radar Systems
Small size, low weight, ruggedization are integral to system already chosen by Northrop Grumman for Fire Scout
number of its products have been selected by the Radar Systems Division of Telephonics Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Griffon Corporation (NYSE: GFF), for inclusion in Telephonics’ RDR-1700B Multi-Mode Radar Systems.
Each of Telephonics RDR-1700B Multi-Mode Radar Systems - which feature maritime surveillance SAR- and ISAR imaging and weather avoidance and which weigh less than 65 pounds - includes the following GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms products:
- 3 x PowerPact IMP1A high performance 3U CompactPCI processor
- 4 x IMP1SF 3U CompactPCI processor with StarFabric support
- 1 x IMPCC1 3U CompactPCI single PMC carrier card for use with IMP1A
- 1 x PMC-1553E PMC with 1553 support
- 4 x PMC-StarLite switched fabric interconnect PMC
Key to this application was the development of a small size, low weight, and rugged subsystem – design criteria for which the 3U CompactPCI form factor is ideally suited. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms has a broad range of market-leading 3U solutions not only in the CompactPCI form factor, but also for VMEbus and VXS environments.
The requirement for substantial processing power was met by configuring multiple processors, and leveraging the ability of StarFabric to allow optimum inter-processor communication. GE Fanuc is a leader in the development of advanced computing solutions that take full advantage of the benefits of serial switched interconnects – notably in the company’s range of VPX systems.
Telephonics has recently announced that the RDR-1700B has been selected by Northrop Grumman’s (NYSE: NOC) MQ-8B Fire Scout program. The solution, which includes a fully-integrated maritime surveillance radar, demonstrates the maritime surveillance capabilities of the Fire Scout Vertical Takeoff and Landing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (VTUAV). Also recently announced by Telephonics were orders for two RDR-1700B Multi-Mode Radar Systems for the Japanese Coast Guard: the order is in addition to five systems already procured by Japan.
“We are delighted to have been selected by Telephonics Corporation to be part of the already-successful RDR-1700B, which shows great potential for the future,” said Peter Cavill, General Manager, Military and Aerospace Products at GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. “Once again, our customers have been able to leverage not only the breadth of our product family, but also our technical expertise and flexibility. GE Fanuc products enable the development of exciting new solutions across a broad range of applications.”
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AXIS: Free Trial
AXIS - Multiprocessing Software Tool that will
- Shorten Development Time
- Reduce Project Costs
- Accelerate Time to Market
 AXIS – Advanced Multiprocessor Integrated Software – is a highly integrated software development environment designed to accelerate the design, debug and deployment of complex signal processing applications that require powerful multiprocessor systems.
It aids configuration management, the implementation of optimized algorithms, mapping of the application to the system, performance analysis, and performance tuning. By allowing performance bottlenecks to be identified in an intuitive, visual manner, followed by elimination of them by remapping the application or rescaling the system, AXIS can significantly reduce the time taken to field the optimal solution. At the end of the day, this leads to reduces program costs.
AXIS supports current and future GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms products with seamless integration between single board computers, signal processing boards and sensor I/O.
Now we are making it easier for prospective customers to evaluate what AXIS can do for them in their environment and in a way that no demonstration can. That is why you can now download AXISLite for FREE from out website – so you can see for yourself how it lives up to our claims. Being free, AXISLite doesn’t do everything AXISView (a key component of the AXIS Suite) does – its reduced functionality version. Even so, we believe there will be enough there for you to see what you have been missing.
To download your FREE copy of AXISLite, visit
www.gefanucembedded.com/axisdemo
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Two New White Papers
AXIS - Taking the Sting out of Multiprocessor DSP Application Development
 These days a Systems Engineer faces a number of issues when configuring and programming a complex, heterogeneous multiprocessor system for a Mil & Aero application. These include: How to size the system – what compute resources will it take? How to check if the system is configured as it should be? How to maximize the performance of the algorithms? How to move data around the system across widely different interconnects? How to map the application onto the system and how to see the application’s performance in real-time? How to re-scale the application to a different sized system without a major rewrite and how to migrate the application to new processors and interconnects? This white paper will show how a modern tool-chain might address these issues, and result in a much reduced time to solution.
www.gefanucembedded.com/news-events/whitepapers/3803/
DSP Libraries and Graphical Tools Accelerate Distributed Corner Turn Development
 Virtually every radar application requires many FFTs on a set of radar pulse returns. The FFTs are normally performed in fast time dimension (row data) or in the slow time dimension (column data). However, mathematical operations performed on column data are normally very slow as column data is not contiguous in memory. This means that streaming accesses are not available, and SDRAM pages may need to be opened and closed; it is therefore faster to perform a matrix transpose or “corner turn” on the column data then process the slow time dimension FFTs on rows of data. This matrix transpose operation is extremely straightforward if the FFT processing is performed with a single embedded processor. However, real-time constraints usually mandate the use of multi-computers where the data flow and processing are much more complicated. This white paper will show how DSP libraries and graphical tools accelerate this distributed corner turn development.
http://www.gefanucembedded.com/news-events/whitepapers/3861
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New Products
ICS-1554
4-Channel, 160 MHz 16-Bit ADC PMC Module with Virtex-5 SX95T User Programmable FPGA
 Designed for communications, radar, test & measurement applications, the ICS-1554 builds on the legacy of the industry-leading ICS-554 digital receiver family to provide unsurpassed ADC technology and with industry-leading DSP expertise. The result is a cost-effective combination of size and performance in a single PMC site.
The ICS-1554 consists of four 16-bit ADCs sampling synchronously at frequencies up to 160 MHz. Simultaneous downconversion of up to 16 arbitrary signal bands is provided by four Graychip GC4016 digital downconverters (DDCs). A Xilinx Virtex-5 SX95T FPGA is provided for user-defined signal processing functions, giving greater capacity and lower power consumption than previous generations.
The product is ideally suited for demanding applications in military communications, 3G & 4G cellular basestation development, signal intelligence, smart antenna, radar beamforming, wireless test & measurement and satellite ground stations.
Click here to view the ICS-1554 Product Data Sheet and Tech Note
ICS-8554B
Rugged 4-channel, Transformer-Coupled 105 MHz ADC PMC Module with DDCs, Xilinx FPGA and PCI 64/66 Interface
 ICS-8554B 4-channel ADC PMC module is a rugged version of the highly successful ICS-554, a 4-channel transformer coupled ADC PMC module for Software Defined Radio (SDR) applications optimized to provide a high degree of functionality in a small, rugged package. By bundling substantial ADC, DDC, and FPGA resources in one PMC module, the ICS-8554B provides a powerful base band signal processing capability. Careful component selection and thermal management techniques allow this functionality to be maintained in demanding environments, supported by both air-cooled and conduction-cooled versions.
The ICS-8554B brings all the best attributes of the ICS-554 to the rugged application space, and improves on it by doubling the capacity of FIFO buffer onboard, and adding Built-in-Test (BIT) capability. The FIFO buffer consists of two decoupled FIFOs, thus allowing for applications in which simultaneous wide and narrow output bands are required.
Click here to view the ICS-8554B Product Data Sheet and Tech Note
PCIE-PCIX-XPS-7
PCIE-PCIX-XPS-7 PCI Express to PCI-X Expansion System with Redundant Power Supplies
 In response to customer requests, GE Fanuc has introduced a new expansion system with dual power supplies. The PCIE-PCIX-XPS-7 PCI Express to PCI-X Expansion System provides an easy-to-use migration path to PCI Express for legacy PCI-X and PCI cards. Designed for high throughput and enhanced system functionality, this expansion system provides seven available 64-bit slots with PCI Express cable interfaces supporting 10Gb/s raw throughput in each direction.
PCIE-PCIX-XPS-7 is a complete system that includes:
- x4 PCI Express host card
- Seven slot PCI-X/PCI chassis
- Redundant 350W power supplies with power failure detection
- 5-meter InfiniBand cable
- 5-meter Ethernet cable
PCIE-5565RC
PCI Express Reflective Memory Node Interface Card
 GE Fanuc’s Reflective Memory product portfolio has been refreshed with a new form factor node card and a larger capacity SDRAM option for certain cards. PCIE-5565RC is a RoHS compliant, PCI Express form factor card featuring a PCI to PCI Express bridge and a 256MB memory option. The 256MB SDRAM option is also available on the PMC-5565PIORC and PCI-5565PIORC.
Our 5565 Reflective Memory product family includes node cards in several form factors and a hub that supports the entire 5565 platform --
- PCI Express: PCIE-5565RC
- PMC: PMC-5565PIORC and PMC-5565
- PCI: PCI-5565PIORC and PCI-5565
- VMEbus: VME-5565
- Hub board: ACC-5595
PMC-422RC
 PMC-422RC Serial Controller
PMC-422 has been redesigned to refresh the technology. The new PMC-422RC, a RoHS compliant 8-port serial controller, packages multiple serial I/O channels onto a single PMC to make the most effective use of available PMC sites on a SBC, VME or CompactPCI system. Each of the eight serial ports is implemented with an independent UART with a separate programmable baud rate.
Use of the Octal UART delivers many benefits such as increased performance by reducing programmed I/O operations, and minimizing time required to integrate the PMC into existing software environments. It also provides an evolutionary path for enhanced software to further improve performance.
All I/O ports are accessible on rear I/O J4 using the PIM422RC PMC I/O Module (PIM).
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Upcoming Events
April 27 - May 2, 2008
Interop (Booth w/ Channel Partner - Cavium)
Las Vegas, NV
April 29, 2008
GE Fanuc Industry Day - San Diego
San Diego, CA
May 1, 2008
ATCA Peak Forum
Beijing, China
May 5 - 7, 2008
Bus and Board
Scottsdale, AZ
May 5 - 8, 2008
OTC
Houston, TX
May 6, 2008
RTECC/COTS
Greenbelt, MD
May 6, 2008
GE Fanuc Industry Day - Orlando
Orlando, FL
May 7, 2008
GE Fanuc TechDays Melbourne
Melbourne, FL
May 26 - 28, 2008
IEEE Radar Conference
May 28 - 30, 2008
MicroTCA Summit
Chantilly, VA
Contact
EDITOR: Naseem Hyder
(805) 965-8000 x150
naseem.hyder@ge.com
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