Rugged environments are just the ticket for a new VME64 single-board computer that supports a dual-core processor, IEEE 1101.2 conduction-cooling, and dual PMC/XMC sites.

Concurrent Technologies’ single-slot VP 417/031-RC uses the mobile dual-core processor and server chipset from the Intel embedded roadmap. It combines the performance of the 1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with the Intel E7520 server class chipset, interfacing with up to 4GB of soldered DDR2 ECC SDRAM at up to 6.4GB/s.

The VP 417/031-RC family is I/O-compatible with the VP 315/021-RC family, and offers an improved performance-to-watt ratio. With two PMC/XMC sites, the board also includes extensive I/O functionality and can support VITA 31.1. The VP 417/031-RC suits conduction-cooled applications within the transportation, industrial control, telemetry, defence, security, and aerospace markets.

A ruggedised air-cooled version and a range of commercial versions are also available.

The VP 417/031-RC conduction-cooled board, including conformal coating, operates at altitudes of -1000 to +50,000 feet (-305 to + 15,240 metres) and meets various VITA 47 classes and associated MIL-STD-810F test methods including operating over -40°C to +85°C (VITA 47 class CC4). Also, the ruggedised design operates at a shock of 40g (11ms, half-sine) and random vibration of 0.1g2/Hz (10Hz-1kHz) with 6dB/octave from 1 to 2KHz (VITA 47 class V3).

The board supports the 1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo L7400 processor (soldered), with 4MB of L2 cache (shared between the cores), and can support 32bit or 64bit operating systems. The Intel E7520 server class chipset and Intel 6300ESB ICH are used to complement the design.

VITA 31.1 Gigabit Ethernet on a VME64x backplane enables a tried and tested method of implementing a LAN-based multiprocessor architecture by leveraging readily available Ethernet hardware, TCP/IP software, clustering, and other network-management tools. Using standard networking techniques offers an efficient method of remote booting boards within the chassis, and simplified intercommunication between boards. It can be used to offload tasks from the standard VME backplane, thereby improving overall application efficiency. VITA 31.1 suits applications such as data acquisition, radar data processing ,or those requiring data synchronisation across multiple system boards.

Supporting two ANSI/VITA 20 PMC modules at up to 66MHz PCI-X (also supporting x8 PCI Express XMC modules), all with PMC rear I/O, the board offers an array of functions—analog graphics, keyboard, mouse, 2x RS-232/422/485, 2x USB 2.0, EIDE, and Serial ATA150 interfaces. To cater to embedded applications, there is 64MB of application flash memory; for a wider range of applications, there’s an onboard option (using a PMC site) for a CompactFlash module. On top of the standard PC interfaces, other features include a watchdog timer, long duration timer, and LAN boot firmware.