Although VITA 41 maintains the classic VME pinout, it adds switched fabrics on the backplane with a new high-speed connector in P0 of the payload slots. This is a simple solution that preserves the VME investment, and it is being offered with components available from SBS Technologies.
VITA 41 supports 4x InfiniBand traffic at 10 Gbps and supports multiple transmissions across the backplane, allowing several VME cards to transmit data concurrently. SBS says it has implemented VITA 41 using InfiniBand Technology, and the result is a great leap forward in speed, concurrent processing and system capability. The SBS InfiniBand VITA 41 switch, for example, offers an aggregate bandwidth of 480 GBps.
This kind of bandwidth dramatically expands the capabilities of VME systems. With VITA 41, it says that designers can now use native VME technology to implement high-speed applications like medical imaging, sonar, radar, signal processing, streaming video and other data-intensive tasks which were simply not conceivable before - even with VME64 and 2eSST. And this is without a tangle of cables out the front of the system, or other clumsy workarounds, it notes.
SBS offers two new VITA 41 boards: the IB4X-V41 InfiniBand Fabric Switch and the VXS1 single-board computer.
The IB4X-V41 24 port, 4x, non-blocking, fully-managed switch is hot-swappable and available with convection or conduction cooling.
The VXS1 single-board computer features a Motorola G4 PowerPC processor with 167 MHz system and memory buses. It has a PMC expansion slot, 512 MB of DDR SDRAM and a Discovery III bridge chip. With two independent 4x InfiniBand links to the VME backplane, it provides both InfiniBand connectivity and can function as a VME bus controller.
InfiniBand Technology is known for its speed, low latency, reliability and non-blocking features. The SBS InfiniBand switch provides all the hardware and software needed to smoothly carry VME investments forward into the era of high-speed fabrics.
VITA 41: forward looking, backward compatible
Although VITA 41 is a much-needed step forward into the world of switched fabrics, it is an evolutionary rather than revolutionary step, says SBS. Many legacy VME boards will be compatible with VITA 41, and this backward compatibility is an important feature of the new specification because it preserves investments made in VME boards and applications.
Nevertheless, advances within the VMEbus ecosystem will continue; the committees are in the process of defining VITA 46, which abandons the current VME connector scheme in favour of the latest bus technologies. This new standard, when it is ratified and adopted, will indeed be a revolutionary development, according to SBS, even though bridging schemes will be used to carry forward legacy equipment.
VITA 41 is a sensible compromise between the old and the new because it keeps a foot firmly planted in the worlds of both the traditional VME parallel bus and serial-switched fabrics. However, it is more than a mere stopgap measure, because for many applications, VITA 41 will offer more than enough bandwidth for many years to come. At the same time, to preserve the viability of VME in the very long term, a total switch to a new bus scheme may be the best answer.
InfiniBand: redefining the word 'fast'
InfiniBand technology is delivering speeds right now that other interconnects can only fantasise about. States SBS: "This may be the best thing about InfiniBand technology: the fact that it is a reality, not a dream, or a vision. It is the tested, proven, 10 Gbps interconnect behind some of the fastest supercomputers in the world. But high bandwidth is not the only beautiful thing about InfiniBand links. There is low latency, low CPU utilisation, product availability, a choice between copper or optical cables, ease of installation and nearly limitless scalability. All that from a product that is actually being shipped, installed and working like a charm right now."
For high-speed clustered computing, InfiniBand technology is already a leader. Also, it is increasingly popular for other applications where raw speed is critical, such as for data centres and storage networks.
The SBS advantage
SBS has been an early adopter of InfiniBand technology for both VME and CompactPCI. The company sees it as a natural replacement for ageing technology such as HiPPI. And now, with the availability of Yellow Dog Linux drivers, VxWorks drivers, PMC cards plus the VITA 41 specification, it believes it will find a warm reception in the embedded community.
SBS is one of the few companies in the world that appears to effortlessly bring all these advances together into an elegant package to solve high-speed data needs. The company has a free InfiniBand Resource CD available to help interested readers make an informed decision about 'switching into the fast lane' with InfiniBand technology.
For more information contact RedLinX, +27 (0)21 555 3866, sales@redlinx.co.za
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