OVER 200 TERABYTES OF DATA EXCHANGED BY THALES COMPUTERS WITH ITS VME 2eSST PROCESSORS

Raleigh, NC (PRWEB) June 14, 2003 -- Thales Computers, a leader in providing integrated PowerPCä and Pentium-based VME computing systems and solutions to OEMs and system integrators, has announced the completion of extensive bus load testing that has documented 200 Terabytes of data exchange for its SBC products employing the companys 2eSST implementation on a standard VME backplane.

The testing involved the ALMA 2eSST PCI/VME bridge co-designed by Thales Computers and IBM on a variety of Thales Computers boards over a several week timeframe and in various configurations. VME racks populated with Thales Computers' newest VME 2eSST boards, as well as legacy VME products, were used to successfully exchange over 200 Terabytes of data on various backplane and system configurations. Data rates of up to 240 MBytes/s were measured on 2 Kbyte buffer transfers.

Tom Hall, Thales Computers, Inc. president said, We are very pleased with the outcome of these tests. Providing such a promising and powerful technology to the market so soon is a big achievement. It is also truly in the spirit of the VME Renaissance as this leading edge feature remains totally compatible with all existing VME systems, allowing users to gradually improve their systems. Many of our customers have already acknowledged the potent technology insertion capabilities of 2eSST for the VME world and have started to use our newest products."

Two Thales Computers processor boards currently implement the companys ALMA 2eSST PCI/VME bridge. The PowerEngine7 SBC is a highly integrated COTS solution with single or dual PowerPC 750X processor at 733 MHz now and 1 GHz shortly as well as 1600 Dhrystones 2.1 MIPS, while draining only 14 watts of power across the entire board. The VxG4c series of high-end 6U VME computing nodes also features the ALMA 2eSST bridge, as well as dual or quad MPC7410 (G4) PowerPC processors with AltiVec vector processing units.

Both of these Thales Computers boards can be used to build highly efficient board-to-board communication schemes. For the small- to medium-sized systems that represent the majority of deployed VME systems, the use of the ALMA 2eSST bridge provides a no-cost alternative to the expensive high-speed technologies available to VME users today.

For more information, please visit Thales Computers website at www.thalescomputers.com, or contact Thales Computers at 1-800-848-2330, fax 919-231-8001.

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About Thales Computers: Thales is a world leader in professional electronics in three key markets: Aerospace, Defense and Information Technology & Services (IT&S). The Group employs 60,000 people in nearly 50 countries worldwide, and generated revenues of over
€11 billion in 2002.

Thales Computers is the leading developer of commercial and ruggedized VMEbus hardware and software solutions based on PowerPC and Pentium microprocessors. The companys products are optimized for a wide variety of applications in military, aerospace, communications and industrial markets and are in active use by customers worldwide, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Toshiba, EADS, British Aerospace, Ericsson, Alcatel and the Thales Group.