On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 02:56:54PM -0800, Keith Lofstrom wrote: > On Mon, Dec 22, 2014 at 01:15:43PM -0800, Konstantin Olchanski wrote: > > ... > > Upgrading to new hardware depends on the depth of your pockets of course, > > but we also see technical problems - some new 2GHz+ 64-bit SBCs overwhelm > > power supplies originally built to run 0.1GHz motorola 68020 SBCs. > > ... > > No low power 64 bit SBCs? This sounds like a market opportunity! >
Plenty of general purpose SBCs, not so many in VME form factor. > > Modern deep-submicron processes permit both very fast (Intel i7) > and very low power (Atom) processors, the latter preferable when > power and cooling is limited. > Hmm... would be interesting to see an Atom CPU run VME DAQ at 40-60-100 Mbytes/sec over GigE... > > I am preparing a Zotac ZBOX small computer with SL7 for my wife's > office; 64 bit dual core Atom, 5600 "bogomips", two displays, > terabyte HD, 8 GB RAM ... all drawing 9 to 14 watts. $220 for > ZBOX and addons from newegg. It has a cheap low-speed fan, but > I can't hear it running. Noctua.at makes the lowest noise fans. > We are developing a CAMAC SBC using an ARM SoM http://www.criticallink.com/product/mitysom-335x/ and a Cyclone4 FPGA. Electronics development cost, FPGA programming cost, software programming cost is considerably higher than $220. We are considering a VME SBC using an ARM+FPGA SoM http://www.criticallink.com/product/mitysom-5csx/ but while really good on power and cooling, these ARM CPUs cannot drive GigE at full GigE speed (memory is too slow). > > I don't know if an FPGA can drive a VME backplane, but those > have evolved towards lower power per gate-MHz, too. With > all those extra gates, and live reconfiguration, a VME board > could have BIST (built in self test) capabilities for on-line > failure detection and debug. > Most VME SBCs drive the VME bus using UniverseII and tsi148 PCI (*not* PCIe) to VME bridges, but it looks like some vendors are moving to FPGA solutions. I have seen at least one product announcement like this. > > If there is sufficient demand for a quiet low-power VME SBC > replacement, I know consultants who can design one. Bringing > this back on topic, if it can be further optimized by kernel > modules, I can think of a distro that could support them... > The demand is not very high, and a good part of the demand is for "milspec" hardware that has has "extended temperature range", "conductive cooling" and tested for vibration tolerance. -- Konstantin Olchanski Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow! Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada
