B. Hirosky 10/17/00

‘L2ßeta’ CPU Concept Commercial6U CPUCardW/ UII on board

FPGAMBUS P I/O + DMAECL Latch Driver

MBUSStraight pass to VME

Latches + ECL Drivers

Cable to PMC/PCI

B. Hirosky 10/17/00

FPGAreplaces:

DMAP/IObuffersTSI device

Keep ECL driversBuy This

Same Basic Concept as L2Alpha, but much simplified implementation

B. Hirosky 10/17/00

Minimal engineering:

•connect FPGA to MBUS, •PCI bus to FPGA via a cable and/or driver, •connect ECL drivers to FPGA

This project is largely a software issue

•program FPGA•device driver coding

Result: a clear upgrade path to modern/powerful CPUs andNO problems w/ ARCHAIC spare part hunts

B. Hirosky 10/17/00

Compatibility

- needs new PCI base classes (PCIDEV, PCICFG, CIA) the UII drivershould be transparent

-need new drivers for replace MB devices and TSI - easy

- minor linux tweeks?

--->> result = source code compatible boards!

Can select hotter CPU boards for Global worker or cooler boards for Administrators

B. Hirosky 10/17/00

What’s on the market?

Many vendors for 6U CPU cards, most have UIIB’s on board.

Small companies w/ off the shelf boards + custom options

Medium companies like SBS w/ off the shelf boardsGiant companies like Raytheon too!

Medium and High End CPU’s available now vs. our alpha:

SPECint95 SPECfp95 Cost Alpha 500 MHz 15.4 21.1 ~$5K (complete)PIII 600MHZ ~24 ~16 ~$4K from SBS (700 MHz price!)POWERPC 750 22.4 13.3 (550MHz)

7400 21.4 20.4SPARC II 18 22 ~$7K (old sparc versions)SPARC III 35+ 60+ !!!!!