🚀 go-pugleaf

This is a survey of VME boards that will appear in a VME bus magazine. If
anyone spots errors or omissions, let me know.
 
Survey of VME boards:
--------------------
 
Cambridge RISC Machines:
-----------------------
 
Main activities of the company are industrial  control  and  embedded  control
systems.   They  use single eurocard boards and a special expansion bus (CRX =
Cambridge RISC Extension bus).  They offer UNIX and OS9 support.
 
CRM 203 H:  slave VMEbus host adapter with 2 TRAM sites on a single eurocard
 
CRM 302 H:  VMEbus master interface
 
Protheus (distributed by Inducom Systems in the Benelux)
--------
 
Also offer Unix and OS9 support.
 
CPU1TB:  VMEbus interface, 1 T4 or T8 with 1-8 MB RAM
 
CPUT6A:  VMEbus multitransputer interface with 6 T4's or T8's with 256 kB each
 
Topology is configurable using wrap  area  on  the  P2  bus  back  wiring  (no
software configuration possible)
 
TPIO32:  3 T4/T8, 256 kB RAM each, 144 I/O lines, programmable with  LCA  gate
array
 
Parsytec (distributed by Arcobel for the Benelux)
--------
 
BBK-V1:  slave interface with DMA controller, transfer rate up to 1 MB/s
 
BBK-V2:  master VME board with T4 or T8, 1 or 2 MB RAM (250  ns  cycle  time),
128 kB to 1 MB ROM
 
MVTM:  VME Multitransputer module with 4 independent nodes,  each  with  1  MB
RAM,  with  a software configurable topology.  Four link adaptor interfaces to
the VME bus for multiuser capability
 
Niche  Technology:  (dead  company,  but  products  now  marketed   by
-----------------   Transtech)
 
NT1000 Advanced Computing Platform:  Sun plug-in board (9U = triple size VME),
which  uses  TRAM module sites for 32 T800's, with 32 kB SRAM each or 4 T800's
with 10 MB DRAM each.   TDS,  SunServers,  SUNOS  interface,  Parallel  C  and
Fortran are available, as well as the PRE Parallel Runtime Environment.  It is
a very good transputer development environment for a  SUN  workstation  owner.
Topology is software controlled by means of C004 link crossbar switches.
 
The NT1000 can support 4 simultaneous users at a bandwith of 500 kB each.
 
Topologix:
---------
 
The Topologix 1000 is a 9U VME board for Sun-3  and  Sun-4  workstations.   It
offers  4 T800's with 1-16 MB each (200 ns cycle time).  The topology is again
software controlled.  They offer a Parallel Common Lisp,  the  Linda  parallel
paradigm and a Trollius-like Parallel Programming Environment.
 
Tadpole: (distributed by TME in Belgium)
 
TP-TSC:  VME bus master, with UNIX System V support (file server, TDS, occam),
1  T414  or  T800, 2 MB 250 ns RAM, 2 RS232 ports, 64 kB-256 KB EPROM site and
its links are connected to P2.
 
Inmos:
-----
 
B011:  is actually the same as the Tadpole board
 
CSA: (distributed by ISI in Belgium)
 
Part.8:  A 6U size VMEboard for  Sun  and  Apollo  workstations  with  a  high
throughput (5 - 7 MByte/sec).
 
General Remarks:
---------------
 
* all boards implement VME spec Rev C
* all systems can be expanded by using transputer networks connected to the
  external transputer link channels
* some boards are software configurable, with the C004 crossbar switch
* T4 means T414 or T425, T8 means the T800 floating point transputer
* 3U = single eurocard height (10 cm)
  6U = double eurocard height (normal VME size)
  9U = triple eurocard height (Sun boards)
* more information is of course available from the author