Artesyn, Wind River Partner on Linux for Blade Servers
EE Times
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MANHASSET, N.Y. — Artesyn Communication Products and Wind River Systems Inc. have joined forces to offer the Wind River platform for network equipment, running on Linux, for Artesyn's AdvancedTCA telecom blade servers.
Artesyn (Madison, Wi.) and Wind River (Alameda, Calif.) will work together to develop carrier-grade Linux and VxWorks board support packages (BSP) for Artesyn's telecom blades, beginning with the PowerPC processor-based KatanaQp AdvancedTCA blade. Wind River will provide validation services for the new BSPs.
Both companies will work together to market the new products.
Wind River Platform for Network Equipment, available with the latest mainstream releases of OSDL Carrier Grade Linux (version 2.0.1) and the Linux 2.6.10 kernel, combines Wind River's Eclipse-based Workbench development suite with a rich set of networking middleware. The platform makes it easy for telecom device developers to develop and deploy a complete range of network equipment applications, from core and enterprise to access and edge devices.
"Wind River is a pre-eminent supplier of real-time operating systems and has taken the lead in offering an integrated development and run-time environment for carrier-grade Linux," said Todd Wynia, vice president of marketing at Artesyn, in a statement. "Our high-availability AdvancedTCA blades, together with Wind River Platform for Network Equipment, provide an ideal foundation for building a broad range of high-availability telecom infrastructure systems."
Wind River Supporting Freescale's Latest Processor Architectures
EE Times
SAN FRANCISCO — Wind River Systems Inc. said Wednesday (June 22) that it is extending its strategic relationship with Freescale Semiconductor Inc. to provide support for Freescale's latest PowerPC and PowerQuicc processors across all Wind River design software optimization (DSO) platforms.
In a statement issued by Wind River (Alameda, Calif.) Wednesday, John Fanelli, vice president of product planning and management for Wind River, said his company was committed to working with Freescale to provide communications and networking equipment companies with integrated DSO solutions to address the full lifecycle of their products.
"By tightly aligning our product roadmaps, we are able to expand our OS support, drive innovation and continue to make the device development process more efficient and more cost effective for our joint customers," Fanelli said.
Wind River said implementing a DSO strategy enables network equipment manufacturers to build powerful and reliable telecom devices and networking equipment at a lower cost while minimizing risk and time-to-market.
Wind River provides integrated support for multiple operating systems and standards-based tools that are tuned for Freescale (Austin, Texas) architecture. In addition to support for Wind River's VxWorks operating system, the company's Linux platform offering is based on the latest Linux technologies via Kernel.org. Wind River said it is making key investments in Linux through relationships with the open-source community for device software that translates into best-of-breed solutions on Freescale silicon.
Wind River Workbench is the industry's first Eclipse-based open device software development solution, Wind River said, and plays a key role as the first integrated development environment to enable and get initial silicon up and running for the latest members of Freescale's PowerQuicc II Pro and PowerQuicc III communications processor families.
Separately Wednesday, Wind River announced it would partner with Artesyn Communication Products, a subsidiary of Artesyn Technologies, to offer Wind River Platform for Network Equipment on Artesyn's AdvancedTCA telecom blades. Artesyn also said that it has joined Wind River's Alliance Program as a platform partner.
Wind River Showcases Freescale Partnership, Adds ATCA Support
LinuxDevices.com
Wind River says it has partnered with Freescale's network processor group to ensure that its embedded Linux tools and vertical market platforms support Freescale's latest PowerPC and PowerQUICC processors. Wind River's Carrier Grade Linux offering, Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition, supports a Freescale PowerPC-based AdvancedTCA platform from Artesyn Technologies.
Additionally, Wind River says it has partnered with Artesyn to offer a Carrier Grade Linux product for Artesyn's AdvancedTCA boards based on Freescale processors, such as the KatanaQP.
Wind River says its Eclipse-based Workbench tools support a range of development activities, from board bring-up to application development, when used with the latest Freescale PowerQUICC II Pro and PowerQUICC III communications processor families, including the MPC8548E. In addition to Linux, Workbench supports VxWorks, Express Logic's small-footprint ThreadX, and other third-party and proprietary in-house operating systems, Wind River says.
Wind River offers Linux-based vertical market stacks that include Platform for Network Equipment and a General Purpose Platform. The company aims to make Linux an option on all its Platform products, including its telematics, consumer devices, industrial devices, and server appliances platforms.
Freescale's GM of Networking and Computing Systems, David Perkins, said, "By using Wind River Workbench to integrate our PowerQUICC and PowerPC families with Wind River's platforms, including Wind River Platform for Network Equipment, we are able to offer our customers a state-of-the-art, fully optimized device development solution."
AdvancedTCA Blade and PMC Card Support Linux
LinuxDevices.com
Artesyn is sampling an AdvancedTCA blade and a ProcessorPMC mezzanine card based on Freescale's fastest PowerPC chip. The KatanaQp blade features dual MPC7448 processors, while the PmPPC7448 card runs a single MPC7448. Both boards support Wind River's Carrier Grade Linux and VxWorks, and target telecom equipment.
Freescale's MPC7448 processor has been sampling since February, and is expected to ship in October. It is pin-compatible with the earlier MPC7447A, and binary-compatible with Freescale's forthcoming multi-core PowerPC chips, according to Freescale. It is the first of Freescale's PowerPC line manufactured on 90nm SOI (silicon-on-insulator) process technology.
KatanaQp
The KatanaQp is an AdvancedTCA blade with four PTMC (PCI Telecom Mezzanine Card) expansion sites and redundant IPMI-based system management interfaces. It targets integrated systems that combine network access (LAN or WAN) with packet, protocol, and media processing functionality on the same blade.
The KatanaQp is powered by a pair of MPC7448 processors clocked at up to 1.7GHz. The processors support distributed or SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) operation, Artesyn says. Each processor has 32KB each of L1 data and instruction cache, along with 1MB of on-die L2 cache. A Marvell GT64460 Discovery III system controller gives the processors high-speed access to up to two Gbytes of DDR SDRAM memory and 64 Mbytes of flash memory, Artesyn says.
The KatanaQP's four PTMC expansion sites provide standard 32-bit PCI-X control and CTbus (Computer Telephony Bus) data interfaces to external modules. The CTbus and PCI-X interfaces are also used to link the four sites, enabling them to exchange control information and TDM data directly, Artesyn says.
The KatanaQp's high-speed PICMG 3.1-compliant AdvancedTCA fabric interface utilizes a 24-port Ethernet switch and 10 Gigabit Ethernet channels to provide high-speed control and data plane connections. The KatanaQp also features a redundant PICMG 3.0 Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), which makes it easy for shelf management controllers to monitor, control, and exchange management with the KatanaQp, Artesyn claims.
PmPPC7448
The PmPPC7448 is a ProcessorPMC card that gives telecom OEMs an easy way to add processing power to telecom systems equipped with PMC expansion sites, according to Artesyn.
The card combines a single MPC7448 processor clocked up to 1.7GHz with up to two Gbytes of RAM, 64 Mbytes of Flash, and three Ethernet ports. It draws 18 Watts of power, the company claims.
Additional features include:
- Marvell Discovery III system controller
- Two Gigabit 10/100/1000BaseT Ethernet ports, routed to the PMC connector
- One 10/100BaseTX Ethernet port, routed to the module's front bezel
- I2C bus system management controller
- Two RS-232 serial ports
- Eight GPIO lines
- Four 32-bit counter/timers
- 32-bit watchdog timer
- Four-channel DMA controller
Artesyn's VP of marketing, Todd Wynia, said, "The MPC7448 PowerPC processor enables us to offer our telecom OEM customers a substantial increase in performance while still holding the line on power consumption."
Freescale's GM of Computing Platforms, Bill Dunnigan, added, "Artesyn's new ProcessorPMC mezzanine card [use] Freescale's highest performance PowerPC processor, the MPC7448, which delivers gigahertz-class performance at less than 10W."
Software support for the KatanaQp and PmPPC7448 includes Wind River Systems's VxWorks 5.5 and Carrier Grade Linux.
Availability
The KatanaQp, equipped with a single MPC7448 processor and a four-channel Gigabit Ethernet fabric interface, sells in OEM quantity for $2,400. The PmPPC7448 costs $1,200 in OEM quantity. Both support Wind River Carrier Grade Linux or VxWorks 5.5.
Freescale Vaunts Linux-based AdvancedTCA Platform
LinuxDevices.com
Freescale Semiconductor is showcasing Linux-based AdvancedTCA designs at its developer event in Orlando this week. Freescale's Open AdvancedTCA Development Platform includes reference designs for an AdvancedTCA blade and Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) supporting Serial RapidIO and Ethernet backplanes, and a "DSP farm module" AMC based on an eight-way StarCore DSP.
Freescale says its AdvancedTCA Platform enables rapid, flexible prototyping of a wide range carrier-class devices, including digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs), IP-DSLAMs, IP-PBXs, media gateways, high-density voice over IP (VoIP) systems, enterprise routers, host processing farms, and radio network controllers (RNCs) used in 3G wireless infrastructure.
The AdvancedTCA Platform consists of modular, board-level building blocks based on a carrier board form-factor designed to fit both AdvancedTCA racks and standalone PC chassis, via replaceable power modules. A Freescale PowerQUICC communications processor serves as a controller on the baseboard. A gigabit Ethernet switch links the baseboard to the control plane. The modular AdvancedTCA baseboard can support up to four AMC cards. These cards can be mixed and matched on the carrier card to address various applications, such as RNCs, base station controllers (BSCs), serving GPRS support nodes (SGSNs) and gateway GPRS support Nodes (GGSNs), Freescale says.
Linux application programming interfaces (APIs) reside on the AdvancedTCA carrier card, which can be remotely booted through Gigabit Ethernet or RapidIO endpoints on plug-in cards, according to Freescale. The company's Linux-hosted CodeWarrior tools provide a commercially-supported, open-source development environment for the AdvancedTCA platform.
Freescale says its AdvancedTCA Platform is designed to evolve with interconnect and silicon advances, and will support its forthcoming MPC8641D Dual Core processor. Additionally, Freescale says it is actively participating in the development of new and complementary standards, such as MicroTCA, which in concert with AdvancedTCA and AMC platforms provides an end-to-end framework that addresses the complete range of high-availability telecom applications.
Freescale silicon and system partners include Embedded Planet, Artesyn, Mercury Computer Systems, and Tundra Semiconductor, each of which provide semiconductor and board-level components for Freescale's AdvancedTCA Platform. Software partners include MontaVista, QNX, Wind River, and Enea.
Embedded Planet says it is developing three new products that support Freescale's AdvancedTCA platform: a RapidIO ATCA carrier module, an MPC8548-based AMC processor module, and an 8122-based AMC DSP module.
David Perkins, GM of Freescale's Networking and Computing Systems Group, said, "Freescale's AdvancedTCA development platform showcases a significant increase in MIPS-per-watt density. As a founding member of the RapidIO Trade Association and the first semiconductor vendor to deliver a RapidIO technology-enabled processor, Freescale is committed to the commercial success of the RapidIO standard and the AdvancedTCA specification."
Wind River Backing PowerPC
Electronic News
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Electronics Weekly
Wind River Systems has announced it will provide support for Freescale’s latest PowerPC and PowerQUICC processors across all its development platforms.
The relationship with Freescale’s Networking and Computing Systems Group (NCSG) is part of Wind River's so-called device software optimization (DSO) strategy.
"By tightly aligning our product roadmaps, we are able to expand our OS support, drive innovation, and continue to make the device development process more efficient and more cost effective for our joint customers," said John Fanelli, VP of product planning and management for Wind River.
David Perkins, senior VP and general manager of Freescale’s NCSG, added: "With the network equipment market changing so rapidly, our customers are constantly looking to us to provide solutions that will help them differentiate themselves."
Operating system support includes Linux, VxWorks and ThreadX.
