Dual Intel® Xeon® 5500 series processors deliver unprecedented performance and low power dissipation
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA September 9, 2009 GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a unit of GE Enterprise Solutions, today announced the A10200 ATCA® single board computer. Featuring a dual Intel® Xeon® 5500 Series dual- or quad core processor and up to 64 Gigabytes of DDR3 SDRAM memory, it delivers a combination of unprecedented performance and low power dissipation.
Design of the A10200 is such that it can easily be upgraded to the next generation of Intel® Xeon® processors, making it an extremely cost-effective investment.
A complement to GE Fanuc's extensive and growing family of AdvancedTCA® products, the A10200 is designed for demanding telecommunications networks where it will enable significantly faster network performance than is currently possible. Typical applications include Control Plane functions for WiMAX, LTE (Long Term Evolution) and NGN (Next Generation Networks) networks.
"AdvancedTCA is making rapid strides as the architecture of choice across a wide range of industries and applications because of its high compute density, price/performance, interoperability, flexibility, robust reliability and cost-effectiveness," said Juergen Eder, Director, Product Management, IPC & SBCs at GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. "The A10200 is an exciting and innovative addition to our ATCA product range that provides industry-leading performance for these demanding applications."
"One of the virtues of the Intel® Xeon® processor family is its flexibility, allowing our customers to implement our technology in the way that best suits the planned application," said Steve Price, director of marketing, Embedded and Communications Group, Intel. "GE Fanuc has taken this flexibility and made some important architectural decisions about how to implement our processor technology such that it will deliver optimum performance in intensive I/O applications. The A10200 is an excellent example of what Intel Xeon processors can deliver."
The announcement of the A10200 expands still further the range of AdvancedTCA products available from GE Fanuc, allowing customers to build complete systems based entirely on solutions from a division of one of the world's largest, most respected companies.
For LTE applications, the A10200 is ideally suited for Mobility Management Entity (MME) and Home Subscriber Server (HSS). MME has a stringent requirement for user handover latency and the A10200 with its multiple processing cores, faster and less contentious memory interfaces and high speed Ethernet connectivity options is well suited for this application. HSS holds the subscriber database and requires fast and reliable storage options which the A10200 offers in the form of dual SAS drives. More demanding storage needs can be addressed by the use of a customized Rear Transition Module (RTM) using dual Fibre Channel interfaces.
For NGN networks, the A10200 is well suited for Media Gateway Controller (MGC) and multiple Service Layer servers. MGC, also known as a SoftSwitch, is at the center of the NGN architecture and is required to maintain the call state for every call in the network. It is tasked to perform call control, gateway access control, resource allocation, authentication, charging and so on. All these functions greatly benefit from multiple cores, 64 GBytes of memory and dual high performance SAS storage. Video servers, which reside in the NGN Service Layer, require the provision of a number of high bandwidth video streams as well as access to significant storage resources. Such video servers can be implemented using the A10200, which can cache most frequently used video content in its two SAS drives and access additional storage via its multiple Ethernet interfaces. Furthermore, the A10200 can be effectively coupled with GE Fanuc's Octeon-based AT2-5800 Packet Processor ATCA Blade for video data encryption, traffic policing, metering and other packet processing functions.
The new A10200 is an ideal complement to the AT2-5800 Packet Processor blade. Together, these two products provide a complete Control Plane and Data Plane processing solution, ideal for applications such as Session Border Controllers (SBC). Within the ATCA chassis, both blades can communicate via high speed, redundant dual 10GbE and dual 1GbE networks, each of them handling the processing functions for which they are best suited.
Keys to the high performance of the A10200 -- which is optionally available as a single processor platform - are the size of its memory and the implementation of an AMP(Asymmetric Multi Processing) architecture. The provision of 64 GBytes of memory -- more than any competing dual processor platform - allows storing larger routing tables in main memory, reducing the number of time-consuming routing table swaps between main memory and the database because needed routing information is missing.
The A10200's Asymmetric Multiprocessing Architecture means that each processor has its own memory bus and access to its own (up to 32 Gigabytes) memory, reducing the processing overhead caused by contention and bus sharing in platforms using Symmetric Multiprocessing Architecture (SMP).
Also contributing to the A10200's leading edge performance is its support for multiple Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, together with a Gigabit Ethernet maintenance port for remote management and trouble-shooting. The A10200 benefits from its implementation of Intel's new 82599 Ethernet controller, which includes a new 40 Gigabits/second PCI Express™ interface and the ability to deliver up to a 250% improvement in network throughput. Furthermore, the 82599 controller has sophisticated load sharing features allowing it to direct incoming Ethernet packets to a specific core within a specific processor based on hashed packet header values. This feature enables much higher data throughput due to parallel processing and is very valuable for systems using virtualization
Further connectivity is provided by four USB 2.0 ports, a COM port and an IPMC console port. An accompanying TMS102 rear transitional module (RTM) provides rear access two 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet interfaces, two USB 2.0 interfaces, eight general purpose I/O ports and two on-board SAS hard disk drives. The SAS controller implements RAID features, further offloading the processor cores from mundane processing.
The A10200 is defined for deployment in NEBS office environments. It is PICMG® 3.1, PICMG 3.0 compliant.
The software package provided with the A10200 includes standard BIOS, device driver, and the hardware initialization resources required to support Linux® environments. An optional run-time BIT (Built-In Test) application package will also be available.
For more information: www.gefanucembedded.com
About GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms
GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a joint venture between General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) and FANUC LTD of Japan, is an experienced high-performance technology company and a global provider of hardware, software, services, and expertise in automation and embedded computing. We offer a unique foundation of agile, advanced and ultra-reliable technology that provides customers a sustainable advantage in the industries they serve, including energy, water, consumer packaged goods, government & defense, and telecommunications. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is a worldwide company headquartered in Charlottesville, VA and is part of GE Enterprise Solutions. For more information, visit www.gefanuc.com.
About GE Enterprise Solutions
GE Enterprise Solutions elevates customers' productivity and profitability with integrated solutions using sensors and non-destructive testing; security and life safety technologies; power system protection and control; and plant automation and embedded computing systems. Enterprise Solutions' high-tech, high-growth businesses include Sensing & Inspection Technologies, Security, Digital Energy, and GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. The business has 17,000 problem-solving employees in more than 60 countries around the world.
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Intel, and Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation. PICMG, AdvancedTCA and ATCA are registered trademarks of the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. PCI Express is a trademark of PCI-SIG. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners
Ian McMurray
GE Energy Management
[email protected]
+44-(0)-1327-322821