SKY Computers Introduces Merlin Industry's Fastest Embedded Multiprocessor System

<%pubplace name%> 09 Sep 99 SKY Computers introduced the Merlin embedded multiprocessor for VME boards and systems. Merlin delivers 10.6 Gflop/s of performance on a 6" x 6 " square circuit card. It is the only multiprocessor product on the market to use four of the new MPC7400 PowerPC microprocessors with AltiVec technology on a single daughtercard.

Each Merlin includes four 333 MHz MPC7400 PowerPC microprocessors that can be configured with 1 GB of on-board memory. Configured with the full 1 GB of memory, Merlin has 8 Billion transistors in 36 sq. inches. Merlin on a 6U VME board delivers 10.6 Gflop/s of performance. Up to four Merlin cards on a 9U VME board provide 42 Gflop/s of performance and up to 4 GB of memory.

This combination of high performance compute and memory reduces the number of required slots in a 9U system by 4:1, resulting in considerable cost savings while opening up new opportunities for memory-intensive applications.

Merlin provides total performance in a single VME chassis of a record breaking 672 GFLOPS. Fast floating-point processing with a projected price/performance ratio of $ 3 per MFLOP, makes Merlin ideal for the most demanding image and signal processing applications such as radar, sonar, medical imaging, and image analysis. Merlin uses the 333 MHz MPC7400 PowerPC microprocessor to achieve the maximum multiprocessor computing power in a single VME slot. SKY has maximized the use of the 333 MHz 2 MB level 2 cache supported by the new MPC7400 to provide developers with 1:1 processor to cache performance, resulting in optimal throughput. The new Merlin boards and systems are 100% source code compatible with current SKY products via the SKYvec(R) software development environment

"The processing and I/O power of the AltiVec chip, coupled with Merlin's advanced system design provides a quantum performance leap for our customers, " said Bob Hoenig, SKY general manager and chief technology officer. "In addition to raw speed, we provide unsurpassed advantages in our SKYvec software. When our customers upgrade to Merlin there is virtually no additional software investment. All that is required is a simple recompile and run. And, it is almost as easy to migrate code from competitive offerings. SKYvec hides the complexities of multiprocessor programming and makes porting suprisingly easy. No other COTS supplier provides the simplicity of software development that SKY does with the SKYvec development environment."

 

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