A10200 ATCA single board computer

GE Fanuc has announced the A10200 ATCA single board computer, with a dual Xeon 5500 series dual- or quad-core processor and up to 64 GB of DDR3 SDRAM.

It can be upgraded to the next generation of Xeon processors.

The computer is designed for demanding telecommunications networks and enables faster network performance. Applications include control plane functions for WiMAX, long-term evolution and next-generation networks.

Its asymmetric multiprocessing architecture means that each processor has its own memory bus and access to its own (up to 32 GB) memory.

It supports multiple gigabit ethernet interfaces and has gigabit ethernet maintenance port for remote management and troubleshooting.

The device benefits from Intel's 82599 ethernet controller, which includes a 40 Gbps PCI Express interface with the claimed ability to deliver up to a 250% improvement in network throughput.

The controller has load-sharing features allowing it to direct incoming ethernet packets to a specific core within a specific processor based on hashed packet header values, enabling higher data throughput due to parallel processing.

Further connectivity is provided by four USB 2.0 ports, a COM port and an IPMC console port. An accompanying TMS102 rear transitional module provides access to two 10/100/1000Base-T ethernet interfaces, two USB 2.0 interfaces, eight general-purpose I/O ports and two onboard SAS hard disk drives.