Host boards serve up graphics performance

System host boards feature dual multicore processors to expand the possibilities in demanding computing applications.

The new MCX/MCG system host boards from Trenton are SHBs with dual multicore processors and are now available in numerous configurations designed to expand the possibilities in demanding computing applications.

MCX-series SHBs are server-class boards that provide multiple PCI Express links to option card slots and devices on a PICMG 1.3 backplane.

The MCG series offers graphics-class board configurations with native electrical support for x16 PCI Express video and imaging cards.

The high-bandwidth/high-speed PCI Express (PCIe) links designed into the MCX/MCG boards are ideally suited to support a wide range of PCI Express cards, devices and bridges to PCI-X/PCI option cards on a PICMG 1.3 compatible backplane.

The Trenton MCX- and MCG-series of system host boards provide various dual-core and quad-core Intel Xeon processor options.

The dual-core options provide four execution cores on a dual-processor MCX or MCG.

The quad-core Intel Xeon processor E5335 option provides up to eight high-performance cores per MCX or MCG system host board.

These multicore processing options are excellent solutions for the intense computing applications and extensive I/O workloads commonly found in high-end systems.

"The processing power and configuration flexibility of Trenton's new MCX/MCG product line is designed to give customers the best technology fit for their server-class or graphics-class PICMG 1.3 computing applications", says Bill Bowling, Vice President and General Manager of Trenton's Computer Products Division.

"Trenton Technology customers can now utilise the quad-core Intel Xeon E5335 processor's breakthrough performance and energy efficiency in PICMG 1.3 compute intensive embedded, storage, medical imaging and communication system designs", says Joe Jensen, General Manager of Intel's Embedded Markets Division.

The MCX/MCG products support an independent 1066MHz (dual-core processor) or 1333MHz (dual- or quad-core processors) front side bus for each processor.

The new dual-core processors have 4Mbyte of L2 shared cache, whereas the quad-core processors provide a dual 4Mbyte L2 cache for a total of 8Mbyte.

The MCX SHBs use the Intel 5000P chipset, and the MCG boards use the Intel 5000X chipset.

All boards feature a four-channel DDR2-667/533 FB-DIMM memory interface.

The MCX/MCG system host boards support up to 32Gbyte of system memory with a peak memory interface bandwidth of 8Gbyte/s per channel.

An MCX-series SHB provides two x8 PCI Express links and one x4 PCI Express link, while an MCG-series SHB provides one x16 PCI Express and one x4 PCI Express link on the board's edge connectors.

The SHBs support PCI Express link bifurcation to maximise the available number of PCI Express links on a backplane.

The PCI Express links provided by the SHBs are capable of supporting communication to x1, x4, x8 and x16 PCI Express cards, as well as PCI/PCI-X option cards, via a PCI Express-to-PCI/PCI-X bridge chip on an SHB Express-compatible backplane.

Other MCX/MCG board features include six SATA/300 interfaces with RAID support, seven USB 2.0 connections, three 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet ports, onboard video and connection to an optional I/O expansionboard for legacy I/O support.

All products are available now.

Typical prices are: US $2825 for the MCXT/MCGT dual-processor SHBs and US $2595 for the MCXI/MCGI single-processor SHBs.

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