Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY), a leading provider of embedded real-time digital signal and image processing systems, today announced its new RACE++(tm) Series PowerStream(tm) 510 multicomputing system. Designed as the second generation of multiported RACE(r) systems, the new PowerStream combines the highest intra-system communication bandwidth available with high computational density in a single, deployable, embedded multicomputer system. The industry-leading, high-speed interprocessor communications capability is key to obtaining maximum delivered performance for applications such as high-end radar and signals intelligence.
Mercury has already shipped several of the PowerStream systems to customers for use in high-end defense signal and image processing applications. Two of those systems represent design wins that significantly increase the acceptance of Mercury's systems in the defense electronics market for shipboard radar. The PowerStream system is also expected to enhance Mercury's efforts in mobile groundstations for image intelligence and high-end commercial applications such as automated inspection systems.
With the continuing advances in processor speeds, moving data to the processors in multiprocessor systems becomes the primary barrier to increased system performance. Mercury's new PowerStream system solves this problem by providing eight RACE++ ports per each of the ten 9U boards, boosting bisection bandwidth to more than 8 gigabytes per second, which is quadruple the performance of standard RACE++ VME systems and of Mercury's RACE Series MultiPort(tm) 410, the predecessor to the PowerStream system.
"Our customers have increasingly requested a complete signal processing subsystem, and the PowerStream model has been designed from the ground up as a complete system to meet that need," said Vince Mancuso, vice president and general manager, Government Electronics Group, Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. "To balance the increased processing power of the latest PowerPC(tm) processor, more applications now require the high-end interprocessor communications we provide in our PowerStream systems. We're extremely pleased with the early market acceptance of these new systems."
"We selected PowerStream as a fully integrated, deployable system for our airborne surveillance flight systems," commented Bill Hoover, Airborne Early Warning program manager at Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NYSE: NOC) Electronics Sensors and Systems Sector. "By developing on a deployable system, we expect to save valuable time during our integration and test phase."
"The PowerStream has a significant advantage in system performance per cubic foot, occupying half of a standard computer rack compared to high-performance UNIX systems that typically occupy 5 to 10 racks," continued Mr. Mancuso. "This advantage can have a strategic impact in terms of logistics and costs when deployed in mobile military systems. For example, smaller mobile groundstations may now be deployed in smaller vehicles, which in turn may be transported on smaller aircraft such as a C-130 instead of a C-5A."
Mercury's RACE++ Series PowerStream 510 systems are designed and manufactured for deployment in mission-critical applications. A single system is scalable to 180 PowerPC "G4" microprocessors, providing over 500 GFLOPs of processing performance in a single chassis. This PowerStream performance represents an increase by a factor of 10 over the first-generation RACE Series MultiPort 410 system. Additional AltiVec(TM) processors, custom processors, input/output devices and other components can be installed in the PowerStream model's ten 6U VME slots, several of which also provide integration with the RACE++ backplane.
The power and cooling modules of the PowerStream system are designed specifically to handle this extreme processing and communications density. RACE++ Series PowerStream 510 systems include vital serviceability features such as hot-swappable N+1 redundant power supplies, easy access to blower and peripherals, processor board slot keying, and chassis diagnostic status lights for temperature, humidity, and other key parameters.
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