PR Newswire
Sep 18, 2007 09:04 ET

Mercury Computer Systems Brings 10th AMC to Market for AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA Platforms

Ensemble MPC-102 incorporates Freescale 8641D dual-core processors and Serial RapidIO interconnect to deliver high price/performance advantage for high-bandwidth applications

CHELMSFORD, Mass., Sept. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRCY) , the leading supplier of RapidIO(R)-based AdvancedTCA(R) solutions, announced availability and pending shipment of its newest Serial RapidIO-based AMC (Advanced Mezzanine Card), to a customer in the telecom equipment market. The Ensemble(TM) MPC-102 is a high-performance AMC module that combines dual-core processing power, flexible I/O, and a choice of RapidIO or PCI Express(R) connectivity for AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA(R) platforms. These platforms are ideally suited for numerous applications that include telecom, radar, sonar, and image inspection. The MPC-102 will be featured in the RapidIO Trade Association booth at the AdvancedTCA Summit Europe 2007, to be held September 18-19 near Paris, France.

The dense processing capability of the dual-core Freescale(TM) 8641D, with a high core frequency, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and integrated on-chip I/O subsystem with RapidIO, is provided in a flexible AMC form factor supporting 10 Gbps raw I/O bandwidth through the RapidIO interface. The dual-core 8641D doubles the performance of Mercury's previous AMCs built on Power Architecture(TM) processors. This combination of processing density and bandwidth makes the MPC-102 ideal for telecom applications such as data communications, control, and wireless test equipment.

"We're pleased to host Mercury at the ATCA Summit, and to feature the latest Serial RapidIO-based module for the MicroTCA and AdvancedTCA platforms," said Tom Cox, Executive Director of the RapidIO Trade Association. "Mercury's long-standing leadership in developing advanced performance capabilities for the embedded computing industry is exemplified by its ability to both pioneer and leverage technologies that become industry standards -- such their co-development with Motorola on the RapidIO interconnect standard."

The MPC-102 is a control and signal processing AMC that provides a dual- core e600 8641D PowerPC processor at up to 1.3 GHz with up to 2 GB DDR2 memory, SATA, RapidIO or PCI-E, and GigE connectivity. The module is AMC.0- compliant and designed to meet AMC.4. The SATA interface supports a HDD in the neighboring AMC bay, making this an ideal host or control node. The architecture and AltiVec vector processing units of the e600 core are compatible with Mercury's industry-leading Scientific Algorithm Library, supporting use of the MPC-102 in dense floating-point processing applications such as radar, sonar, and image inspection.

The MPC-102 8641D AMC expands the capabilities of the Mercury Ensemble family of AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA platforms to support high-density control plane applications. The Ensemble AdvancedTCA and MicroTCA platform is specifically designed around the performance and reliability of the Serial RapidIO embedded system interconnect. Leveraging Mercury's renowned expertise in architecting and building efficient, scalable platforms for highly demanding applications in embedded computing, Ensemble delivers unprecedented levels of integration and flexibility across a broad class of heterogeneous processing architectures that includes digital signal processors, communications processors, FPGAs, and network processors.

This flexibility and strong development support has resulted in major telecom equipment manufacturers around the world employing Ensemble platforms to trial and demonstrate LTE, HSPA, PHS and other wireless standards. The addition of the MPC-102 increases the processing density of Ensemble platforms and supports the development of high-end MicroTCA systems.

"We're pleased to announce this latest offering of AMC modules for a MicroTCA-based application," said Mark Skalabrin, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Advanced Computing Solutions group at Mercury. "The MPC-102 is our third control-plane AMC that gives customers a choice between PowerQUICC, PowerPC, and Intel processors, and further expands the industry's largest AMC portfolio available today. Mercury's breadth of AMC options provides flexibility, scalability, and high bandwidth I/O to our broad range of OEM customers."

Mercury will chair Panel Session #205 on Applications and present "Solving Extreme FPGA Dense Computing with ATCA" on September 19 at the ATCA Summit. Panelists will include executives from Allot Communications, Dialogic, and Nortel. See http://www.mc.com/mediacenter/eventslist.aspx for more information.

For more information on the Ensemble MPC-102 AMC module, visit Mercury at the AdvancedTCA Summit in RapidIO Trade Association's booth (#21) or in CorEdge Network's booth (#14); visit www.mc.com/mpc-102, or contact Mercury at (866) 627-6951.

Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. - Where Challenges Drive Innovation

Mercury Computer Systems is the leading provider of computing systems and software for data-intensive applications that include image processing, signal processing, and visualization. With a strong commitment to innovation, our expertise in algorithm optimization, systems development, and silicon design is blended with software application knowledge and industry-standard technologies to solve unique computing challenges. We work closely with our customers to architect solutions that have a meaningful impact on everyday life: detecting aneurysms; designing safer, more fuel-efficient aircraft; identifying security threats; discovering oil; developing new drugs; and visualizing virtually every aspect of scientific investigation.

Mercury's comprehensive, purpose-built solutions capture, process, and present data for the world's largest medical imaging companies, 8 of the 10 top defense prime contractors, and other leading Fortune 500 and mid-market companies in semiconductor, energy, telecommunications, and other industries. Our dedication to performance excellence and collaborative innovation continues a 24-year history in enabling customers to stay at the forefront of the markets they serve.

Mercury is based in Chelmsford, Massachusetts and serves customers worldwide through a broad network of direct sales offices, subsidiaries, and distributors. We are listed on the Nasdaq National Market (NASDAQ:MRCY) . Visit Mercury at www.mc.com.