BIOLOGY

Dolphin Interconnect scalable coherent interface (SCI) adapters have been selected to be used in a very large Raytheon Technical Services Company LLC training system for the international space station. The system uses both the PCI and VME versions of the Dolphin SCI adapters to create a shared memory interface that maps over 300 megabytes of data across clustered PCs and into VME racks. "The space station training system is a good example of the type of shared memory application for which SCI can deliver very high performance," said Kare Lochsen, CEO of Dolphin Interconnect. "And of course we're pleased that RTSC found SCI to be an appropriate interconnect solution for this application." The training system was previously based on a mainframe platform, but architectural changes that would require re-engineering the application, along with rising costs, prompted a search for a more cost-effective computing platform. A cluster architecture appeared to offer a competitive alternative and RTSC considered several interconnect alternatives, including several Ethernet-based technologies. SCI is an IEEE standard interface that runs at one gigabyte per second. Dolphin Interconnect has developed a series of SCI adapters implementing the interface that can be used for a wide range of real-time computing and shared-memory applications using large amounts of data.