INDUSTRY

Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. announced today the capability to scale both the ImpactRT 3200 and the PowerStream 7000 multicomputers to multi-chassis configurations. This new capability uses high-bandwidth Serial RapidIO over fiber connections to tightly link multiple chassis into a single, cohesive system, enabling twice the system performance. Both the ImpactRT 3200 and the PowerStream 7000 use parallel RapidIO inside the chassis to tie multiple processors together into flexible, scalable multicomputers to address the increasingly larger computational challenges in commercial and defense applications. Now these Mercury solutions can scale beyond the chassis walls. The dual-chassis configuration of the ImpactRT 3200 scales to 152 PowerPC(R) processors, while dual-chassis PowerStream 7000 systems scale to 240 processors. "In the most demanding commercial and defense applications, our customers have an almost unlimited appetite for processing power and intra-system bandwidth," said Richard Jaenicke, director of product management, Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. "Our new Serial RapidIO connections will enable us to boost the solutions capability for these customers to the next level." Each multiple-fiber Serial RapidIO link operates at approximately 10 Gbps. Connections between chassis generally use multiple links, with 16 or more inter-chassis links available on PowerStream 7000 systems. Future implementations are expected to extend beyond dual-chassis systems to link together even larger systems. The ImpactRT 3200 is a fully integrated multicomputer that combines RapidIO interprocessor communications with PowerPC 7447A microprocessors to provide an effective solution for high-performance industrial and laboratory computing applications. Each PowerStream 7000 chassis delivers extreme processing density with up to one TeraFLOPS of processing power within an air-cooled chassis, suited to the rigors of military deployment environments. Availability Multi-chassis Serial RapidIO systems are shipping now. Additional information is available on Mercury's website: http://www.mc.com/multichassis. A high-resolution photograph can be downloaded from Mercury's image library: http://www.mc.com/73systems.