A new CPU-8X family of Motorola 88000-based VME RISC boards from Force Computers Inc, Campbell, California, are being offered with 17 MIPS single board performance, 34 MIPS in a tightly-coupled configuration, or 340 MIPS in a 10-chip VME backplane board. Aimed at high-end real-time and transaction processing systems, the boards each use 20MHz versions of the 88000, and Force claims to have eliminated wait states to dynamic RAM. The CPU-80 has a single M88100 CPU processor and two M88200 cache memory management units with either 4Mb or 16Mb memory. It supports the VMEbus interface, has a SCSI interface, two serial and one parallel board. The CPU-81 is similarly configured but has a VME subsystem bus interface in place of the SCSI interface and parallel port. The CPU-82 is an expansion board to the CPU-80 and -81, with one 88100 processor, up to five 88200 memory management units, 8Mb or 32Mb of memory, a VME subsystem bus interface and optional Ethernet interface. The extra memory management units implement a lock and load function for real-time operation. The CPU-8X series’ message exchange capabilities are compatible with Force’s VME/Plus line of 68030-based boards, meaning they can be integrated into existing CISC systems, allowing message exchange software to work without modification. The RISC boards come with Forcebug/88K, an EPROM-based monitor that includes driver code and support for embedded control applications, as well as an introductory support program – Running Start. Real-time operating systems will become available on the boards from next year – amongst them OS-9000 from Microware, PDOS from Eyring Research, Wind River Systems’ VxWorks, Software Components Group’s pSOS and the VRTX32 system from Ready Systems. The 20MHz, 4Mb CPU-80 and CPU-81 are to ship this quarter, the 8Mb CPU-82 at the beginning of next year, along with 25MHz versions. CPU-80 and CPU-81 are priced at $9,900, the CPU-82 is $8,900 and the Running Start program is $990. Force is aiming its sights on revenues of $45m this financial year.
