PCI Mezzanine Card Leverages New Standard Architecture

Motorola Computer Group (MCG) has introduced the industry's first PCI mezzanine card to incorporate an MPC750 PowerPC microprocessor with MCG's Power Plus II architecture.

The PPMC750 Processor PCI Mezzanine Card (PPMC) creates a powerful new "macro component" that offers OEMs a standard module to easily customize and upgrade systems for a variety of industries, including the semiconductor equipment, industrial automation, medical imaging and telecommunications markets.

Traditionally, embedded computing architectures plug small mezzanine boards that hold specialized I/O interfaces into a motherboard or base board in order to adapt to the needs of a particular application. Today, complex applications require a reverse approach that places the microprocessor on the mezzanine card and all of the I/O interfaces on the baseboard. This simplifies product development and helps speed time to market by enabling OEMs to concentrate on designing and debugging their custom 33 MHz PCI logic, rather than devoting resources to designing and debugging high-speed memory, cache interfaces and 350Mhz microprocessor logic.

The PPMC750 can serve as the primary—or host—microprocessor, which is connected to a base board full of PCI-based I/O interfaces. The PPMC750, however, can also serve as an additional—or slave—microprocessor, creating a loosely coupled multiprocessing system. Whether used as a slave or host, the microprocessor on the PPMC adheres to MCG's PowerPlus II architecture, which features a 64-bit PCI host bridge and a 72-bit ECC memory controller with a 100MHz SDRAM memory interface. This architecture delivers new levels of microprocessor bandwidth, a strong real-time software base and more space for peripheral features on the single board computer.

This new technology from MCG is designed to be a standard PPMC that will fit in most applications. This open, simple standard would allow OEMs to easily build and upgrade their customers' systems without having to redesign the PPMC.

The Processor PMC specification is currently being reviewed in the VITA Standards Organization (VSO) as VITA32-199x. MCG is playing an instrumental role in getting this standard approved.