Thales Unveils R2U4S, R4U8S and R8U16S

October 17, 2006 – Edison, New Jersey and Toulon, France – Thales, a leading provider of VMEbus and CompactPCI single-board computer (SBC) products and systems, today introduced the R2U4S, R4U8S and R8U16S, a full set of COTS 19-inch rack mount VME industrial chassis. These ranges of products are ideally suited to meet a wide range of customers’ needs and deployment of industrial-grade hardware in hostile environments.

Available in 2U, 4U and 8U, these enclosures can house a range of 6U VME64x back-planes featuring P0 connectors of 4, 8 and 16 slot, respectively. The back-planes all route both the intelligent chassis management bus (ICMB) and the intelligent platform management bus (IPMB) which are part of the intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) described in the VITA 38 recommendations. The IPMI shelf management of the end system can be easily met by the addition of a baseboard management controller in the payload accommodated nearby the power supply unit (PSU).

The 2U and 4U models are designed for VME horizontal load applications, with either 100% front or 100% rear access. The 8U model hosts the cards vertically as recommended for use in most naval applications. All these products accommodate 80mm depth VITA36 standard rear-transition-modules (RTM). An optional front panel covers either the front or the rear card-frame area. A cable way allow front to rear wiring. The enclosures are supplied with a modular Power Supply Unit able to provide enough power to build high performance computing clusters. The default value is 400watts, 700w and 1200w for the 2U, 4U and 8U products, respectively. The voltage balance can be tune easily by changing the modules of the PSU. Furthermore, the PSU can be twinned with another one in order to assure the redundancy feature required in safety critical applications.

“The brand new range of COTS 19-inch industrial racks is our first offering that provides all the reliability and flexibility required by system integrators for Mil-aerospace applications. With such a products range, the hardware set up of a computing system is as easy as possible, and our customers can focus their contribution on the application without looking for a new rack when a new computing unit is added” said Joe Eicher, Thales Computers’ Director of Global Field Application Engineering.

Pricing for the R2U4S starts at $5,800 in small volume and subject to specifications. All the enclosures are covered by Thales Computers’ Long Term Supply program. This offer guarantees customers a multi-year supply of the product beyond its active life, a unique offering for Intel and PowerPC processor-based products.

About Thales

Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace, security and services markets worldwide. The Thales Group employs 60,000 people throughout the world and generated revenues of € 10.3 billion in 2005. Thales computers activities include development of commercial and ruggedized VMEbus & CompactPCI multiprocessing solutions based on PowerPC and Intel microprocessors. Thales’ products are optimized for a wide variety of applications in the military, aerospace, transportation, communications, and industrial markets and are used by customers worldwide, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing, Bombardier, Toshiba, British Aerospace, Ericsson, Alcatel, MBDA, Finmeccanica, Thales Group, and others. For more information please visit our web site at www.thalescomputers.com.