From the original Motorola QUICC to the modern Freescale PowerPC-based PowerQUICC, designers could be assured of one thing: maximum peripheral density in a low-power package. That’s the reason Interface Concept, a European provider of all kinds of open-standard small form factor hardware, opted to use the 1 GHz PowerQUICC III MPC8536E. It’s at the heart of a new 3U VPX convection-cooled carrier/XMC sandwich boasting impressive I/O in a small footprint.
The main event is the 1 GHz PowerQUICC III backed up by 1 GB of DDR2 SDRAM with ECC. There’s also 128 MB of flash and 4 GB of NAND flash for larger NV storage. There are up to 3 GbE ports, 1x USB 2.0 port, 2 SATA ports (on P2), and 2x RS-232 serial ports. Best of all, with a board blasting data from all its ports, it consumes a mere 10 W at 1 GHz. The convection-cooled board is available in standard, extended, and rugged grades. BSPs include VxWorks and Linux, with custom BSPs available.
