On one hand, there are the classic technologies like VME that have been around for years. On the other, there are new processors and technologies such as Intel’s Core i7. Though the latest technologies quickly gain more notoriety than the tried-and-true technologies, it doesn’t have to be an “either/or” proposition. Concurrent Technologies apparently found the philosophy appealing, as manifested in its VP 717/08x family of 6U VME boards, which feature … a Core i7 processor. Since VME is known to be hale and hearty, the VP 717/08x has followed suit, with extended-temp versions available now and ruggedized air- or conduction-cooled versions to soon follow.
Designed to handle CPU-intensive processing applications for the homeland security, defense, transportation, and industrial control industries, VP 717/08x is based on an Intel Platform Controller Hub (PCH) in addition to the Mobile Intel QM57 Express chipset. Supporting the classic VITA 31.1 GbE on a VME64x backplane standard, other highlights offered by the VP 717/08x include two XMC x8 PCI Express or 100 MHz PCI-X PMC sites, optional expansion for two additional PMC sites, 2048 x 1536 analog graphics, 2x RS-232/422/485, SATA300 and EIDE rear I/O interfaces plus an optional SATA300 2.5-inch disk drive … not to mention 2x GbE ports and 64 MB application flash memory.