mlh@houxl.UUCP (M.HARRISON) (11/19/85)
<EAT THIS LINE> AT&T is today announcing the following product at Wescon in San Francisco. In response to numerous requests, I am posting this info to the net. Questions and comments are welcome, direct them to houxl!mlh. Please call 1-800-372-2447 for data sheets, etc. Lastly, I've tried to exclude any "media-hype", just technical facts here, so I hope you'll not flame too hotly! (I'm not even acknowledging the efforts of our marvelous design team!!) Marc Harrison AT&T UNIX MICROSYSTEM WE 321SB VMEbus SINGLE BOARD COMPUTER AT&T's WE 321SB is a high-performance VMEbus single-board computer based upon AT&T's UNIX Microsystem. The VMEbus' open architecture, supported by over 200 vendors worldwide, enables a user to select from over 1000 compatible products. Systems can thus be readily tailored to meet the needs of individual applications. A certified version of AT&T's UNIX System V is available for the WE 321SB, facilitating the development of high-performance open architecture UNIX systems. Software drivers are included for a number of popular third-party VMEbus products. HARDWARE The WE 321SB includes AT&T's WE 32100 CPU, WE 32101 MMU, WE 32106 Math Acceleration Unit 32 bit VLSI devices; one megabyte of DRAM with parity, four JEDEC EPROM/ROM sockets, two RS-232C ports, three 16 bit counter/timers, an interrupt controller, and VMEbus interface. Initially the board will be offered operating at 14 MHz. Two different packages are available, the first includes EPROMs containing system self-test and a resident debug monitor, the other includes system self-test and a disk boot program. The WE 321SB has been implemented using AT&T's advanced surface-mount capability to provide a product with an extraordinary size to function ratio. The board measures 160 by 233 mm. (6.3 by 9.2 inches), the standard double-height Eurocard size. On-board memory management supports a full 32 bit virtual and physical address space. The result is a linear 32 bit address space as seen by the programmer. The WE 32101 MMU also includes on-chip logic for supporting automatic miss processing. The WE 32106 Math Acceleration Unit provides both floating-point and decimal high-speed arithmetic, facilitating applications such as high accuracy robotics. Operating as a co-processor to the CPU, it works to off-load mathematically intensive operations from the CPU. SOFTWARE AT&T is offering a highly tuned release of UNIX System V to complement the WE 321SB. The UNIX Operating System was developed within AT&T Bell Laboratories during the 1970s. UNIX System V has been available since 1982 and has since received worldwide acceptance as a standardized product. System V Release 2.1, which is being initially offered with the WE 321SB, will include AT&T's latest enhancements, such as demand paging, record locking and simplified system administration. AT&T's UNIX System V for the WE 321SB includes device drivers for a selected set of third-party VME products. Supported interfaces include ST-506, SA-450, SMD, serial I/O and IEEE-488. Additional drivers will be added by AT&T as new VMEbus products are introduced. In addition, drivers may be developed by users, following the rules set forth within AT&T's System V Interface Definition and the WE 321SB OEM Porting Guide. In addition, the WE 321SB includes full hardware and software documentation to aid in applications development. The WE 321SB is both object file and floppy disk format compatible with our 3B2 computer line. Thus, the many hundreds of applications and language packages available for the 3B2 computers will execute directly on a VME system based upon the WE 321SB and our version of UNIX System V, providing immediate access to the largest base of UNIX applications software available today. Marc Harrison AT&T-ISL Room 2K-218 Holmdel, N.J. 07733 (201) 949-1779 Cornet 233-1779 ...!ihnp4( !houxl!mlh ..!vax135/