WOLF announces MXC, a revolutionary development in embedded video graphics, frame-grabbers and GPGPU modules
A true breakthrough technology, MXC is a new extended temperature (-40° to +85°C), Mil-810 high 40G shock and vibration, conductive cooled modular graphics processing architecture for military, aerospace, industrial, and medical applications.
This major Wolf innovation frees designers from the limitations imposed by legacy XMC, PMC and MXM architectures, and enables outstanding flexibility, and technology gains. Through the implementation of this new MXC video graphics and GPGPU technology, Wolf will assist OEMs in the creation of a new superior generation of leading-edge products.
Unique to WOLF, the MXC technology is a hybrid derivation of the XMC, MXM 3.0, and PMC specifications. MXC embedded modules are small (70mm x 85mm), conduction-cooled, mezzanine boards, designed to be used with carrier cards. These include, but are not limited to, 3U and 6U VPX, cPCI, VME64, and custom or COMexpress baseboard configurations.
To improve upon the successes of XMC, PMC, MXM 3.0, and the standard bussing scheme of PCIe, the MXC specification utilizes the SAMTEC Searay™ connector to provide superior support during extreme shock and vibration situations, while enabling high-speed electrical signals through dedicated connectivity. Individual pins are defined for each video input and output, eliminating the need for signal multiplexing.
The new WOLF MXC cards are smaller than XMC and PMC units, yet present over 500 pins, offering more than 100 combinations of video input and outputs including: DVI, LVDS, VGA, RGB, HDMI, Display Port, Composite, NTSC, S-Video, RS-170C, RS-343, SCART, PAL, SECAM, and custom configurations. This generous pin configuration allows WOLF to create VPX, VME, Compact PCIe, COMexpress and custom baseboard variations, enabling a family of products offering both expanded video input and output, parallel GPGPU processing plus the capacity to upgrade to future technologies through drop-in replacement MXC modules.
A further advantage of Wolf’s MXC architecture is the ability to have two MXC sites on a standard 3U Eurocard, and four MXC sites on a standard 6U Eurocard, twice that available using XMC, or PMC technologies alone. This capacity is further enhanced by dual MXC Crossfire implementations, enabling the paralleling of multiple video graphic modules, or GPGPU processors, into an extreme performance array processor.
WOLF President Craig McLaren noted, “Our innovative MXC architecture will accommodate future advanced video graphic chips leveraging MXC’s high bandwidth, huge number of available pins, and modular rugged conductive enclosure. MXC will incorporate new higher performance and feature-rich video graphic chips with enhanced GPGPU capabilities to easily reside in 3U and 6U VPX and other Eurocard form factors, as well as in unique COMexpress or custom baseboard configurations. As WOLF is a custom design rapid engineering house, we are able to provide specific input and output combinations and make changes to create exactly what our customers require.”
Current MXC cards use the AMD Radeon e4690, providing superior graphics capabilities coupled with video input and capture capabilities using Xilinx Spartan 6 and Virtex FPGA’s.
Key Features:
- 512MB of on-chip embedded GDDR3 SDRAM
- x1, x2, x4, x8, or x16 lane PCIe 2.0
- Two independent display controllers supporting up to 3840 x 2400 per display
- Hardware support for OpenGL 3.0, and DirectX 10.1 with Shader Model 4.1
- ATI AVIVO™ Display Engine
- Board power-on sequencing independent of system power-on
- Hardware integrated CROSSFIRE™ connectivity
- Operating Temperature: -40°C to +85°C measured at primary thermal interface
- Optimized for low power operation. Uses only 5V and 3.3V.
- On board monitoring of 4 independent voltage current and temperature through external I2C connection
(For full feature list, see website: http://wolf.ca/products/mxc-e4690)
WOLF Industrial Systems Inc. is a renowned North American engineering design center, specializing in the rapid development and manufacture of custom boards and systems. WOLF is located in Uxbridge, Ontario Canada. President Craig McLaren can be reached at craig@wolf.ca or 1-800-931-4114. Web: www.wolf.ca.