D0 Level 2 Beta Project

Level 2 "Beta" proposal (Draft as of 12 December 2000)

Single board computer suppliers:

Pentium Class

  • 1 GHz Dual Pentium III VME bus from General Micro Systems
    using Dual Coppermine-256 Embedded Pentium III Processors.

    PCI Interface Chip on the GMS Pentium III: Intel's 82443BX

  • 850 MHz Pentium III VME bus from Concurrent Technologies
    using an Intel PGA370 Socket Pentium III processor.

    PCI Interface Chip on the Concurrent Technologies Pentium III: Intel's 82443BX

  • 850 MHz Pentium III VME bus from SBS Technologies, Inc.
    using an Intel Pentium III processor.

    PCI Interface Chip on the SBS Pentium III: Intel's 82443BX

  • 850 MHz Pentium III VME bus from SBS Technologies, Inc.
    using an Intel PGA370 Socket Pentium III processor.

    PCI Interface Chip on the SBS Pentium III: Acer Lab's Aladdin-Pro II

  • 850 MHz Pentium III VME bus from VMIC
    using an Intel PGA370 Pentium III processor.

    PCI Interface Chip: Intel's 82443GX

  • 933 MHz Pentium III VME bus from VMIC
    using an Intel PGA370 Socket Pentium III processor.

    PCI Interface Chip: Intel's 815E

  • 1 GHz Pentium III VME bus from VMIC
    using an Intel Pentium III processor with MMX.

    PCI Interface Chip: Intel's 82443GX



    • Power PC Class

  • VQ750 Quad PowerPC G3/G4 from DNA Computing Solutions
    using one, two, or four G3/G4 PowerPC® processors.
    G3 processors are 466 MHz PPC750 PowerPCs with 1 MB cache.
    G4 processors are 450 MHz MPC7400 PowerPCs with 2 MB cache.

    PCI Interface Chip on the DNA Power PC: IBM's CPC710


    • An important consideration when choosing between boards is the speed and buffer size of the bridge from the
    CPU to the PCI bus, since that is a potential bottleneck in the board's communications:

    The Intel 82443BX chipset interfaces between the CPU and the bus at the maximum bus frequency of 100 MHz.

    The Intel 82443GX chipset has nearly identical specifications to the 82443BX; it also interfaces between the CPU and the bus at the maximum bus frequency of 100 MHz.

    The Intel 815E chipset interface has a 66/100/133 MHz System Bus Frequency, with a 4 deep in-order queue.

    The Aladdin-Pro II chipset interface has a 60/66/100 MHz System Bus Frequency, with a 256-byte buffer for CPU-to-Memory write, and a 128-byte buffer for CPU-to-Memory read.

    Finally, the IBM CPC710 has a 100 MHz PowerPC 60x 64-bit bus.

    Every computer on this page uses Tundra's Universe II chipset as the bridge from the PCI to the VME bus.


    Available i/o cards are:

  • CERN DDU (click on "DDU developers" then on "First DAQ Platform")

    Here you will find documentation and schematics for the DDU PMC boards and also a link to the
    documentation for the PLX9080 PCI interface chip used on these boards.

  • PMC-FPGA01 a 64-bit, 66 MHz FPGA from TransTech DSP

    Manual - local copy of Transtech's latest draft

    PCI Interface Chip on the PMC-FPGA01 card: QuickLogic's Quick PCI QL5064

  • QC64-PMC from Catalina Research

  • S-LINK cards, equipment used in CERN's High Speed Interconnect project 

    •
    For comparisons, there is a test stand at CERN, which runs a 500 MHz PowerPC 750 from Raytheon.

    Presentations, in PowerPoint format, are available
    to be downloaded:

  • Jan. 5, 2001(Bob Hirosky)

  • Dec. 14, 2000(Bob Hirosky)

  • Oct. 17, 2000(Bob Hirosky)

    • Sources for general information related to the Level2 system:

    Comments on this page to: Bob Hirosky (University of Virginia)