Optimized I/O Architecture
Advanced Throughput and I/O Power
Another key advantage of Onyx is its advanced and well balanced I/O
subsystem. POWERchannel-2 (tm) is the fundamental component of the
I/O subsystem and supports sustained data transfer rates up to 320
MB per second per board.
Each POWERchannel-2 board contains:
- a l0 MB/sec Ethernet controller,
- two 20 MB/sec FAST/WIDE 16-bit SCSI-II controllers (configurable as
single-ended or differential),
- a 50 MB/sec VME controller,
- two 19.2 KB RS232 serial ports,
- a 38.4 KB RS422 serial port,
- a parallel port, and
- a high-speed 150MB/sec graphics connection.
Additional
expansion and customization is available with optional daughter
boards (HIO modules) that plug directly onto the POWERchannel-2.
Added disk throughput and capacity is achieved with SCSI-II HIO
modules. Each module adds three additional 20 MB/sec SCSI-II
controllers and up to two SCSI-II HIO modules may be added per
POWERchannel-2 board. For high speed networking performance,
optional HiPPI and FDDI HIO modules can be added.
The optimized l/O architecture arms Onyx for a wide range of
throughput intensive applications such as satellite image
acquisition and analysis, earth sciences, remote sensing, and video
on demand.
POWERchannel-2 I/O subsystem
- One to four POWERchannel-2 boards in an Onyx rack
- 320 MB/sec I/O bandwidth per POWERchannel-2
- VME64 controller with 50 MB/sec bus
- High-speed graphics connection
- Two FAST/WIDE 16-bit SCSI-2 controllers
- Optional expansion to add up to six additional SCS1-2
controllers, HiPPI, and FDDI connections
