The Centellis CO 21000-12U backplane is the first of Force's PICMG 2.16-compliant products to support speeds in the gigabit range, said David Berry product manager at Force. To achieve those rates, Force implemented redundant 24-port PICMG 2.16 Gigabit Ethernet switches from Performance Technologies Inc., which allow the Centellis system to achieve 48 Gbits of fabric bandwidth and support 20 slots in the backplane architecture.

The 21000-12U also offers remote platform management capabilities. Using SNMP, designers can tap into the platform manager cards to check system temperature, voltages, reset slots and evaluate the operating performance of each module. This capability can help network operators better track and fix problems, thus reducing operation expenses, Berry said.

The Centellis CO system comes equipped with an H.110 bus for handling TDM traffic streams, and designers can implement a mezzanine card that will convert TDM traffic into Internet Protocol (IP) traffic, which would free the H.110 bus for other tasks such as clocking, Berry said. The system has received NEBS (Network Equipment Building Systems) Level-3 testing.

In addition to redundant Gigabit Ethernet switches, the Centellis CO 21000-12U is also equipped with redundant power supplies, redundant platform management cards, and up to 17 interface cards. Force is targeting the platform at high-end communication infrastructure designs such as multiprotocol routers and high-end digital subscriber line access multiplexers.

Board world beckons

Force has also announced plans to enter the communication DSP board market and released the initial member of its Media TransPorter family. The family will be aimed at voice-over-IP (VoIP), wireless transcoding, broadband wireless access and softswitch systems.

Force will develop boards using Texas Instruments Inc.'s C54X DSPs and Motorola Inc.'s StarCore products, said Steven Roldan, director of product marketing at Force. The company's first Media TransPorter products will be based on TI's C5444 processor.

The boards will serve as daughter cards on network processor-based CompactPCI boards equipped with DS-1, DS-3, OC-3 and Ethernet interfaces. The boards are expected to deliver a peak port count of 2,000. When used in the Centellis architecture, designers can achieve a maximum port count of 34,000, Roldan said.

Volume shipments on the Centellis CO 21000-12U will start in August. Pricing starts at $18,220. Volume shipment of the Media TransPorter products is slated for October. Pricing is expected to be below $10 per port.

Robert Keenan is editor-in-chief of CommsDesign.com, an EE Times Network community site.