PIOS newsletter #3/97
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"PIOS One" prototype nearing completion
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The "PIOS ONE" wasn't ready for the Hannover Faire. Unfortunately,
due to unexpected delays with our contract manufacturer, and
late delivery of some critical test equipment, detailed debugging
of the "PIOS ONE" prototype didn't start until the week of CeBIT.
We had a fully functional lab set up at the PIOS home office,
but eventually found a bug on the prototype CPU card that
couldn't be easily fixed, due to the mechanical difficulties of
reworking a Ball Grid Array packaged chip.
	
Other than missing the CeBIT introduction, though, this was not
a terrible problem. The prototype CPU module was based on the
MPC105 controller, the same chip used in the BeBox - not CHRP
compliant. We had already begun work on a new CPU card with the
CHRP compliant MPC106 controller, and other improvements. This
will be shipped in every PIOS system. Thanks to the MPC106
architecture and other refinements, we can deliver better
performance with a single CPU than the BeBox delivered with a
dual processor. The new module also supports fast L2 cache, one
additional DIMM module, and the standard PowerPC "Socket3", which
can be used for logic analyzers and simple CPU upgrades.

With these advanced machines now soon up and running, we will then
be ready to go into serial production.

                                             --Dave Haynie


Product Availability
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Production of the first generation of "PIOS ONE"-based systems,
transAM and Maxxtrem, will be ramped up by May. We are expecting
to deliver the first transAM-200s by June 1st, followed shortly
afterwards by the Maxxtrem-200s.