Intel Announces Fast, Non-transparent PCI Bridges for Communications and Embedded Applications; New 33 MHz, 66 MHz PCI-to-PCI Bridges Enhance Subsystem Design, Performance - Product Announcement

Edge: Work-Group Computing Report, Feb 21, 2000

Intel Corporation Tuesday announced new additions to its family of PCI-to-PCI Bridge products for high-performance communications and embedded applications.

The 33 MHz 21555-AA and 66 MHz 21555-BA Non-Transparent PCI-to-PCI Bridges are designed to interconnect separate host and local processor domains within a computer system. The 21555-BA operates at twice the speed of Intel's existing 21554 Non-Transparent Bridge.

Non-transparent PCI-to-PCI bridges simplify the configuration of intelligent I/O subsystems such as RAID controllers and the interconnection of independent processors in communications and embedded PCI applications. The 21555 PCI-to-PCI Bridges boost system performance by supporting 64-bit primary and 64-bit secondary bus interfaces. The new devices operate at 3.3 volts and are also 5.0-volt I/O tolerant. The 21555 Bridges are fully compliant with Revision 2.2 of the PCI specification.

Independent Address Mapping, Configuration

The 21555 Bridges differ from standard, transparent PCI-to-PCI bridges by allowing independent mapping of primary and secondary bus address spaces, a key benefit when local devices require large address maps. The 21555 Bridges can perform address translation between the primary and secondary buses, resolving address conflicts for transactions forwarded across the bridge.

The new devices enable local processors to manage configuration of PCI subsystem devices without host intervention. The 21555 Bridges effectively "hide" subsystem resources from the host processor and allows an entire subsystem to appear to the host processor as a single device requiring only one device driver. The local processor can then independently initialize and control the subsystem, simplifying overall system configuration and freeing the host processor from subsystem device control tasks.

Performance, Flexibility, Standards Compliance

"The 21555 PCI-to-PCI Bridges are designed for high performance, maximum configuration flexibility, and adherence to industry standards," said Nick Finamore, general manager, Bridge Products Operation, Intel. "They are capable of synchronous or asynchronous clocking for increased application flexibility and can be pre-configured to meet the needs of vendor-specific applications by pre-loading device-specific registers."

"Architectural independence enables the 21555 to work with any host or local processor that supports the PCI bus," said Matt Theall, marketing manager, Bridge Products Operation, Intel. "It also supports industry specifications for power management and I/O, including ACPI and PCI Bus Power Management, Compact PCI Distributed Hot Swap, and PCI Vital Product Data."

Supports Standard Bridge Functions, New Features

The 21555 PCI-to-PCI Bridges perform all of the bridging functions of Intel's 2115x PCI-to-PCI Bridge family, including delayed transactions and buffering of multiple delayed and posted write transactions. The 21555 Bridges each contain 256 bytes of posted write data and 256 bytes of read data buffering in both directions and support four delayed transaction entries in each direction.

In addition, the 21555 Bridges contain new features such as Retry Counter Disabling, which allows infinite repetition of transaction receiving target retries; a lookup table (LUT) page size extension bit that expands the upstream memory two window capability to two gigabytes; and a hot-swap VDD reset capability from the secondary interface.

Price, Availability

The 21555-AA and 21555-BA PCI-to-PCI Bridges are both immediately available in 304-pin PBGA ball grid array packages and are priced at $33 and $42.90, respectively, in quantities of 10,000.

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