GMSPMC-QSIO General Micro Systems Quad Synchronous / Asynchronous Serial I/O PMC Module

The General Micro Systems Commander QSIO Quad Synchronous/Asynchronous Serial I/O PMC Module is the industry's first quad multi-protocol/multi-interface standard, PMC module. The Commander provides up to four fully independent channels of asynchronous and/or synchronous communications protocols with EIA-232C or EIA-422/485 line interfaces in balanced or unbalanced modes. Each channel can communicate up to 153.6KB/S in asynchronous mode or up to 10Mb/S in synchronous mode. For ease of configuration, each channel can be configured to any of the line interface options simply by removing a resistor pack from a high reliability machine screw socket and plugging it into the adjacent socket. This prevents the use of small jumpers, which can be lost or even dropped in the system, and can cause major damage. Each channel on the Commander is connected to the PMC front panel via a 68 Pin high-density connector and to the PMC P4 connector which is then brought to the VME P2. When the PMC QSIO is used in a synchronous mode, the source of clock can be internal clock via the 3.6864MHz oscillator or a custom oscillator which can be installed on the QSIO or the clock can be provided from an external source.

The GMS PMC QSIO takes advantages of the PCI bus with its fast transfers and support for resource management. The PCI bus is connected to the Tundra's QSpan device, which converts the PCI bus to a Motorola-style local bus. The local bus then is connected to two, industry standard Zilog Z16C30 Multi Protocol Serial Controllers. Each device is capable of supporting a variety of asynchronous and synchronous protocols. In asynchronous mode, data rates up to 153.6KB/Sec on all of four channels can be sustained and in synchronous mode data rates of up to 3.6Mbits/ Sec can be sustained on all four channels. The synchronous protocols include HDLC, SDLC, Bisync, and many byte oriented protocols. Each Z16C30 device is clocked via an on-board 3.6864MHz oscillator, or provisions have been provided for a user oscillator for custom operations. Further, each device may be clocked by the external source, for remote sync operations. The serial devices are connected to two sets of buffers, EIA-232C and EIA-422/485. In the EIA-422 mode, each channel can operate in a balanced mode or in an unbalanced mode. All the board configurations are made via a resistor network array, instead of jumpers and straps. Software drivers for Wind River VxWorks, and Phar Lap are available in binary and source from General Micro Systems, Inc.