Blockchain. Cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin mining. Algorithmic trading. These disruptive technologies depend on high-performance computing platforms for reliable execution. The financial services industry invests billions in hardware to support the near real-time services consumers require. Many financial services computing applications rely on x86-based server solutions. Alternative computing architectures leveraging the benefits of FPGAs are emerging. A combination of FPGA configurability, … [Read more...]
New VPX Computing Platforms Include FireFly™ Micro Flyover System™
Standardization. COTS. Interoperability. Configurable. These often-used terms describe on-going efforts to define flexible and open critical embedded computing architectures. One such example is VITA-backed VPX. The goal of VPX is to leverage the latest switch fabric technologies in common-sized blades across multiple vendors and multiple modules. VPX solutions have several design features in common. These include: 3U and 6U formats7-row high speed connector rated up to 6.25 … [Read more...]
Samtec FireFly™ Routes Data over PCBs in New Guzik ADP7000 Series Digitizers for 5G NR
As consumers, no one ever complains that their wireless connectivity is "too fast". Global wireless carriers and network providers continue to push the limits of 4G LTE, but a next-generation wireless standard - 5G New Radio (5G NR) - is on the horizon. 5G technology will be 100x faster than current 4G LTE solutions currently on the market. While some early adopters will see 5G rollouts in late 2017 and early 2018, large-scale deployments are planned for 2019, a year earlier than … [Read more...]
FireFly™ Mid-Board Optical Engines Gain Momentum in 2017
2017 brings increased attention to mid-board optical engines. Samtec's solution in this space - FireFly™ Micro Flyover System™ - continues to win over new customers in new applications. FireFly™ and other Samtec related optical products are some of the fastest growing product lines at Samtec. As both portfolios continue to expand, this opens additional applications for Samtec's FireFly™ and optical solutions. More specifically, ruggedized and extended temperature FireFly™ applications are … [Read more...]
Samtec Releases FireFly™ Application Design Guide
As the demand for bandwidth increases, so does the demand for higher capacity products with faster transmission capabilities. In response to these demands, Samtec has expanded the FireFly™ Micro Flyover Optical product line to solve more complex design hurdles. Benefits such as copper and optical interchangeability, a small footprint for extreme high-density, high-speed 28+ Gbps performance and a simple assembly process makes FireFly™ the ideal solution for mid-board optics … [Read more...]
Samtec FireFly™ Enables Cascading of Guzik DP 7000 Digital Processors
The computing demands of high-performance applications like HPC, machine learning and high-speed communications are driven by the CPU architectures championed by Moore's Law. As that has slowed, additional processing architectures such as GPUs, DSPs and FPGAs have become commonplace in data center acceleration applications. Discrete DSPs offer compelling solutions for many unique applications, but FPGAs offer massive DSP performance capabilities. This has become more … [Read more...]
FireFly™ Finds a Home in PCIe Expansion Cards
PCI Express continues to grow as the de facto I/O expansion bus in a number of embedded computing applications. The flexibility of the PCIe interface and the data rates it supports have spawned a number of standard PCB form factors adopted in many different applications. A common functionality added to many PCIe form factor expansion cards is optical networking. While industry standard active optical cables target typical datacom and telecom applications, a variety of high-speed I/O … [Read more...]
A Friend Features FireFly™ Micro Flyover System™
Where do engineers turn when they need unbiased, truthful and updated information to solve their problem of the day? An internet search? Social media? A video? While those are all popular and have their merits, engineers often trust friends and colleagues the latest technology trends. One of Samtec's "friends" is Avnet Abacus , one of our pan-European distributors. The highly specialized technologists at Avnet Abacus consistently provide technical insight into the markets and … [Read more...]
FireFly Enhances High Performance Computing In The Data Center
In the world of high performance computing (HPC), the growing trend of hardware accelerations enables higher system performance. This is accomplished by offloading non-core processing functions and system I/O management to a secondary CPU or FPGA. While co-located HPC acceleration develops a growing acceptance in high-end servers, a number of systems leverage hardware acceleration via high speed serial busses like PCIe. In some systems, the PCIe-enabled hardware accelerators are found … [Read more...]
Chip-to-Chip at 25 Gbps+ . . . Over Fiber?
As another year dawns, the demand for data remains insatiable. The number crunching of Big Data requires larger and faster supercomputers to analyze immeasurable data sets. New server architectures leverage hardware accelerators – in FPGAs or via expansion cards – to offload system processing. The growth of the IoT gives rise to data acquisition systems aggregating GBs of data. High-speed test and measurement equipment emulate signal traffic found in next generation routers, switches and … [Read more...]