Re: 960RP in adapter cards -Reply

["John R Pierce" <pierce@hogranch.com>]

Irv Negrin <IDN@nms.com> wrote...
> A response to Mike Martin's message.
> 
> Thanks for the heads up.  I was also considering the 960RP for an add-in
> card design.  You're raising the issue made me look into it more and it
> seems the device is not suitable for that use.  The PCI spec says that all
> PCI components must operate with clocks from 0 to 33MHz and any
> individual clock may have any period so long as the edges are clean and
> the minimum high/low times are not violated.  It does offer a variance for
> components designed for motherboard use only allowing them to be
> fixed frequency up to 33 MHz.  The 960RP can only operate between 16
> and 33MHz with a period stability of less than +/- 250ps!  Sounds pretty
> fixed frequency to me.  It looks like Intel only had motherboard use in mind
> when they put that limitation on the part.  It looks like I'm going to have
to
> go back to my original plan of using PLX9060 and a separate 960 device. 
> How important is the on board PCI to PCI bridge on the 960RP to you?


You know, there are now several motherboards out there that have 960's ON them,
with an additional 4 PCI slots driven by said 960... Supermicro makes one with
dual P6 processors and a i960RP, Micronics makes one with the new i960RD.  I
believe these are all designed around Intel's new I2O initiative.

-jrp
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