HALSTENBEK, Germany, 24 Sept. 2008. TEWS Technologies announced this week the TAMC863, a new synchronous/asynchronous serial AMC module with four high speed communication channels.

The serial communication controller is implemented in FPGA (field programmable gate array) logic, combined with the bus master capable PCI interface. It guarantees long term availability with the option to implement additional application specific functions for customers. The TAMC863 is designed for data communications, LAN/WAN networking, aerospace/defense communications, traffic control, simulation, and telecommunications applications, TEWS officials say.

Several serial communication protocols are supported by each channel, such as asynchronous, isochronous, synchronous and HDLC mode. In addition, a maximum data rate of 10 megabits per second is provided for synchronous protocols and 2 megabits per second is supported for asynchronous protocols.

Multiprotocol transceivers are used for the line interface. The physical interface of each channel can be independently software selected for EIA-232, EIA-422, EIA-449, EIA-530, EIA-530A, V.35, V.36, or X.21. Physical connection is either through front panel I/O with an HD68 SCSI-V (VHDCI/Champ) type connector or rear I/O via P14.

In order to reduce CPU overhead and increase data rates for critical applications, the TAMC863 features a receive and transmit FIFO of 512 long words (32 bit) per channel. Data transfer on the PCI bus is handled via TAMC863 initiated DMA cycles with minimum host/CPU intervention. In addition, several interrupt sources can generate interrupts on INTA for each channel, and interrupts may be enabled or disabled separately, TEWS officials say.

Asynchronous and basic synchronous support for major operating systems such as Windows, Linux, VxWorks, and QNX is available.

For more information, visit www.tews.com.