Themis offers open-systems modular embedded computer architecture with air and liquid cooling

May 1, 2006
Engineers at Themis Computer in Fremont, Calif., are unveiling a processor-independent switched computing architecture with air- or liquid-cooling options for high-density mission-critical computing in hostile environments.

By John Keller

FREMONT, Calif. - Engineers at Themis Computer in Fremont, Calif., are unveiling a processor-independent switched computing architecture with air- or liquid-cooling options for high-density mission-critical computing in hostile environments.

The Themis Slice architecture enables systems designers to mix, match, and manage SPARC and x86 microprocessors, as well as Solaris, Windows, and Linux operating systems, in combination with third-party network servers, storage, and switches.

The company’s Quorum real-time policy based resource manager ensures contracted application quality of service for heterogeneous computing resources. The Slice architecture is available in air- and liquid-cooling variants for scaling commercial microprocessor core density, speed, and power.

“Themis Computer has achieved a breakthrough reduction in space, weight, and power for mission-critical distributed computing systems,” says Themis President William Kehret. “By functionally disaggregating commercial computing resources and housing them in a standardized footprint, purpose-built enclosure, the Themis Slice architecture enables high compute densities with superior thermal and kinetic management, without external shock and vibration isolation.”

All Themis Slice elements are rugged, have a uniform mechanical footprint, and standard rack height.

As many as five Slice elements, including a common Power Slice, can combine in a 5RU docking station or subrack. The Subrack blind mates with connectors on the Slice element, providing power distribution, cable management, and dripless couplings for liquid cooling.

The Subrack allows designers to intermix liquid- and air-cooled Slices within one docking station, providing blind mated dripless couplers to cooling liquid manifolds in the docking station.

Within the Subrack, Slice elements plug into an InfiniBand high-speed serial switch fabric to interconnect as many as five clusters without external switches. Processor Slices interface with general-purpose I/O Slices over a PCI-Express fabric. Other Cluster elements include storage Slices and a four-port Gig-E target channel adapter co-located in the power Slice.

One Slice processing element can be organized as 2- to 16-way SMP nodes. Designers can configure as many as four processor Slices with as many as 64 cores in one 5U subrack.

For more information contact Themis Computer online at www.themis.com.

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