Intel Corp. and Analog Devices Inc. teamed up Tuesday to announce a new bus technology that claims to improve and communicate heat dissipation and voltage management information in computer systems.
The two companies have co-developed and launched a new bus interface called the Simple Serial Transport (SST). The technology is said to enable faster and more precise communication of system efficiency, one of the determining factors in temperature and voltage within a variety of computing systems, according to ADI (Norwood, Mass.) and Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.)
By working in conjunction with a computer's core-logic chipset, the SST bus claims to reduce thermal management errors that can lead to a drop in computing performance, according to the companies.
The SST bus improves upon the existing 100-kilobits-per-second SMBus (System Management Bus) in high-performance computing applications by offering increased bandwidth and higher noise sensitivity. The SST bus relays key environmental information — such as temperature and voltage — directly to the system's core logic or dedicated ASIC fan-speed controllers, at a rate of 1-megabits-per-second.
When tested in the same environment on new PC motherboards, the SMBus measures about one error every 10,000 bits, compared to the SST bus' one error for every one billion bits processed, according to the companies.
In a related announcement, ADI introduced a family of digital temperature and voltage sensors for use in desktop computers and workstations, based on SST technology.
The ADT748x family of sensors incorporates a 10-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) to provide accurate communication of temperature and voltage levels over SST technology, according to ADI.
The ADT748x family operates at speeds over 1-Mbps and is housed in small packages, including 8-pin or 10-pin MSOPs. The ADT748x family of temperature sensors are sampling now with volume production scheduled for June 2006.
The devices are priced at $1.50 per unit in 1,000-piece quantities. The ADT7484A is available in an 8-lead MSOP, and the ADT7485A and ADT7486A are available in 10-lead MSOP packaging.
sa: http://www.eetimes.com/news/semi/sho...leID=189400737