Stratus Technologies : Products : Servers : Continuum Series : 600 & 1200 Series : Hardware Description

Memory Subsystem

The Continuum family introduces a new memory design, with main memory located on the same board as the CPU for maximum throughput. Memory is available in .5 G or 2 GB increments, with a maximum of 4 GB of duplex memory supported.

I/O Subsystems

Continuum systems incorporate three I/O processors designed to provide system I/O dedicated to data management.

The K460 is a high-performance I/O processor consisting of a pair of duplex boards, each of which contains four differential SCSI ports and one 10/100 Mbps Ethernet port.
The K470 is an I/O controller designed for high-speed communications. It contains 3 PCI mezzanine card (PMC) slots. These slots can be occupied in any combination of 10/100 Mbps Ethernet and 4/16 Mbps Token Ring.
The K600 is a high-performance I/O processor consisting of a pair of duplex boards, each of which drives specialized I/O adapter cards (IOAs) across a fault-tolerant I/O bus. A K600 contains self-checking Motorola^® 68030 microprocessors, 4 MB of RAM, and a DMA engine. With intelligence distributed to dedicated I/O processors, I/O overhead at the CPU is significantly reduced for more efficient processing.

Each IOA has its own dedicated processor that supports functions such as full onboard diagnostic support, online board insertion and removal, and error recovery.

The I/O adapter cards reside in an I/O chassis. Up to six I/O chassis can be configured on the high-end Continuum systems. With up to 14 IOAs per chassis, a maximum of 84 IOAs can be put into a system. Stratus offers a number of different IOAs, including:

16-line asynchronous adapter offers a cost-effective means of connecting multiple asynchronous lines. Supports both full and null modem connections.
Universal communications adapter provides a two-line, user-programmable communications interface for increased system connectivity. Resident firmware supports high-level language programming and development of custom protocols for the onboard Motorola 68000 CPU. The adapter contains the processing power, storage, and transfer capacity needed to interface both asynchronous and synchronous serial devices to a Stratus system. Available electrical interfaces include RS232, RS422, RS423, and V.35. The adapter lines operate at up to 64 Kbps in both the synchronous and asynchronous modes and feature 512 KB of onboard RAM.
T1/E1/ISDN PRI adapter allows for the connection of Stratus systems to networks and devices conforming to T1 (1.544 Mbps) and E1 (2.048 Mbps) interfaces. Both North American and Euro-ISDN Primary Rate Interfaces are also supported.
Ethernet adapter allows connection of Stratus systems to other vendors' systems through Ethernet networks. Supporting the IEEE 802.3 standard, the Ethernet adapter has a link-level interface as well as a TCP/IP interface. The Ethernet IOA operates at a 10 Mbps data rate and has a 512 KB onboard buffer.
Token Ring adapter allows connection of Stratus systems to other vendors' systems through Token Ring networks. Supporting the IEEE 802.5 standard, the Token Ring adapter has a link-level interface as well as an optional interface to SNA APPC or NetBIOS. The Token Ring IOA operates at a 4 Mbps data rate with 512 KB of onboard buffer.
X.21 communications adapter allows for the connection of Stratus systems to networks and devices conforming to the CCITT recommendation X.21 standards. The adapter supports one high-speed synchronous line operating at up to 64 Kbps. The physical line port provides a 15-pin connector with the electrical interface conforming to the CCITT X.21 (EIA-442A) standard.
Channel Attach I/O adapter, available with VOS systems only, provides a high-speed direct connection between a Stratus system and an IBM^® S/370 or 3090 mainframe. Up to four subchannel addresses and various non-SNA protocols are configurable for the Channel Attach IOA.

In addition, a console controller provides remote service modem connection, calendar/clock, and remote and local operator terminal monitor connections to the Stratus system.