mvme5500, PowerPC, VME, and end-of-life issues

[rwas]

Chris Johns wrote:

>
>  I suspect there is no relationship to military use. I have not seen a
>  MVME167 in a system since the '90s.

I have.

An mvme167 and an mvme162, in an active military project. And I can
assure you, they have no desire to replace it.

I don't think there is anything about those particular cards that makes 
then attractive to the military,
other than many of these programs are shoestring in nature. Most of 
their hardware are leftovers
from other projects.They get there contracts based on being ready to 
perform work.
Within this niche, there is little room, in terms of money, or time to 
rebuild an already working system
with new hardware.

>Most processing boards I came
>  across where Radstone, DY4 or something similar (I cannot remember
>  who made the UltraSparc boards in the NATO AWACS). Maybe there is a
>  control market that is keeping the MVME167 going. Who knows.

I've been trying to find an mvme162 on ebay for a while. They show up 
but for some
bizarre reason, they are 4 or more times the cost of an mvme177. An 
mvme167 is cheaper
than an mvme162 but still about twice as expensive as an mvme177.

Again, I believe this has to do with legacy code, and existing 
development systems.


Robert W.