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This newsletter is a service of Barco Control Rooms. 12 January 2006
The information provided should be treated as confidential.
Please contact rudolf.winghart@barco.com for remarks and suggestions. page 1 of 4
ProductNews
12 Jan 2006
Keeping pace with current PC technology is a key factor for a state-of-the
art display wall controller. The new TransForm A4 generation of the
TransForm A Processor incorporates new, future-proof technologies like
Serial-ATA, USB and PCI Express and comes with improved system
performance.
Sales release
TransForm A – 3.6 GHz CPU, 1 GByte, 4 PCI slots
Overview
The switch to the next generation of mainboards was triggered by the discontinuation of the
current mainboard and the matching type of Pentium CPU. The product innovation entails the
benefits of new features, standards and interfaces but naturally affects the specifications in
both directions
Following evolution in PC technology, at the end of the current mainboard time has come to
face up to the facts of a reduced number of standard PCI slots. Instead of previously 6 PCI
slots, the new mainboard provides only 4 of them. To some extent this minus is balanced out
by 3 new PCI Express (PCIe) slots.
Special attention has to be paid to compatibility and spare and replacement part
management, due to the change in internal interface types for disk drives etc.
Specification
Besides the reduced number of PCI slots the system now provides more standard memory,
more max. memory and a higher processor performance in combination with new
PC technologies like Serial-ATA disk drive interfaces, the PCI Express system bus, USB
keyboard connection, DDR2 memory technology, … and all at the same list prices as before.
As the core component of the T
RANSFORM A PROCESSOR, it is the mainboard that mostly
accounts for the change in specifications, but following technology trends also additional
changes will be introduced with this step.
The T
RANSFORM A PROCESSOR now is driven by a Intel Pentium IV processor 660, featuring
3.6 GHz, a front side bus running at 800 MHz and 2MByte of on-chip second level cache.
Depending on the application this results in an increase of performance between 5% and 25%
compared to the former 3.4 GHz system.
The new T
RANSFORM A PROCESSOR comes standard with 1 GByte of main memory and has two
free memory sockets for an optional expansion up to 3 GByte (using 2x 1 GByte memory
modules). This is not only an implicit price reduction, but also allows upgrading without the
need of removing the memory modules from the basic configuration.
The 4 PCI slots allow inserting up to 4 T
RANSFORM A expansion cards in Processor-only
configurations or connecting up to 4 T
RANSFORM A OMNIBUS units. In order to save the PCI
slots as much as possible for expansion cards and O
MNIBUS interfaces, the 3 additional
PCI Express slots will be made available for PCI Express Ethernet adapter cards.
This newsletter is a service of Barco Control Rooms. 12 January 2006
The information provided should be treated as confidential.
Please contact rudolf.winghart@barco.com for remarks and suggestions. page 2 of 4
ProductNews
Therefore two new PCI Express based 10/100/1000 Mbit network adapters will be introduced.
A single channel standard adapter card is available to extend the onboard Ethernet port. For
redundant Ethernet configurations there is a new dual channel server adapter. While the dual
channel server adapter is limited to one card, up to 3 standard Ethernet adapter cards can be
added to the system
Please note:
There is always an integrated 10/100/1000 Mbit onboard Ethernet port on the mainboard!
Thus systems requiring only one Ethernet port do not need an extra network adapter card.
In the field of disk drive interfaces also a replacement process is ongoing. The more flexible
and robust Serial-ATA (SATA) interface is driving out the 80-pin flat ribbon cable based
Parallel-ATA. For T
RANSFORM A the SATA interface will now become standard for all 3 available
disk subsystem types, RAID-1, RAID-5, and the standard single disk.
It has also to be mentioned that the floppy disk drive will no longer be a standard part of the
system. But of course it will continuously remain available as an option and as a spare part.
USB keyboard & mouse
With the update of the T
RANSFORM A PROCESSOR also the USB interface technology will be
introduced for connecting mouse and keyboard to the T
RANSFORM A PROCESSOR. While the
current mouse already supports USB, a new keyboard of type Cherry G81 will be added to the
product portfolio and the proprietary PS/2 based keyboard/mouse-extender will be
substituted by a 3
rd
party USB extender. Standard extension length will again be 20m but
optionally up to 50m will be supported using off-the-shelf Cat5 cables.
Transition handling
T
RANSFORM A4 (RSAGS33890 and RSAGS33891) is hereby released for sale!
The BFO configurator and price book will include the new articles from January 15
th
, 2006 on.
All orders for RSAGS33282 and RSAGS33283 (T
RANSFORM A6 PROCESSOR) will be manually
checked. In close cooperation with project management and the respective sales executives
the orders will be upgraded to the new T
RANSFORM A PROCESSOR, TRANSFORM A4 wherever
applicable.
Orders for T
RANSFORM A6 (RSAGS33282 and RSAGS33283) later than January 15
th
will require
an SSR.
Please note:
For the time of the transition, a reliable management of the remaining quantities of the
components in question requires a tight control of orders and deliveries. The goal is to ensure
that projects which have been offered as a T
RANSFORM A6 solution in a Processor-only
configuration can be carried out as planned. Furthermore a sufficient amount of the
components will be reserved for spares, repair and system extensions.
This newsletter is a service of Barco Control Rooms. 12 January 2006
The information provided should be treated as confidential.
Please contact rudolf.winghart@barco.com for remarks and suggestions. page 3 of 4
ProductNews
TransForm A Processor components
Starting February 2006, every T
RANSFORM A configuration will come with the new version of
the T
RANSFORM A PROCESSOR. As with the previous version, the device is available as non-
redundant and redundant version and can be equipped with a standard hard disk, RAID-1 or
RAID-5 hard disks.
The following table lists the article numbers for the T
RANSFORM A PROCESSOR and its optional
components:
Item Description Comment
RSAGS33890 TransForm A Processor non-redundant power supply,
3.6GHz, 4xPCI slots
1 GByte DDR2 RAM
RSAGS33891 TransForm A Processor redundant power supply,
3.6GHz, 4xPCI slots
1 GByte DDR2 RAM
RSDRV33930 TransForm A hard disk Hard disk, 80GB, SATA
RSDRV33940 TransForm A RAID-1 disk system RAID level 1 disk system with
2 hard disks, 2x80GB,SATA
RSDRV34020 TransForm A RAID-5 disk system RAID level 5 disk system with
3 hard disks, 3x80GB, SATA
RSNET33950 TransForm A Gbit Ethernet Adapter PCIe 10/100/1000 Mbit
RSNET33951 TransForm A 2 ch. Gbit Server Adapter PCIe 10/100/1000 Mbit, redundant
RSTAS34010 TransForm A Kbd Extension USB 20m
RSPSU33960 TransForm A power supply module Backwards compatible
RSDRV33939 TransForm A spare hard disk 80GB, SATA
RSDRV33949 TransForm A spare RAID-1 hard disk 80GB, SATA
RSDRV34029 TransForm A spare RAID-5 hard disk 80GB, SATA
RSMEM33910 TransForm A memory 512 MB DDR2 Not compatible to type DDR!
RSMEM33911 TransForm A memory 1 GB DDR2 Not compatible to type DDR!
System requirements and compatibility
Generally it is recommended to operate the system using the current software versions
A
POLLO Release 1.8, Windows Driver Release 4.0 and X Windows system Release 4.0 or newer.
Although the PC architecture and extensive testing ensure a high level of compatibility, there
are still some issues when upgrading or replacing faulty components in a
T
RANSFORM A PROCESSOR or in a former EOS/ARGUS base unit.
The Compatibility FAQ below lists all known issues.
This newsletter is a service of Barco Control Rooms. 12 January 2006
The information provided should be treated as confidential.
Please contact rudolf.winghart@barco.com for remarks and suggestions. page 4 of 4
ProductNews
Compatibility FAQ
Issue Solution
Mainboard replacement
for systems using
5 to 6 PCI slots
The new mainboard of type D2156-S is applicable as a replacement
component if all PCI cards of the system fit into 4 PCI slots.
Otherwise a D1567 mainboard from the emergency stock should be
used. It is however assumed that exceeding 4 slots is not caused by
PCI Ethernet cards, as these cards could be replaced by PCIe
Ethernet cards!
Mainboard replacement
for Windows systems
employing obsolete
QuadVideoCard
FRG-2739-0x
The Q
UADVIDEO CARD FRG-2739-0x is not working in Windows
systems with the D2156-S mainboard.
This incompatibility issue is met by a sufficient amount of the
former D1567 mainboard on stock. At the cost of a higher price and
additional slots and by the benefit of higher performance also the
replacement of the Q
UADVIDEOCARD with the superior solution
consisting of Q
UAD ANALOG VIDEO CARD and OMNISCALER could be
taken into consideration.
Mainboard replacement
for X Window systems
with Failsafe Mode
Failsafe Mode on X Window systems with the network adapter
NET-2792-1x cannot employ the D2156-S mainboard. Preferably
Extended Safety mode should be used in such cases.
Mainboard replacements
for X Window systems
using onboard LAN port
Only from version 4.0 onwards the X Windows System contains
driver support for the onboard LAN chip.
For a driver update for former versions contact Customer Support!
Parallel-ATA vs. Serial-
ATA hard disk drives
The former Parallel-ATA drives mounted in their respective drive
frames will remain available as spare parts. Currently there is no
need to switch existing systems to Serial-ATA.
Power supply
The new standard power supply is superior and backwards
compatible to its predecessor and thus will also replace it as a
spare part. There was no change in the redundant power supply.
Main memory
In contrast to the former DDR type memory modules, the new
mainboard now specifies DDR2 type memories. DDR and DDR2 are
not compatible. Therefore in case of upgrading memory or
replacement of memory make sure to use the correct memory type!
PCI Ethernet adapters vs.
PCI Express Ethernet
adapters
The former PCI Ethernet adapter cards still can be used in PCI slots
of the D2156-S mainboard of a new T
RANSFORM A4 system.
PCI Express version of
Multiport I/O card
Currently there is no PCI Express based Multiport I/O card foreseen!
The Multiport I/O card is a standard PCI card and can therefore be
used in PCI slots of the D2156-S mainboard of a new T
RANSFORM A4
system.
Firmware version of
UGX Graphic Card and
AGX Graphic Card
(BIOS)
The firmware version of the UGX G
RAPHIC CARD AGX-3281 has to be
version 07 or newer when used in combination with a D2156-S
mainboard.
The firmware version of the AGX G
RAPHIC CARD AGX-3000 has to be
version 14 or newer when used in combination with a D2156-S
mainboard.
Rudolf Winghart
Product Manager
rudolf.winghart@barco.com
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