The HyperTransport Consortium on Tuesday unveiled a new expansion interface called HTX. The HTX slot standard is intended to accelerate the deployment of HyperTransport technology in the high-performance systems market, explained Mario Cavalli, General Manager of the Consortium, in a recent interview with MacCentral.
The HTX components are designed to be used in both riser-based (1U) and pedestal, rack-mount (3U and greater) and proprietary systems. The HyperTransport HTX Motherboard/Daughtercard specification defines an 8- or 16-bit HyperTransport interface with an up to 1.6 gigatransfer/second data rate (800 MHz clock rate) and includes all of the defined HyperTransport control signals including a synchronous reference clock.
The HyperTransport Consortium has over 40 member companies including Advanced Micro Devices, Alliance Semiconductor, Apple Computer, Broadcom Corporation, Cisco Systems, NVIDIA, PMC-Sierra, Sun Microsystems, and Transmeta.
Apple currently uses HyperTransport in its Power Mac G5 desktop computer. HyperTransport integrates the G5s subsystems and connects them to the controller. Serial ATA, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, USB 2.0 and optical digital and analog audio are all integrated through two bidirectional 16-bit, 800MHz HyperTransport interconnects.
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