Texas Memory Systems XP-15 Computer Hardware User Manual


 
XP-15 User Guide Texas Memory Systems, Inc. (8/6/01) 2-1
Chapter 2 - Overview
The XP-15 is a high-performance vector processor implemented on a single card suitable for installing in a
PCI Local Bus card slot in a general-purpose computer. The XP-15 is based on the 8 GFLOPS TM-44 DSP
chip from Texas Memory Systems and includes four 32 MB banks of fast local memory. The XP-15 is
programmed by making calls to move data from host memory to XP-15 local memory, to perform one or more
vector processing operations on the data, and to move results back to host memory. There are more than
400 such function calls available to the XP-15 programmer; detailed specifications for these functions can be
found in the VP Scientific Math Library Reference Manual, and an introduction to XP-15 programming
techniques can be found in the TM-44 Programming Overview.
Although many computer systems provide PCI Local Bus card slots, a driver for the XP15 is currently
available for computer systems from Compaq under Tru64 version 5.1 only. Accordingly, this document
covers the installation and checkout of an XP-15 in a Compaq Alpha-based computer system under Tru64.