EMERSONMVME5500 Series VMEbus Single-Board Computer

The MVME5500 is the 

flagship of our VME product 

line that enables higher levels 

of performance in a single 

VMEbus slot 

MPC7457 PowerPC® processor 

at 1 GHz

512KB of on-chip L2 cache and 

2MB of L3 cache

AltiVec coprocessor for highperformance computational 

applications

512MB of on-board 133 MHz 

SDRAM ECC memory and 

512MB additional memory via 

a memory mezzanine card for a 

total of 1GB of memory

Two banks of soldered flash 

memory (32MB and 8MB)

Dual independent 64-bit PCI 

buses and PMC sites with a bus 

speed of up to 66 MHz

Gigabit Ethernet interface plus 

an additional 10/100BaseTX 

Ethernet interface

64-bit PCI expansion mezzanine 

connector allowing up to four 

more PMCs

I/O compatibility with 

MVME51xx family

Single VME slot even when fully 

configured with two PMC modules or one PMC module and an 

add-on memory mezzanine

Support for processor PMCs 

(PrPMCs) 

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The Emerson Network Power MVME5500 series is designed to meet the needs of 

OEMs including those in defense and aerospace, industrial automation and medical 

imaging market segments. Customers looking for a technology refresh for their 

application while maintaining backward compatibility with their existing VMEbus 

infrastructure can upgrade to the MVME5500 series and take advantage of the 

enhanced performance features.

The MVME5500 utilizes the MPC7457 processor running at 1 GHz, which is ideal for 

data intensive applications. The MVME5500 provides more than just better processor 

performance; it also provides balanced performance from the processor, memory, 

dual independent local buses and I/O subsystems. 

The powerful Marvell system controller, with support for a 133 MHz host bus and 

a 133 MHz SDRAM memory bus, is well matched to the high speed processor. To 

match the system I/O to the outstanding processor performance, the MVME5500 

provides dual 64-bit, 33/66 MHz PCI buses. Each PCI bus has a PMC site supporting 

cards running at 33 or 66 MHz. The Universe II VME interface and PMCspan connector are isolated from the PMC sites on a dedicated 33 MHz PCI bus segment so that 

both PMC sites are capable of 66 MHz operation. 

The MVME5500 also offers a Gigabit Ethernet interface, a 10/100BaseTX Ethernet 

interface and two serial ports. All of this adds up to a set of well-balanced, 

high-performance subsystems for unparalleled performance.

Backwards Compatibility

The MVME5500 continues the direction that Emerson 

started with the MVME5100 series of providing a 

migration path from Emerson’s embedded controllers 

and single-board computers (SBCs) to a single 

platform. This migration path enables OEMs to 

support varying I/O requirements with the same base 

platform, simplifying part number maintenance, 

technical expertise requirements and sparing.

The MVME5500 series offers customers a migration 

path from the MVME2300, MVME2400, MVME2600, 

MVME2700 and MVME5100 boards to allow them to 

take advantage of features such as the MPC7455 

processor, Gigabit Ethernet and dual independent 

33/66 MHz PMC sites.

IPMC Modules

The IPMC761 and IPMC712 are optional add-on PMC 

modules that provide backward compatibility with 

previous generation Emerson products (such as 

MVME2600, MVME2700 and MVME5100 in IPMC mode) 

using the MVME761 or MVME712M transition module. 

IPMC modules provide rear I/O support for the following:

One single-ended Ultra Wide SCSI port

One parallel port

Four serial ports (two or three async and one or two 

sync/async, depending on module)

With an IPMC installed, one PMC slot is still available, 

providing support for OEM product customization.

P2 I/O Modes

The MVME5500 series supports two, jumper-configurable 

P2 I/O modes: PMC mode and IPMC mode. PMC mode 

is backward compatible with the MVME2300/

MVME2400 and MVME5100 in PMC mode. In PMC 

mode, 64 pins from PMC slot 1 and 46 pins from PMC 

slot 2 are available on P2 for PMC rear I/O. In IPMC 

mode, the MVME5500 series supports legacy 

MVME761 or MVME712M I/O modules (with limited 

PMC I/O) when an IPMC761 or IPMC712 PMC card is 

populated in PMC slot 1. In this configuration, PMC 

slot 2 contains some signals that are reserved for 

extended SCSI.

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Transition Modules

The MVME761 transition module provides industrystandard connector access to the IEEE 1284 parallel 

port, a 10BaseT or 100BaseT port via an RJ-45 

connector, two DB-9 connectors providing access to 

the asynchronous serial ports configured as EIA-574 

DTE and two HD-26 connectors providing access to 

the sync/async serial ports. These serial ports, labeled 

as Serial 3 and Serial 4 on the faceplate of the MVME761, 

are individually user-configurable as EIA-232, DCE or 

DTE via the installation of Emerson Serial Interface 

Modules (SIMs). A P2 adapter board provides interface 

signals to the MVME761 transition module. Two