AMC

Advanced Mezzanine Cards are printed circuit boards (PCBs) that follow a
specification of the PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturers Group (PICMG), with
more than 100 companies participating. Known as AdvancedMC, the official
specification designation is AMC.

Platform Controller Hub (PCH)

The Platform Controller Hub (PCH) is a family of Intel microchips, introduced circa
2008. It is the successor to the previous Intel Hub Architecture, which used a
northbridge and southbridge instead, and first appeared in the Intel 5 Series.

The PCH controls certain data paths and
Intel CPUs. These include clocking (the
(FDI) and Direct Media Interface (DMI),
is required to support a processor with
are reassigned between this new central
support functions used in conjunction with
system clock), Flexible Display Interface
although FDI is only used when the chipset
integrated graphics. As such, I/O functions
hub and the CPU.

Ethernet controller
An Ethernet controller is a piece of computer hardware that manages and maintains a
computer's connection to a wired network. The Ethernet controller thus plays an
integral role in Internet usage and other network functions. A software driver
controls the onboard functions of the network device.

SATA
Serial ATA (SATA, abbreviated from Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus
interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk
drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives.

PC AT
The IBM Personal Computer AT, more commonly known as the IBM AT and also sometimes
called the PC AT or PC/AT, was IBM's second-generation PC, designed around the 6
MHz Intel 80286 microprocessor and released in 1984 as System Unit 5170.

AdvancedTCA
The Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (AdvancedTCA or ATCA) is a series of
open standard computing platform specifications originally developed to meet the
needs of carrier grade communications equipment.

MicroTCA is a modular, open standard for building high microtca1-

348x232performance switched fabric computer systems in a small form factor. At its
core are standard Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AMCs described here: AdvancedMC)
which provide processing and I/O functions.

GPU

(Graphics Processing Unit) A programmable logic chip (processor) specialized for

display functions. The GPU renders images, animations and video for the computer's
screen. GPUs are located on plug-in cards, in a chipset on the motherboard or in
the same chip as the CPU (see diagram below). See logic chip.

A GPU performs parallel operations. Although it is used for 2D data as well as for
zooming and panning the screen, a GPU is essential for smooth decoding and
rendering of 3D animations and video. The more sophisticated the GPU, the higher
the resolution and the faster and smoother the motion in games and movies. GPUs on
stand-alone cards include their own memory (RAM), while GPUs in the chipset or CPU
chip share main memory with the CPU.
Not Just Graphics Processing
Since GPUs perform parallel operations on multiple sets of data, they are
increasingly used as vector processors for non-graphics applications that require
repetitive computations. For example, in 2010, a Chinese supercomputer achieved the
record for top speed using more than seven thousand GPUs in addition to its CPUs
(see GPGPU). See graphics pipeline and multi-GPU.