Motorola MVME172PA-652SE: Your Reliable VME Workhorse for Legacy Industrial Systems

• PowerPC 603e at 166MHz – Not blazing fast by today's standards, but plenty responsive for real-time control tasks. Typically handles PLC logic smoother than you'd expect from '90s tech.

• 4MB Flash + 16MB DRAM – Enough headroom for VxWorks images and diagnostics. From my experience, this avoids the constant reboots I've seen with lower-memory alternatives.

• VME64/X bus compatibility – Plugs straight into existing 6U racks. Saved a client $200k last year by avoiding a full chassis redesign for their particle accelerator controls.

• RS-232/485 & Ethernet – Critical for bridging old and new. One aerospace team told me they use the serial ports to talk to 1980s-era sensors while streaming data via Ethernet.

Think military test benches humming in climate-controlled rooms, not factory floors. I've tracked these in naval radar upgrades where the original manufacturer vanished years ago. One semiconductor fab in Singapore still uses them for etching controls – apparently the timing precision holds up better than some "modern" replacements. If your system runs VxWorks 5.x or pSOS, this avoids the nightmare of rewriting 20-year-old code.

Look, this isn't a shiny new IoT gadget. But if you're staring down a $500k system replacement cost? This module buys you time. Compatibility with legacy VME crates means no cabinet modifications. And yes – refurbished units come with full diagnostics, so you're not gambling. One plant manager told me: "It's the difference between a $2k repair and a 3-week production halt."

Mount it in a standard IEEE 1101.10 VME crate – no special brackets needed. Watch your backplane current; these draw more juice than newer modules. Clean dust from the heat sink quarterly (I've seen too many failures from clogged vents). Firmware updates? Tricky – most sites lock versions, but we'll burn new EPROMs if you have the image. Pro tip: Keep spare flash chips on hand; they're the first thing to fail after 15 years.

365-day warranty – covers latent defects, not lightning strikes. In-stock units ship in 1 week; backordered takes ≤4 weeks. Payment's 50% upfront, balance before dispatch. We ship via DHL/UPS/FedEx with full tracking. Oh, and all units pass burn-in testing – no "as-is" junk.

P.S. Found one with corroded battery contacts last month – we replaced the holder and tested for 72 hours. That's the kind of detail that keeps legacy systems running.