in PDF Format - Embedded-Control-Europe.com

COVER STORY 

Special Features 

n Rugged Embedded Systems 

n Small Form Factor Boards 

n Avionics

CONTENTS 

Cover Story 

Want VPX? Try CompactPCI Serial! 36 

Embedded World Review 

Product highlights from 

Embedded World 41 

Rugged Embedded Systems 

Small form factor system design 

for rugged transportation applications 44 

High-end hybrid-cooled embedded 

system for dusty environments 48 

Vehicle computing: open standards 

for flexibility and aftermarket support 50 

Small Form Factor Boards 

Strategic entry into ARM technology 

with a new module standard 52 

Avionics 

Adding MIL-STD-1553 to 

any platform made easy 56 

Embedded video takes airborne 

surveillance to new heights 58 

Product News 60 

COVER STORY 

S pecial Features 

Rugged Embedded Systems 

S mall F orm Factor Bo 

ards 

Avionics 

Cover Photo 

MEN Mikro Elektronik 

3 March 2012

COVER STORY 

Want VPX? Try CompactPCI Serial! 

By Barbara Schmitz, MEN Mikro Elektronik 

This article describes 

the various embedded 

computing form factors and 

concludes that VPX and 

CompactPCI Serial are two 

solid standards with many 

things in common, 

but are two different 

worlds nonetheless. 

n In recent years the parallel PCI bus technology 

has been increasingly complemented by 

fast serial point-to-point connections. For this 

reason, the structure of a computer has slowly 

changed from a bus-based system to a system 

with a star topology connected by serial pointto-point 

connections. Of course, modular computers 

are still needed in industrial environments. 

Depending on the field of application, 

a considerable number of new standards with 

these serial interconnects have been created, 

which – unfortunately – have been optimized 

for special markets or applications, at least at 

the beginning. Only two of the more recent 

standards have taken over the proven 19“ technology 

and the single or double Eurocard format 

to create a migration path: CompactPCI 

Serial (PICMG CPCI-S.0) and VPX (ANSI- 

VITA 46.0). 

As early as 1981, 30 years ago, the VMEbus 

(Versa Module Eurocard bus) was developed 

by a consortium around Motorola and Philips 

and standardized as ANSI/IEEE 1014-1987 by 

the IEC. Originally, it was supposed to be used 

on the basis of the 68000 Motorola processor 

family in control systems. Soon, the VMEbus 

supported both RISC (e.g., PowerPC) and 

CISC (e.g., x86) architectures and was able to 

establish itself in industrial automation, medical 

engineering, telecommunications, aerospace 

and especially in military engineering. As the 

PCI bus was not yet known then, communication 

on the backplane had to be developed 

from scratch. The original variant was equipped 

with a 16-bit data bus and a 24-bit address 

bus, the advanced version VME64 offered a 

bus width of 64 bits with 80 Mb/s while 

VME320 (2eSST) additionally provided a higher 

data rate of 320 Mb/s. The VMEbus has 

long been the uncontested number one for robust 

and modular bus-based systems with a 

passive backplane. 

Some 15 years later, in 1994/95, Ziatech and 

Pro-log presented a concept for modular computers 

based on PCI bus plug-in cards in Eurocard 

format, connected to a passive backplane. 

The concept was called CompactPCI 

and soon more companies like Motorola, 

Radisys (Intel) and Lucent showed their interest. 

They participated in the standardization – 

PICMG 2.0 was one of the first-ever PICMG 

standards. The CompactPCI bus was successful 

and soon reached a high market penetration 

for industrial, reliable systems. It became the 

most important standard in the telecommunications 

industry. But it also soon conquered 

markets which had traditionally been occupied 

by the STD bus or the VMEbus. Besides wide 

areas in industrial environments, these were 

medical engineering, measurement and transportation. 

CompactPCI was cleverly based on 

the IEC 1101 mechanical standards for Eurocards 

and 19“ systems known and proven 

from the VMEbus. Finally, the conductive cooling 

solutions were also taken over, so that 

even military applications opened up for the 

CompactPCI bus. 

In the 2000s the parallel PCI bus technology 

has more and more been complemented by 

fast serial point-to-point connections. Depending 

on the types of peripherals and functions, 

different interface standards are taking root. 

For example, SATA or SAS is the interface for 

mass storage devices like hard disks. USB has 

established itself for WiFi components and 

loosely coupled peripheral devices like keyboards, 

touch screens, external hard disks etc. 

Beside the traditional network technology, Ethernet 

is also used as an interface for multiprocessing 

and as a fieldbus for decentralized I/O. 

PCI Express is used for connection of closely 

coupled computer peripherals. These interfaces 

coexist and each has got its own special range 

of applications. A modern computer needs all 

of them. Unlike in the past, however, they are 

not connected to separate controller chips 

which are interconnected by a bus, but in 

modern chipsets all these interfaces are directly 

available at the chipset. For this reason, the 

structure of a computer slowly changes from 

a bus-based system to a system with a star 

topology connected by serial point-to-point 

connections. 

March 2012 4

COVER STORY 

Figure 1. VMEbus PC with Intel Core architecture and XMC/PMC slots (MEN A20) 

Figure 2. CompactPCI slave CPU with e300 PowerPC (MEN F218) 

But how are these technologies transferred to 

industrial systems and how can you keep their 

modularity? What is more, it has to be taken 

into account that for many applications only a 

smooth migration is possible because of the 

large inventory of systems in the field – in 

other words an evolution instead of a revolution 

to preserve the existing investments in the 

hardware and the software. 

For VMEbus, VXS (VITA 41) ensures backward 

compatibility, i.e. VXS boards are mechanically 

(19“ and Eurocard format with 0.8“ board distance) 

and electrically (P1 and P2 connectors 

can be kept) compatible to VME and VME64 

systems. Using a 7-row multigig RT2 connector, 

they offer fast serial communication via Infiniband, 

Serial Rapid I/O, Aurora, PCI Express 

and Gigabit Ethernet. The theoretical bandwidth 

is up to 3 Gbytes/s per slot. CompactPCI 

uses the same newly defined connector in its 

PICMG 2.16 extension – calling it J3 while 

VXS calls it P0. However, this extension is limited 

to 6U boards for VXS and CompactPCI 

2.16. Small and compact solutions cannot be 

implemented. In addition, only Ethernet and 

PCI Express, being widely used serial interconnects 

in the PC world, are used, SATA and 

USB remain excluded. VXS systems also need 

a switch board or a corresponding slot at the 

backplane, and star and double star configuration 

also have to be differentiated. 

For 3U boards, PICMG is at least three steps 

ahead. After the rather unsuccessful introduction 

of CompactPCI Express (PICMG EXP.0) 

some years ago, the adoption of CompactPCI 

PlusIO (PICMG 2.30) followed in 2010. While 

5 March 2012

COVER STORY 

Figure 3. CompactPCI PlusIO board (left) and hybrid backplane 

Figure 4. Migration from CompactPCI via CompactPCI PlusIO to CompactPCI Serial 

(www.compactpci.org) 

CompactPCI Express was still limited to a 

single serial interface type – PCI Express – 

and is not compatible to CompactPCI due to 

new connectors, CompactPCI PlusIO has 

learned its lesson from the standards of the 

early 2000s. As the name suggests, PICMG 

2.30 is an extension of PICMG 2.0 fixing the 

pin assignment of the J2 connector which had 

been free before and provides four PCI Express, 

USB, SATA and two Gbyte Ethernet. The new, 

perfectly shielded connector supports differential 

signals with over 2.5 Gb/s, while being 

100% compatible with the previous 2-mmconnector. 

This way, CompactPCI PlusIO is 

backwards compatible to CompactPCI and 

supports all current serial interfaces and can 

be used both for 3U and 6U board formats. 

As the connector does not cause additional 

costs, CompactPCI PlusIO system slot boards 

make sense both in CompactPCI and in hybrid 

systems with CompactPCI Serial peripheral 

slot boards. This makes CompactPCI PlusIO 

an independent concept for applications with 

mixed parallel and serial communication 

requirements in contrast to VXS as a transition 

solution. As CompactPCI PlusIO needs no switch 

boards in the system it is also cost-effective. But 

they already exist, the pure serial system standards 

for the industry, and they come exactly 

in time for data hungry applications with high 

requirements regarding visualization, image 

capture, memory or multiprocessing. However, 

only two of the new standards are modular 

and really robust for harsh environments without 

limits: VPX from 2007 and the recent 

CompactPCI Serial from 2011. Both rely on 

the proven IEEE 1101 mechanics (single and 

double Eurocards and 19“ technology). Thanks 

to these features, important functions for safety 

and reliability such as hot-plug/hot-swap or a 

good heat dissipation including conductive 

cooling do not have to be reinvented. Modularity 

and robustness cannot be specified as 

an afterthought, as can be seen in standards 

such as ATCA and MTCA. 

VPX was developed based on the VMEbus as 

a successor of VXS. The most striking innovation 

is the robust 7-row multigig RT2 connector. 

For 6U boards it provides 464 signal pins, 

32 of which are differential pin pairs for serial 

interconnects and 128 pin pairs are for customer-specific 

I/O. The complex connector, 

built up in a 16-layer wafer technology supports 

transfer rates of up to 6.25 GHz with 

less than 3% crosstalk. Board detection and 

ground signals are also implemented. The di- 

March 2012 6

COVER STORY 

mensions allow plugging of XMC mezzanine 

boards and offer enough space for stiffener 

plates and CCA frames. The power supply 

per board is 115W (+5V) or 384W (+12V) 

and 768W (+48V). Another specification describes 

how the corresponding high power 

dissipation in the system is handled – VITA 

48 (VPX REDI, ruggedized enhanced design 

implementation). Apart from different cooling 

techniques including liquid and spray cooling, 

it also describes the deviation from the 0.8“ 

board distance of the IEEE 1101 as well as 

thicker PCBs. 

VPX supports a whole string of fast serial 

fabrics. However, these are described in extra 

specifications complementing the base specification 

which only defines the mechanics and 

the electrics of the standard. Besides PCI Express 

and (10) Gigabit Ethernet these are Serial 

RapidIO or Fibre Channel, but also the signal 

routing for rear transition modules and for 

PMCs or XMCs are described separately in 

this way. Many auxiliary specifications are not 

yet officially adopted by the VITA. 

VPX does not only work with different interconnects, 

but also with different communication 

architectures which require certain switches 

or bridges depending on the built-up of the 

overall system – except for some mesh configurations 

which can do without a central switch. 

OpenVPX (VITA 65, adopted in 2010) now 

tries to lift the separate parts of the VPX specifications 

from the board level to the system 

level, this way solving manifold problems of 

interoperability. OpenVPX defines a system 

architecture which manages and limits board 

and backplane designs, including the definition 

of pin assignments, physical addressing, line 

definitions for serial communication (corresponding 

to PCI Express links x1 to x16), 

structure and hierarchy profiles, levels for 

utility, management, control functions, data 

and extensions. 

Accordingly, there are backplanes with topologies 

which are branched, distributed or managed 

via a central switch. And there are different 

pin assignments for the system slot (payload 

slot), peripheral slot and switch slot. The base 

and sub-specifications around VITA 66, 67 

and 68 although not adopted yet also deal 

with extensions and additions to the original 

VPX standard VITA 46. Even though VPX is 

not backwards compatible to the VMEbus, 

customer-specific hybrid backplanes allow connection 

with VME64 and VXS. 

CompactPCI Serial has been developed in 

parallel with CompactPCI PlusIO for hybrid 

systems based on CompactPCI. Here, too, a 

more dense connector with 184 pin pairs (368 

pins) per 3U board (AirMax from FCI or 

Amphenol TCS) guarantees transfer rates of 

up to 12 Gb/s and more even with less than 

3% crosstalk. The new codable connectors 

resemble the old 2-mm types, but as they are 

using up to six connectors per 3U board with 

their own connector walls, they are much 

more robust and protected against accidental 

wrong plugging. In addition, the headers are 

placed on the board, to avoid twisted pins on 

the backplane. The power dissipation of a 

board is 60W with a voltage supply of +12V. 

Mezzanine boards such as PMC and XMC 

can also be used with CompactPCI Serial. Special 

mezzanines can also be plugged directly 

into the backplane. For this, there are AirMax 

connectors which are turned by 180°. Rear 

connection and the built-up of transition modules 

as well as the mechanics for systems with 

conductive cooling are explained with the 

complete system architecture directly in the 

base specification CPCI-S.0. Compared to 

VPX, this architecture is very simple for CompactPCI 

Serial and plug & playable in every 

sense of the word: a star for PCI Express 1 and 

2 (optional SRIO), SATA/SAS and USB 2.0/3.0 

combined with a full mesh for Ethernet based 

on the 100/1000/10GBase-T standard. CompactPCI 

Serial does not require any switches 

or bridges in systems with up to nine slots. Up 

to 21 slots can be implemented in a 19“ 

7 March 2012

COVER STORY 

Figure 5. Airmax connector at the CompactPCI Serial system slot (left) and standard backplane 

housing with a bridge. The pin assignment of 

all peripheral slots is 100% identical. The 

system slot supports a total of six PCI Express 

links with up to four lanes each, two links 

with up to eight lanes, eight SATA/SAS interfaces, 

eight USB, eight Ethernet interfaces and 

a number of signals for supporting these interfaces 

and for general system management 

(reset, IPMB, hot plug, geographical addressing, 

etc). Accordingly, there is one PCI Express, 

SATA/SAS and USB on every peripheral slot. 

Each slot can support up to eight Ethernet interfaces. 

All interfaces are always available simultaneously. 

This is important, for example, 

for standards like Mini PCI Express cards, 

which expect USB as well as PCI Express support. 

What is more, system slot CPUs can be 

plugged into any peripheral slot and be used 

for building up multiprocessor systems without 

additional overhead. Communication is done 

via Ethernet (star or mesh). 

Physical addressing – only defined by the separate 

OpenVPX specification for VPX – is 

simple and convenient for CompactPCI Serial. 

It uses automatic configuration mechanisms 

of SATA, PCI Express and Ethernet and is 

compatible with standards like SFF-8485 for 

hard disk RAIDs. To ensure the compatibility 

of different manufacturers, the CompactPCI 

Serial specification prescribes the order in 

which interfaces must be implemented on the 

system slot, if not all 8 interfaces can be supported. 

This way, CompactPCI Serial ideally 

corresponds to the chipset architecture in the 

mobile and server area in the coming years. 

The configuration of systems can always be 

done in an optimal and cost-effective way 

based on a wide range of COTS components. 

Correspondingly, there is a wide range of applications, 

reaching from a simple industrial 

PC via I/O-intensive data acquisition and processing 

up to highly complex computer clusters. 

Independent of single markets, CompactPCI 

Serial is at home where robust computers have 

to perform their tasks reliably and where safe 

equipment for the protection of life and the 

environment is required. 

VPX or OpenVPX as well as VXS and VME 

before that have a long history in military applications 

and have implemented their specific requirements 

in several specifications in close cooperation 

with the strategists from this market. 

Even in the avionics and aerospace industry, 

where boundaries between military and civil are 

fluid, VPX is relatively well established. Geographically, 

VPX has a leading role in North America, 

followed by India, Japan, Korea and Australia, 

France and Italy dominating in Europe. 

CompactPCI Serial was long in the making. 

In the meantime, VPX has begun to leave the 

military niche and intensifies its efforts to supply 

civil applications. Both standards are the 

best that the market has to offer at the moment 

regarding robustness and reliability. However, 

potential customers should consider carefully 

in advance which system features they want 

,or have to spend their money on. There might 

very well be some industrial or civil applications, 

where the higher costs of a VPX system 

are justified, especially when the NRE purchase 

costs are too high anyway. In that case, however, 

enough time should be scheduled to familiarize 

oneself with VITA 46, 48, 65-68 and all subspecifications 

– while CompactPCI Serial only 

consists of a 128-page base specification. On 

board level already, higher costs are incurred 

due to the complex VPX connector which has 

no advantages regarding speed, safety or robustness 

compared to the CompactPCI Serial 

connector, and even provides fewer signals. 

On the other hand, CompactPCI Serial offers 

no special interconnects such as Serial RapidIO 

or Aurora – but at least the whole range of 

serial interfaces just like any PC. Current x86 

processors support the whole range of PCI Express, 

Ethernet, USB, and SATA – but not 

SRIO, which is limited to some PowerPC and 

DSP types. Management controller hubs, 

switches, bridges etc cost money and make 

systems more complex, in other words more 

expensive. Whatever purpose they have (connecting 

a slot with the right interface) – CompactPCI 

Serial can do completely without, 

even in a complex multicomputer system. Additional 

overhead for software adaptations is 

not required either with CompactPCI Serial. 

The high number of possibilities when configuring 

VPX systems eventually causes problems 

with interoperability, which OpenVPX tries 

to reduce. Nonetheless, the multitude of options 

makes it almost impossible to exchange plugin 

boards of different manufacturers one-toone, 

and application-specific backplanes are 

the rule rather than standard backplanes. 

Thanks to the strictly standardized pin assignment 

of CompactPCI Serial on the other hand, 

most applications, simple or complex, can be 

built up of standard boards and backplanes at 

least for the most part; there are no or very 

small NRE costs. As effective cooling is also required 

in civil applications such as planes, 

trains, buses and mobile machines from time 

to time, CompactPCI Serial also specifies a 

CCA frame for boards and the corresponding 

infrastructure for conductive cooling systems. 

In order to save costs, standard assemblies do 

not have to be layouted anew for a conductivecooled 

environment, which would reduce available 

space on the PCB, but are equipped with 

a CCA frame. The last cost factor: the PSU. 

For its 5V/12V/48V strategy, VPX also needs 

more complex PSUs. CompactPCI Serial defines 

a single 12V supply and can use COTS 

PSUs when there is cost pressure. 

VPX and CompactPCI Serial represent two 

solid standards, with many things in common, 

but remain two worlds nonetheless: the costs 

are what separates them. What is suitable for 

military and defense applications, must not 

necessarily be right for cost-conscious markets. 

CompactPCI Serial is not cheap either, but 

the price/performance ratio as a driving factor 

for the standardization is good. n 

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March 2012 8

EMBEDDED WORLD REVIEW 

Product highlights from 

Embedded World 

Embedded World 2012 ended with a new records: 22,262 trade visitors from all 

over the world (+ 17 %) attended the show and 872 exhibitors (+9%) presented 

products, technologies and services. On the following pages, we have put 

together for you some of the boards & solutions product highlights which were 

announced during Embedded World. 

n MSC: new embedded consortium for 

standardization management 

The founding of the Standardization Group for 

Embedded Technologies (SGET) has been announced. 

Leading embedded computer manufacturers, 

namely Advantech, congatec, Data 

Modul, Kontron, MSC, SECO, and the publishers 

WEKA Fachmedien and Vogel Business Media 

have announced to be among the founding members. 

The SGET will hold its inaugural meeting at 

the beginning of March and will be committed 

to developing and maintaining worldwide valid 

embedded computing specifications, in order to 

propel new embedded technology standardizations 

meeting the demands of the markets. 

News ID 15200 

n IBASE: fanless eFlex platform with latest 

Atom processor 

IBASE announces the release of the eFlex Platform, 

a highly compact yet expandable fanless 

platform for embedded computing. eFlex is 

comprised of three core component sets: eFlex 

mainboards in small form factor with multiple 

MiniPCIe, mSATA and Expresscard slots; compact 

and interchangeable eFlex enclosures; 

mPCIe, mSATA and Expresscard expansion 

boards – non-proprietary, readily available, 

expansion. The FB800 is IBASE’s first eFlex 

mainboard utilizing the Intel Atom processor 

D2700. Packed onto its compact 190 x 110 

mm form factor are three industry standard 

MiniPCIe sized expansion slots, an Expresscard 

slot and a 2.5” SSD/HDD dock. 

News ID 15242 

n Freescale introduces embedded board 

solutions initiative 

To help manufacturers lower hardware engineering 

costs, speed time to market and reduce 

design and software complexity associated 

with advanced multicore processors, Freescale 

Semiconductor is working with its extensive 

ecosystem of board vendors to broaden availability 

of its processors based on Power Architecture 

and ARM technologies in standardized, 

off-the-shelf single board computing 

and system-on-module form factors. The 

highly flexible solutions resulting from this 

initiative are expected to allow original equipment 

manufacturers and original design manufacturers 

to focus on differentiating IP instead 

of lower-level PCB hardware and BSP software 

development tasks. The program is intended 

to provide OEMs and ODMs with board 

bring-up services, as well as early access to 

documentation, BSPs and silicon. 

News ID 15216 

9 March 2012


n One Stop Systems: PCIe x8 Gen 3 

adapters for small form factor I/O devices 

One Stop Systems is shipping its first PCIe x8 

Gen 3 expansion adapters. The new card mounts 

flat in a small form factor enclosure and contains 

a PCIe x16 mechanical slot. This makes it an 

ideal solution for 1U disk arrays requiring a 

single RAID card. This universal adapter can 

mount into a limited height space. The PCIe x8 

Gen 3 embedded cable adapter (OSS-PCIe- 

ECA-x8-G3) operates at data transfer speeds up 

to 64Gb/s The card is immediately available. 

News ID 15266 

n ADL: 3.5-inch SBC with scalable 

processor power from Sandy Bridge 

Celeron to Core i7 

ADL Embedded Solutions has announced the 

ADLQM67HDS, a high-performance 3.5-inch 

single-board computer featuring the Intel 

QM67-PCH chipset and socket G2 for flexible 

assembly with Sandy Bridge processors. The 

Intel Core i3-2330E, i5-2510E, i7-2710QE and 

Celeron B810 can be employed here. For special 

user projects, there is also a board version 

available with a soldered-on processor. Two 

SO-DIMM slots provide capacity for expanding 

memory to a maximum of 16 GB of DDR3- 

1333 RAM. This new SBC features high quality, 

reliability and long-term availability, making 

it the ideal platform for demanding applications 

in the medical, military, communications, networking 

and HD streaming fields when reliability 

and processing power have top priority. 

News ID 15221 

n AdaCore: development environment fully 

supports upcoming Ada 2012 

AdaCore announces the availability of GNAT 

Pro 7.0, a major new version of the company’s 

development environment product. This latest 

annual release completely implements the upcoming 

Ada 2012 language revision, offers a 

range of improvements, supports several new 

platforms, includes an important new testing 

tool (GNATtest), and enhances several existing 

tools. As with all AdaCore products, GNAT 

Pro is Freely-Licensed Open Source Software. 

The Ada programming language is reaching 

the final stages of a major revision, and the 

new standard, known as Ada 2012, will then 

be sent to ISO ratification. 

News ID 15228 

n congatec: quad-core ARM module on 

Qseven form factor 

congatec unveils a new ARM module generation 

with the introduction of the conga-QMX6 

Qseven module. The Qseven standard Revision 

1.2, which was published back in September 

2010, already prepared the ground for the 

early optimization of Qseven for dedicated 

ARM support by adding the I/O interfaces 

UART and CAN. The conga-QMX6 COM is 

equipped with the Freescale i.MX6 ARM Cortex 

A9 processor family which is scalable from 1 

to 4 ARM cores and sports a sophisticated 

high-end, 3D-ready HD graphics interface. 

The Qseven module will be available in 4 

processor versions, starting with Freescale’s 

i.MX6 Solo ARM Cortex A9 (1.0GHz, 512KB 

cache) up to the Freescale i.MX6 Quad ARM 

Cortex A9 (1.2GHz, 1MB cache). 

News ID 15227 

n Kontron: credit card sized COM Express 

mini module with dual core processors 

Kontron announced the COMe-mCT10 COM 

Express with Dual-Core processing power 

which is based on next-generation Intel Atom 

processors N2600, N2800 and D2700. Optimized 

for low-power small form factor designs, 

the PICMG COM Express Type 10 pin-out 

Computer-on-Module provides up to twice 

the graphics power, up to 28% higher processor 

performance and processor thermal design 

power which is cut in half as compared to second 

generation Intel Atom processors. The 

credit card sized COM Express mini form 

factor is ideal for developers of small devices 

who want to take full advantage of the high 

level of standardization and scalability of the 

COM Express standard. COMe-mCT10 with 

Intel Dual core processor performance are 

well-suited for handheld mobile embedded 

systems, as well as small portable, in-vehicle 

or stationary devices such as POS/POI. The 

new Kontron COMe-mCT10 Computer-on- 

Modules are equipped with 2x 1.6 GHz, 2x 

1.86 GHz or 2x 2.13 GHz Intel Atom processors 

(N2600, N2800 and D2700) as well as the 

Intel NM10 Express chipset and up to 2 GB of 

fast on-board DDR3 800/1600 system memory. 

News ID 15255 

n MEN: CompactPCI Serial multi-display 

controller with AMD Radeon GPU E6760 

MEN’s latest CompactPCI Serial peripheral 

board G214 offers excellent graphics performance 

thanks to the AMD Radeon E6760 GPU 

and is especially suited for multi-display applications. 

It is used in control rooms for (video) 

surveillance, in simulators, in professional 

audio/video equipment as well as in digital 

signage applications. Thanks to AMD’s Eyefinity 

technology which is supported by the E6760 

GPU on the G214, up to six different displays 

can be controlled independent from each other. 

By standard, the G214 is equipped with four 

DisplayPort 1.2 interfaces at the front which 

have a maximum resolution of 4096x2560 at 

60 Hz and a color depth of 24 bpp. By choosing 

a wider front panel two additional DisplayPorts 

with a resolution of 2560x1600 can be accommodated. 

The GPU offers 480 stream processors 

with a frequency of 600 MHz – having a power 

dissipation of only 35 W. 

News ID 15267 

March 2012 10


n LDRA: certification services for safetycritical 

industrial products 

LDRA has created a certification services division 

that helps companies achieve compliance with 

IEC 61508 - Industrial Safety certification. Led 

by industry certification experts, LDRA Certification 

Services (LCS) assists engineering teams 

in creating, automating and following a process 

through to regulatory approval. The synergistic 

integration of the LDRA tools and the LCS expert 

IEC 61508 services make up the LCS solution. 

News ID 15253 

n Kontron drives standard for ARM- and 

SoC-based COMs 

Kontron announced the release candidate of 

the ultra low-power Computer-on-Modules 

specification. The new specification for the 

ARM/SOC module standard for ultra lowpower 

(ULP) Computer-on-Modules has been 

pioneered by Kontron. The specification release 

candidate now receives further global support 

from the embedded community. The expanded 

network of supporters is now working on the 

finalization of the 1.0 specification, planned 

for release later this year pending group agreement 

on all technical elements. The new standard 

for ultra low-power COMs was developed 

specifically for new modules with ARM and 

SoC processors and is characterized by the extremely 

flat build of its form factor. It uses a 

314-pin connector that has a construction 

height of just 4.3 millimeters (the MXM 3.0) 

with an optimized ARM/SoC pin-out definition. 

This connection method allows robust 

and cost-effective designs that have an extremely 

thin construction height. 

News ID 15272 

n Arrow Electronics combines Embedded 

and OEM computing solutions support in 

Europe 

Creating greater focus around the comprehensive 

support that industrial and commercial users 

of electronic components receive, Arrow Electronics 

has transitioned its embedded computing 

solutions support to its established Original 

Equipment Manufacturer Computing Solutions 

team in Europe. Arrow’s OCS team comprises 

approximately 120 embedded computing solutions 

specialists in 20 countries throughout 

EMEA. The team includes regional sales representatives, 

technical experts and product specialists. 

The company has provided embedded 

computing solutions support for more than 

two decades. Its embedded services include full 

design engineering, supply-chain management, 

global logistics and post-manufacturing services 

for customized embedded and standalone devices 

and hardware appliances, including displays, 

industrial computing platforms, storage 

and software solutions, standard and custom 

board designs and system solutions. 

News ID 15223 

n Ecrin: multi core OPALE V2 family based 

on standards PICMG 1.3 or Extended ATX 

When generic doesn’t fit, multi core OPALE 

V2 family based on standards PICMG 1.3 or 

Extended ATX form factors, offers flexibility 

to fit into many applications of OEM, system 

integrators and application providers in a variety 

of domains: building automation, facility 

management, rugged servers for harsh environments, 

high availability embedded servers 

for security apps, central data acquisition, 

recording studios, image-processing, system 

control. To precisely meet requirements, even 

for small quantities, ECRIN takes full system 

development responsibility and guarantee long 

term availability to allow you to concentrate 

on your added value and core business. 

News ID 15205 

n TQ: Cortex A8 module with 

high-performance graphics 

The TQMa53, based on the Freescale i.MX537 

ARM processor, sees TQ launch an affordable, 

extremely compact yet high-performance minimodule 

on the market. A starter kit comprising 

a mainboard, module and accessories helps 

customers develop many system solutions.Due 

to its variety of interfaces for its very small size, 

as well as its low power consumption, the module 

provides the perfect core for applications 

from the fields of human machine interfaces 

and industrial controls. Particular focus lies on 

the internal graphics controller, which supports 

displays with a resolution up to UXGA. Apart 

from conventional control tasks, the module is 

thus also ideal for animated screen/multi-touch 

applications. Users can communicate via two 

CAN 2.0B, as well as 10/100 Mbit Fast Ethernet, 

USB-Host / USB-OTG-Controller and three 

UARTs, thanks to two robust industrial terminal 

strips (2 x 120 pins) in a 0.8-mm grid. 

News ID 15259 

n Eurotech: rugged computer for demanding 

M2M applications 

Eurotech launches the EN50155 rated Dyna- 

COR 10-00, a new family of rugged mobile 

computer that targets demanding machineto-machine 

applications. Based on the Intel 

Atom processor, the DynaCOR 10-00 is a purpose-built, 

low power, mobile computer platform 

with wide range power supply and IP65 

protection. The DynaCOR 10-00 system is 

modular and versatile with a fanless design 

and rugged connectors for long-term reliability 

in harsh environments. Application specific 

configurations are easy to implement in several 

vertical industries enabling reliable M2M solutions 

even under the most demanding conditions: 

with a low power, highly efficient design, 

the DynaCOR 10-00 is a dependable 

platform featuring CPU speeds of 1.1GHz, 

512MB RAM and a 2 GB flash disk. 

News ID 15254 

11 March 2012

RUGGED EMBEDDED SYSTEMS 

Small form factor system design 

for rugged transportation applications 

By Jeff Munch, ADLINK 

Designing small form 

factor systems for rugged 

applications such as 

transportation presents 

challenges, with mobility and 

environmental extremes 

becoming critical considerations. 

There are however form factors 

and manufacturing techniques 

that accommodate most general 

or application-specific 

design requirements. 

n Transportation applications by nature impose 

design challenges on small form factor embedded 

computer designs, regardless of their 

application-specific requirements. A rugged 

implementation is essential to handle the shock, 

vibration, humidity and temperature extremes 

and variation inherent in mobile and outdoor 

environments. These challenges are compounded 

by small form factor design trends, where 

increasing functionality is demanded from 

shrinking form factor sizes, while lower power 

consumption and thermal output is sought 

from a growing processing load. Such issues 

leave designers wondering where they can 

safely compromise while meeting overall application 

design specifications. However, knowing 

the application needs and how these can 

be met by existing market products makes 

transportation systems design less daunting. 

PC/104 and Embedded Board eXpandable 

(EBX) are good format options for designs 

that can handle slightly larger single board 

computer (SBC) form factors. Intended for 

data acquisition in rugged environments, the 

PC/104 embedded computing format has no 

backplane, instead allowing modules to stack 

together like building blocks; a more rugged 

solution than typical bus connections in PCs. 

And with just 46 square inches of surface area 

(8“ x 5.75“), EBX balances size and functionality 

with a bolt-down SBC format supporting 

rugged embedded designs with higher-performance 

central processing units (CPUs), such 

as those using multicore technology for networking, 

digital signal processing (DSP), and 

graphics-heavy applications, and generous onboard 

input/output (I/O) functions to support 

everything from large data exchange to video. 

However, the most extendable and customizable 

application design method accommodates 

a broad range of custom and off-the-shelf 

needs by using modularity. Computer-On- 

Modules (COMs) are complete embedded 

computers built on a single circuit board for 

use in small or specialized applications requiring 

low power consumption or small physical 

size. Though they are compact (ETX/XTX at 

114x95mm and COM Express at 125x95mm) 

and highly integrated, COMs can accommodate 

complex CPUs. With the COM approach, all 

generic PC functions are readily available in 

an off-the-shelf core module. A custom-designed 

carrier board complements the COM 

with additional functionality that is required 

for specific applications. The carrier board 

provides all the interface connectors for peripherals, 

such as storage, Ethernet, 

keyboard/mouse, and display. This modularity 

allows the designer to upgrade the COM on 

the carrier board without changing any other 

board design features, and also allows more 

customization of peripherals as dictated by a 

specific application. COMs allow system developers 

to focus on their core competencies 

and the unique functions of their systems. 

The COM Express form factor offers flexibility 

in the development and advancement of ultrarugged 

embedded applications for a plethora 

of industries, including transportation. By 

using the modular processing block, the designer 

creates a price and value advantage; 

he/she is not locked into a single vendor for 

board creation and can customize based on 

pricing and performance requirements. Because 

it is easily swapped from a carrier board and 

comes in one of the smallest form factors, 

COM Express is ideal for long-life embedded 

applications with a critical development cycle, 

as well as more progressive applications that 

require frequent processor upgrades without 

affecting other application design elements. 

Transportation solutions are most often housed 

outdoors or in moving vehicles, where exposure 

to a variety of climates dictates the need to operate 

in extended temperatures and to power 

up in any extreme. The easiest initial step is to 

select a rugged board or system that is designed 

for harsh environments from the ground up. 

To support the extremes of shock, vibration, 

humidity, and temperature, care is given to 

component selection, circuit design, printed 

circuit board layout and materials, thermal solutions, 

enclosure design, and manufacturing 

March 2012 12


process. Robust test methods, including highly 

accelerated life testing (HALT), ensure optimal 

product design phases in order to meet stringent 

requirements of a product, such as -40°C to 

+85°C operating temperature range, MIL-STD, 

shock and vibration, and long-term reliability. 

Onboard train systems also deal with high 

concentrations of sulfur and humidity when 

going through tunnels. Designers can look for 

boards with conformal coating to reduce degradation 

from such exposure. Conformal coating 

is used in small form factor manufacturing 

rather than potting, which is a similar process 

but uses a heavier material and is harder to inspect, 

test, and repair. Though considered the 

highest level of environmental protection, potting 

encapsulates the entire PCB, which adds 

weight and expands the dimensions of a unit. 

Even an extra mm can be critical in small 

form factor design, which is why conformal 

coating - with a single-part material that conforms 

to the board - is a better option. A 

variety of conformal coating materials (such 

as acrylic, polyurethane, epoxy, and silicone) 

and application methods (such as brushing, 

spraying, and dipping) are currently used to 

protect against moisture, dust, chemicals, and 

temperature extremes that can potentially damage 

electronics. The correct coating or application 

method varies depending on established 

standard operating conditions for an application. 

With transportation applications, different 

coatings may be selected based on a primary 

need for moisture resistance versus abrasion 

resistance versus temperature stability. 

Transportation applications typically need as 

much functionality as possible in the smallest 

form factor, meaning the controller may be 

burdened with extreme loads of information 

and intricate tasks. Rugged computing solutions 

also demand more memory space than 

ever before for both data storage and application 

performance. Options for storage include 

rotating hard disk drives (HDDs) for economy 

or solid-state drives (SSDs), which are truly 

rugged, but also come at a higher price point 

(cents per Gbytes for HDDs versus dollars 

per Gbytes for SSDs). HDDs contain spinning 

disks and movable read/write heads, whereas 

SSDs use microchips that retain data in nonvolatile 

memory chips and contain no moving 

parts, making them less susceptible to physical 

shock, altitude, and vibration issues. SSDs 

have faster access time and lower latency than 

do HDDs, but SDDs cannot provide the capacity 

of an HDD; because of the higher cost 

per Gbytes, SSDs are typically no larger than 

120Gbytes, while HDDs average 500Gbytes 

to 1Tbyte. Higher performing HDDs also require 

heavier materials than either a standard 

HDD or the flash memory and circuit board 

materials of SSDs. 

With in-vehicle surveillance applications, vibration 

control is critical for capturing quality 

video. Some rugged boards offer a thicker 

PCB fabrication to add rigidity so the board 

can withstand higher levels of vibration strain. 

The thicker PCB offers stability to the overall 

surface area, protecting electronic components 

from damage due to vibration. The thicker 

PCB also offers the ability to use more copper 

between layers for thermal considerations. 

Heat is a common unwanted by-product of 

processing power. In addition to cooling fans 

and large heat sinks, which may not always be 

possible for compact, mobile transportation 

designs, PCBs with adequate amounts of integrated 

copper facilitate heat conduction away 

from temperature-sensitive electronic components 

to prevent performance degradation. 

Another challenge with designing with small 

form factors is that current power supply technology 

can put limits on size reduction. In addition, 

rugged designs, specifically, require a 

robust onboard power controller to support a 

wide operating temperature range - on average 

of -20°C to +70°C. An onboard power controller 

is also critical for mobile transportation 

applications to support multiple data usage 

requirements, such as collecting video, remotely 

checking the health of on-board system devices, 

and sending command controls. 

For an in-vehicle or outdoor video/audio capture 

application design, the board itself needs 

high-performance graphics and host interface 

support for multiple peripherals. In addition 

to the integration of a video camera, features 

such as remote monitoring and wireless video 

download call for some form of connectivity. 

Both satellite and cellular connectivity require 

either an antenna or antennaed device to connect 

directly to the system. Ample Ethernet 

and serial interface ports - with at least one 

port supporting RS-232/422/485 for transmit 

and receive - are critical to accommodate function-specific 

peripherals. 

A leading global supplier of technology solutions 

for railroads wanted to develop an onboard 

locomotive video/audio capture system 

to aid in accident investigations and provide 

safety training to crews. In addition to video 

and audio recording, requirements for the system 

included remote monitoring and control, 

real-time health monitoring, and wireless video 

download. The system also incorporates solidstate 

media in a sealed, tamper-resistant housing. 

Ampro by Adlink is a line of extreme 

rugged embedded computers and systems that 

provides designers of rugged applications with 

a head start to development. For the onboard 

locomotive video/audio capture system, 

designers created a rugged solution around 

the Intel embedded architecture and EBX SBC 

13 March 2012


form factor. The design accommodated both functionality and rugged 

requirements for the train system with dual Ethernet, CRT and flat 

panel video, multiple serial and USB ports, SATA and IDE interfaces, 

CompactFlash socket, PCIe Mini Card socket, high-definition audio, 

and general purpose input/output (GPIO) support. 

A critical byproduct of on-site video/audio capture is reduced litigation 

and settlement costs due to accurate incident reporting. System reliability 

is critical to users in terms of return on investment, so designers should 

build using products that provide documented uptime in their specifications 

and meet the industry standard of EN50155. Because of cost and the complex 

nature of embedded computing solutions for transportation, qualification 

can take a very long time, requiring designers to look for products 

with a long lifecycle. One way to ensure system longevity is to build with 

products that follow the roadmap of an established architecture. 

Though designing for rugged, small form factor applications presents 

challenges, there are form factors and manufacturing techniques suitable 

for most general or application-specific design requirements. Formats 

such as PC/104, EBX and COMs have been created specifically to address 

rugged, embedded system needs while also handling complex CPU technology 

for applications that require heavy processing power. Modularity 

also helps designers to customize while allowing for cost and value requirements. 

The bottom line for any rugged design, whether for transportation, 

military, energy or infrastructure, is to understand all application requirements 

and how/where existing formats and products can address those 

needs. By selecting the right core and rugged framework, focusing on and 

prioritizing any added customization becomes a much simpler mission. n 

Product News 

n Kontron to support NVIDIA Tegra 3 and TI Sitara AM3874 MPU 

on board and system level 

Kontron has announced the support of the newly introduced 

NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad core mobile processor and Texas Instrument’s 

recently launched Sitara AM3874 microprocessor. Kontron will support 

both ARM processors on board level (COMs, SBCs and motherboards) 

and system-level solutions. The first long-term available 

embedded Kontron products to feature the NVIDIA Tegra 3 will be 

a Mini-ITX motherboard and a new 82 x 50mm ULP-COM Computer-on-Module. 

Both platforms will be provided with long-term 

availability of 5 - 7 years and an optional industrial temperature 

range from -40 to +85 °C. 

News ID 15261 

n Schroff: new desktop systems and new backplanes 

CompactPCI Serial, along with the CompactPCI PlusIO defined for it 

as a migration path, makes it relatively easy for users of other 19“- 

based standards to change to this bus technology with its fast serial 

data transmission. For this reason, Schroff continues to expand its 

portfolio of CompactPCI Serial products. Schroff now offers two new 4 

U CompactPCI Serial systems in desktop enclosures with an attractive 

design. These systems are 4 U high, 44 HP wide, 275 mm deep and have 

two integrated handles at the front, which underline the suitability of 

the systems for mobile and laboratory use. 

News ID 15187


n One Stop Systems certified to 

“Canon Green Standards” 

One Stop Systems announced that it is the first 

US board manufacturer certified to the „Canon 

Green Procurement Standards.“ Qualification 

for certification required months of reporting 

and evaluation to show that OSS meets the 

stringent requirements for material content 

and waste disposition. Certification was necessary 

for OSS to supply Canon with the PCIe 

cable adapters used in the Canon DreamLabo 

5000 production photo printer, a high-volume 

photo-quality commercial printer. The OSS 

PCIe cable connects the internal computer to 

high-speed I/O control electronics. 

News ID 15066 

n Portwell reaches Intel Embedded Alliance 

premier level 

Portwell announces the promotion by Intel 

from Associate Member to Premier Member 

in the Intel Embedded Alliance.Providing a 

complete range of Industrial product line- 

PICMG 1.0/1.3, COM express & Q7 Modules, 

Industrial M/B & system solutions along with 

the advanced quality & service, Portwell serves 

customers in embedded markets such as automation, 

transportation, gaming and medical 

technology etc. 

News ID 15194 

n Blue Chip announces new Intel Atom 

board 

Blue Chip expands its industrial computer 

range with new Intel Atom D525 based COM 

Express Module from Aaeon. The ‘COM-LN 

Rev. B’, a small format single board computer 

that is ideal for embedded applications that 

require a balance of performance and lower 

power. 

News ID 15113 

n Adeneo partners with Advantech for 

Android, Embedded Linux and Windows 

CE support 

Adeneo Embedded and Advantech announced 

a collaboration designed to assist European 

OEMs to achieve the best time to market for 

their RISC-based designs using Advantech 

RISC Single Board Computers and RISC Computer-on-Modules 

solutions. With more than 

60 engineers, specialist on embedded technologies, 

Adeneo Embedded provides system 

integration expertise, covering BSP and driver 

development as well as advanced multimedia 

and wireless application development. 

News ID 15086 

n GE: Sourcery VSIPL++ optimized for high 

level interfaces based on open standards 

GE Intelligent Platforms announces the availability 

of Mentor Graphics Sourcery VSIPL++ 

which has been specifically optimized for the 

company’s range of high performance rugged 

embedded computing solutions. The Sourcery 

VSIPL++ library for GE computing platforms 

is available from Mentor Graphics, who developed 

the capability in conjunction with GE. It 

takes advantage of, and integrates with, GE’s 

AXISLIB-AVX performance-optimized VSIPL 

library with more than 600 DSP and math 

functions specifically targeted at Intel‘s latest 

2nd generation Core platform. 

News ID 15127 

n Axiomtek: graphics-rich EPIC board with 

DisplayPort, VGA and LVDS 

Axiomtek’s new EP100 EPIC board, supporting 

either the AMD G-Series APU dual core T56N 

with Radeon HD 6320 graphics or AMD G- 

Series APU single core T40R with Radeon HD 

6250 graphics, combined with the AMD A50M 

FCH, is ideal for graphics-intensive applications 

such as high-end medical imaging, digital signage, 

kiosks/POI, thin clients, and gaming 

machines. The onboard SO-DIMM socket 

supports maximum up to 4 GB of DDR3 1333 

memory. Integrated AMD HD graphics with 

DirectX 11 technology, the small foot print 

embedded board offers stunning 3D visual 

effects and dynamic interactivity. 

News ID 15296 

n CompuLab: passively-cooled miniature 

PC has dual-head high definition displays 

CompuLab is introducing Intense PC, the 

miniature fanless PC having performance of a 

full desktop system. Intense PC is measuring 

just 7.5” x 6.3” x 1.57”. The passively-cooled 

metal housing packs 2nd Generation Intel 

Core i7 Processor with up to 16 GB dual 

channel DDR3-1333 providing blazing fast 

performance. Intense PC has dual-head high 

definition displays, 7.1 channels digital audio 

in/out, dual GbE, 2 USB3 ports, integrated 

hard disk plus dual eSATA, 2 mini-PCIe sockets, 

802.11n WiFi with 2 antennas and even a 

serial port. In addition, Intense PC incorporates 

the same FACE Module found in fit-PC3 for 

extending further the functionality of the 

computer. 

News ID 15260 

n InnoDisk: SATADOM qualified by Intel for 

new Romley server board launch 

InnoDisk announces its SATADOM storage 

device which has been qualified by Intel for 

the new Romley Server Board. InnoDisk’s SA- 

TADOMs (D150QV and D150QV-L series) 

are being selected as the preferred boot device 

on the SATA port. InnoDisk SATADOM has 

up to 8 times the performance of normal 

USB drive (135MB/sec and 116MB/sec 

Read/Write versus 15MB/sec and 10MB/sec 

for USB). The D150QV-L’s low profile formfactor 

makes it the ideal solution for 1U and 

2U server applications. 

News ID 15295 

15 March 2012


High-end hybrid-cooled embedded 

system for dusty environments 

By Christian Lang, DSM 

At embedded world DSM 

Computer presented the first 

representative of the new 

ARCTIS IPC family, which 

despite its extremely high 

computing and graphical 

performance is designed 

for operation in dusty 

environments. 

Figure 1. The highperformance 

A1-QM67 

embedded system with 

hybrid cooling concept 

for dissipating the heat 

generated by the dualor 

quad-core processor 

n The high-end computer systems increasingly 

being deployed in the harsh industrial environment 

must be cooled with fans because of 

the high heat loss caused by the processor 

and chip set. This, however, makes them unsuitable 

for dusty environments. DSM Computer 

has developed the completely new ARC- 

TIS product line for such applications which 

is the acronym for Advanced Rugged Cool 

Temperature Industrial Systems. DSM has determined 

that many customers require compact 

computers with high computing and 

graphical power while demanding high robustness 

and dust resistance for operation in 

a harsh environment. 

The need for fan-free, but powerful, industrial 

PCs is large. Many customers desire a highend 

computer system that operates without 

fans. However, when considered more exactly, 

it often becomes apparent that the fan is not 

really the problem. Namely, thanks to their 

good quality, the fans deployed nowadays are 

no longer the limiting factor for the service 

life of a system. In most cases, it is more important 

that the IPC should be able to operate 

in a dusty environment, which means the 

housing must be completely sealed. 

The first representative of the embedded system 

family ARCTIS, A1-QM67, which had its premier 

at embedded world, demonstrated that 

no air exchange from outside to inside is allowed 

to occur, because the computer is designed 

for operation in dusty environments. 

To meet this need, DSM has developed a 

hybrid cooling concept with the objective of 

minimizing the heat resistance from the interior 

to the exterior. Because the heat dissipation 

for a closed system can occur only at the housing 

surface, four parameters play a role: the 

external surface area, the external air speed resulting 

from convection, the internal surface 

area, and the internal air speed resulting from 

convection. 

To achieve optimum cooling, the hybrid solution 

integrates a sophisticated heat-pipe system 

(figure 1). This allows the heat generated by 

the processor and the chip set to be conducted 

as directly as possible to the external housing. 

The two integrated heat pipes ensure that the 

heat can be quickly passed to the two largearea, 

rounded cooling fins located on the housing 

exterior. The internal fan guarantees the 

optimum heat transmission to the internal 

wall of the housing and so prevents hot spots. 

The hybrid cooling concept makes it possible 

to implement the industrial computers with a 

fully sealed housing that satisfies the IP50 degree 

of protection. The operating temperature 

lies between 0° and 45° C. For those applications 

that require a complete fan-free computer, 

a fanless system is available as an option. 

This operates, depending on the deployed 

CPU, the drive and the plug-in card, in the 

slightly-reduced temperature range of 0°-40° 

C. The hybrid cooling concept allows even 

the dissipation of the heat produced by ultrahigh 

performance processors. The standard 

version of the A1-QM67 integrates the second-generation 

Intel Core i5-2510E processor 

clocked with 2.5 GHz. The dual-core processor 

has a 3 Mbytes cache memory. In addition, a 

higher-performance model with the high-end 

Intel Core i7-2710QE CPU with four cores 

and a 6 Mbytes cache is available as an option. 

An A1-QM67 with Intel Core i3-2330E with 

two processor cores, and a lower- cost variant 

with Intel Celeron G810 CPU are also available 

as options. 

The Intel QM67 is used as chip set. The Intel 

HD3000 graphic controller (only for i7/i5/i3 

models) is integrated in the processor die. The 

high-speed DDR3 RAM main memory can be 

expanded to a maximum capacity of 8 Gbytes. 

The two Intel Core i5 and i7 processors integrate 

the Intel turbo boost technology with 

which the CPU is automatically given more 

power and so allows the industrial PC to be 

adapted to more-challenging requirements. 

The implemented virtualization technology 

supports the parallel execution of different 

operating systems and applications in mutual- 

March 2012 16


opt. exchangeable plug-in unit 

opt. Compact Flash socket 

Figure 2. The small, dust-proof flap on the front side of the device covers an exchangeable plug-in 

unit for two 2.5-inch drives (SSD/Industrial HDD). 

ly-independent protected memory areas, as 

well as the virtualization of I/O interfaces and 

drives. The Intel active management technology 

AMT 7.0 is specially designed for remote 

system management via the network. The remote 

system management allows a shutdown 

embedded system to be managed, checked 

and updated via the network. This runs largely 

independent of the processor and without operating 

system support. This functionality is 

finding ever-more interest in the industry because 

it greatly simplifies remote maintenance 

for remotely installed machines. 

Despite its compact dimensions of 305 x 305 

x 133 mm, the A1-QM67 has space for a PCI 

Express x16 slot. This allows the IPC to be expanded 

with an additional graphic card or a 

frame grabber in order to satisfy even sophisticated 

graphical demands. A main field of application 

of the compact computer is image 

processing that requires high CPU and graphic 

performance for the display of high-resolution 

images. The systems, however, are often deployed 

in a harsh, dusty industrial environment 

and so must be designed correspondingly robustly. 

The ARCTIS family meets all required features: 

extreme high computing power and flexible 

expandability with a frame-grabber card and 

IP50 provided with the hybrid cooling concept. 

The VDMA forecasted for the German market 

for image processing systems a sales growth of 

at least 20 percent to more than €1.5 billion 

in year 2011. The image processing industry is 

primarily involved with the quality inspection 

in the industrial manufacturing, with automotive 

manufacturers and suppliers being the 

main customers. Another important field of 

application for ARCTIS embedded systems is 

the parallel display of multiple high-resolution 

images on different HD monitors. Computers 

with Intel Core processors of the second generation 

are particularly suitable for such applications 

because they support three independent 

displays on different screens. 

The A1-QM67 provides a number of standard 

interfaces. The external digital display interfaces 

HDMI, DVI-I and DVI-D are available for the 

connection of high-resolution displays. In addition 

to eight USB 2.0 connections (four external, 

four internal) and four serial ports 

(three RS232, one RS232/RS422/RS485), a 

serial ATA for two SATA III and four SATA II 

devices are available. Together with two GigaBit 

LAN sockets, a Wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n is 

supported on request. Furthermore, an internal 

Mini PCI Express x1 slot is provided. 

The small, dust-proof flap on the front side of 

the device covers an exchangeable plug-in unit 

for two 2.5-inch drives (SSD / Industrial HDD) 

(figure 2). A CompactFlash-card socket for 

booting the operating system is available for 

embedded applications that have small storage 

requirements. The displaced rear panel of the 

A1-QM67 provides a cable duct for easy attachment 

of the connection and interface 

cables. A wide-range power supply unit with 

12 and 24V DC supplies the power to the industrial 

computer. An external 120W AC power 

pack can also be used. The computer has low 

standby energy consumption and so satisfies 

the EuP/ErP directive. n 

17 March 2012


Vehicle computing: open standards 

for flexibility and aftermarket support 

By Kevin Wang, VIA Technology 

Vehicle computing has finally 

emerged from the obscurity 

of proprietary systems built by 

a small handful of vendors. 

With the opportunity to bring 

affordable computing to 

billions of vehicles, standardsbased 

embedded systems 

allow affordable hardware 

and software to reach 

the broader markets 

for vehicle computing. 

Configurable modules allow vehicle 

computers to optimize the mobile 

network in a compact, fanless 

embedded systems. 

n Vehicle computing continues to be overshadowed 

by the automotive infotainment category, 

and most of the industry attention has focused 

on the rapid growth in the amount of leadingedge 

computing technology built into brandnew 

automobiles. The newest cars will have 

wireless connectivity and large displays that 

are driven by embedded computers with many 

of the latest graphics and video features. Most 

of these computing platforms use proprietary 

hardware and software. However, this computer 

technology is being built into an automotive 

system that has an average lifespan of 12 to 15 

years. While automobile manufacturers obviously 

see this as an opportunity to sell more 

vehicles, how cutting-edge will these automotive 

computers seem after only 24 months? 

Will automotive markets demand the same 

pace of computing innovation as users expect 

for consumer electronics? The need for infotainment 

upgrades may draw attention to the 

huge opportunity that already exists for aftermarket 

vehicle computing systems, and standards-based 

computing will fuel the growth 

of these markets. 

As embedded system developers know, vehicle 

computing involves far more than just automobiles, 

since embedded computers are also 

used in trucks, trains, buses, forklifts, road 

equipment, farm vehicles, and virtually anything 

else that moves. Many of these vehicles 

have a lifespan that extends for decades. Billions 

of vehicles might use an embedded computer 

as an aftermarket purchase if vendors can 

show a usage model that justifies the cost. 

New standards-based approaches to small 

form-factor computing and wireless networking 

have finally brought cost and complexity 

down enough to open up these broader markets. 

The services business model can now 

rapidly expand to allow companies to differentiate 

at the application and enterprise level 

for addressing the unique needs of markets 

that span from GPS-based anti-theft devices 

to entertainment systems, from inventory management 

consoles to card-readers, from cars 

to forklifts, and so on for hundreds of evolving 

product categories. 

As an example of how proprietary systems 

dominated vehicle computing, consider the 

early applications for vehicle telematics where 

companies like Trimble Navigation, Hughes 

and Motorola deployed proprietary satellitebased 

technology to track vehicles and communicate 

information with a company IT network. 

A services business can benefit from 

high barriers-to-entry, created by a requirement 

for customized hardware and proprietary networks. 

However, this barrier limited the growth 

of vehicle computing. Now, communications 

technology has evolved to take advantage of 

the cost structure provided by consumer-oriented 

GPS and mobile broadband networks. 

In many ways, a vehicle-based computer has 

become just another standards-based mobile 

device that communicates through secure Internet 

connections. 

The computing platform has also undergone 

a dramatic transformation after many ill-fated 

attempts to put a PC into a vehicle. Intel has 

invested heavily to promote this concept as a 

way to leverage their market lead in PC hardware. 

However, except for a few car PC hobbyists, 

the terminology has finally evolved to encompass 

the unique requirements for an embedded 

computer with features and functionality 

that are tailored for diverse, vehicle-based, 

computing applications. Unlike a conventional 

PC, some of these applications may not interact 

with vehicle occupants at all. As an example, 

an embedded computer in a vehicle can automatically 

record or communicate GPS information, 

perhaps signaling an alert if the vehicle 

moves outside a specified area. As with any 

embedded computer application, it does not 

matter whether the hardware shares a heritage 

with the PC. The system design needs to run 

the embedded software application and meet 

the constraints for performance, power, size, 

cost, development time, and so on. While new 

standards-based approaches allow computing 

platforms to benefit from lower cost and 

greater flexibility, the latest vehicle computing 

March 2012 18


systems are true embedded computers. Even 

the early proponents of car PCs have begun to 

adopt the term, carputer. The application space 

for vehicle computing extends well beyond automobiles, 

and embedded system designers 

face a number of unique design challenges for 

so many different vehicle types and dramatically-different 

usage models. 

The vehicle computer design constraints require 

a low-power, compact embedded system that 

delivers compute performance that can scale 

up to support data-intensive processing and 

graphically-rich user interfaces. Even at the 

highest performance levels, the system needs 

to be fanless and operate reliably at extreme 

temperatures (-20 to 70 °C) and with a DC 

power source than might vary from 7V to 36V 

(with voltage transients specified in ISO 7637- 

2). Other environmental factors, such as resistance 

to 5G RMS vibration and 50G shocks, 

are specified in MIL STD 810F. The system applications 

running on these rugged computers 

can require many different types of I/O and 

peripherals. Some applications, such as digital 

signage or security, may require high-speed 

interfaces for devices like IP cameras and highdefinition 

displays. Many applications also require 

I/O interfaces for low data-rate devices, 

such as swipe card readers or simple switches 

and lights. Virtually all vehicle computers need 

to interface to RF channels for data communication, 

whether to receive GPS information or 

connect to a distant network. However, the 

multiple wireless networking technologies require 

different RF designs. 

With such a diversity of vehicle computing applications, 

one way to solve these challenges 

would be to integrate a flexible, embedded 

CPU design that offers a wide range of I/O 

choices in an affordable, standards-based platform. 

Example standard interfaces include Gigabit 

Ethernet, HD video, flash storage, USB, 

serial ports, etc. Most designs will only require 

a subset of these interfaces. However, why 

create a specialized system product if unused 

interfaces and peripherals have an insignificant 

impact on cost? 

The radios (GPS and wireless networking) are 

the main exception, so the most flexible approach 

should allow system integrators the 

ability to swap out radio modules to match 

the wireless needs. The following figure shows 

an example of this type of flexible system design. 

The ART-5450 from VIA Technologies 

allows the system designer to tailor the tripleantenna 

system to optionally support GPS 

modules, wireless local area network (WLAN) 

technologies like Bluetooth and 802.11x, while 

also offering options for wireless wide area 

networking (WWAN) modules to match the 

chosen service provider. Since vehicle computers 

no longer use proprietary networking technology 

and must communicate through mobile 

internet connections, security becomes an important 

design consideration. This is especially 

important for applications that extend a corporate 

network into the vehicle fleet. Unlike 

other mobile devices, a vehicle computer might 

not be physically secured, so the embedded 

computer needs cryptographic features that 

are difficult to compromise through physical 

means. Most software-based cryptography is 

inherently less secure, since unencrypted data 

is stored in memory. Software-based cryptography 

can also be a hundred times slower 

than the equivalent algorithm running in hardware, 

making it very difficult to process high 

data rates in a fanless design. Many secure designs 

implement hardware cryptography in 

specialized hardware, adding substantial cost 

to the system. 

Some high-end Intel processors now support 

AES-NI (new instructions) cryptographic acceleration. 

All VIA processors, including the 

VIA Nano CPU used in its vehicle computers, 

integrate hardware cryptography that has been 

certified by the National Institute of Standards 

and Technology (NIST) as part of Federal Information 

Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-2 

cryptography. These standards also include 

varying levels of physical security that might 

be appropriate for the embedded computing 

system in a vehicle computer. 

While embedded system designers may prefer 

custom solutions that allow extra hardware 

differentiation, the platform standardization 

and proliferation of transportation services 

companies will create a much larger opportunity 

for embedded system developers. Component 

suppliers have continued to integrate 

functionality – first into embedded CPU boards, 

and now into sub-system products that are 

thermally, mechanically and electrically optimized 

for vehicle computing. 

The developers who adopt these sub-systems 

can take advantage of standard software tools 

to differentiate at the system level to build vehicle 

computers that use the same cost-effective, 

secure platform across a range of products. 

Building on standards-based hardware and 

development tools, software developers are 

now creating higher-level standards for interoperability. 

Even the car companies have recognized 

this need for open standards and are 

cooperating with groups such as the AU- 

TOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) 

alliance. With a standards-based architecture 

that is designed for aftermarket upgrades, 

the automobile industry might find 

new business opportunities that allow them 

to participate in the rapid growth of vehicle 

computing markets. n 

19 March 2012

SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS 

Strategic entry into ARM technology 

with a new module standard 

By Norbert Hauser, Kontron 

Kontron’s strategic entry 

into ARM technology alongside 

x86 derivatives has the 

objective of levelling out the 

technological boundaries 

between them with scalable 

building blocks. This will 

enable OEMs to obtain highly 

scalable platforms with 

complete board support 

packages (BSPs) for all 

popular operating systems. 

Figure 1. SFF single 

board computer with 

NVIDIA Tegra 2 

dual core processor 

n With its current performance offerings and 

low power consumption, the latest ARM technology, 

which is already deployed in standard 

tablet applications, is now an alluring option 

for embedded small form factor (SFF) applications. 

Strategic entry into the ARM technology 

by Kontron in addition to that of x86 derivatives 

is welcomed by the analysts VDC 

and a multitude of organizations. The objective 

is to level out the technological boundaries between 

ARM and x86 technologies as far as 

possible with scalable building blocks. This is 

of great interest to many OEMs because they 

will be able to obtain highly scalable platforms 

with complete board support packages (BSPs) 

for all popular operating systems. 

The abstraction brought about by suitable 

hardware-specific software enables the creation 

of increasingly homogeneous application-ready 

platforms. OEMs will then be able to switch 

from one board, module or system to another 

with relative ease. Kontron is able to ensure 

this by providing appropriate standardization 

at the board and hardware-specific software 

levels, coupled with the inclusion of extensive 

software services. The amount of software 

tweaking required ranges from none at all to 

hardly any, and is dependent on the operating 

system used and the application programming. 

ARM solutions are always accompanied by 

full custom designs offerings at the board and 

system level, which would enable an OEM to 

focus entirely on application development. 

The need to grapple with individual specific 

features is thus eliminated. 

A hardware design at board level demonstrates 

how the selection of a suitable CPU for an application 

can be simplified: the interface feature 

set of the Kontron NVIDIA Tegra 2 SOC 

based Pico-ITX board, which is currently in 

development and planned for Q1/2012, hardly 

differs from that of its Intel Atom or AMD 

Embedded G-Series designs. The main variance 

lies in the processor used, and hence the performance 

class. 

A fundamental dissimilarity lies in the fact 

that the interfaces provided by ARM processors 

are more dedicated and less generic than for 

example SATA and PCI Express, which are 

often used for individual add-on options in 

x86 based designs. On the other hand, many 

ARM SOCs include several UARTs, I2C and 

SPI interfaces. From a purely theoretical viewpoint, 

the ARM interfaces can be made generic 

and standardized by investing in additional 

development expenditure and components. 

But this would result in a loss of the superior 

power-saving benefits that make ARM designs 

so attractive: the reduced cooling requirement 

gives rise to the inclusion of fanless designs 

that are more fail-safe and have a higher MTBF. 

The resulting systems are thus easier to develop 

and manufacture. Both weight and cost are reduced 

because the need for heat pipes, heat 

sinks and fans is eliminated. 

However, such development is mostly unnecessary, 

because when it comes to generic interfaces, 

particularly for SFF designs, the trend is 

to go for less rather than more. The difference 

in feature set between the Pico- ITX boards is 

thus negligible. Because the Pico-ITX format 

is standardized, application-specific selection 

of a suitable x86 or ARM design can take 

place barrier-free, within only one ecosystem. 

The advantage is mechanical compatibility 

with the entire existing product portfolio, 

which greatly eases system design. 

Figure 2. Example of a visiting card sized 

module with TI Sitara AM387x processor 

family 

March 2012 20


In addition to the mechanical development advantage, 

Kontron boards also offer benefits in 

terms of software. These include extensive support 

of all popular operating systems as well as 

the Kontron embedded application programming 

interface (KEAPI), which was released a 

year ago. It ensures the overall design homogeneity 

by respective APIs for identical functions, 

independent from processor, operating system 

and form factor. Such application-ready platforms 

significantly reduce the time to market 

and development cost. The option to outsource 

hardware development also for ARM-based 

solutions therefore becomes very feasible. 

Did Kontron integrate ARM in the realm of 

x86 form factors? Does this mean the entire 

technology battle is over? If it is up to Kontron, 

yes. Ultimately the company intends to offer 

its embedded customers the best platform in 

each case and to provide access to new applications 

that were previously not possible. High 

scalability of the appropriate standard form 

factors across all processor platforms is very 

useful, because it allows easier OEM porting 

of applications between RISC and CISC architectures. 

With the addition of hardware-specific 

software services to implement necessary code 

modifications to some extent, the underlying 

processor architecture becomes ever less of a 

fundamental decision criterion. 

The focus shifts to power consumption and 

performance per watt. After an enormous success 

initiated by x86 technology, the market 

has now entered a new era. Thanks to extensive 

software support, the borders between different 

processor technologies have gone down because 

the software ecosystem is now expandable to 

further technology platforms. Consequently, 

the standard form factors at the board level 

must also be enhanced in accordance with the 

new processor platforms. 

When it comes to ARM and x86 technology, it 

is not really possible to lump everything together. 

Differences between the technologies 

should be left as such in order to utilize their 

individual advantages. This is why Kontron developed 

a new specification for Computer-on- 

Modules that is particularly suitable for ARM 

and low-power SOC processor technology. Up 

to now, all existing module specifications have 

been influenced by x86 technology, with feature 

sets proving too complex for ARM technologies. 

For example, a classical x86 chipset offers a 

multitude of typical PC interfaces such as PCI 

Express lanes, USB and SATA ports. But typical 

ARM SOCs feature more classical embedded 

ports such as UART, I²C, I2C and several SDIOs, 

with fewer PC interfaces: PCIe x16 graphics 

and PCI are for example not supported as 

native. ARM-based SOC exhibits differences 

in video outputs and offers to some extent 

dedicated camera interfaces. In ARM processors 

these are often implemented according to the 

MIPI standard such as camera serial interface 

(CSI) and are currently not implemented in a 

module standard. 

Using the new COM specification, Kontron 

has defined two new form factors as a future 

defacto industrial standard for embedded module 

designs based on ARM and low-power 

SOC technology. This is complementary to 

the successful COM Express standard. Kontron 

ETX standard that has already demonstrated 

defacto industrial standards can be successfully 

accepted worldwide without committees such 

as PICMG or VITA. The new COM specification 

embossed by Kontron is already supported 

by a further prominent embedded vendor, 

Adlink. Within Kontron itself, the new COMs 

form an important base platform for future 

scalable low-power ARM-based applicationready 

platforms such as Box PCs, HMIs and 

industrial TabletPCs. 

The new specification was developed based 

on the 314-pin MXM 3.0 connector. This is a 

durable and particularly flat construction with 

a cost-efficient card edge/goldfinger. Several 

form factors are supported in order to offer 

flexibility regarding various mechanical 

21 March 2012


Pico-ITX with ARM KTA55/pITX pITX-SP 

(planned for Q1/2012) 

Processor platform NVIDIA Tegra 2 AMD Embedded Intel Atom Z5x0 

1 GHz dual core G-Series, 1 GHz 1.1 / 1.6 GHz 

dual core 

single core 

Ethernet 1x 10/100 Mbit 1x 10/100/1000 Mbit 1x 10/100/1000 Mbit 

USB 3x USB 2.0 6x USB 2.0 6x USB 2.0 

Graphics DVI-I, 24-bit single DVI-I, 24-bit dual DVI-D, 24-bit single 

channel LVDS, channel LVDS channel LVDS 

Display Serial Interface 

Main memory 512 / 1024 MB DDR2 Max 4 GB DDR3 Max 2 GB DDR2 

Storage MicroSD Card Slot, 2x SATA, 2x SATA, 1x PATA 

Onboard NAND flash MicroSD Card Slot 

Audio 2ch. In/out, Mic, HD audio HD audio analog / 

SPDIF 

SPDIF 

I/O features 16x GPIO, 2x RS232, 8x GPIO 8-bit GPI/O, SDIO 

CSI, I2C, SPI, JTAG 

Table 1. Comparison of the three Pico-ITX feature sets reveals hardly any differences in terms 

of the most relevant interfaces such as USB, Ethernet and graphics and memory for SFF devices. 

In general, scalability with expansion into ARM technology is well underway. 

requirements. Two dimensions are consequently 

specified: a small 82mm x 50 mm module, 

and a larger one at 82mm x 80mm primarily 

intended for future high-performance multicore 

processors. 

Kontron has positioned the specification for 

the low-power performance class, such as 

ARM-tailored modules, as a platform alternative 

to existing proprietary custom module 

implementations that are often tailored to a 

single ARM processor. The Kontron-driven 

open COM specification really comes into its 

own with the latest MXM 3.0 connector, which 

enables very flat designs and is also available 

in a shock- and vibration-proof construction 

suitable for automotive applications. Even 

more decisive is the fact that the pin allocation 

and thus the feature set are specifically designed 

for ARM and SOC processor technologies. 

The new connector gives rise to new interfaces. 

Video outputs include LVDS, and in future 

embedded DisplayPort, 24-bit RGB and HDMI 

are also possible. For the first time dedicated 

camera interfaces are also included in the standard. 

Consequently, users no longer need to 

compromise or work with inefficient specifications 

stretched between the x86 feature set 

and lean ARM I/Os. To enable customers to 

begin using ARM technology immediately, 

Kontron will provide its ARM-based building 

blocks in bundles with extensive custom design 

services. This means OEM customers can have 

already integrated application-ready platforms 

at the board and system levels as standard 

products, or customized and made to order. 

In addition to this individual hardware development 

service at the board and system level, 

the company will provide extensive services 

during software development, ranging from 

driver development and OS code modifications 

to extensive application porting and validation 

services, as well as HW/SW bundles and volume 

licensing. Application developers are able to 

benefit from efficient migrations, quick time 

to market, and significantly reduced development 

costs, because they receive an „application 

ready platform,“ which if required is already 

certified. This enables customers to fully concentrate 

on their core competence: application 

development. 

It goes without saying that all ARM-relevant 

operating systems are supported. In addition 

to Windows CE 6 and Windows Embedded 

Compact 7 (WEC7), Linux-based operating 

systems will be supported as well as Android 

on ARM products. VxWorks support will be 

conceived for TI processors. This is of particular 

interest for applications requiring maximum 

availability and real time behaviour. As is the 

case with x86-based products, Kontron ARM 

products will also support the ARM native 

version of Windows 8 as per availability on 

the part of Microsoft. Support for Android, 

which is still a relatively young OS popular in 

the smartphone and tablet market, allows it to 

open up the door to the huge market of networked, 

multimedia-oriented applications 

based on ARM technology. BSPs will be validated 

for the OS right up to the system level. 

OEMs are therefore able to focus on the application 

without having to traverse a learning 

curve. This keeps the time to market and TCO 

to a minimum. 

The small form factor Pico-ITX format 

(100mm x72mm) board, which is currently in 

development and planned for Q1/2012, is 

fitted with a 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dualcore 

processor. It offers a completely passive 

cooling concept and a very low power consumption 

of 3 watts in addition to an attractive 

feature set. The ARM Cortex A9 architecture 

based mini-board includes 10/100Mbit Ethernet, 

three USB 2.0 ports, 16 freely configurable 

GPIOs and a slot for Micro SD cards as well as 

512MB or 1GB 32-bit DDR-2 RAM. 

The audiovisual experience is not to be overlooked: 

the integrated ultra-low power (ULP) 

NVIDIA GeForce GPU delivers a graphic performance 

for mobile devices in high play console 

quality and provides up to two simultaneous 

HD video streams (1080 p). Displays are 

connected via DVI-I for analog and digital signal 

transmission as well as via two DSI and a 

24-bit LVDS converter. Backlight support is either 

5V internal or 12V external. Audio is supported 

with SPDIF as well as stereo line-in 

and line-out and MIC. Extensive hardware accelerators 

for flash, video and audio CODECs 

provide flowing and brilliant playback of countless 

multimedia and web contents. 

The extremely compact (50 mm x 82 mm) 

ARM computer-on-module, which is currently 

in development and planned for Q1/2012, is 

based on the Texas Instruments AM387x single 

core processor with ARM Cortex A8 and up 

to 1 GB DDR3 RAM. It integrates the high 

performance SGX530 3D graphic engine for 

resolutions up to 1080p at 60Hz and can thus 

even drive large-sized panels in Full HD. Video 

interfaces include LVDS, embedded DisplayPort 

(eDP) as well as HDMI 1.3 via a MXM 3.0 

connector. I2S provides a loss-free transmission 

of digital multi-channel sound, which is important 

for example in infotainment or multimedia 

kiosk/POI applications. 

Its further I/O features predestine the future 

Kontron module for deployment in vehicles 

or in the industrial sector: 2x CAN (CAN version 

2 Part A, B) as well as Gigabit Ethernet 

facilitate IT and field integration. Two MIPI- 

CSI (mobile industry processor interface) 

conformal camera inputs are also included, 

which can for example be used in medical 

applications as well as for optical quality 

control, gesture-based control for HMIs and 

for personal identification at kiosk systems. 

For application-specific extensions, the ARM 

module includes a PCI Express Gen 2.0 Lane 

March 2012 22


Figure 3. The new COM specification includes an extremely flat 

MXM 3.0 connector, with a height of only 4.3 mm. With 314 available 

pins, it offers a multitude of IO functions for SOC and ARM performance 

class processors 

and 3x SDIO, which can for example connect WiFi or 3G/4G modules. 

2x USB 2.0 and 2x SPI are also included, which can be used to connect 

a touch screen. As a matter of interest, there is also an option to use 

the USB as a client. In such applications the module is attached as peripheral 

device to a host system. Areas of application include anywhere 

where complex periphery is required with decentralized intelligence, 

or where system functions are to be read for parametrization via USB. 

For a quick start in application development, Kontron will provide an 

appropriate carrier board with two SDIO slots. Kontron also undertakes 

application-specific carrier board development including all the necessary 

testing, certification and basic software right up to complete 

system integration. This enables OEMs to fully concentrate on application 

development with the new ARM-based modules. n 

Product News 

n VIA: Mini-ITX boards feature QuadCore E-Series processor 

VIA Technologies announced quad core Mini-ITX boards featuring 

the latest VIA QuadCore E-Series processor. The VIA EPIA-M900 

and VIA EPIA-M910 are the first two Mini-ITX boards to feature 

the 1.2GHz VIA QuadCore E-Series processor, offering enhanced 

multi-tasking and superb multimedia performance on the lowest 

quad core power budget for next generation embedded products. 

The VIA QuadCore E-Series processor features a highly optimized, 

energy efficient multi-core architecture, which is natively 64-bit 

compatible and comes with a host of additional performance 

features including Adaptive Overclocking. Measuring 17 x 17cm 

the EPIA-M900 Mini-ITX board features the choice of a 1.2GHz 

VIA QuadCore E-Series processor or a 1.6GHz dual core VIA 

Nano X2 E-Series processor. 

News ID 15184 

n congatec: COM Express Type 6 module with high graphics 

performance 

congatec announces the conga-TS67, a new low-power module 

for advanced designs. It supports Pin-out Type 6 and provides 

improved display options along with increased bandwidth thanks 

to digital display interfaces and additional PCI Express lanes. 

With new, super low-power Intel processors soldered on in a 

BGA package, the module is suitable for vibration-resistant 

applications. 

News ID 15045 

23 March 2012

AVIONICS 

Adding MIL-STD-1553 to 

any platform made easy 

By George Los, DDC 

This article highlights 

that MIL STD 1553 is more 

and more used for industrial 

applications as well as 

military, and there are already 

a multitude of products 

to simplify its implementation 

for these purposes. 

BU-67113U small form factor 

USB board 

n MIL STD 1553 is a protocol standard that 

defines the electrical and functional characteristics 

of a serial data bus that has been mainly 

used in military aircraft. The bus architecture 

of MIL STD 1553 allows for reduced size and 

weight of systems and the wiring that interconnects 

them, is inherently reliable, and incorporates 

redundancies that make it a safe data bus 

solution. It has served as the primary command 

and control interconnect on many different 

types of military platforms and applications. 

Traditional embedded 1553 applications involve 

the use of standard off the shelf board form 

factors like PMC, XMC, and PC/104 boards, 

or circuit layout designs utilizing 1553 components. 

New methods also allow the use of small 

form factors, which are very tiny cards like 

mini PCIe, USB, or other form factors, to add 

I/O capabilities like 1553 to rugged systems. 

Many test systems traditionally use standard 

off the shelf board form factors like PCI, PCIe, 

cPCI, or PXI boards, while more recent methods 

involve the use of USB or Ethernet connectivity 

to the host computer system. Whatever method 

the system level designer may choose, adding 

1553 capabilities has certainly become much 

easier over the years. PMC (PCI mezzanine 

cards) can go into VME, VPX, cPCI/PXI, or 

PCI chassis systems which incorporate large 

metal card cages. Embedded PCI mezzanine 

card (PMC) and switched mezzanine card 

(XMC) board form factors sit inside rugged 

embedded card cages for adding 1553 to systems. 

A PMC is a printed circuit board manufactured 

to the IEEE P1386.1 standard. There is also a 

part of the VITA standard that defines PMC 

conduction cooling. A standard size PMC board 

is 5.87 inches x 2.91 inches (149 mm x 74 mm) 

and plugs onto a base board such that the two 

boards are parallel to each other. Mezzanine 

cards have played an essential role in embedded 

systems with single board computers and standard 

backplanes. XMC is the same size as a PMC 

board but offers the next generation high speed 

back end interface connection to the host instead 

of a PCI connection. The most popular type of 

XMC board is a PCIe back end interface with 

high density connectors. DDC offers a complete 

line of standard off the shelf PMC and XMC 

boards for 1553 applications and typically includes 

a variety of different types of I/O on board to 

save space, power, weight and costs, which are 

critical in embedded platforms that might only 

have one PMC or XMC site. One example of 

this is the newest XMC card from DDC that provides 

up to 8 dual redundant MIL STD 1553 

channels on a single XMC board. 

The PC/104 Plus and PCI 104 form factor is 

still a very popular small form factor that has 

allowed embedded and laboratory system designers 

to keep development costs low through 

the use of commercial off the shelf (COTS) 

products. This form factor is a compact design 

that is well suited for small embedded applications 

and rapid prototyping in the lab. The card 

is only 3.575 inches x 3.775 inches (90 mm x 96 

mm) and uses a stacking concept where one 

card sits on top of the other, which allows you 

to build a tower of cards. The pins from one 

card insert into the card below it to provide the 

bus interface. This stacking concept allows system 

designers to eliminate backplanes that consist 

of large metal card cages, making the overall 

format smaller in size and lower in cost. 

PMC, XMC, and PC/104-Plus type of form 

factors can at times be too large and heavy for 

some applications. Also the demand for lightweight, 

low-power, rugged, reliable bus interfaces 

for smaller platforms such as UAVs has 

increased the demand for small components 

or small form factor rugged boards. DDC 

BU-67114H small form factor mini-PCIe 

board 

March 2012 24

AVIONICS 

higher performance, and the use of less board 

area. Each channel provides 48-bit/100 nanosecond 

resolution time stamping of each received 

message. An integrated DMA engine allows 

for optimized performance in bus monitor 

mode to decrease CPU utilization and free up 

CPU cycles. In addition, Total-AceXtreme features 

a high performance data streaming engine 

(DSE). The DSE maximizes the efficiency of 

data transfers between the host processor and 

the 1553 interface. Modern processor buses 

are optimized for burst transfers of data. The 

DSE maximizes the efficiency of modern 

processor buses by facilitating block transfers 

(DMA) of data to and from the 1553 interface 

with minimal processor overhead. The benefits 

of this streaming interface are reduced CPU 

utilization and increased real-time performance 

for BC and multi-RT modes of operation. 

BU-67112Z MIL-STD-1553 XMC board with 8 channels 

offers a complete line of MIL-STD-1553 components 

and rugged small form factor boards 

for applications with stringent size and weight 

limitations. To conserve size and weight, system 

designers can incorporate 1553 functionality 

on their base board by using an off-the-shelf 

component. A component has traditionally 

consisted of 1553 protocol and transceivers integrated 

into one small package. DDC has recently 

revolutionized the industry with the introduction 

of the Total-ACE and Total-AceXtreme 

components that integrate a complete 

MIL-STD-1553 solution with transformers inside 

one tiny package, available in a square 

plastic BGA package as small as .63 inch x .63 

inch (16 mm x 16 mm). 

The use of one small device simplifies the design 

and layout of a 1553 circuit on a base 

processor circuit card assembly. DDC also 

offers a complete hardware and software Total- 

AceXtreme development kit that makes the 

design and development of 1553 circuitry even 

easier. Small form factors are becoming very 

popular in embedded applications and this allows 

for a reduction in overall size and weight 

for rugged embedded systems and provides 

an alternative to designing your own circuit 

card assembly. This allows system developers 

to focus on system level design and easily include 

1553 functionality as an add-on option 

when required. 

There are a number of small form factor standards 

being released today, and more are 

emerging, with the objective of saving space, 

power, and weight in overall system development. 

The small form factor special interest 

group (SFF-SIG) is an independent group that 

develops, promotes, and supports small form 

factor circuit board, I/O, and storage specifications. 

The group embraces the latest technologies, 

but also has a philosophy of maintaining 

legacy compatibility and enabling smooth transitions 

to next-generation interfaces. There 

are also a number of VITA specifications for 

small form factors. VITA is an incorporated, 

non-profit organization of vendors and users 

having a common market interest in real-time, 

rugged embedded computing systems. VITA 

members have worked together to define and 

develop key computer bus, board, and system 

specifications such as VME, PMC, VPX, XMC, 

and others. The community has realized that 

there is a driving need for electronic systems 

to get smaller and lighter. This has resulted in 

three new competing standards: VITA 73, 

VITA 74, and VITA 75. These specifications 

are in working group status right now and 

have not been ratified, but there are major system 

manufacturers that have already adopted 

and made products for these technologies. 

The BU-67114H small form factor Mini-PCIe 

board allows up to two dual-redundant MIL- 

STD-1553 channels to be easily added to any 

small embedded system, laptop, or tablet computer, 

to provide a cost-effective, lightweight, 

small size, rugged, and reliable 1553 bus interface. 

The board is designed with unique DDC 

components, based on ASICs, to allow for the 

smallest size and lowest power. Each 1553 

channel can emulate a bus controller (BC), 

multiple remote terminals (RTs), a bus monitor 

(MT), BC/MT, or Multi-RT/MT modes independently 

per 1553 channel. The MIL-STD- 

1553 interfaces on this board consist of one or 

two Total-AceXtreme interfaces. Total-AceXtreme 

is latest generation MIL-STD-1553 component 

from DDC with unique 1553 protocol 

and transceiver ASICs inside one component 

with integrated transformers. The use of this 

type of technology on the board allows for 

higher MTBF, lower 1553 power dissipation, 

A small form factor USB board (BU-67113U) 

is also available from Data Device Corporation, 

and incorporates all the same features and 

benefits of the mini-PCIe card in a small 

board that connects to a standard USB 2.0 

host interface. The added benefit here is that 

you can mount this board anywhere in your 

system and interface to your host computer 

via a USB 2.0 cable. With this new board you 

only need an available USB 2.0 port in your 

system, and there is no longer any need to 

have a free card slot in order to populate 1553, 

or for doing any circuit layout design to integrate 

a component level solution. 

DDC provides a complete set of drivers and 

software support for all major operating 

systems. The MIL-STD-1553 C software 

development kit (SDK) includes drivers for 

VxWorks, Integrity, Linux, and Windows. 

These SDKs allow you to quickly integrate 

DDC 1553 products into your C source code 

applications. A common SDK exists across all 

operating systems allowing the programmer 

portability across different platforms. The 

SDK includes a variety of different samples 

with full source code along with detailed documentation. 

The easy-to-use high level functions 

abstract all low level hardware accesses 

and memory allocation such that specific 

hardware knowledge is not required. DDC 

also offers optional graphical user interfaces 

that are Windows applications which allow 

for bus monitoring and simulation for quick 

and easy setup. These applications also contain 

an industry-unique feature that allows the 

end user to program the bus through this application, 

and then click a button to generate 

the application C code to reduce risk, ensure 

success, and shorten the development cycle. 

The application C code can be compiled for 

use in any of the supported operating systems. 

The MIL-STD-1553 software package is called 

BusTrACEr and is available today. n 

25 March 2012

AVIONICS 

Embedded video takes airborne 

surveillance to new heights 

By Christian Steward, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing 

A revolution is underway 

in airborne surveillance video. 

With the proliferation of digital video 

camera sources and the demand for 

high definition displays, moving 

maps, video uplinks/downlinks and 

video recording/playback/archival 

options, video management systems 

for airborne police services are 

becoming more sophisticated and 

powerful, making every flight crew 

member more effective. 

Rear operator console fitted 

with the Skyquest AVDU-5008 

20” display (left) and the 

AVDU-3824 15” display 

(right) on the Greater 

Manchester Police aircraft 

n With unprecedented levels of data now available, 

the world’s leading surveillance authorities 

demand a video management system that 

makes processing this intelligence second nature. 

But as digital video data and viewing options 

increase so does the amount of video that 

needs to be distributed and recorded. An example 

of a rugged, complete video management 

system designed to meet the unique demands 

of digital video-based airborne surveillance 

today is the Curtiss-Wright Controls Skyquest 

VMS. The Skyquest VMS is currently deployed 

by leading police forces around the world, in 

over 20 different countries and across six continents, 

including Melbourne Police Law Enforcement 

in Australia, the US National Guard 

and Army LUH (Light Utility Helicopter) Fleet, 

Allied Forces in Afghanistan and the French 

and German military. In London the VMS is 

the choice of the London Metropolitan Police 

(LMP) airborne law enforcement team. 

In the sky above London the LMP has deployed 

Skyquest VMS on its fleet of EC145 helicopters, 

making these helicopters some of the most advanced 

air support units in the world. Each 

helicopter is fitted with five Skyquest mission 

displays and multiple recording decks. The 

VMS serves as the heart of the surveillance 

system. The EC 145s use a triple sensor camera 

system that feeds an HD camera, low-light, 

and infrared video pictures into the aircraft, 

which can then be displayed on any one of the 

five mission screens. The on-board crew typically 

comprises two police officers and a pilot. 

One police officer, acting as an air observer, is 

seated in the rear of the EC 145 and takes on 

the role of tactical commander. This officer is 

provided with two 15“ mission displays. These 

identical screens can display images from any 

of the camera sensors and a moving map. The 

operator can control replay of what has been 

recorded, and receive uplinked video via an 

intuitive but powerful touchscreen-based manmachine 

interface. 

The aircraft front left seat is typically occupied 

by a forward observer who operates the camera 

system, navigates to the task and assists the 

pilot with flight checklists and other tasks. 

The forward observer is provided with a 10“ 

fully functional mission display with same capability 

as the two in the rear. There is also a 

fold-down 10“ mission display mounted on 

the ceiling, which is typically viewed by the 

police officer in the rear of the helicopter, but 

can be rotated and viewed from any position. 

The EC145 pilot is supported with a screen 

which that easily folds away for takeoff and 

landing. Once airborne the pilot has access to 

all the video imagery on the aircraft. The 

friendly man-machine interface of the VMS 

lets the operator select, manipulate, store and 

forward video input with a minimum of system 

overhead. All the operator displays in the VMS 

can show four different video input sources 

combined into a single integrated quad screen. 

The touchscreen controls enable the operator 

to expand any of the individual windows out 

to full-screen size. An operator no longer need 

search for a particular video feed of interest, 

or have to know the precise name of that feed, 

before selecting it for display. 

With its support for quad multi-screen display, 

the VMS enhances situational awareness for 

its users. For example, in one window a wideangle 

sensor feed can be viewed, in another 

window a narrow-angle image can be displayed, 

while in another window infrared imagery 

can be shown. In addition, a moving map system 

can provide the location of the aircraft 

and the vector to the target. This provides a 

complete situational awareness on a single display 

screen. A typical earlier video system supported 

only one video source at a time, limiting 

the useful video to 1/3 of the video data being 

captured by the three-mode camera. The system 

quad display enables 100% of the aircraft 

camera sensor video to be used simultaneously. 

Great flexibility is provided to the operator, 

enabling them to decide in real time which 

images to display and where to place them on 

the screen. The placement and size of the individual 

windows can be easily rearranged, so 

March 2012 26

AVIONICS 

that, for example, map systems can be viewed 

side by side, and recorded video information 

from storage can be displayed on one window 

next to live incoming video feeds. Individual 

window video feeds can be frozen and then 

made dynamic again with a single touch. Also, 

each display supports zoom in and out of the 

image on screen. 

The VMS is capable of integrating with multiple 

computers commonly used in surveillance aircraft 

for such tasks as automatic number plate 

recognition, and as part of the VMS can be 

operated via the display touchscreens or integrated 

keyboard. The VMS also supports the 

use of a QWERTY keyboard and mouse, to 

augment the touchscreen controls. The keyboard 

can be used to control an integrated 

moving map or a connected PC. 

The digital video recorders make it possible 

to collect and easily remove evidentiary video 

for storage and analysis. Images from all video 

sources and any screen configuration can be 

recorded, rewound and played back at any 

screen, by any operator during flight or on 

the ground for post-mission analysis. These 

images can also be sent to a downlink for onward 

transmission via microwave transmitter 

to the ground or to other aircraft. Conversely 

mission data can be uplinked to the aircraft 

the same way. 

Video recording can be controlled via the display 

keys or the recorders themselves, allowing 

the operator to decide when to start and stop 

the recording. The crew can choose exactly 

what to record or what to send to the downlink. 

Previously, these functions were hardwired to 

a specific source and could not be changed. In 

fact, any one of the crew can control the 

recording process from any one of the aircraft 

mission displays. Previously, a secondary remote 

control unit was typically mounted in 

place and accessible to only one operator, limiting 

control of the video recording. The video 

data is recorded on solid-state CompactFlash 

memory cards. Unlike spinning hard drives, 

these memory cards are impervious to shock 

and vibration. Each card can have the storage 

capacity of a DVD or Blu-ray disc, and can be 

easily removed from the system, fitting in a 

flight suit pocket, to make data backup fast 

and economical. 

Curtiss-Wright dual-mode backlit rugged LED 

displays can be utilised as part of the VMS. 

Traditional display backlight systems have been 

based on cold cathode ray tube illumination. 

That technology requires high voltages and 

doesn not work very well at low temperatures. 

In addition the color degrades over time, 

getting dimmer the more it is used. The latest 

Skyquest LED displays provide wider color 

gamut/range, and can run cooler, because they 

are solid state, with no degradation of light 

performance over time. Another advantage of 

LED displays is that they are more rugged: 

mounting glass tube and shock breakage issues 

go away. They can also be used to create different 

lighting regimes for different application 

areas such as the dual backlighting for night 

vision goggle filtering. 

The dual backlight option utilises two alternative 

sources of backlighting behind the LCD 

array, one to provide optimized high brightness 

and high contrast lighting in daylight conditions 

and a second to provide very low amplitude 

night vision goggle (NVG) compatible 

lighting. This means that the full colour presentation 

of map and warning information can 

be provided while at the same time maintaining 

100% compatibility with NVG, enabling both 

goggles and head-down viewing of the displays 

simultaneously without conflict or compromise 

in performance. n

PRODUCT NEWS 

n Kontron announces support for Cavium 

OCTEON III multicore MIPS64 processor 

family 

Kontron has announced support for the new 

OCTEON III MIPS64 family of 1 – 48 core 

multicore processors from Cavium. As a Cavium 

PACE (Partnership to Accelerate Customer 

End-solutions) member, Kontron has already 

designed three generations of AdvancedMC 

module and AdvancedTCA bladed hardware 

featuring Cavium multicore processors. These 

are essential system components used in Kontron 

open communication platforms to design 

network applications for SNOW 3G and KA- 

SUMI, TCP/IP packet processing acceleration, 

QoS, and Deep Packet Inspection in 4G LTE, 

content delivery and carrier cloud networks. 

News ID 15088 

n Schroff: new 4 U MicroTCA.0 system with 

12 AMC slots 

To keep the space requirements for the installation 

of MicroTCA systems as small as possible, 

but without compromising on reliable 

cooling and system redundancy, Schroff has 

added a 4 U MicroTCA.0 system to its product 

portfolio. Thus, customers can now select from 

a complete system range for telecoms applications, 

with systems in 1 U, 3 U, 4 U, 6 U and 8 

U for horizontal or vertical board mounting. 

News ID 15280 

n Emerson: ATCA blade for telecom server 

and control plane 

A high-performance server blade introduced 

by Emerson Network Power extends the processing, 

memory and I/O capabilities available 

to designers of ATCA based telecom servers, 

supporting the most demanding control plane 

applications. In the Emerson Network Power 

ATCA-7370, dual eight-core Intel Xeon processor 

E5-2648L devices running at 1.8GHz, 

linked via a dual QuickPath Interconnect interface, 

are matched with eight DIMM sockets 

offering up to 128GB of main memory. 

News ID 15276 

n Interface Masters: 48 Port 1U hybrid 

managed switch supports multi 10 

Gigabit SFP+ ports 

Interface Masters Technologies announced a 

48 port Hybrid 10GE SFP+ and 1G RJ45 managed 

switch series in a 1U form factor. The 

system Niagara 2924-24TG is designed to integrate 

with Datacenter, Blade servers, Carrier 

Ethernet and Metro Ethernet devices, HPC 

clusters, enterprise storage systems, IT Security 

Appliances and Central Office applications. 

News ID 15062 

n DFI: 3.5“ single board computers support 

next generation Intel Atom 

DFI launches the 3.5“ Single Board Computer 

– CD951 Series, offering the next generation 

Intel Atom processors. These SBC boards pair 

an Intel NM10 Express chipset with a range of 

Intel Atom processors, from the power efficient 

Intel Atom processor. These new dual core 

processors are built on Intel’s 32-nanometer 

process technology providing low power consumption 

and yet higher clock frequencies 

and faster memory access than their predecessors 

that are built on 45-nanometer technology. 

News ID 15120 

n Avalue: boards and modules based on 

next-generation Intel Atom processor 

Avalue Technology is unveiling new products 

- ECM-CDV, EBM-CDV and EQM-CDV, 

which are powered by the next-generation 

Intel Atom processor N2600, N2800 and D2700 

and Intel NM10 Express chipset with low 

power consumption and high performance. 

The newest Intel Atom processor series, formerly 

codenamed “Cedar Trail,” is based on 

Intel’s 32nm process technology, and features 

a two-chip platform, integrating the Northbridge 

chip with CPU, and has advanced the 

Southbridge chip to the higher class. 

News ID 15138 

n Axiomtek: Nano-ITX boards powered by 

single/dual core AMD G-Series 

Axiomtek has released NANO101, a new compact, 

low-power Nano-ITX board powered by 

either a single core AMD G-Series APU T40R 

at 1.0GHz or the dual core T40E at 1.0 GHz 

paired with the A50M FCH chipset and one 

up to 4 GB DDR3 1066 memory. Integrated 

with Radeon HD 6250 graphics controller with 

mainstream DirectX 11 support, the NANO101 

provides outstanding visual experience and 

features 18/24-bit single/dual channel LVDS 

and VGA with dual view compatibility. 

News ID 15169 

n Advantech:palm-size fanless embedded 

Box PC with Intel Atom N455 

Advantech announces the ARK-1120, an ultracompact 

and price-competitive fanless embedded 

system powered by an Intel Atom 

N455 processor. Its compact size, affordable 

price, robust performance and support for 

both HDD and CompactFlash memory make 

the ARK-1120 attractive for a range of embedded 

usages. This product is well-suited for 

applications that need a simple but dependable 

controller. 

News ID 15116 

n Amplicon: 10 GbE Industrial Ethernet 

switches 

Amplicon have unveiled their 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 

industrial core switch product portfolio. 

The ICS-G7000 series provides greater connectivity, 

reliability and redundancy for nonstop 

operation. A new level of high performance 

is achieved through the use of a maximum 

of four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. The highcapacity 

10GbE network connectivity is ideal 

for building next generation, scalable industrial 

Ethernet infrastructures for industrial process 

automation and transportation applications, 

which need to expand to meet the growing 

traffic demands and advanced technological 

requirements of converged network services. 

News ID 15085 

n congatec: entry-level module for COM 

Express Type 6 with new Atom dual-core 

processors 

congatec announces the conga-TCA, an entrylevel 

model of its Type 6 Pin-out COM Express 

module range. The conga-TCA is available in 

three variants of the new Intel Atom dualcore 

processor generation, the Intel Atom 

N2600 processor with only 3.5W TDP (1M 

Cache, 1.6 GHz); the Intel Atom N2800 processor 

(1M Cache, 1.86 GHz) with 6.5W TDP; 

and the Intel Atom D2700 processor (1M 

Cache, 2.13 GHz) with 10W TDP and up to 

4GB single-channel DDR3 memory (1066 

MHz). The chipset module, which is based on 

the Intel NM10, provides improved memory, 

graphics and display functionalities plus intelligent 

performance and greater energy efficiency. 

Thanks to its low power consumption 

and compact measurements (95 x 95 mm) the 

conga-TCA is particularly well suited for applications 

in medical and automation technology, 

POS, kiosks and digital signage. Smart 

power and battery management guarantee 

long battery life, an essential factor for cost 

savings in portable devices. 

News ID 15257 

More information about each news is available on 

www.Embedded-Control-Europe.com/bas-magazine 

• You have to type in 

the “News ID”. — 

March 2012 28

PRODUCT NEWS 

n Avalue launches EPS-QM57 Rugged 

Embedded System 

Avalue released a series of new rugged embedded 

system, EPS-QM57, which is ideal for a 

various range of applications. EPS-QM57 is 

equipped with the Intel Core i7 processor with 

the Intel QM57 chipset, which has a low power 

consumption and is very energy-efficient. It 

supports two 204-pin SODIMM up to 8GB 

DDR3 SDRAM. With a variety of I/O interfaces, 

EPS-QM57 comes with 1CF, 2LAN, 

1SATA, 1VGA, 1LVDS, 8COM, 6USB, 1LPT, 

2PCI, 1SIM Card and 8-bit/16-bit GPIO. Users 

are allowed to connect different devices as 

needed on demand. 

News ID 15142 

n DSM: first member of the 

second-generation NanoServer family 

DSM Computer presents with the N1-QM67 

embedded system its first member of the second-generation 

NanoServer family at embedded 

world. The compact IPC N1-QM67 box 

with the dimensions 204 x 226 x 79 mm provides 

a free PCI Express x16 slot for expansion 

with a graphic card or a frame-grabber. A 

short Mini PCI Express x1 slot is also available 

internally. The DVI-I, DVI-D and HDMI interfaces 

allow the connection of high-resolution 

displays that supply three independent images 

to three separate monitors. 

News ID 15165 

n DSM: high-performance variant 

rail-mounted PC with Atom Z530 

DSM Computer has extended its compact H1- 

A rail-mounted PC family with a higher performance 

variant that incorporates an energy-saving 

Intel Atom processor Z530 (1.6 

GHz). The standardized installation capabilities 

allow the computer that is 90 mm high and 

only 41 mm (55 mm with cooling fins) deep 

to be installed very quickly in electrical-equipment 

or switchgear cabinets. With a width of 

122 mm (7 U), the IPC – in a robust, highquality 

aluminum housing – can be installed 

under the rail-mounting standard cover. 

News ID 15064 

n Artila: DIN-RAIL ARM9 embedded 

computer for hazardous environment 

Artila Electronics launches the PAC-4000 DIN- 

Rail mounted Industrial ARM9 Embedded 

Computer. PAC-4000 is a fanless industrial 

computer which is powered by 400MHz ARM9 

ATMEL AT91SAM9G20, 64MB SDRAM and 

128MB NAND Flash memory. PAC-4000 

comes with two Ethernet ports, up to four RS- 

232 ports and two isolated RS-485 ports, two 

USB host ports and one microSD socket. PAC- 

4000 is designed for hazardous environment 

in mind. It can operate at wide temperature 

range up to 70 degree C. 

News ID 15063 

n Lanner: fanless DIN-rail mounted 

industrial computer with isolated I/O 

Lanner Electronics has released a DIN-rail 

mountable communication gateway for 

SCADA and power grid embedded systemsthe 

LEC-2312. The product is designed for 

longevity and features a fan-less and dustproof 

chassis. It uses the Intel Atom N455 and 

has one DDR3 SO-DIMM slot for up to 2GB 

of memory. The LEC-2312 is built for SCADA 

systems, industrial automation applications 

and general computing in extreme-environment 

situations. The LEC-2312 also features 

isolation on a number of the I/O ports, allowing 

the IPC to be deployed in power grid environments. 

All five serial ports, the Digital In / 

Digital Out (DI/DO) port and the LAN ports 

all feature isolation. Four of the five serial 

ports and the DI/DO come in a terminal block 

form factor, allowing 

News ID 15286 

n Eurotech: 6U OpenVPX SBC with 

quad-core Intel XEON CPU and 

10 Gigabit Ethernet switch 

Eurotech announces the CPU-111-10,a rugged, 

high-performance 6U VPX (VITA 46) Single 

Board Computer featuring a quad-core Intel 

L5408 Xeon processor and integrated 10 Gigabit 

Ethernet switch to support full-mesh 

backplane data layer interconnectivity for up 

to eight SBCs integrated into a single chassis. 

Available in air cooled or conduction cooled 

formats, the CPU-111-10 conforms to the 

OpenVPX (VITA 65) payload module profile 

MOD6-PAY-4F2T-12.2.2.4 with four fat pipes 

(10 GBase-BX4) and two thin pipes (1000Base- 

T). Providing unparalleled data processing capabilities 

in a single-slot 6U VPX form factor 

card with built-in 10 Gigabit Ethernet fabric 

switching, the CPU-111-10 serves as an ideal 

open-architecture building-block for Defense, 

High-end Industrial, Medical and Scientific 

applications. 

News ID 15245 

n Aitech: rugged CompactPCI SBC 

integrates large memories 

Aitech Defense Systems now offers the C802, 

a 3U CompactPCI SBC based on the highperformance 

Intel Core i7 processor. Speeds 

can be factory configured to a high performance 

2.53 GHz, a lower power 2.0 GHz 

or an ultra low power 1.33 GHz depending 

on application needs. The shock and vibration 

resistant SBC offers an operating temperature 

of -55 to +85°C. It is ideal for 

high performance, data and graphics intensive 

applications in extreme environmental 

conditions, such as manned and robotic 

vehicles, avionics and more advanced ISR 

(Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance) 

applications. 

News ID 15241 

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29 March 2012

PRODUCT NEWS 

n BVM: low cost isolation and converter 

modules for Industrial PCs 

The BVM Group has available three modules 

that increase the capability and versatility of 

the company’s latest Mini-ITX, 3.5” and 5.25” 

format industrial grade motherboards; physically 

mounted on PC I/O brackets, they are 

also compatible with many older models. The 

modules are designed to interface with the 

GPIO from the Winbond chip and provide 

electrical isolation and protection. The ADP- 

GPION four-way or eight-way modules feature 

photodiodes and high current relay interfaces 

on each line to isolate the motherboard from 

potential damage caused by ESD voltages and 

other transients on lines that interface with 

the GPIO controller chip. 

News ID 15162 

n Curtiss-Wright: complete HD video 

switching, recording and network 

distribution system 

Curtiss-Wright has introduced a breakthrough 

new approach for deployed platform video 

management. The new VRD1-CC integrates 

switching, recording and network distribution 

of HD video for aerospace and defense platforms 

in a single compact rugged unit. The 

VRD1-CC is the industry’s first video management 

system to deliver comprehensive functionality, 

that previously required multiple or 

expensive customized systems, in a single unit 

optimized for SWaP-C constrained platforms. 

The VRD1-CC speeds and simplifies the integration 

of HD VMS for military applications 

deployed in harsh environments, such as 

vetronics and avionics. 

News ID 15180 

n AAEON: type 2 COM Express CPU module 

with Atom E620/E680 

AAEON announces a new Type 2 COM Express 

CPU Module: COM-TC powered by an onboard 

Intel Atom E620/E680 processor combines 

low power and solid performance in a 

small module. Based on the new PICMG 

COM.0 R2.0 specification, the COM-TC is a 

basic size 95 x 95mm module featuring robust 

CPU performance with modularity scalability 

and flexibility to engage with today’s embedded 

application requirements. This module is available 

in both standard and wide temperature 

versions. 

News ID 15079 

n Moxa: Marine Panel PCs for highest 

standards 

Moxa announces that the MPC-122-K Master 

Series PCs are compliant with DNV, IEC 

60945-1, IEC 60945-2, IEC 61174, IEC 61168, 

and IACE E-10 marine standards. Moreover, 

the MPC-122-K passed critical tests of essential 

criteria, including computing performance, 

color calibration quality/accuracy, and EMI, 

to achieve the quality and reliability standards 

required to earn an ECDIS certification. 

News ID 15103 

n MSC: Qseven module with AMD 

Embedded G-Series processors 

MSC Vertriebs GmbH presents its latest Qseven 

module based on the AMD Embedded G- 

Series of Accelerated Processing Units. The 

compact module complies with the latest Qseven 

specification rev. 1.2 and measures 70 x 70mm. 

The AMD Embedded G-Series of APUs combines 

a low-power CPU and a discrete-level 

GPU in a single processor chip. MSC is focusing 

on the two lowest-power processors of this 

family for the new Qseven module: the T40E 

dual-core processor and the T40R single-core 

chip both clocked at 1.0 GHz and featuring 

very low power dissipation of 6.4W or 5.5W, 

respectively. This allows fanless system designs 

and highly integrated solutions. Both processors 

come with the built-in AMD Radeon HD6250 

Graphics Processing Unitwhich delivers very 

high graphics performance and supports 

OpenGL 4.0, DirectX-11 and OpenCL 1.1. 

News ID 15092 

n VIA: dual core Mini-ITX board with rich 

I/O set 

VIA Technologies announced the VIA EPIA- 

M910 Mini-ITX board, the latest dual core 

Mini-ITX board featuring one of the richest 

I/O sets available for a wide range of embedded 

applications including ATM, kiosks, POS, digital 

signage, healthcare and digital media applications. 

The VIA EPIA-M910 is available 

in both active and passive cooling configurations 

with the choice of either a performance 

oriented 1.6GHz VIA Nano X2 dual core 

processor or a fanless 1.0GHz VIA Eden X2 

dual core processor and is paired with the 

VIA VX900 media system processor, which 

provides the ideal platform for today’s HDintensive 

applications. 

News ID 15089 

Advertisers Index 

COMPANY 

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Acromag 21 

ADLINK 2 

Commell 17 

DDC 27 

Diamond Systems 19 

E.E.P.D. 31 

EKF 5 

Embedded China 14 

Jactron 23 

Kontron 9/11/13 

MSC 3 

One Stop Systems 32 

Peak-System 6 

Schroff 7 

Swissbit 10 

VIA 

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March 2012 30

PRODUCT NEWS 

n ACCES I/O: rugged, industrial-strength 

four port USB hub 

ACCES I/O Products announces the addition 

of a rugged, industrial-strength 4-port USB 

hub to its ever-growing product line of small 

form factor embedded products—the USB- 

104-HUB. This small industrial/military grade 

hub features extended temperature operation, 

high retention USB connectors, and an industrial 

steel enclosure for shock and vibration 

mitigation. The OEM version (board only) is 

PC/104 sized and can easily be installed in 

new or existing PC/104-based systems as well. 

News ID 15055 

n AAEON: 3.5“ subcompact board with 

Atom D2700/N2800/N2600 processor 

AAEON releases the GENE-CV05, a new fanless 

3.5“ embedded board with Intel Atom 

D2700/N2800/N2600 processor and Intel 

NM10 chipset for space constrained applications. 

Coming in at around 10 watts of power 

using the N2000 series, GENE-CV05 is a new 

eco-friendly embedded board. When equipped 

with the D2700/N2800 processors, the GENE- 

CV05 supports up to 4GB in a DDR3 

SODIMM, while the N2600 processor can 

support a DDR3 SODIMM with a maximum 

of 2 GB of memory. GENE-CV05 has a CFast 

interface and one SATA 2.0 port for operating 

system and storage, along with two Gigabit 

LAN ports for optimum network connectivity. 

News ID 15294 

n Wind River: commitment to Future 

Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) 

Consortium 

Wind River announced its commitment to 

The Open Group’s Future Airborne Capability 

Environment (FACE) Consortium, and congratulates 

the members of the Consortium for 

releasing the FACE Technical Standard, a standard 

that defines a common operating environment 

that supports the portability and 

reuse of software components across Department 

of Defense aviation systems. Founded in 

June 2010 by The Open Group, the FACE Consortium 

builds upon the tenets of open architecture, 

integrated modular avionics, and modular 

open systems architecture by defining a 

standardized method of interface between software 

components and architectural segments 

News ID 15099 

n Emtrion: embedded module with 

dual-core Cortex-A9 processor 

At Embedded World 2012, emtrion is to present 

an embedded module with dual-core technology 

with particular benefits for industry. The 

module uses the Renesas Dual ARM Cortex- 

A9 EMEV2 processor that has been tried and 

tested in mobile and automotive applications. 

With the DIMM-EMEV2 module, developers 

of industrial applications can easily use a dualcore 

processor for their own projects. In addition 

to a clearly laid-out development environment, 

the module also comes with an extensive 

support package. The Android or Linux 

operating system supplied with the module 

automatically ensures efficient load distribution 

across both processors. For the core board, 

emtrion provides the reference DIMM baseboard 

Lothron as a „development crib sheet“, 

so to speak, with all the interfaces that experience 

shows customers need. 

News ID 15060 

n NEXCOM: 3.5-inch embedded board series 

with Atom D2700 

NEXCOM has launched two 3.5“ industrial 

embedded boards which are based on the all 

new Intel Atom processor D2700 with Intel 

Graphics Media Accelerator 3650. EBC 353 

and EBC 354 embedded boards run at 2.13GHz 

with miserly power consumption of just 10W. 

Not only do the 3.5“ boards based on a powerful 

engine which has low power consumption, 

they are also packed with exceptional graphics 

capabilities including HD encoder, DirectX 

10.1, and dual independent display. Also 

equipped with expansion capabilities and assorted 

I/O choices, EBC 353/354 are the perfect 

platforms for fanless industrial automation 

and multimedia applications. 

News ID 15094 

n ADL: PCIe/104 CPU board with 

D2700 Cedarview-D Atom 

ADL Embedded Solutions has announced the 

ADLD2700PC – the first PCIe/104 CPU board 

with Intel’s latest Cedarview-D Atom processor, 

the D2700. This dual-core processor with a 2 

x 2.13 GHz clock speed uses Intel’s Hyper- 

Threading Technology to support four threads 

and has 1 MB of L3 cache. The new CPU 

board can be equipped with up to 4 GB of 

SODIMM DDR3 1066MHz DRAM memory. 

For its system controller hub, the new product 

uses Intel’s ICH9-SFF, which offers significantly 

better product features and a performance 

boost compared to the trimmed-down NM10. 

News ID 15243 

COMs 

n Axiomtek: Nano-ITX motherboard 

powered by AMD G-series T56N APU 

Axiomtek introduces its first Nano-ITX board, 

the NANO100. Equipped with the latest AMD 

G-series APU dual core T56N 1.65GHz and 

Fusion Controller Hub A50M chipset, the 

NANO100 is ideal for graphics-intensive applications 

such as high-end medical imaging, digital 

signage, kiosks/POI, thin clients, and gaming machines. 

Measuring only 120 x 120 mm, it is 50% 

smaller than the Mini ITX form factor, which 

enables even smaller footprint system design and 

further reduces overall development cost. 

News ID 15059 

31 March 2012

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