On the occasion of the Embedded World 2007 in Nuremberg, MEN announces another Embedded System Module (ESM) – the EM6. Based on the Intel® Core™ Duo processor or the Celeron® M processor and the Intel® 3100 chipset, the EM6 is the smallest server platform in the world. Combined with Altera®’s Cyclone™ FPGA, the board is much more flexible than traditional PCs as the required system I/O can be realised individually for each application using IP cores.
FPGA for Fast and Reliable Communication
The Embedded System Module is a single-board computer destined for use on a carrier board in a wide range of industrial environments. The EM6 is the perfect computing platform for embedded industry PCs and offers the whole range of Windows® and Linux-based software for high computing performance in communication applications.
The heart of the EM6 consists of an Intel® Core™ Duo processor with up to 1.67GHz or the single core Celeron® M processor with even less power dissipation, in combination with the Intel 3100 server chipset.
Front I/O of the module comprises two gigabit Ethernet, controlled via PCI Express®, as well as two COM interfaces via RJ45 connectors. Further chipset functions like USB and SATA are led to the carrier board via the I/O connector of the ESM. Application-specific I/O functions like IDE, graphics, additional fieldbus interfaces, further legacy interfaces and binary I/O are realised in the FPGA and made accessible on a carrier board. The standard FPGA configuration already includes four additional UARTs. Before system boot-up, the FPGA is loaded from boot Flash. Updates of the FPGA can be made inside the boot Flash during operation and are available after a re-boot of the system.
The fast DDR2 SDRAM memory comes with error correction (ECC) and is directly soldered on the EM6 against shock and vibration. The also soldered 1GB Flash memory can replace a rotating mass storage device in many applications.
For a first evaluation of the functions of the EM6, it is strongly recommended to use the EK8 ESM™ starter kit. The kit consists of the standard CPU module, a preconfigured FPGA, the carrier card with I/O connectors, an external PSU, and an adapter for mounting a PCI-104 module.
About Embedded System Modules (ESM)
ESM™ modules are complete computers on a plug-on module. They consist of the hardware (CPU, chip set, memory), board-specific I/O, an FPGA which is not fixed to any application-specific function and board support packages for various operating systems.
A complete embedded control consists either of a stand-alone ESM (the power supply connection is sufficient to operate the module), an ESM with an application-specific carrier card and/or an ESM with additional plugged PCI-104 modules.