Kontron has announced the introduction of two new products, the Kontron FPGA mezzanine card FMC-SER0 and the Kontron VITA 57 development kit KIT-FMC-DEV, rounding off a robust portfolio of VITA 57 building blocks.
With Kontron’s already-established product line of 6U VME single board computers (SBCs) and VME/VPX FMC carrier boards, the latest VITA 57 product offerings further minimise non-recurring development time and cost.
Additionally, Kontron provides integration of IP cores and stacks for application-ready implementations in FPGA-based I/O hubs and can also handle the complete application development and production. This complete service offering also includes revision control, supply chain management and country/market-specific testing and verification procedures.
With VITA 57 FMC-based designs, OEMs can minimise latency for high data throughput in their COTS designs and still maintain flexible I/O configuration. The FMC optimises the handling and formatting of data and is approximately half the size of a PMC. This makes Kontron’s VITA 57 products an ideal fit for applications where size, weight, and power (SWaP) are critical. Thanks to the modular approach of VITA 57-based designs, OEMs benefit from reduced development costs by integrating multiple functions into a single PCI express-enabled FPGA. This will also aid system designers who want to re-target their designs without changing the PCIe interface implementation. Customers benefit from a high level of I/O flexibility when using Kontron’s VITA 57 building blocks by allowing upgrades and / or modifications without having to change the overall system design.
Kontron FPGA mezzanine card FMC-SER0
The Kontron FPGA mezzanine card FMC-SER0 is a multi-channel interface card for buffering up to 16 IEA-232 or 8 EIA-422 serial lines. With a standard air-cooled build, it provides up to 24 general purpose I/Os at the front via 50 pin Tyco front connector for direct connection of peripherals. The rugged conduction cooled-build complies to VITA 47-class CC4 and is suitable for the extended temperature range -40 °C to +85 °C.
Kontron VITA 57 Development Kit KIT-FMC-DEV
The Kontron VITA 57 development kit KIT-FMC-DEV enables designers to use the Kontron FMC-SER0 as a reference design, providing a practical approach to VITA 57. For an immediate start into VITA 57 based designs, the FPGA development kit contains the Kontron FMC-SER0, a simple FPGA design, a Linux rpm with drivers, utilities for FPGA and FMC management and a FPGA demo programme complete with a FPGA image for GPIO implementations. The software is available for x86 and Power PC architectures and customers also receive the source code, allowing for easy modification to the software for individual demands.
Kontron 6U VME SBC VM6250
With power consumption as low as 27W, which is typical with Freescale MPC8640 1GHz, the Kontron 6U VME SBC VM6250 reaches a new performance level while staying within a tight power envelope. The Kontron VM6250 combines high processing power with exceptional memory bandwidth with a choice of Freescale MPC8640 1GHz or 1.25GHz single- or dual-core processors or Freescale MPC8641 1.33GHz single- or dual-core processors. Prepared to host a customer-specific FPGA, it also offers a mezzanine extension slot for FMCs.
Kontron 6U VME SBC VM6050
The Kontron 6U VME SBC VM6050, with an Intel Core i7 processor, combines extremely high x86 computing and graphics performance with flexible and modular expansion possibilities in four different ruggedisation levels. OEMs can tailor the Kontron VM6050 to the individual requirements of new and existing applications and benefit from a reduced time-to-market. Featuring a FPGA site, it can be expanded via two mezzanine sockets for up to two XMC/PMC or one FMC (VITA 57 FPGA I/O) cards.
Kontron 3U FMC carrier board VX3830
With the Kontron 3U VPX FMC carrier board VX3830 OEMs can easily expand the I/O flexibility of their dedicated VPX systems. The Kontron 3U FMC carrier board VX3830 is based on a Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA and offers enhanced I/O capabilities with high integrated performance logic. A Virtex-6 version is also under development. Kontron is currently implementing key customers’ demands to the feature set such as an external high-speed memory.
All Kontron VITA 57 products are available now and can be ordered directly off the shelf or as customised application ready platforms and can be bundled with Kontron’s long-term supply programme, which guarantees customers multi-year supply of the product beyond its active life.