At the electronica trade show (hall A6, stand 506) Kontron announces the extension of its Computer-on-Module (COM) portfolio with a new family of COM Express compliant Power Architecture processor modules with Freescales QorIQ 32bit P2020 (COMe-cP2020) and the 64bit P5020 (COMe-cP5020) processor.
The Kontron COMe-cP2020, is especially suited for low-power, deeply embedded number crunching systems which do not require graphic functionality, but instead, need especially high single threaded performance-per-watt of the Power Architecture. With its long-term availability of more than ten years, fanless operation and support for the extended temperature range up to -40°C to +70°C, the new module is also designed to run in especially durable applications even in harsh environments.
The Kontron COM Express basic sized COMe-cP5020 targets high-bandwidth telecommunication and data processing applications. With its long-term availability of more than ten years, it is also a good fit to be used in long life cycle network applications in the medical, military and transportation markets.
With the new Kontron Power Architecture Computer-on-Modules OEMs experience the convenience and the design safety of a standard board solution with the flexibility of a full custom design, which can be realized via an application-specific carrierboard which is much faster to design than a complete baseboard.
Additionally, OEMs benefit from the COM Express compatible formfactor, cooling concept and power supply, which enable the efficient use of the world’s leading ecosystem for Computer-on-Modules to significantly minimize development time and effort. Also, the pin-out relates to the COM Express pin-out type 6 as far as possible. The main differences are the flexible SerDes lanes offered by the QorIQseries and the missing video interfaces.
The SerDes lanes can be pre-configured on customer request and make the modules a flexible solution to fit the individual application requirements in markets such as telecommunication, industrial automation, transportation, medical, and military.
The new Computer-on-Modules will be found in a broad spectrum of applications ranging from in-vehicle control or event-recording units, measurement systems, PLCs or closed-loop controls for synchronous motors or turbines up to company or carrier-grade network and telecommunication appliances.
The feature set in detail
The Kontron COMe-cP2020 in the COM Express compact (95 mm x 95 mm) formfactor is based on the Freescale QorIQ P2020 dual-core power architecture with 1.2 GHz. For deployment in the industrial temperature range of -40 to +70 °C there is also a version available with 1.0 GHz clock rate.
The Kontron COMe-cP5020 in the COM Express basic (95 mm x 125 mm) formfactor is based on the Freescale QorIQ P5020 dual-core power processor with 2.0 GHz. Featuring 64 bit technology, it integrates up to 8 GByte of soldered DDR3 RAM at 1333 MHz and ECC. Two additional MByte of shared third level cache facilitate core-to-core communications to minimize accesses to main memory.
The Kontron COMe-b5020 with its innovative Data Path Acceleration Architecture (DPAA) assures that even heavy network traffic does not affect the processing performance of the cores. With DPAA it offloads the cores from the common packet-handling tasks, which leaves more headroom for the relevant processing even at full load.
Common features to both Computer-on-Modules are up to 2 GB of NAND Flash as well as a socket for MicroSD cards on the module to offer reliable storage space for application data. In terms of I/Os, the new modules interface the QorIQ-specific I/Os towards the carrierboard: Besides USB 2.0 ports there are also UART (TxD, RxD, RTC and CTS) und Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.
Flexible interface support is guaranteed by 4 (COMe-cP2020) or 18 (COMe-bP5020) SERDES lanes, which can be configured according to application-specific needs in a whole range of different combinations for example as PCIe x4, sRIO x4 or Serial Gigabit Media Independent Interface (SGMII). The Kontron COMe-bP5020 offers in addition XAUI and SATA interfaces.
The new Kontron Computer-on-Modules with Power Architecture come with Board Support Packages for the important operating systems Kontron Linux, WindRiver Linux and the realtime OS VxWorks. In addition, Kontron also offers a corresponding evaluation carrierboard, adapter cards for the different SerDes interfaces and a complete starterkit for QorIQ COMs, which is currently in preparation.
If required, Kontron’s design service ‘Boards & More’ can carry out carrierboard development, so that OEMs can fully concentrate on their core competencies. First samples of the Kontron COMe-cP2020 and COMe-cP5020 are available now. More processor configurations are available on request.