New Ampro COTS PC/104 Boards Overcome Embedded Design Challenges
New Ampro COTS PC/104 Boards Overcome Embedded Design Challenges
By Colin McCracken, Ampro Computers, Inc.
Embedded engineers struggle through many roadblocks to get their applications to market. Performance versus power dissipation, hardware/software integration, size, reliability, ruggedness, and lifecycle management all present design challenges that threaten project schedules and divert focus from the primary goal – building a robust, differentiated system. With the introduction of its PC/104-compatible CoreModule™ 600 and CoreModule 410 products, Ampro has reinforced its commitment to helping OEMs build a better product, faster. Each board is application-ready with a rich feature set and long lifecycle. Each offers turnkey solutions that save months of development.
Application-Ready
Ampro is the first COTS vendor to supply and support complete Board Support Packages (start-up code and drivers) for popular operating systems such as Windows®, Windows CE, VxWorks®, QNX®, and Embedded Linux®. Both the CoreModule 410 and CoreModule 600 are application-ready, so embedded system designers can focus their attention on building applications rather having to port the OS and build drivers from the ground up. The hardware, documentation, and support software are distributed to system OEMs in Ampro's QuickStart Kits and Development Systems.
Rugged and Reliable
Many embedded system manufacturers claim that they offer "ruggedized" products, which gives the impression of durability and reliability under tough conditions. The term "ruggedized," however, is often applied to standard-grade designs, which are just screened and tested under tougher conditions. Ampro, on the other hand, believes that ruggedness should be inherent in the design. For example, to validate fitness for harsh environments, selected Ampro designs are subjected to temperatures well outside the "standard" (0 to 70°C) and "extended" (-40 to +85°C) operating temperature ranges. This ensures that Ampro products will be functional and stable over combined extremes of both temperature and voltage, resulting in wide design margins.
Both the new CoreModule 600 and the CoreModule 410 deliver fanless operation for the extended operating temperature range. With its Intel® Celeron® processor, the CoreModule 600 is especially well suited for OEMs that require extended temperature and/or conformal coating for their rugged application. Now OEMs can migrate their PC/104 stack to a high-performance single board computer (SBC) without sacrificing reliability by adding a fan to their system or exceeding the PC/104 power supply specification.
At the heart of the product's design is Intel's Ultra Low Voltage Celeron® processor based on the Tualatin core. This processor offers embedded systems OEMs greatly reduced power dissipation and twice the internal cache (256KB) compared to the previous-generation Socket 370 processors based on the Coppermine core. The Celeron processor has much higher performance and lower power dissipation than the 266MHz Pentium MMX processor, so the CoreModule 600 is an ideal migration solution for OEMs with I/O-rich systems based on the original MMX processor.
Lifecycle Management
Embedded engineers often face the specter of obsolescence when their operations and procurement counterparts are surprised by end-of-life (EOL) notifications from their suppliers. Given the long cycle of development, field test, certification or FDA approval, production, and service and spares, 386- and 486-based boards, as an example, are still ramping to production volumes even today. Often, PC processors and chipsets are only in production for 12 to 18 months and OEMs are left stranded when critical components are phased out by manufactures.
Ampro has always invested substantial resources to implementing migration products when components become obsolete. Ampro is committed to offering 5+-year product availability, so a great deal of care is taken to track and warehouse critical components, implement product upgrades, and negotiate extended component availability with suppliers. Ampro selects processors from vendors who have a track record of supporting the embedded systems market for the long term, since many processors are proving to be here today and gone tomorrow.
The new CoreModule 410 PC/104 CPU is an excellent example of Ampro's commitment to life cycle management. Available through 2010, it is an ideal migration path for many stranded OEMs who need to migrate long life applications that rely on 386 or 486 architectures. The CoreModule 410 PC/104 is similar to Ampro's existing CoreModule 400 single board computer (SBC), but is used for applications that do not require video, Ethernet, and USB. By using the STPC® Atlas and Elite processors from STMicroelectronics for the CoreModule 400 and 410 products, Ampro addresses the need for a dependable 486 PC/104 supplier. Ampro selected this processor because of its success in markets where 10-year supply commitments are typical.
Conclusion
Ampro has long been known for creating standards for off-the-shelf embedded PC solutions that speed the development cycle, and result in faster time to market. The new CoreModule 410 and CoreModule 600 attest to Ampro's commitment to producing reliable, rugged products with broad OS support that will meet the lifecycle requirements of its customers over the long haul.
About Ampro Computers
Ampro Computers, Inc. is the leading global provider of modular embedded computing solutions for OEM applications. Ampro's mission is to provide time saving solutions for embedded systems designers that accelerate the product deployment process. Ampro pioneered the embedded PC industry creating the popular PC/104 and EBX standards. The new EnCore family enables designers to obtain all the benefits of an off-the-shelf CPU solution while maintaining the flexibility of a full custom design. In addition to EnCore, Ampro offers three product lines; PC/104-compatible CoreModule CPUs and MiniModule expansion products, and EBX form factor Little Board single-board computers (SBC). Ampro was awarded Electronique magazine's "Electron d'Or 2002" for subsystems for the EnCore M2 product. For more information about Ampro Computers, please visit http://www.ampro.com.
AMPRO is a registered trademark and EnCore, Little Board, CoreModule, and MiniModule are trademarks of Ampro Computers, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Media Contacts:
Ampro Computers, Inc.
Victoria Kostka
Tel: 1-408-360-4324
Email: vkostka@ampro.com
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