Winds of change touch PC/104

Kontron has developed a new CPU board form factor known as speedMOPS for PC/104 expansion boards.

Kontron has developed a new CPU board form factor known as speedMOPS for PC/104 expansion boards.

The company has been rated as the worldwide undisputed market leader in PC/104 CPU boards by the market research institute VDC for several years.

The processor is pragmatically located outside of the "sandwich" footprint that is formed when two or more PC/104 boards are attached, thus facilitating optimal cooling of high-performance CPU boards.

The new form factor supports all current and forthcoming PC/104 I/O expansion modules.

As speedMOPS CPU boards fit into traditional 3.5in housings, the cost of enclosures is kept to a minimum.

speedMOPS CPU boards provide OEMs and end users with an effectively cooled high-performance (greater than Intel Pentium III) solution for attachment to PC/104 expansion modules.

The boards also guarantee the long-term validity of the PC/104 I/O specification, which includes the ISA bus.

Kontron is also pleading for the PC/104 specification to be extended for CPU boards, as speedMOPS has a slightly larger form factor that benefits only high-performance PC/104 designs.

Kontron has already come up with a name for the extended specification - speed PC/104.

The world's first speedMOPS CPU boards intended for use with PC/104 expansion modules were displayed as reference designs at the Embedded World 2004 trade show.

The speedMOPSlcdPM features a 1.1/1.6GHz Intel Pentium M processor and the 855GM chipset, whereas the speedMOPSlcdCE uses a 400/733/1000MHz ultra-low-voltage processor from the Intel Celeron family (Tualatin core) and the 815 chipset.

Thanks to Intel's progressive price strategy, the latter design is within the Via Eden price category.

Thanks to the implemented ICH4 Southbridge, the speedMOPSlcdCE includes USB 2.0.

This Celeron processor feature set, exclusive to Kontron, is one of the products of the close co-operation between Kontron and Intel.

Samples of both speedMOPS variants will be available shortly.

Series production is planned for Q3 2004.

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