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Kontron develops COM Express starter kit

A Kontron product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Jul 3, 2009

The Kontron MicroETXexpress evaluation kit offers developers a fast introduction into the compact class of COM Express.

At the heart of Kontron's starter kit are the Kontron MicroETXexpress-SP or -DC computer-on-modules (95mm x 95mm) based on the Intel Atom series processors and the Kontron ETXexpress Minibaseboard.

Starter kits are also available for evaluation with other MicroETXexpress modules.

The Kontron MicroETXexpress starter kit is an all-round development platform for a wide range of embedded applications that require high-performance and processing density on a compact footprint with low-power consumption.

It is suitable for evaluating applications to be operated on small mobile devices that are battery powered, or even solar powered, and small embedded devices that have a compact format while offering a high level of features.

Developers working on applications in areas such as multimedia, test and measurement, medical, automation, energy, telecommunications or POS/POI can start developing on the target platform right away.

This is due to the fact that the Kontron MicroETXexpress starter kit comes with the complete embedded hardware including the cables, a very small power supply unit called PicoPSU combined with a 12V desktop power supply and an active cooler.

At the core of the Kontron MicroETXexpress starter kit is the Kontron ETXexpress Minibaseboard (170mm x 155mm).

With its low-profile height of approximately 44mm - including the computer-on-module and the optional heat spreader - it can be integrated into embedded applications.

Despite its compact size, the carrier board offers a rich feature set and state-of-the-art interfaces including: PCI Express, PCI, Serial ATA, PATA, CF card slot, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, COM pin headers, DVI and VGA, two LVDS, audio interfaces and a feature connector, which enables a direct connection from, for example, TV or video cards to the graphic card without encumbering the CPU or the data bus.

The HD audio codec and bringing down four video connectors from a COM Express Pin-out Type 2 module underlines the MicroETXexpress module's multimedia features.

The Kontron MicroETXexpress starter kit is modular and can be ordered either with or without any Kontron MicroETXexpress computer-on-module.

The starter kit will soon be available for Kontron MicroETXexpress-SP computer-on-modules with 1.1GHz or 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z5xx series processors and the Intel System Controller Hub US15W, and for the Kontron MicroETXexpress-DC computer-on-module with 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processors.

The starter kit works with Kontron's power-off state S5 Eco that is supported on the Kontron MicroETXexpress-DC.

Also available are MicroETXexpress computer-on-modules with 45nm Intel Core 2 Duo processors (Kontron MicroETXexpress PC) and Intel Pentium M and Intel Celeron M processors (Kontron MicroETXexpress-PM).

Further starter kits with Intel Atom processors for solutions based on the credit-card-sized Kontron NanoETXexpress-SP computer-on-module or PCI/ISA based Kontron ETX-DC computer-on-modules are also available in both the NanoETXexpress-HMI and the ETX starter kit.

Each modular kit can be ordered with or without any corresponding Kontron computer-on-module.