New MEN micro 3U CompactPCI board first to combine Intel Atom technology with onboard FPGA

AMBLER, USA: MEN Micro Inc., a world-renowned provider of embedded computing and I/O solutions for mission-critical industrial, mobile and harsh environment applications, now offers a 3U CompactPCI (CPCI) single board computer (SBC) that combines low-power Intel Atom XL processors with an onboard FPGA for user-defined functions, the first SBC available to offer this capability.

The new F11S opens up a new range of design flexibility for not only industrial and harsh embedded computing environments, but also for a variety of embedded mobile, railway and transportation applications, including automatic train control and infotainment systems, where reliability and operation in extended temperatures are critical.

Depending on the application, the board can be equipped with various 45 nm-based Intel Atom XL processors, which offer a maximum power dissipation of 7 W at a speed of up to 1.6 GHz. The board's specially designed heat sink enables operation across an extended -40 degrees C to +85 degrees C (-40 degrees F to +185 degrees F) temperature range.

The board's standard front I/O includes a COM interface via a D-Sub connector as well as two USB 2.0 ports, graphics via VGA or UXGA and a PS/2 interface for a keyboard or a mouse. Further interfaces include a Gigabit Ethernet slot via PCI Express x1 and an FPGA-based Fast Ethernet slot on the RJ45 connectors.

The onboard FPGA also allows for customer-specific interfaces, such as serial interfaces, CAN bus, binary I/O, protocol converters or touch controllers to suit a user's specific application. The F11S can accommodate up to three SA-Adapters for additional I/O. Depending on the number of adapters, the card occupies two or three system slots.

Memory configuration contributes to the board's flexibility with the incorporation of up to 2 GB soldered DDR2 SDRAM, 2 MB non-volatile SRAM, a CompactFlash card and a microSD card slot in addition to the 512 kb of L2 cache integrated in the processor. A board management controller supervises temperature and power, and the Phoenix Award BIOS is adapted to every application.

The F11S is available as conduction- or convection-cooled and supports a Windows or Linux operating system, with VxWorks and QNX available upon request.

Pricing for the F11S starts at $1,443. Delivery is six weeks ARO.