Atom based COM Express platform with five PCIe ports

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Stutensee, Germany – In its new CXB-A945M COM Express platform, MSC Vertriebs GmbH combines the advantages of the low-power Intel® Atom™ processor architecture with the I/O diversity and excellent graphics characteristics of the Intel® 82945/ICH7 bridge technology. The processor type used is the N270 ('Diamondville'). The N270 is clocked at 1.6 GHz and consumes only 2.5 W of power so that the heat generated can be dissipated without an active heat sink. Target applications of the CXB-A945M boards are especially in the sector of industrial automation controls (Panel PCs, HMI, Soft SPS), in which systems without active fans are required.

The fundamental features of the CXB-A945M module family correspond to MSCs popular CXB-CD945 products. But the new platform consumes only approximately one-third of the power of a Celeron 440 board by identical number and type of interfaces and interface drivers. This compatibility allows the simple interchangeability of both COM Express platforms.

In addition to a PCI and a LPC interface, the CXB-A945M platform is equipped with five PCI Express™ x1 lanes and is, therefore, especially suited for data intensive applications. Eight USB 2.0 ports enable flexible connection of different peripherals to the COM Express module. A connection to a fast 10/100/1000 Base TX Ethernet network can be established via an Intel® 82573E GBit LAN controller. Two SATA II connections with up to 300 MB/s and an Enhanced IDE port (ATA/UDMA100) are available for data storage.

Thanks to the integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 in the Intel® 82945GME chipset, the CXB-A945M convinces with excellent 3D graphics characteristics. Dual independent displays with 1600 x 1200 pixels are supported. The maximum CRT resolution is 2048 x 1536 pixels. The video memory takes up to 224 MB. The desired audio functionality can be achieved via Intel® High Definition or AC'97 audio interface.

“With the Intel® Atom™ CPU in conjunction with the proven Intel® 82945GME chipset, MSC reduces the power consumption to one-third of a comparable Celeron 440 COM Express module. This minimizes overall system costs and brings massive benefits by lowering the demands on the cooling solution,” says Bernhard Andretzky, Product Manager for COM solutions, MSC Vertriebs GmbH.

The highly compact module CXB-A945M, with dimensions of 125 mm x 95 mm in the basic format, offers additional functions such as ACPI power management with suspend-to-RAM support, watchdog and system monitoring. System memory can be expanded via SODIMM sockets up to a capacity of 2 GB PC4200 DDR2 SDRAM.

Like all the innovative MSC COM Express modules, the CXB-A945M board comes with special security functions meeting the requirements of the Trusted Computing Group (TCG) to protect the customer's know-how. For this purpose, the Trusted Platform Module TPM 1.2 SLB 9635 from Infineon was integrated and furthermore the „TrustedCore“-BIOS from Phoenix Technologies implemented on the platform.

For development support and design-in of the COM Express™ platform, MSC provides an evaluation baseboard with all interfaces of a standard PC. Furthermore MSC offers a design service for application specific motherboards. The COM Express™ modules run under the operating systems Windows® XP (embedded) and Linux (OSADL).