Latest Intel(r) Core(tm) i7 processors available on new 6U CompactPCI(r) boards

Concurrent Technologies has released the PP 712/08x family of 6U CompactPCI® boards. (click image to zoom by 2.9x)

January 7th, 2010 – Woburn MA, USA – Concurrent Technologies has released the PP 712/08x family of 6U CompactPCI® boards, one of the first embedded product ranges to feature the Intel® Core™ i7 processor family, released today by Intel®. Depending on the application requirements a choice of processors are supported: the 2.53GHz Intel® Core™ i7-610E, 2.0GHz Intel® Core™ i7-620LE and the 1.06GHz Intel® Core™ i7-620UE. Based on 32nm process technology and the new Intel® integrated memory/graphics controller architecture, these processors are from the Intel® embedded roadmap which offers at least seven year availability. With up to 8 Gbytes of DDR3-1066 ECC SDRAM, dual PMC/XMC sites, three Gigabit Ethernet ports, four SATA300 disk interfaces and dual head graphics, the PP 712/08x also offers rear I/O interfaces that are compatible with the popular PP 512/06x family providing a continuing upgrade path. In addition, the PP 712/08x can optionally support extended temperatures ranging from -40C to +85C. The boards are particularly suitable for CPU intensive processing applications within the telecommunications, defense and homeland security market sectors.

The PP 712/08x family is based on the combination of the Intel® Core i7 processor and an Intel® Platform Controller Hub (PCH), the Mobile Intel® QM57 Express chipset. This combination benefits from the integration of the graphics controller and the memory controller into the processor, resulting in reduced memory latency and improved performance-per-watt. The Intel Core i7 processors feature Intel® Direct Media Interface Technology and Intel® Flexible Display Interfaces to the PCH to provide simultaneous high-speed non-graphic traffic and video/graphic traffic. The processors feature Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology to allow multiple simultaneous execution threads in each core and Intel® Turbo Boost Technology which elevates performance for specific workloads by increasing processor core frequency on one core when the second core and/or graphics engine utilization level is low. The CPU and graphics engines have separate Turbo modes, and by using simple BIOS setup options, the user can disable either or both of the turbo modes, or pre-set a bias towards one or the other feature.

For high performance I/O processing the PP 712/08x family supports two PMC/XMC sites, each PMC site supports up to 133MHz PCI-X operation as well as x8 PCI Express® XMC interfaces. As an option it is also possible to enable high performance XMC modules to communicate with each other directly via the XMC Pn6 connectors between the two XMC sites independently of the main interconnecting busses. The boards can operate as a system controller board, a peripheral board or as a satellite board (blade). Support is also provided for PICMG® 2.16 (Ethernet fabric), PICMG 2.9 (IPMI) and PICMG 2.1 (hot swap); the CompactPCI backplane interface operates at 33/66MHz PCI signalling speeds. The PP 712/08x includes three 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet interfaces (one front and two rear) and the front panel also provides two USB 2.0, RS-232, dual head graphics via two digital (1600 x 1200) and analog (2048 x 1536) interfaces. The rear I/O connections, compatible with Concurrent Technologies’ popular PP 512/06x, provide three further USB 2.0 ports, an RS-232 port, four SATA300 mass storage interfaces and an Intel® High Definition Audio interface. Other features are a watchdog timer, long duration timer, LAN boot firmware and options for an onboard 2.5-inch SATA300 disk and a CompactFlash™ site. For applications requiring rear I/O connections a transition module is available.

Glen Fawcett, CEO for Concurrent Technologies, commented, “As one of the first companies to announce a product based on the Intel® Core™ i7 processors from Intel’s embedded roadmap, we are demonstrating our commitment to provide higher-performance lower-power products to the critical embedded market. This latest product will support the ongoing requirement for improved performance-per-watt, improved graphics performance and ECC memory support.”

For ease of integration, the PP 712/08x family of boards support many of today’s leading operating systems, including Linux®, Windows® Server 2008, Windows® Server 2003, Windows® XP Embedded, Windows® XP, Solaris™, VxWorks® and QNX®.

About Concurrent Technologies

Concurrent Technologies is an international ISO 9001:2000 company specializing in the design and manufacture of commercial-off-the-shelf and custom designed industrial computer boards for critical embedded applications. The company, which was founded in 1985, has offices in the USA, UK and China as well as a worldwide distributor network. The company has a wide range of high performance Intel® processor based VME, VXS, VPX, CompactPCI® and AdvancedMC™ products, which are complemented by an extensive offering of PMC (PCI Mezzanine Card) and XMC (Express Mezzanine Card) products. Concurrent Technologies is an Affiliate Member of the Intel® Embedded Alliance (ECA), a community of communications and embedded developers and solution providers.

For additional information, please visit www.gocct.com

Concurrent Technologies complies to the RoHS 2002/95/EC directive. All companies and product names are trademarks of their respective organizations. Intel, Intel Pentium, Intel Atom, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Dual-Core, Intel Core i7 and Intel Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.