congatec Introduces First Full Industrial Grade Module Based on Intel® Atom™ Processor Z5xx Series

Nuremberg, Embedded World, March 3rd, 2009   * * *   congatec AG enhances its successful COM Express™ product family with the introduction of the conga-CAx, which utilizes the new industrial temperature versions of the ultra low power Intel® Atom™ processor Z5xx series and the Intel® System Controller Hub US15WPT.

The complete design of this compact (95x95mm) COM Express compatible module is geared around low power consumption and the industrial temperature range. All components used for this high density design are specified for an ambient temperature range of -40° to +80°C. Typical power requirements for this module are less than 5 Watts. When combined with ACPI 3.0 battery management, ultra mobile industrial applications are possible.

The congatec In-Vehicle Infotainment starter kit is a typical application for the conga-CAx given that automotive applications always require extended temperature components. Due to its small size, low power consumption and 2 GByte onboard IDE flash disc, the conga-CAx is also suitable for industrial applications such as PLC devices.

Gerhard Edi, CEO of congatec AG says, “Thanks to the new extended temperature versions of the Intel® Atom™ processors, as well as the low power characteristics, we are now able to address new types of mobile and embedded applications.”

“Intel has extended our low-power Intel Atom processor Z5xx series platform to offer an industrial temperature range,” said Jonathan Luse, Director of Marketing, Low Power Embedded Products Division, Intel.  “This allows our customers to create modules that can be used in existing systems that need the industrial temperature range features for applications used in unconstrained thermal environments.”

The conga-CAx is available in two different CPU variants. One version is powered by the Intel® Atom™ processor Z510PT with 1.1 GHz and 400 MHz front side and memory bus. The other version features the 1.33 GHz Intel® Atom™ processor Z520PT. Both variants are equipped with 512k L2 cache and can access up to 1 GByte of rugged onboard soldered DDR2 RAM.

The Intel® System Controller Hub US15WPT has an integrated Intel® Graphics Memory Accelerator 500 graphics engine. This 3D capable onboard graphics utilizes up to 256 MByte frame buffer and supports DirectX 9.0E and OpenGL 2.0. It also enhances video playback applications through the use of MPEG2 and MPEG4 hardware decoding. Graphic output provides either a 1x24 Bit LVDS channel or a single SDVO port.

The conga-CAx also offers a rich connectivity feature-set. This includes up to 2 PCI Express x1 lanes, PCI Bus, EIDE interface, Gigabit Ethernet, High Definition Audio and 8 USB ports. The onboard IDE flash drive provides up to 2 GByte of mass storage and is also specified for the full industrial temperature range.

The conga-CAx will be available mid-2009.