Posted to News on 9th Jul 2008, 13:10
Kontron COMs to be bundled with Diamond Systems I/O
Kontron and Diamond Systems have entered a strategic partnership under Kontron's ETX Certified Design Partner programme so that Kontron's scalable ETX computer-on-modules will be bundled with Diamond Systems' small form factor boards for I/O-intensive data acquisition applications.
With this agreement, Diamond Systems becomes the tenth global member and the fifth North American member of Kontron's expanding network of ETX Certified Design Partners. The ETX Certified Design Partner Programme offers OEMs comprehensive certified carrier board design services for modular embedded computing platforms based on the ETX and COM Express computer-on-module standards.
As a Kontron ETX Certified Design Partner, Diamond Systems will deliver off-the-shelf and customised carrier boards for embedded applications that require state-of-the-art analogue and digital I/O technology and extensive serial communications. Diamond Systems will supply these boards with one of the scalable Kontron ETX computer-on-modules to provide system OEMs with complete single-board products that exactly meet the budget, energy consumption and performance requirements of their individual data acquisition applications. OEMs benefit by receiving fully integrated, highly scalable and cost-effective carrier board devices with computer-on-modules from a single source. This eliminates the need to manage multiple suppliers and ensures fast application development and evaluation for quicker time-to-market.
Interfaces
Diamond Systems' EPIC-based ETX carrier board, for example, includes a wide range of standard embedded computer interfaces including six serial interfaces plus a wide set of I/O features: 32 analogue inputs, four analogue outputs, 24 digital I/Os, eight opto-isolated digital inputs, eight opto-isolated digital outputs, two counter/timers for A/D sample rate control, event counting/timing and programmable interrupts. A PC/104-plus expansion slot for fast implementation of OEMs' individual I/O expansions rounds off the feature set. Custom-specific carrier boards are available upon request. The Universal Driver software supports C programming under Windows and Linux.
OEMs specialising in I/O-intensive applications enjoy a number of benefits from this bundle, such as auto-calibration for highly accurate data acquisition under all conditions, as explained by Matthias Huber, Director of Kontron America's Embedded Modules Division. Temperature- and time-dependent measurement drifts can be eliminated, since the EPIC-based ETX carrier board calibrates as often as needed in a few seconds to ensure accurate readings in all environments.
The comprehensive Kontron family of ETX computer-on-modules offers scalable and low-power CPU performance up to the latest multi-core processors and chipsets from all major suppliers. Since all interfaces on all the latest Kontron ETX COMs have the same API structure, it is very easy to interchange modules and simply select the right COM according to the customers' needs. System upgrades are also easy. Kontron can now offer its customers not only industry-leading I/O features, but also superior COM-based products and increased configuration flexibility, as mentioned by Jonathan Millar, President of Diamond Systems.
More information about the Kontron ETX Certified Design Partner Programme, including the full list of certified partners, is available at: www.etx-cdp.com.
More information about Kontron ETX computer-on-modules is available at: www.kontron.com/ETX.
