VPX CPU boards

Kontron is supporting the VITA 46 VPX standard with two rugged 3U VPX CPU boards.

The VX3020 is based on the Core 2 Duo processor and the VX3230 is based on the Freescale MPC8544 32-bit PowerPC processor.

The two boards are the first members of the company’s new family of VPX products based on the VPX standard that brings maximum serial bandwidth over the backplane to ultra-rugged applications.

The boards combine all the fundamental strengths of the VMEbus architecture such as robustness and good EMC with the high bandwidth capabilities of the VPX connector for high-speed differential signalling over the backplane.

Both boards are available in rugged conduction-cooled versions that support operational temperatures ranging from -40 to +85 °C according to VITA 47 recommendations.

The VX3020 VPX CPU board supports up to 2 GB of DDR2 SDRAM and features all the high-performance I/Os that are available on the latest laptop PCs such as the UXGA graphics controller with PCI-Express, two gigabit ethernet network interfaces configurable by software either on the front RJ45 connector or the rear VPX backplane connector, 3 x SATA-150 interfaces and multiple USB 2.0 ports.

An onboard USB connector can support a standard USB flash disk module.

The ultra-low-power VX3230 offers the 1 GHz Freescale MPC8544 32-bit PowerPC processor and up to 1 GB of DDR2 RAM on a 3U VPX board that has a low power output of less than 10 W. It offers 2 x gigabit ethernet ports configurable on either the front or back.

Dual SATA-150 ports provide data storage options and there are two USB 2.0 ports on the rear. For application-specific I/O expansions there is an optional XMC/PMC slot.

Designed with safety in mind, it has dual boot storage, EEC memory and temperature sensors and can be used in redundant architectures.