San Francisco, Intel Developer Forum (IDF), September 14, 2010 — congatec AG, a leading manufacturer of embedded computer modules, announces conga-QA6, an extended temperature range small form factor module. The conga-QA6 is based on the Qseven® mobile standard and is equipped with the new Intel® AtomT processor E6xx Series as well as theIntel® Platform Controller Hub EG20T. All components of this design are specified for an industrial temperature range of –40°C to +85°C.
The Qseven® standard has been specifically developed to utilize the latest low power consuming technology and to meet the demand for small form factors. It has a typical power consumption of <5 watts, is barely larger than a credit card and has integrated functions for battery and ACPI 3.0 power management. With these specifications, the conga-QA6 is optimized to enable all mobile applications.
The conga-QA6 features fast serial differential interfaces such as PCI Express and Serial ATA, but omits support for legacy interfaces like EIDE and PCI. In total, it supports 6x USB 2.0, 2x SATA, 1x SDIO, 3x PCIe, LPC bus, I²C bus, Gigabit Ethernet, High Definition Audio, SPI and CAN bus interfaces. The CAN bus and SPI interfaces are new additions to the Qseven® standard and utilize previously unused pins.
As an option, up to 32 gigabytes of robust onboard Flash memory can be provided via the SATA interface. Cheaper memory, in the form of SD-Cards, can also be used with the flexible SDIO interface. Additionally, faster MMC 4.0 cards with a data transfer rate of up to 52 megabytes per second can also be implemented thanks to the 8 bit data width. The SDIO standard supports WLAN, Bluetooth, RFID as well as others.
The Intel® AtomT processor E6xx series equipped conga-QA6 module offers processing speeds of 600 MHz, 1.0 GHz and 1.3 GHz, combined with 512K
L2Cache and features up to 2 gigabytes of onboard DDR2 memory.
Random access memory (RAM) and graphics are embedded in the processor as specified by the new Intel® architecture. The performance of the new embedded
3D-capable graphics engine has been improved by 50% and uses a frame buffer of up to 256 megabytes. The graphics support DirectX 9.0E and OpenGL 2.0, while video applications have the use of MPEG2 and MPEG4 decoders. Graphics output is available via either a 1×24-Bit LVDS channel or an SDVO port. The conga-QA6 module uses the “DisplayID” VESA standard for the automatic recognition of connected flat panel displays.
All congatec boards are equipped with the congatec embedded BIOS. A board controller is also utilized and carries out part of the embedded BIOS extensions. The autonomy of x86 processors means that functions such as system monitoring, as well as the I²C bus, are faster and more reliable even when the system is in standby mode.
About Qseven®
Qseven is the first standard for embedded modules that defines a single software interface. This Application Programming Interface covers important functions in many professional applications such as Watchdog Timer, I²C Bus, LCD brightness control, BIOS user memory fields or the readout of system temperatures. Qseven® modules from different manufacturers can therefore be flexibly used and replaced without the need for any software or hardware changes.
About congatec
Based in Deggendorf, Germany, congatec AG is an innovative provider of industrial computer modules based on Qseven, COM Express, XTX and ETX standard form factors. Thanks to this specialization and annual revenue of 26 million Euro in 2009 (or $24 million based on an exchange rate of 1.28), congatec has established itself as a leading supplier in this sector. The company’s products support all types of industry applications spanning industrial automation, medical and automotive as well as the aerospace and transport sectors. Key know-how includes extended BIOS and driver support as well as comprehensive board support packages. Customers receive complete product lifecycle support starting early during the design-in stage. All congatec products are manufactured by specialized contract manufacturers who fulfil the latest quality standards. congatec currently employs 75 staff and has offices in Pilzen/Brno in the Czech Republic, Taipei/Taiwan and San Diego/USA. More information about the company can be found by visiting www.congatec.us.
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