CompactPCI convenience at a rack-mounted price

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 27, 2004

The XL-Pocket/6500-V for 6U devices is billed as a system design that offers CompactPCI convenience at a rack-mounted price.

The XL-Pocket/6500-V for 6U devices is billed as a system design that offers CompactPCI convenience at a rack-mounted price.

The system is designed for wall mounting and equipped with a cost-effective 400MHz (ULV) or 1GHz (LV) Intel Celeron processor.

With three front CompactPCI slots, the system is ideal for configurable machine controls or for the construction of compact servers.

At the same time, it is also interesting that the standard design of the third expansion slot is not 6U but 3U.

This makes the solution very flexible.

Optionally, all 3-6U combinations are feasible.

The system is an alternative to compact rack-mounted computers, whose market segment is very price-competitive.

The CompactPCI's front-replaceable assemblies accommodate the needs of the systems integrator and maintenance personnel.

Furthermore, due to the CompactPCI feature set, the system solution offers more convenience at a base price of less than Eur 1000.

The ultra-low-voltage variant, with a maximum 10W power dissipation at 400MHz, is also operated without an active fan.

For network communication, two front Ethernet ports are available on the CPU assembly.

Additionally there are two serial interfaces and the normal connections for keyboard, floppy and graphics (VGA CRT with a resolution of 1600 x 1200 pixel).

Two EIDE ports facilitate the connection of mass-storage devices; one of these interfaces is designed for an onboard HDD.

In addition, the CPU board includes a CompactFlash socket.

The CP6500-V can also be expanded as needed with customised mezzanine cards over a 32bit/33MHz PMC slot with rear I/O support.

Additional I/O can be connected via the LPC interface or the rear I/O or CompactPCI expansion assemblies.

The CP6500-V works in both system and peripheral slots.

In the former case it communicates with all peripheral boards using CompactPCI protocol or Ethernet over the backplane; in the latter, only over Ethernet according to PICMG 2.16.

The CPUs are socketless and thus securely mounted.

Up to 512Mbyte of main memory can be used in the 144-pin SODIMM socket.

The extensive range of optimal front-mountable I/O assemblies from Kontron rounds out the versatile array and offers the appropriate configuration for each OEM or systems integrator.

Software support is offered for Windows XP, XP Embedded, and 2000, as well as Linux and VxWorks, among others.

Among the uses of the XL-Pocket/6500-V are all standard industrial applications such as Soft-SPSen or IPC-control in machine and equipment construction, as well as compact server systems for industrial Ethernet communication.

Equipped with fieldbus cards, they are exceptionally well-qualified as head and master stations for fieldbus solutions.

The use of visualisation solutions is always possible due to the PC feature set.

The XL-Pocket costs less than Eur 1000 including CPU board CP6500-V with a 400MHz ULV Celeron processor and 128Mbyte RAM as well as a fan less 75W AC or DC power supply, and is available now.