The Kontron PC/104-Plus™ single board computer (SBC) MICROSPACE® MSM-eO offers OEMs the most powerful embedded graphics currently available for PC/104-based SBCs. With long-term availability, this SBC is based on the accelerated processing units of the AMD Embedded G-Series, which, along with a 64-bit CPU, also integrates a programmable graphics unit and a DDR3 memory controller.

The Kontron PC/104-Plus™ SBC MICROSPACE® MSM-eO integrates the single-core AMD T44R processor with 1.2 GHz together with an AMD Radeon HD6250 graphics unit. It supports the latest 3D graphics libraries such as OpenGL 3.2 and DirectX11. It is also ideally suited as an upgrade for existing PC/104-Plus designs that need more graphics performance with low power consumption.

Additionally, the integrated unified video encoder takes the load off the processor when displaying high-resolution videos (1080i/p) making the MICROSPACE® MSM-eO ideal for extremely compact multimedia applications.

With the support of DirectCompute and OpenCL 1.1, OEMs can also implement GPGPU applications with the MICROSPACE® MSM-eO in the low-power segment, using the computing power of the graphics unit for parallel data processing. For more information contact Texim Europe

Features
• Most powerful graphics for long-term available PC/104-Plus™
• AMD™ T44R 1.2GHz single core CPU
• AMD™ FCH A55E chipset
• Up to 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM RAM
• AMD Radeon™ HD6250 graphics
• 3D performance: 10x D510 (3DMark06)
• CRT: up to 1920×1200 30bpp LCD: up to 1920×1200 24bpp
• Operating temperature: 0°C to +60°C (standard), -40°C to +80°C (optional)

Applications
• Mobile infotainment systems
• Vending machines
• Mobile battery-operated systems

Contact Texim Europe

Kontron has announced the cooperation with Real-Time Systems to distribute their RTS Hypervisor on selected Computer-on-Modules, boards and systems with Intel multi-core processors. Kontron will provide customers with application-ready, pre-integrated, real-time capable virtualization platforms from a single source to speed up time-to-market and reduce integration efforts for customers. The agreement complements Kontron’s portfolio of fully tested, application-ready platforms that combine standard embedded hardware with pre-integrated software suites such as operating systems, hypervisor technology and complementary middleware.

Kontron will showcase a demo system based on the Kontron V-Panel Express 170 equipped with the RTS Hypervisor at the Embedded World Trade Show (hall 1, booth 460). In this installation, a real-time OS (Wind River VxWorks 6.8) and a non-real-time OS (Windows 7 Professional) run independently on top of the RTS Hypervisor with 0 latency added in regards to hard real-time performance.

Kontron’s new pre-integrated virtualization platforms target applications in markets such as industrial, medical, military or transportation where customers rely on both a deterministic Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) for time- and/or mission-critical functions and a standard OS for other tasks, such as running a feature-rich graphical user interface (GUI). By utilizing the RTS Hypervisor and Kontron’s multi-core hardware, both the embedded real-time application and the GUI can now be implemented on a single consolidated hardware platform. This helps customers to cut costs for the second system to zero and increase Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) and reliability.

Embedded system configurations with real-time hypervisors are complex and not typically a plug & play implementation. Consequently, customers need more support from hardware and software experts and ideally from a single source, said Werner Ressle, Director of Software & Software Services of Kontron AG. The cooperation with Real-Time Systems enables us to provide customers with a convenient out-of-the-box experience and they can now receive our embedded hardware platforms bundled with a pre-configured RTS Hypervisor including operating system licenses of their choice.

Kontron, as the worldwide market leader in embedded computing technology is a strategic partner who can help us attain a very broad audience for our RTS Hypervisor in the markets with real-time requirements, said Gerd Lammers, CEO and President of Real-Time Systems GmbH. We believe that offering hard- and software application-ready and from one source is very customer-friendly, as the customer can also get testing equipment from one supplier and only has one contact person in case of any queries during the application implementation.”

Highlights of the RTS Hypervisor
The RTS Hypervisor allows customers to simultaneously run multiple instances of a real-time operating system, such as Wind River VxWorks, QNX, Windows CE or a heterogeneous mixture of operating systems, including general purpose operating systems (GPOS) such as Linux and Microsoft Windows. Because RTS Hypervisor does not depend on a specific host OS, all operating systems can start in any sequence, reboot independently and never harm each other just as if they were still separated in hardware. In order to facilitate communication between the separated operating systems, RTS Hypervisor implementations provide a configurable user-shared memory as well as a TCP/IP based virtual network. Further highlights are:

- Hard real-time performance (0 µs latencies added)
- Leverages Intel VT technology to securely run GPOSes
- Direct hardware access – use standard device drivers
- 100% separation of operating systems in memory
- Use of standard development tools and IDE

Kontron is now supplying project services for the application-ready implementation of the RTS Hypervisor and the required host OS on customer-specific hardware platforms as part of its global software services.

For further information on Kontron’s latest product launches at the Embedded World Trade Show 2012, please visit: http://www.kontron.com/embedded-world2012-en

For further information on the RTS Hypervisor, please visit: http://www.real-time-systems.com/real-time_hypervisor/

Award reflects success of Arrow Embedded Solutions

Arrow Nordic has been named as the Best Performing Channel Partner in the Kontron European distribution network. The award, which was presented at the embedded systems vendor’s 2010 partner conference in Dresden, was decided based on billing criteria. It is the third year in succession that Arrow has been honoured by Kontron.

Presenting the award, Franco Genovese, Kontron distribution manager EMEA, said: “As a key partner for Kontron I would like to congratulate Arrow Nordic for the excellent performance of its team during the past year. Together, Kontron’s excellent product range and Arrow’s high level of support, ensure that our customers have the best possible experience and deliver their own products to the market in good time. We look forward to more excellent cooperation and to increasing the business even further.”

Stefano Persichitti, supplier business manager, Arrow, commented: “Our continued success with Kontron is built on two pillars. Kontron provide high quality products and support. Arrow’s Embedded Solutions team always aim to gain a deep understanding of the customer’s system and so endeavour to meet all their requirements while keeping the Kontron product at the core of the design.”

» Contact details for Arrow Electronics

Franchise extended to offer UK embedded designers a new world-class portfolio of solutions

Avnet Embedded, an Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT) company, today announced that its franchise with Kontron, the global leader of embedded computing technology, has been further extended to include the UK. Kontron’s vast portfolio of embedded computing technology solutions is already represented by Avnet Embedded in France and the Nordic regions through longstanding relationships with Axess Technology and Trident, both Avnet Embedded businesses. This newly extended relationship will provide Avnet Embedded with access to Kontron’s entire range of embedded computing solutions broadening its offering to embedded designers throughout the UK. An agreement covering Italy was recently announced. The franchise agreement with Kontron is also covered globally including America through Avnet Electronics Marketing.

According to Jürgen Grabow, Vice President of EMEA Sales, Kontron, “This new agreement extends our relationship with Avnet Embedded to most of the major markets in Europe. Their energy, focus and customer-centric approach, based on strong technical know-how have been extremely productive in Italy, France and the Nordic region. Their UK team has demonstrated that they can replicate this performance.”

“We are very excited about this opportunity and hope to continue the success in the UK we have achieved with the Kontron products in France and the Nordics,” said Martin Brooks, vice president, Avnet Embedded. “Kontron is a key and strategic supplier of innovative world-class products for Avnet Embedded in Europe and this appointment shows that our relationship with them continues to grow and strengthen.”

Trident and Axess Technology received awards in Kontron’s annual sales partner meeting for their excellent performance in 2008.

» Contact details for Avnet Embedded

Kontron joins Wind River partner Validation program to provide tighter hardware and software integration within a robust software ecosystem

Wind River and Kontron today announced a global, multi-year agreement under which Kontron will distribute Wind River’s industry leading VxWorks and Wind River Linux operating systems. This agreement extends a decade-long collaboration, and is expected to extend the software and service offerings of Wind River and Kontron. The two companies will initially target the industrial, medical, military and aerospace, transportation, and networking market segments.

Kontron also joins the Wind River Partner Validation Program, initially with its Kontron nanoETXexpress-SP module validated for use with VxWorks 6.7. By working together to validate Wind River’s embedded operating systems with leading partner software and hardware, Wind River and its partners are together providing a pre-validated solution stack to directly address integration costs, time-to-market, and long-term support. To learn more about the Wind River Partner Validation Program, visit http://www.windriver.com/partners/partner-validation.html.

“Our customers will benefit from the closer alignment with Wind River across all market segments and regions,” said Dirk Finstel, chief technology officer, Kontron AG. “This distribution agreement enables us to further reduce time-to-market requirements, and increase our value-added services by providing our customers a richer out-of-the-box experience with a compelling set of tools and operating system options. In parallel, Kontron will continue to leverage its strategic relationship with Wind River to deliver tightly integrated solutions that help reduce our customers’ total cost of ownership. The inclusion of the Kontron nanoETXexpress-SP in the Wind River Partner Validation Program, including optimized VxWorks 6.7 platform evaluation in the box, is a good example.”

“The distribution agreement between Wind River and Kontron will allow both companies to more quickly respond to new design win opportunities,” noted Roger Williams, vice president, Strategic Alliances, Wind River. “I am also pleased that Kontron’s nanoETXexpress-SP is the first embedded module to be listed with our Partner Validation Program. With both distribution and market-leading solutions in place, both companies are well positioned to capture next-generation design wins in a number of key vertical market segments.”

Under terms of the distribution agreement, Kontron will be able to resell VxWorks production licenses, and also agrees to work with Wind River to proliferate Wind River Linux for use by joint customers. Wind River will continue to provide hardware and software tools, development environments, source code and support contracts for joint customers.

» Contact details for Kontron