High-speed, low-power Pentium M processor 745 ‘hot’ in new embedded products

Intel’s new 1.8 GHz Pentium M processor 745 is showing up in recent embedded board products from a number of manufacturers because of the CPU’s high processing speed and low power consumption, among other benefits.

By Control Engineering Staff June 10, 2004
To ease integration, PP 312/01x CompactPCI board supports popular operating systems from Linux, Microsoft, QNX, Solaris, and Wind River.

Intel’s new 1.8 GHz Pentium M processor 745 is showing up in recent embedded board products from a number of manufacturers because of the CPU’s high processing speed and low power consumption, among other benefits. As examples, a CompactPCI host board and VME single-board computer (SBC) from Concurrent Technologies ; a CompactPCI SBC from Trenton Technology; and PFU Systems Inc.’s system-on-module are further described—along with contact information and Web-site links for each.

Concurrent Technologies has widened its CompactPCI offerings with a single-slot board (PP 312/01x) that features Intel ’s new low-power 1.8 GHz Pentium M processor 745. The new processor raises cache size to 2 MB (up from 1 MB) and improves performance to power dissipation ratio.

PP 312/01x provides two 64-bit PMC (mezzanine card) sites with front and rear I/O points for intensive signal or data applications. It supports up to 2 GB of DDR ECC SDRAM and dual Gigabit Ethernet, and a variety of PICMG open standard functions. Each PMC site supports 3.3 or 5 V signaling. For embedded applications, 32 MB application flash memory and 512 KB battery-backed SRAM are also available. The board includes 10baseT/100base-TX/1000baseT Ethernet interfaces, graphics interface, three RS-232 channels, USB port, PC real-time clock, watchdog timer, and long-duration timer. Pricing for PP 312/01x starts at approximately $3,400.

Pentium M processor 745 also is key to Concurrent Technologies’ VP 307/01x VME single-board computer (SBC), which supports up to 1.5 GB of DDR ECC SDRAM. This board has one PMC site, with expansion possible to two additional sites, and a host of other features. Volume pricing for VP 307/01x starts at about $3,550.

PFU Systems Inc ., manufacturer of System-on-Modules (SOMs) for embedded solutions, announced that its Plug-N-Run G3 modules now include a version with Intel’s Pentium M processor 745. Intended for high-performance embedded applications, this G3 module claims “industry’s first SOM with the new Pentium M 745” running at top processor speed of 1.8 GHz. Expect the new Plug-N-Run G3 modules to ship in sample quantities in July 2004 (full production slated for August). Contact PFU Systems for pricing. For more about Plug-N-Run G3, click here to go to Control Engineering ‘s Information Control Monthly Newsletter, Dec. 2003.

Trenton Technology Inc . also has added an Intel 1.8 GHz Pentium M processor 745 to its CP16 single-board computer (SBC) lineup. This latest Pentium M processor, manufactured using Intel’s 90-nm process technology, provides 2 MB of L2 cache memory and supports a 400 MHz front-side bus. A key feature of CP16 is ability to switch off the PCI bus to the backplane, enabling the SBC for either Ethernet-only CompactPCI or server blade applications.

Other versatile features of Trenton’s CP16 include a front-access PMC (mezzanine card) slot, local storage device plug-in options, dual 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet ports, and Gigabit Ethernet backplane support. An optional Rear Transition Module is available for rear access to the SBC’s I/O points and status LEDs. This single-board computer complies with various PICMG open standard specifications, such as Packet Switching Backplane (2.16); Hot Swap (2.1 and 2.12); and Intelligent Platform Management Interface (2.9).

Trenton’s CP16 with Pentium M processor 745 has a starting price of $2,995. Volume and OEM purchase programs apply.

—Frank J. Bartos, executive editor, Control Engineering, fbartos@reedbusiness.com