MEN Micro: New ESM handles harsh environments of trains, planes…

Intended for deeply embedded industrial PC applications aboard trains, airplanes, buses, and other transportation vehicles, MEN Micro showed its new Embedded System Module (ESM) at the 2004 National Industrial Automation Show in Chicago.

By Control Engineering Staff March 11, 2004

Compact EM05 is a full PC on a plug-on module that measures 71 x 149 mm (2.8 x 5.87 in.) and runs either Microsoft Windows or Linux.

Intended for deeply embedded industrial PC applications aboard trains, airplanes, buses, and other transportation vehicles, MEN Micro showed its new Embedded System Module (ESM) at the 2004 National Industrial Automation Show in Chicago. An ESM is a complete computer on a mezzanine card that can work without a carrier card, though it can be plugged onto such a card for added versatility.

Called EM05, the module combines a high-performance 850-MHz processor ( Transmeta TM5900 Crusoe) with extended temperature range and high reliability. Transmeta’s TM5900 processor integrates Northbridge core logic into the device to reduce chip count and power requirements, among other benefits. EM05’s onboard field-programmable gate array (FPGA) contains 250,000 gates. FPGA functions include drivers for a TFT monitor; USB and IDE interfaces; I/O points; ports for disk drive, keyboard, and mouse; and accommodation for multiple CAN controllers and UARTs.

Other features of EM05 module include memory options—a SO-DIMM module slot for up to 512 MB of 133-MHz DDRAM and a CompactFlash slot, two fast Ethernet ports, two serial interfaces, and front-panel options for serial ports. Pricing for EM05 starts at $850 for single units.

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