Posted by John Keller

AMBLER, Pa., 11 Jan. 2012. MEN Micro Inc. in Ambler, Pa., is introducing the XM51 PowerPC-based rugged computer-on-module (COM) for mission-critical, harsh-environment, industrial, medical engineering, and mobile embedded computing applications. The Freescale QorIQ-based CPU board offers speeds as fast as 1.5 GHz via multi-core processing, and is based on the space-saving ESMexpress standard currently in preparation with ANSI/VITA as RSE 59.

When coupled with an application-specific carrier board, the compact XM51 becomes a semi-custom solution. The COM is scalable from an eight-core, high-end data processing unit to an energy- and cost-efficient four-core module. All versions feature multi-core and advanced processing capabilities, including encryption, company officials say.

The board supports four USB 2.0 interfaces with host function and one USB client port, two Gigabit Ethernet channels, two 3 Gigabit SATA ("gen 2"). and two PCI Express x1 links with 5 gigabits per second each (PCIe 2.x), which can be made accessible on any ESMexpress carrier.

COMs are complete computers on a mezzanine board that use a standard CPU with I/O configuration only required on a carrier board to allow for individual functionality tailored to the specific application.

The XM51 offers 16 gigabytes of soldered DDR3 SDRAM memory with ECC, which is controlled by one or two controllers and can be assigned to the processor cores. As much as 128 kilobytes of onboard non-volatile FRAM and 256 megabytes of Flash can be expanded via USB on the carrier board.

The COM is installed in a closed, conduction-cooled housing that operates in temperatures from -40 to 85 degrees Celsius. All components are soldered against shock and vibration effects, and prepared for coating to protect against humidity or dust. Modules are firmly secured to the board with eight screws and come with rugged connectors supporting high frequency and differential signals.

For more information contact MEN Micro online at www.menmicro.com.