New board to expands application spread

GE Intelligent Platforms has announced the bCOM2-L1100 rugged COM Express board. Designed specifically to respond to the growing requirement to deploy powerful computing solutions in harsh, space-constrained environments such as mining, oil and gas, manufacturing, test/measurement, unmanned vehicles, exploration, transportation and military/aerospace, it features an Intel® Core™2 Duo processor operating at up to 2.26GHz and up to 4GBytes of soldered DDR3 SDRAM. Soldered components substantially improve reliability. A range of processors is available, depending on the performance/watt requirements of the application.

The bCOM2-L1100 provides extensive protection to ensure reliable operation in applications that are subject to shock, vibration and extremes of temperature (-40° to +85° C). All components are soldered to the board for optimum reliability, while mechanical stand-offs provide a high degree of insulation from external forces. Available in a standard version for benign environments, the bCOM2-L1100 is optionally available in extended temperature variants and with conformal coating.

“Not only does the bCOM2-L1100 provide a solution for customers who need the kind of rugged reliability associated with VMEbus and PCI Express in the small form factor of COM Express, but it is also unique in the way it combines performance with rugged reliability,” said Juergen Eder, Product Manager at GE Intelligent Platforms. “Most other rugged COM Express modules feature the less powerful Intel Atom processor, and those that offer similar processing power to that of the bCOM2-L1100 use SODIMM memory, which is more difficult to cool and thus gives them an inferior MTBF. The bCOM2-L1100 delivers outstanding performance/watt from a small, lightweight platform and is ideal for deployment in the most demanding environments.”

As with all COM Express boards, a carrier board is required for the bCOM2-L1100. The CCAR-L1000 carrier board is available for initial development and testing. GE Intelligent Platforms is also able to provide advice to customers designing their own rugged carrier.

Despite its small size, the bCOM2-L1100 offers a broad range of connectivity and I/O capabilities, including Gigabit Ethernet, eight USB 2.0 ports, four Serial ATA (SATA) ports (RAID-configurable), one PATA port, eight GPIO ports (four in, four out), one LVDS port, two SDVO channels, VGA, High Definition Audio (HDA) and PCI Express® (configurable as one 4x PCI Express lane or four 1x PCI Express lanes). Also provided is a x16 PCI Express port for high-end graphics and video applications.

The bCOM2-L1100 provides support for Windows® XP, Vista®, Windows 7, Linux®, and VxWorks®.