Case Study I Medical Electronics
and mounted onto the existing carrierboard, as they are based on a widely supported and future-safe standard – and this will hold for a large number of years. A further advantage of standard-based modules is the fact that customers are not dependent on only one single manufacturer and can, if necessary, easily integrate modules from different manufacturers into their systems.
Future-safe module b-plus identified the COM Express standard as the most suitable amongst the different module specifications available in the market. For one thing, COM Express is the world's leading standard for Computer-on- Modules and thus enjoys especially wide
requirements with an off-the-shelf COM Express module from Kontron.
Design from a single source b-plus was therefore in a position to concentrate on the design-in of the standard module. The team developed a carrier board which was tailored to exactly fit the compact form of the housing on which the Kontron COMe-mSP1 had to be mounted. Apart from the slot for the add- on module for controlling the stepper motors for display positioning, b-plus created a customer-specific interface on the underside of the board where LVDS, the power supply and the USB signals for the touch operating panel are carried out over just one cable. This resulted in a space-
support from manufacturers. On the other hand, this standard includes COM Express mini, the extremely small credit card-sized form factor which is ideal for compact and mobile system designs. As modules which correspond to the interface specifications of COM Express are easily exchangeable and carrier-board designs and development effort can be re-used, COM Express stands for resource-savings and high design security.
The Kontron COM Express mini module, the COMe-mSP1, is applied in Vistec's Optovist system. This ultra-compact COM Express mini credit card-sized Computer-on- Module offers high performance x86 processor technology on a space of just 55 mm x 84 mm. In addition to this, it is based on the highly efficient Intel Atom 5XX series processor and the Intel System Controller Hub. This integrated chip combines the memory and graphic controller as well as the I/Os on a single chip. The COMe-mSP1 manages with a typical Thermal Design Power of less than 5 watts, making it a suitable platform for developing fanless, energy-saving mobile applications which require x86 processor performance and high resolution graphics in combination with long battery operating time and a fanless system design. It was decisive though that the Kontron COMe- mSP1 as the first COM Express mini module also supports SDVO alongside the standard LVDS support, facilitating the connection of two displays as required for this vision screening solution. It was possible to fulfill all the system design
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saving solution which underlines b-plus' high design and solution expertise. Beside the hardware design, b-plus was also largely responsible for the standard software implementation. b-plus created a Windows CE image for the application including all the required functionalities and drivers which had either to be adapted in parts or developed from scratch – for example for the stepper motor height and tilt adjusting. That left the Vistec software developers to concentrate on the application development of the vision screening device and then to revert to a highly integrated hardware platform, which also has been optimally tailored from the software point of view to meet the demands of the application. Commenting Brigitte Elsässer, Vistec AG said, "The fact that we were in a position to bring together all these requirements on a standard-based COTS platform, meant that the whole process was accelerated significantly. The farsightedness of the design deserves a special mention too. As due to the standardisation of the COM Express mini form factor by the worldwide standardisation organisation PICMG we are not aware of any other available alternative solution which would guarantee such design security.“
Kontron |
www.kontron.com
Adrian Bertl, Marketing b-plus GmbH, Gerhard Szczuka is Product Marketing Manager Computer-on-Modules at Kontron
Components in Electronics October 2013 39
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