MEN Micro Unveils CompactPCI PlusIO SBC with Three Intel Atom Processors

MEN Micro, specializing in embedded computing and I/O solutions suitable for industrial, mobile and harsh environment applications, unveiled a new safe CompactPCI PlusIO SBC that integrates three Intel (News - Alert) Atom E680T processors on one card.

Officials revealed that the card F75P houses two redundant CPUs with independent RAM and Flash memory that ensure optimum system safety, besides including a third processor that controls the I/O interfaces.

The F75P synergizes the capabilities of a redundant multiprocessing system and the CompactPCI (News - Alert) PlusIO standard by leveraging two Intel Atom E680T processors. The third Intel Atom E680T controls input and output by sending the commands issued by the two control CPUs to the interfaces across an internal, FPGA-based Ethernet link.

The board is suitable for mission critical railway applications, such as positive train control (PTC), safety management and signal control. Also, the board is certifiable to SIL 4 (safety integrity level) and the F75P’s functional safety characteristics.

This increases the suitability for other rugged embedded applications like traffic signal control, industrial control and medical environments.

In case operational parameters are not satisfied, the independent supervisor units will put the system into a safe state. The supervisor units monitor the environmental conditions of the two control CPUs continuously. The board features a fail-silent architecture which prevents the information from passing through the system if a processor provides a faulty output. The fail-safe architecture in turn triggers complete system shut down in case of an error.

To ensure system reliability, two F75P SBCs are clustered so that if one card fails, the second can take over from hot or cold stand-by to maintain the operation. Also an event logger keeps track of any hardware and application events.

The F75P works well in an extended temperature range of -40°C to +85°C. It is also compliant with EN 50155, conformal coating and an assembly of M12 connectors. It is of compact form factor and rugged enough to be securely used in rail applications, added officials.

MEN Micro recently released the F223, a robust PCI (News - Alert) Express (PCIe) Mini Card carrier board that features two PCIe Mini Card slots as standard with USB and PCI Express connections as well as two SIM card slots. The new 3U CompactPCI board is suitable for all wireless applications like GPS, WLAN and UMTS to GSM and HSDPA, and is expandable to 18 SIM slots.

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