MSC expands its ETX module family with Atom CPU version

28th May 2009

ES Admin

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MSC Vertriebs GmbH has expanded its ETE family according to the ETX specification 3.02 with the Intel Atom processor technology based ETE-A945GSE embedded module. With the new configurable platform, MSC underlines its commitment to the worldwide proven ETX module standard and ensures the long-term availability of ETX products for at least another seven years. The ETX technology thereby remains attractive, also for new embedded computing designs.

In the first version, the ETE-A945GSE ETX platform integrates a low-power Intel Atom N270 CPU running at 1.6 GHz. The energy-efficient processor offers enough computing power for most of the typical ETX applications in the POS, infotainment, gaming and HMI markets. The Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950, integrated in the Mobile Intel Chipset 82945GSE with ICH7DH Southbridge, supports dual display operation via two LVDS interfaces or in the combination LVDS and CRT. As a special feature the MSC module offers an LVDS interface with full 24-bit and dual channel support enabling high-resolution displays with up to 16 million colors. The CRT interface delivers an accuracy of 2048 x 1536 pixels.

The computer-on-module offers two SATA II (up to 300 MB/s) and two enhanced IDE (ATA/UDMA100) ports. From the six available USB 2.0 interfaces, two connections are constructed as loss-free high speed interfaces in the form of mini-USB connectors on the top side of the module. The board has a 32bit PCI bus interface and an enhanced ISA Bridge (PCI/ ISA Bridge ITE8888). Moreover there are an 10/100Base-T LAN interface, an AC'97 audio interface, parallel and serial ports, an IrDA interface and connections for keyboard and mouse.

The 95 x 114 mm ETX module offers additional functions such as ACPI power management with suspend-to-RAM support, watchdog and system monitoring. Memory can be expanded via an SODIMM socket up to a capacity of 2 GB DDR2 SDRAM.

MSC provides baseboards for the evaluation and the design-in of the ETX platform ETE-A945GSE. The module runs under the operating systems Windows XP (embedded), Windows CE and Linux.

The board integrates the TrustedCore BIOS of Phoenix Technologies for highest security functionality compliant to the requirements of the Trusted Computing Group (TCG).
With a typical power consumption of just 10 W, the ETE A945GSE module is also suited for small systems with passive cooling.