October 2014
33
B
OARDS
& M
ODULES
that more often additional on-board connec-
tors are being added to the modules. Module
producers are thus trying to execute additional
functions in order to differentiate themselves
from the competition. But such interfaces are
not standardized. Disadvantage: the standard
will be weakened and the modules will have
increasing less interchangeability.
This is, above all, also a reason why COM
Express Modules should not be subjected to
deviation: they have a fixed feature set and
redesigns are only legitimate in this respect if
an overall processor world of this kind should
change so that previous solutions become
obsolete. But first and foremost, existing
standards have to perform the task of sup-
porting one-time defined feature sets and
with that furthermore their matching appli-
cations in the event of changes. Because this
is really the only way that they can actually
keep promises in relation to long-time avail-
ability. Incidentally, ETX has already done
this before; this standard is even today still
available unchanged with PCI and ISA. And
this will also be the case with COM Express
modules. Furthermore, these are serving what
is the largest existing market for the „classic“
x86 designs and are doing this with an enor-
mous range of modules from COM Express
Basic through COM Express Compact up to
the COM Express mini. It comes as no sur-
prise that the new Intel Atom processors of
the E3800 series are already available on three
form factors at Kontron: COM Express mini
and COM Express compact and now SMARC
as well. Thus, the right design is there for any
application, with no compromises.
The net result of this increasingly strength-
ened standard has incidentally also had effects
in the responsible standards committees and
has resulted in the establishment of SGET
as the new Standards Committee, which is
now administering and further developing
the SMARC form factor independently from
the manufacturer. Those who want to main-
tain the status quo must therefore also be pre-
pared to blaze new trails. SMARC is thereby
also precisely following the strategy of COM
Express as the successor to ETX. Nor have any
compromises been permitted and alternative
designs such as XTX, which have been posi-
tioned precisely in the middle between COM
Express and ETX, have failed to achieve a
market significance that is comparable to that
of COM Express even just in terms of basic
approaches. And SMARC is also today posi-
tioning itself uncompromisingly as the form
factor standard for credit- card-sized modules,
which are coming into use as highly ener-
gy-efficient solutions with free programma-
bility and powerful graphics and in so doing
are following the new feature set of the mobile
handheld devices.
The new Kontron SMARC-sXBTi Comput-
er-on Module offers an excellent graphics
performance, high processor performance
and x86-series compatibility on the small-
est SMARC footprint, and does so with very
low power consumption (5W to 10W). Both
the flat design and the mobile feature set are
adapted for the smallest portable handheld
devices. But the modules can also still be
used even when the consumption is only a
few watts, but high computing and graphics
performance is still essential. The new Kon-
tron SMARC-sXBTi Computer-on-Modules
are fitted with Intel Atom processors of the
E3800 series and up to 8 GB RAM and with
ECC as an option. They support the extended
temperature range of -40°C up to +85°C, are
about 82mmx50mm in size and have a an
extra slim design with edge-card connector.
Nevertheless, there is still sufficient space for
an up to 64GB size onboard SSD for storing
OS and applications data. In terms of the pin-
out amongst other things the mobile feature
set as 3x UART with a full range of functions
also for GPS must be highlighted, as well as for
example the support of the MIPI-conform-
ing serial camera interfaces (MIPI CSI = ).
High-performance Intel Gen 7 graphics are
produced via HDMI 1.4 and LVDS (optional
eDP) with up to 2560x1600.
