Improved I/O connectivity for Emerson Network Power, Freescale, Kontron, and COM Express standards

Through cooperation, to the widely used COM Express standard
Freescale provides multi-core QorIQ AMP processors

November 11, 2011, Seoul — Emerson Network Power, Freescale (NYSE: FSL, www.freescale.co.kr ), and Kontron have collaborated to expand I/O connectivity options for COM Express® specifications, paving the way for the widespread and rapid deployment of advanced processing technologies, such as Freescale’s QorIQ AMP products, to popular specifications.

The PICMG® (PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group) standard for COM Express is best suited for a specific range of processor architectures. Today, the collaboration of Emerson Network Power, Freescale, and Kontron has expanded I/O connectivity options by establishing new pinouts for modules compatible with the mechanical requirements of COM Express.

The new pinout definition enables the utilization of Freescale’s QorIQ AMP and P Series products, including the T4240 processor, across various implementations. The T4240 device integrates multiple hardware accelerators into 12 dual-threaded 64-bit Power Architecture cores to provide 24 threads capable of handling advanced data plane processing applications. Furthermore, thanks to dual-threaded efficiency, improved DMIPs per thread, and higher frequencies, it delivers four times the performance and more than double the power efficiency compared to Freescale’s previous generation QorIQ P4080 device. It supports intelligent resource sharing and replication between threads through advanced features and provides a large on-die cache per core.

Brett Butler, Vice President and General Manager of Freescale’s Networking Processor business unit, said, “The collaboration between Freescale, Emerson Network Power, and Kontron was significantly helpful in developing this pinout for the popular COM Express standard,” adding, “We identified customer demand for alternative architectures in this specification and were able to bring them to market quickly through our collaboration.”

“We are pleased with the first definition and acceptance of the pinout for COM Express defined with Freescale, and Freescale’s new generation of processors offers the opportunity to achieve more features, flexibility, and faster time-to-market,” said Shlomo Pri-Tal, Chief Technology Officer for Embedded Computing Business at Emerson Network Power. “We were able to quickly complete the new definition by working together with Kontron and Freescale.”

Dirk Finstel, Chief Technology Officer at Kontron, said, “We have a proven track record of establishing standards in the COM (Computer on Modules) market and have maintained long-standing relationships with Emerson Network Power across various standards organizations. Working with Emerson Network Power and Freescale to provide an alternative to the popular COM Express standard was the right choice. Freescale’s standing in the aerospace and defense, networking, and communications markets provides greater opportunities for compatible COM Express modules.”

Additional information about the new pinout can be found at www.freescale.com/SBC .