CPCI-System with CPCI M4/206 |
Besides the standard PC interfaces, the following items are implemented on the CPCI M4/206: a Gigabit-Ethernet controller, a Fast-Ethernet controller, six USB 2.0 interfaces and one Intel Extreme Graphics Controller with DVI interface. A hardware monitor, a watchdog and a FlashDisk complete the features of this industrial processor board. All important interfaces are lead to the front panel, but they are also available as Rear-Panel I/Os.
Furthermore, the board offers two slots for expansion modules. So, a PCI module - like an SCRAM module – can be connected via an additional slot, or any other customer-specific module. On the other hand, there is a slot for Hilscher fieldbus modules. With these widely spread modules, a fieldbus connection can be integrated to the application without sacrificing an expensive CPCI slot. This way, the board can also be utilized as a Single-Board fieldbus computer.
As an assembly variant, an optional ISA96/AT96 Bus can still be foreseen. It will allow the user to continue using his existing boards and such to realize the migration to a different Bus system in a "smooth" way.
A general problem when using PC components in the range of control tasks is the short lifetime cycle of PC hardware. There, lifetimes of one year are partly already extremely long. This may be sufficient for the short-lived PC world, but in no case it meets the desires of industial users who calculate with product cycles of five years and even more. Therefore, the design consequently uses only components that are listed on the Embedded Roadmap of their manufacturers so that a long availability can be assumed for their usage in serial products.
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