Congatec announced a COM Express module that includes new Sandy Bridge CPUs from Intel and up to 16GB of DDR3 memory. The Conga-BM67 offers three DisplayPort interfaces, supports RAID, and delivers expansion including six PCI Express lanes, PCI, and eight USB ports, the company says.

A January 2010 COM Express module from Congatec, the Conga-BM57, adopted Intel's then-new, 2.66GHz Core i7-620M along with the chipmaker's QM57 Express chipset. A few months later, the company released its Conga-BS57 (featuring the 2.0GHz Core i7-620LE, the 1.06GHz Core i7-620UE, or the 2.13GHz Core i3-330E) and then followed it up with the ECC-capable Conga-BE57.

Now, the Deggendorf, Germany-based manufacturer has announced the Conga-BM67, a Type 2 COM Express module named after the QM67 Express chipset that accompanied Intel's release last week of its "Sandy Bridge" CPUs. (In a year's time, we confidently expect, we'll be covering a "Conga-BM77" module with a chipset and Core CPU that have been revamped yet again!).

By our latest count, Intel's Sandy Bridge range includes 15 new mobile offerings, 14 new desktop CPUs, and four embedded offerings. Of the latter, Congatec has selected two for the Conga-BM67, as follows:

• the Core i5-2510E, with a 2.1GHz clock speed and 3.1GHz TurboBoost frequency, two cores, 3MB of cache, and a 35-Watt TDP
• the Core i7-2710QE, with a 2.5GHz clock speed and 3.0GHz TurboBoost frequency, four cores, 6MB of cache, and a 45-Watt TDP

On Congatec's Type 2 COM Express module, either of these processors is accompanied by the aforementioned QM67 Express chipset, plus up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM housed in dual DIMM slots. Dual, 220-pin A-B and C-D connectors relay all of the device's signals to separately available baseboards.

According to Congatec, the device includes six PCI Express lanes, four SATA ports, one EIDE port, eight USB 2.0 ports, and a gigabit Ethernet interface. A 32-bit PCI bus, LPC, I2C, and high-definition audio are also listed as part of the feature set.

Congatec says the integrated graphics controller — supporting OpenGL 3.0 and DirectX 10.1 — can drive three DisplayPort devices with resolutions up to 2560 x 1600 pixels. Supported display types include VGA, LVDS, HDMI, and SDVO, the company adds.

According to Congatec, the BM67 also offers a multi-stage watchdog timer. Operating system support includes Linux, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Embedded Standard (2009 and 7), and VXWorks, according to the company.

Features and specifications listed by Congatec for the Conga-BM67 include:

• Processor:
  • Core i5-2510E, with 2.1GHz clock speed and 3.1GHz TurboBoost frequency, two cores, 3MB of cache, and 35-Watt TDP
  • the Core i7-2710QE, with 2.5GHz clock speed and 3.0GHz TurboBoost frequency, four cores, 6MB of cache, and 45-Watt TDP
• Chipset — QM67 Express
• Memory — Up to 18GB of DDR3 memory via two slots
• Expansion (all via COM Express connectors):
  • 6 x PCI Express lanes
  • 32-bit PCI
• Networking — gigabit Ethernet
• Other I/O:
  • 8 x USB 2.0
  • 4 x SATA with RAID support
  • EIDE (optional)
  • LPC
  • I2C
  • high-definition audio
  • 3 x DisplayPort
  • 3 x HDMI or DVI (shared)
  • VGA
  • SDVO
• Power requirements — tbd
• Operating range — 32 to 140 deg. F (0 to 60 deg. C)
• Dimensions — 4.92 x 3.74 inches (125 x 95mm)

Background

Sandy Bridge COM Express modules have already been released by Eurotech, Kontron, and RadiSys. The Sandy Bridge Cores include a new microarchitecture, a 256-bit instruction set known as AVX (advanced vector extensions), enhanced GPUs (graphics processing units), and dedicated silicon for tasks such as transcoding video from one format to another, according to Intel.

Listed above, the embedded-specific Sandy Bridge devices are designed to work with Intel's QM67 Express chipset (below) or HM65 Express chipset. The QM67 permits devices to offer up to fourteen USB 2.0 ports, two 6Gbps SATA ports, and four 3Gbps SATA ports, according to the chipmaker.

Intel's QM67 Express chipset
(Click to enlarge)

Further information

Congatec did not cite pricing or availability for the Conga-BM67. Further information may be found on the BM67 product page.

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