Portwell announced a COM Express module that's available with a choice of “Pineview” Atom processors. The PCOM-B215VG includes up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, up to 4GB of SSD (solid state disk storage), SATA and IDE interfaces, and provides support for CRT and LVDS displays, the company says.

The PCOM-B215VG uses the 95 x 95mm (3.75 x 3.75 inch) microETXexpress format that has been proposed for standardization under the COM Express CompactCOM Express Compact moniker, though Portwell refers to it as micro-COM Express. Like other such modules, it passes all its interfaces through its two COM Express connectors to a separately available baseboard. (For the latter, Portwell nominates its PCOM-C210, about which we provide further information below.)

According to Portwell, the PCOM-V215VG is available with three of Intel's "Pineview" Atoms, the N450 or D410 (both single-core) or the dual-core D510. All these CPUs are clocked at 1.66GHz, include on-chip GMA3150 graphics, and are accompanied here by the ICH8M I/O controller, the company adds.

Portwell's PCOM-V215VG
(Click to enlarge)

Portwell notes that N450 configurations of the PCOM-B215VG — presumably offering the lowest power consumption, although this was not specified — offer a 200MHz graphics clock, CRT resolutions up to 1400 x 1050 pixels, and LVDS resolutions up to 1280 x 800. The D410/D510 versions, meanwhile, have 400MHz graphics clocks, CRT resolutions up to 2048 x 1536 pixels, and LVDS resolutions up to 1388 x 768 pixels.

The otherwise similar modules are said to accept up to 4GB of DDR2 memory via a SODIMM slot. The modules are also available with onboard SSDs (solid state drives) as large as 8GB, according to Portwell.

Portwell says expansion interfaces include five PCI Express x1 lanes, PCI, and LPC. The PCOM-B215VG also offers AC '97 audio, a gigabit Ethernet interface, eight USB ports, plus support for both SATA- and IDE-interfaced hard disk drives, the company adds.

Features and specifications listed by Portwell for the PCOM-B215VG include the following:

• Processor — Intel Atom N450, D410, or D510 clocked at 1.66GHz
• Chipset — ICM8M
• Memory — Up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM via single SODIMM slot
• Display — CRT and LVDS interfaces
• Storage — Onboard SSD up to 4GB (optional); IDE and SATA interfaces
• Expansion - 5 x PCI Express x1 lanes, PCI (via COM Express connectors)
• Networking — gigabit Ethernet
• Other I/O:
  • 8 x USB 2.0 ports
• Operating temperature — 32 to 140 deg. F (0 to 60 deg. C)
• Power requirements — "TBA"
• Dimensions — 3.75 x 3.75 inches (95 x 95mm)

The PCOM-C210 baseboard

The PCOM-B215VG could presumably be snapped onto a variety of different baseboards for development purposes. However, Portwell nominates the ATX-format PCOM-C210 pictured below.

Portwell's PCOM-C210 baseboard
(Click to enlarge)

As the photo above shows, the PCOM-C210 provides a bevy of real-world connectors and expansion interfaces, though we're not sure all of these are usable with the PCOM-B215V. Portwell says the baseboard has six PCI Express x1 slots, four PCI slots, and a PCI Express x16 slot, but notes that their availability may vary according to what COM Express module is on board.

Similarly, the PCOM-C210 includes two PS/2 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, a gigabit Ethernet port, a parallel port, and a serial port, as pictured above. PS/2 support was listed as "n/a" on the PCOM-B215VG, while parallel functionality was not mentioned at all.

Be that it may, the PCOM-C210 is also said to include four SATA ports and an IDE connector, a Type II CompactFlash slot, and an LVDS port. The board also includes a watchdog timer and an onboard Award BIOS, which may be used instead of the BIOS of the CPU module, Portwell adds.

Availability

Portwell did not release information about pricing or operating system support for the PCOM-B251VG or PCOM-C210, but the devices appear to be available now. More information on the module may be found on the company's website, here, and more information on the baseboard may be found here.

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