Intel Atom platform opens up new opportunities for the PC/104 form factor.
With the CB4053, Beckhoff complements its comprehensive product range of industrial motherboards and presents a PC/104plus board for the first time. The platform consists of the Atom processor produced by Intel in 45 nm technology and the Intel system controller hub with integrated graphics. Both components are characterised by low power consumption and enable system configurations without active cooling and with advanced processor clock frequencies up to 1,6 GHz.
The Beckhoff in-house motherboard and BIOS development facilities enable the company to respond rapidly to new trends in PC technology. This means that customers have access to state-of-the-art products at an early stage. The CB4053, a fully fledged PC/104plus motherboard with single-board design, is a good example.
The Atom platform is consistently optimised for low power consumption and therefore ideal for mobile and embedded applications. In typical application scenarios the processor and chipset together consume less than 5 W, which means that no fans are required. While the focus is on power saving, the processor and chipset nevertheless offer advanced performance and comprehensive features.
The Atom processors are single-core CPUs with 512 KB L2 cache. They communicate with 400 or 533 MHz FSB frequency. The clock frequencies of the models announced so far range between 1,1 and 1,6 GHz. On the CB4053 board DDR2RAM modules with 400 or 533 MHz memory frequency are inserted in the existing SODIMM200 slot.
The CB4053 offers a comprehensive set of interfaces. An area of only 90 x 96 mm features the PC/104 and PC/104plus connector (ISA and PCI) plus a wide range of other interfaces, including CRT and LCD connection options (the latter via LVDS 18/24), IDE, Gigabit LAN, HDA sound, eight x USB 2.0 (including one x device option), two x COM, LPT and PS/2 keyboard/mouse.
The board has been designed for ease of use with other Beckhoff products, for example in EtherCAT applications.
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