Archives

April 5, 2022

F75P – Vital Embedded Single Board Computer, 3 Intel Atom E6xx

The F75P is a COTS safe computer with onboard functional safety that unites three CPUs on one 3U CompactPCI PlusIO card. It makes Intel Atom E6xx (“E600”) performance with dual redundancy extremely compact, mainly targeting railway applications. Two independent Control Processors (CP) with independent DDR2 RAM and Flash and a supervision structure provide safety: with redundant software running on F75P, and, e.g., with the software instances on the two CPs comparing their output, the board becomes a fail-silent subsystem, i.e. it can shut down in case of a fatal fault.

Its I/O Processor (IOP) is built up like a classic CompactPCI CPU board, including DDR2 RAM, front and rear I/O. The front connectors include VGA, two USB 2.0, and two 100-Mbit (Fast) Ethernet channels. At the rear, the board provides another four USB 2.0, two Fast Ethernet ports, one 3-Gbit SATA and one PCI Express x1 link. These interfaces comply with the standardized pinout of CompactPCI PlusIO (PICMG 2.30). An onboard mSATA slot makes for scalable, robust mass storage. The intelligent board management controller of the IOP logs events such as reset, overvoltage or undervoltage in a non-volatile FRAM.

The Control (CP) and I/O Processors (IOP) communicate via internal links provided by an FPGA. The CPs are designed to run a deterministic real-time operating system such as the QNX Neutrino RTOS Safe Kernel. It is also possible to implement diversitary software on both kernels. All three CPUs support Linux and QNX. The F75P can replace multiprocessing systems with CPU redundancy and I/O by a small-footprint, low-power solution that is flexible for different types of application scenarios. It uses a single +5 V supply voltage to allow operation with external power supplies that do not generate +3.3 V.

F75P-based systems are generally certifiable up to SIL 4. Since the card has no voter of its own, the software implements and controls functional safety behavior. The customer can either add the software himself or purchase it from duagon. The safety features such as the CP supervisors are designed to SIL 4 according to EN 50129. A railway certification package including the “safety case” document and a certificate from TÜV SÜD is available.

Its rugged set-up also make the F75P rail-ready: with assets like conformal coating and an operating temperature of -40 °C to +70 °C (10 min @ +85 °C) with qualified components, it is fully EN 50155 compliant. A 4-HP version is available.

April 5, 2022

F600 – Side Card for SATA/Legacy I/O

The F600 is a 4HP legacy I/O extension card for 3U Intel based CompactPCI single-board computers. It can be used in combination with the F14 and compatible CPU boards.

Modern Intel based boards increasingly support USB interfaces as an exclusive universal connection of devices such as keyboard, mouse, CD-ROM, floppy etc. Especially in industrial applications however many existing systems still use COM interfaces.

The F600 provides SA-Adapter slots for up to four additional COMs, two at the front panel and two on board. Since SA-Adapters provide the physical layers, the F600 can be configured flexibly with a combination of RS232, RS422 or RS485 interfaces, alternatively isolated or not isolated. In addition an onboard 2.5″ SATA hard-disk slot can be used on the standard version of the F600, which comes with two COM interfaces.

The F600 is directly plugged to the right side of the respective single-board computer. A robust connector makes for high mechanical stability. It is delivered with an 8HP front panel, replacing the 4HP front panel of a 3U single-board computer and thus resulting in a solid one-piece front panel.

April 5, 2022

F603 – Side Card USB/COM

The F603 is a 4HP mixed USB/COM extension card for 3U Intel based CompactPCI single-board computers. It can be used in combination with the F14 and compatible CPU boards.

Modern Intel based boards increasingly support USB interfaces as an exclusive universal connection of devices such as keyboard, mouse, CD-ROM, floppy etc. Especially in industrial applications however many existing systems still use legacy I/O.

Thus, the F603 provides one COM interface as well as two more USB 2.0 interfaces that extend the Single-Board Computer functionality to 4 USB ports at the front panel.

In addition an onboard 2.5″ SATA hard-disk slot and a CompactFlash slot is available on the F603.

The F603 is directly plugged to the right side of the respective single-board computer. A robust connector makes for high mechanical stability. It is delivered with an 8HP front panel, replacing the 4HP front panel of a 3U single-board computer and thus resulting in a solid one-piece front panel.