In light of today’s slippery economy, there’s always the question of whether to go with the lower price or the more splurgy, higher-priced choice, hoping it will pay off in the long run. Turns out that in spite of all the recent VPX working group hubbub, Kontron has managed to launch its new VX3020 3U VPX CPU board for those jumping into the “high-end processing performance” end of the diving pool. Powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo LV at 1.5 GHz, the board is ramped up to meet today’s stringent data and signal processing necessities for real-time, net-centric defense and aerospace apps. Also aiding in the board’s processing performance is the Intel 3100 chipset and support for DDR2 SDRAM up to 2 GB.
Plenteous I/O variants bring the Kontron VX3020 into the same realm as cutting-edge laptop PCs, including two software-configurable GbE network interfaces on the rear VPX backplane connector or the front RJ45 connector, plus 3x SATA-150 interfaces and a smattering of USB 2.0 ports. Additionally, the board can execute PCI-based applications and can support “PCI software backwards compatible PCI Express, which is configurable either as x4 or quad x1 over the backplane.” Crafted with a VITA 47-savvy temperature range of -40 °C to +85 °C, the board is available in rugged conduction-cooled versions.
