For years, Kontron has been committed to bringing the most advanced and reliable COTS based products to our customers. Because of our experience outside of the Military market, we can assure our customers that products have been battlefield tested before ever reaching the battlefield.

Our expertise with harsh environment applications has been built over more than 10 years of servicing applications which require Rugged COTS products. Our continuous commitment to the market has fostered innovative technical answers to the unique challenges at hand. With Kontron adherence to standards, our customers know that Kontron products will fit their more stringent requirements.

Kontron offers one of the largest product portfolios to Rugged COTS customers available in the embedded space today; the long-standing technologies like VME and CompactPCI to the newer VPX and beyond.

Please visit the tabs to the right to learn more about the Rugged COTS products and services that Kontron offers.

Rugged COTS plug-in units are widely used throughout commercial, military, ground, and mobile applications. These standards define the operating temperature range, as well the type and amplitude of shocks and vibration a computer can withstand without damage. Because of this, standardization of Rugged COTS plug-in units allows for cost-effective integration in larger systems.

VITA 47 is ANSI/VITA 47, Environmental, Design and Construction, Safety, and Quality for Plug-In Units Standard.

Kontron products bearing the R-[1-3], SA, WA RA or RC implement VITA 47.

SA / R-1 Standard Commercial
WA Extended Temperature
RA / R-2 Rugged Air-Cooled
RC / R-3 Rugged Conduction-Cooled

Technical answers offered by Kontron include:

The “RUGGEDIZER”

Kontron utilizes a board-size heat frame called the Ruggedizer. Pioneered 10 years ago by Kontron (formerly Thales Computers/CETIA) the Ruggedizer has allowed generations of powerful computing nodes such as the legacy V4G4c (quad PowerPC Altivec SBC) to be deployed in the most difficult environments.

Heat Frames

Several other products from Kontron implement a heat frame to allow use in extended temperature range. CompactPCI products R1 and R2 class implement such a solution.

Heat Pipes

To face the even more challenging cooling requirements needed for a dual 64-bit PowerPC SBC, the PowerNode5, Kontron now has mastered an improvement of 6U board size heat frame with the use of heat pipes. Several patents cover the application of this technology into the cockpit of modern fighters and for UAV applications (sensitivity to G forces, pre-heating etc..)

Component Selection and Sorting

Implementing a modern single board computer which can operate from -40°C up to 85°C requires to work right from the design phase. Kontron operates a careful component selection at this stage, in order to guarantee the appropriate yield at the finished product screening stage.

Full Screening

For rugged boards, Kontron implements a 100% units screening at temperature boundaries. This screening can be implemented with the final customer application software.

Kontron offers ruggedized products in the following product lines:

VME

VME is the most deployed standard in Defense, Kontron offers in 6U format 3 levels of ruggedization, conformant to VITA XX standard

• Look for products reference with WA, RA or RC in the order code – such as VMPC7-2RC-xxxxxxxx.
• VME rugged products by Kontron are:
  

  	SA/R-1	WA	RA/R-2	RC/R-3
  PowerEngine7	X	X	X	X
  VCE405	X	-	X	X
  PowerNode5	X	-	-	X
  PowerNode3	X	-	-	X
  PENTXM2	X	-	X	X
  PENTXM4	X	-	-	X

  

CompactPCI

High bandwidth, Ruggedness, and familiar computing paradigm have enabled CompactPCI boards to be deployed in everything from shelters to aircraft to ground vehicles.

• Look for products reference with R 1-3, WA, RA or RC in the order code – such as CP3210-RC745-010 or CP6001-R3
• CompactPCI rugged products by Kontron are:
  

  	SA/R-1	WA	RA/R-2	RC/R-3
  CP3210	-	-	-	X
  PowerEngineC7	-	-	-	X
  ITC-320	X	-
  CP6923	X	X	X	X
  CP6001	X	X	X	X

  

VPX

The VPX new standard (ANSI/VITA 46.0-2007) offers switch fabric support and harsh environment capabilities at the same time.

• VPX rugged products by Kontron are:

	SA/R-1	WA	RA/R-2	RC/R-3
VX3230	-	-	-	X
VX3020	X	-	-	X

ETX

Embedded modules provide a stable solution for even the toughest use.
• Fanless solution
• Small from factor and extended temperatures available
  

  	SA/R-1	WA	RA/R-2	RC/R-3
  nanoETXexpress-SP	-	X	X	-
  ETXexpress-PC	-	X	X	-
  ETXexpress-CD	-	X	-	-
  ETX-PM	-	X	-	-
  ETX-LX	-	X	-	-
  ETX-CD	-	X	-	-