Kontron ETX® miniBaseboard: First Extremely Compact ETX® 3.0 Baseboard

Everything You Need – One Small Package

San Diego (August 15, 2006)– Today, Kontron introduced the Kontron ETX® miniBaseboard, an extremely compact ETX baseboard designed to support all the advanced features of new ETX 3.0-compliant solutions – all within a mere 130 mm x 155 mm footprint. This latest introduction to the ETX® family provides embedded designers with an off-the-self compact baseboard, enabling the end product to have an even faster time to market and stay within the target project cost.

The Kontron ETX miniBaseboard serves as a universal development platform for ETX 3.0 modules and is completely backward compatible with all ETX predecessors. All of the state-of-the-art interfaces onboard these new compact baseboards are dedicated; therefore accelerating application testing on the target platform with freely scalable processor performance. The result is a significant reduction of both the time and expense in bringing the application to life.

OEM customers who do not require additional special features can use the Kontron ETX miniBaseboard as a standard product for their end applications. As with all of Kontron’s ETX products, the benefits of the Kontron ETX miniBaseboard include long-term availability, robust construction, function-tested design, and being highly future-proof – all thanks to ETX 3.0 compliance.

At 130 mm x 155 mm, the new, RoHS-compliant Kontron ETX miniBaseboard is slightly larger than the ETX modules (95 x 125 mm) it pairs with. Thus, the Kontron ETX miniBaseboard can be integrated as an extremely compact baseboard in almost any embedded application, simply and easily.

The integrated communication interfaces onboard the Kontron ETX miniBaseboard are: 1x 32 bit PCMCIA slot, 4x USB, 1x 32 bit PCI slot, 4 serial interfaces, and 2x Ethernet interfaces with 10/100/1000 and 10/100 Mb. A CompactFlash card slot and two IDE interfaces also are available in addition to all of the traditionally offered ETX features.

The company anticipates offering sample Kontron ETX miniBaseboard units by early September with prices starting at $234 in small quantities. Make plans now to view the new Kontron ETX miniBaseboard and all of the latest Computer-On-Module products that will be on display in Kontron’s booth (#501) at the upcoming Embedded Systems Conference in Boston, MA – September 26-27.

About ETX 3.0
Compared to earlier specifications, ETX 3.0 offers 2x Serial ATA with no change to the pins for the ETX plug. Kontron and the members of the ETX Industrial Group (www.etx-ig.org) support the new ETX 3.0 specification and are committed to keeping ETX viable until at least 2010, offering a reliable and pure computer-on-module form factor for embedded solutions. Additional modules based on multi-core processors and others from Intel®, AMD®, and VIA® will be introduced to the market during the course of this year. A copy of the ETX 3.0 specification is available for download online at that ETX Industrial Group website (www.etx-ig.org) and from your local Kontron office.

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About Kontron:

A global leader in embedded computer technology and mobile rugged solutions, Kontron supplies a diversified customer base of OEMs, system integrators, and application providers in the: automation, test and measurement, communications, medical, gaming and entertainment, military, aerospace, transportation, and energy markets. The company helps its customers considerably reduce their time-to-market and gain a competitive advantage with products including: high-performance open computer platforms and systems, single board computers, human-machine interfaces, and mobile rugged computers and displays. Kontron employs more than 2,300 people worldwide and has manufacturing facilities in Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific. The company is listed on the German TecDAX 30 stock exchange under the symbol "KBC". Kontron is a Premier member in the Intel ® Communications Alliance which means earliest access to leading-edge Intel technologies and privileged engineering support. For additional information on Kontron, please visit www.kontron.com.


Editor Contact
Richard Pugnier
Manager, Marketing Communications
Kontron America
858.623.3006
richard.pugnier@us.kontron.com

Product and Technical Contact
Christine Van De Graaf
Product Marketing Manager, Embedded Modules
Kontron America
510.438.7250
christine.vandegraaf@us.kontron.com