JRex-IBOX - Kontron's Mini-IPC with up to 1.8 GHz Intel® Pentium® M now also fanless

Passive cooling design increases MTBF and opens new markets

Eching, Germany, February 22, 2006: No larger than a car radio, tough enough for industry, and with a choice of processing power – the JRex-IBOX, now with Intel® Pentium M processors up to 1.8 GHz has many interesting features. But one thing has been missing up to now: it was not available in a fanless version. So now it has been provided with a passive cooling concept, including a CPU heatpipe and external cooling bodies shielded from the housing – to date, available almost nowhere – which is enough for even the 1.8 GHz Intel Pentium M. Thus, the MTBF is increased by a factor of five, and, at the same time, access is gained to markets where “fanless” is an absolute necessity: pharmaceuticals, clean rooms, foodstuffs, medical, sleep laboratories, and environments where the air has a high concentration of particulates are just some of the potential areas of use. The cost for this fanless design is only slightly higher, so the new version of the JRex-IBOX will be even more in demand than the already successful design with a fan, which Kontron will also continue to offer for more cost-sensitive applications.

Packed into a housing that measures a mere 228 mm x 59 mm x 148 mm (W x H x D) are processors scalable as needed up to 1.8 GHz Intel Pentium M, a passively cooled AT power supply for 24 V DC or 110/240 V AC, an extensive set of standard interfaces, and a PCI-based JFLEX slot for expansion assemblies to satisfy your application-specific I/O requirements. The choice of processors for the mini IPCs, which can be mounted on top-hat rails or the wall, ranges from the cost-saving 600 MHz VIA Eden to the energy-saving high-end 1.8 GHz Intel Pentium M processor. Optional expansion assemblies from Kontron and Kontron partners, which sit wireless and vibration-free in the PCI slot, cover a wide variety of application scenarios.

The JRex IBOX is specifically designed for industrial use; it is robustly equipped and intended to be maintenance-free during its life on the factory floor or in similarly rugged environments. Due to its limited size, there is also room for the JRex IBOX in more cramped environments. Typical applications for the IPCs are in the areas of field busses, processor control, firewalls, human-machine interfaces, or embedded applications. Software support is offered for Windows XP, XP Embedded, Linux, and Embedded Linux.

The JRex IBOX is modularly constructed in all of its components and can be configured and ordered by users in accordance with their needs. The basic variants of the compact IPC are defined by the types of processor used. Customers can choose from Intel® Pentium® M Celeron 600 MHz and 1.8 GHz, VIA Eden 600 MHz, Intel ULV Celeron® 400 MHz, and Intel LV Celeron 733 MHz. All the CPU assemblies are fanless and passively cooled. Depending on customer requirements and the processor and chipset chosen, between 256 MB and 1 GB of RAM is available, and implemented with low-cost standard SDRAM-DIMM Desktop Memory modules.

Every JRex IBOX offers two USB 2.0, LAN 10/100, COM1, PS/2, LPT, and VGA as standard interfaces. Unless the customer requests otherwise, the interfaces for each model are located in the same place on the front plate. Either front-side accessible CompactFlash (between 128 MB and 2 GB) or an internal, shock-resistant hard drive with more space (between 20 GB and 60 GB) are available as storage devices.

Wide variety of expansion options
With PCI-based JFLEX expansion assemblies, Kontron has adapted the JRex IBOX I/Os for any use. The JFLEX communication variant adds two LAN ports, two USB 2.0 ports and one firewire port. Kontron has provided the multimedia component with a DVI or TV output, AC97 SPDIF sound and, also, a firewire interface. The MultiCOM expansion, as the name suggests, adds four COM ports, 32GPIO and a second LPT interface. An additional assembly accepts common miniPCI I/O modules. Expansion cards with Profibus and CAN switches round out the offer. Because the JFlex specifications are open, third-party I/O modules can be used or can be developed by customers for specific applications. Several I/O cards from Kontron’s certified I/O partners are already on the market, including a framegrabber card and an industry-grade WLAN card.

Customer-specific configurations
Kontron will not only implement the desired expansions, but will also adapt the entire JRex IBOX to meet customer requests. The options range from housing color or lettering, to the design of alternative housing variants and the relocation of interfaces, to the development of customer-specific I/O assemblies. Of course, every JRex IBOX, in any configuration, is a finished, certified, complete solution. Current pricing for the JRex IBOXes as individual items starts at 690 Euro (six hundred ninety).