Kontron Exhibits Four Medical Computing Platforms With Dual-Core Technology

More performance per watt and reduced costs

Eching/Stuttgart, Germany, March 3, 2006 - Kontron introduces four medical computing platforms with Dual-Core processors at Medtec (Hall 6.0 / Stand 121): a mini-ITX motherboard, a 3U and a 6U CompactPCI board, as well as an ETXexpress module (meeting the PICMG COM.0 COM Express specification). Each Kontron board is equipped with the 2GHz Intel® CoreTM Duo T2500processor. Three platforms are based on the Mobile Intel® 945GM Express and ICH7 chipset; the 6U CompactPCI card is based on the Intel® E7520 and 6300ESB chipset. The Dual-Core platforms offer up to twice the performance of Intel® Pentium® M Boards at the same GHz clock speed and have only about 15% higher energy consumption. Together with the upcoming Virtualization Technology (VT), these processors will revolutionize the market for medical computer technology, making it possible to integrate two or more previously standalone applications into one system without interference between them. This will drastically reduce hardware costs in surgery, emergency and intensive care units. The first system designs for medical technology OEMs will be available in April.

“These new processors deliver a new level of performance”, says Norbert Hauser, Vice President of Marketing at Kontron AG, referring to the first benchmarks of the Intel® Pentium® M 756 processor (2.1 GHz) versus the Intel Core Duo processor (2.16 GHz): “An increase of floating point performance of over 96.5%, higher integer performance of over 89.3%, and double the 3D mark – these are performance increases that make Moore’s Law sound pessimistic”. And these measurements were made using just single-threaded software. If existing software is optimized to be multithreaded, even more dramatic increases in performance can be expected. For many applications that could not in the past be run on parallel computers due to prohibitively high costs, this performance explosion creates previously unimaginable possibilities. It will be possible to implement applications such as endoscope visualization with multiple cameras, together with a simultaneous video-conference with a specialist doctor plus PACS access and patient monitoring in one system with various operating systems when required, which drastically reduces hardware costs. “Overall, we expect that Dual-Core will become the technology of choice for high-end medical computing applications, even faster than the Intel® Pentium® M did two years ago”, concluded Mr. Hauser. Kontron will therefore introduce more than ten different medical computing platforms with these new Dual-Core processors to the market in 2006.

The first samples of the four new Kontron Dual-Core products can be ordered directly at Medtec.

Application areas for the new Dual-Core boards
Kontron’s new ETXexpress modules (COM Express PICMG COM.01 compatible) offer Dual-Core performance for customer-specific medical designs for both stationary and mobile equipment. Additional product information can be found at http://www.kontron-emea.com/pr/kopr0603en.pdf

The Kontron 3U CompactPCI CPU with Dual-Core processor is ideal for performance-hungry, high-availability and robust medical applications with little required space on land, water, or in the air. Additional product information on the board can be found at http://www.kontron-emea.com/pr/kopr0604en.pdf

The Kontron 6U CompactPCI board with IPMI brings higher CPU density, primarily in the high-end medical and image-processing sector or with CTs, helping to save space. Additional product information on the board can be found at http://www.kontron-emea.com/pr/kopr0605en.pdf

The Kontron mini-ITX board with Dual-Core processor is suitable for classic medical PCs but also for interactive surgery monitoring systems with two monitors for PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System) and PDMS (Patient Data Management System) or for endoscope monitoring. Its essential advantages over commercial boards are its long-term availability and lower power consumption. Additional product information on the board can be found at http://www.kontron-emea.com/pr/kopr0602en.pdf