The Kontron MEC-PPC-AV1, available from Dedicated Systems Australia , is a low-cost 3U CompactPCI rugged COTS subsystem designed to meet requirements through its compact dimensions, low-power dissipation, real-time software and large I/O offering.

The Kontron MEC-PPC-AV1 is targeted towards the avionics market because of its ATR footprint dimensions, 28 VDC power supply, lightweight structure in aluminium, conduction cooled dissipation, MIL-STD-1553 links, MIL-C-38999 connectors and a low power consumption of less than 17W.

The Kontron MEC-PPC-AV1 hosts a Kontron 3U CompactPCI Single-Slot PowerEngineC7 Embedded Computer, a low-power dissipation and high performance processor board already embedded in major avionics programmes.

The Kontron PowerEngineC7 design is a result of the combined expertise of Kontron and a provider of airborne mission computers. The Kontron PowerEngineC7 is based on the PowerPC G3 750FX RISC CPU, which includes 512KB internal L2 cache, and the Marvel Discovery III MV64460 Integrated System Controller.

It offers an extensive range of standard functions and expansion options including: one processor clocked at 700MHz, onboard user memory of 512MB with ECC, two onboard asynchronous serial lines and two 10/100BASE−T Ethernet channels, 64MB of System Flash memory, 128MB of User Flash memory, 128KB of nvSRAM with real−time clock, a 32−bit CompactPCI bus and one 32−bit 33/66 MHz PMC socket. The PowerEngineC7 can be used both as a system slot or a peripheral slot processor board.

Kontron boards inside the MEC-PPC-AV1 allow for full control of the product life cycle, short lead time, optimized architecture and fast support. The boards also permit customizable interface configurations to suit application specific requirements.

The Kontron MEC comes as a turnkey system with preloaded VxWorks 6.2. Kontron’s VxWorks BSPs are all released according to WindRiver BSP coding and packaging rules and are certified by Wind River.

The Kontron MEC-PPC-AV1 products are covered by Kontron’s long term supply programme. This guarantees defence customers a multi-year supply of the product beyond its active life.