Kontron Offers 3.5" Bundle for Industrial Image Processing

3.5" Pentium® M CPU board from Kontron is bundled with a high-speed frame grabber card from Imperx to provide a robust and reliable imaging platform

SAN DIEGO, CA-October 25, 2004, Kontron, a market leader in embedded computer technology, announces the availability of a high-performance imaging platform that bundles Kontron´s JRex-PM 3.5" Intel® Pentium® M-based CPU with the FrameLink-J-FLEX card from Imperx.

This extremely robust and reliable bundle is currently being used in US Navy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. By launching the embedded bundle, the two companies hope to expand beyond the military market. According to the two companies, this new bundle is ideal for use in industrial applications in the fields of QA, production automation, materials flow control and machine control. Applications in the security sector for vehicle recognition, human recognition, tunnel monitoring and optical navigation systems are only a few of the many potential uses for this bundle.

Each component of the bundle is currently available from its respective manufacturer or from local distributors. Imperx additionally offers full support with the purchase of Imperx CCD cameras.

3.5" JRex CPU board
Kontron´s 3.5" CPU board is equipped with a Pentium® M processor, part of Intel® CentrinoTM mobile technology, making it the fastest single-board computer of its class with a relatively low power consumption. The 1.6GHz Pentium® M processor has a 2.7GHz Pentium® 4 performance with a 1.2GHz Pentium® III power consumption (18-25 W). The JRex-PM single-board computer, with easily controllable heat dissipation and excellent EMC values, has thereby reached a new level of performance for embedded systems. In addition, JRex-PM offers the Intel® 855GM chipset, a 400MHz front-side bus, the fastest IDE via UDMA/100 and USB 2.0. With the DDR-RAM-DIMM socket with ECC support for up to 1 GB, standard desktop memory modules can be used. Intel® Extreme Graphics 2 has up to 32 MB of Video RAM (UMA) and DVO, LVDS and CRT support, besides other features. The JILI interface simplifies connection of different types of displays: JILI automatically recognizes the connected display and sets the required video parameters. All JRexes are delivered as "plug and work" boards to enable the crucial time to market to be shortened even further.

The JRex-PM 3.5" board with 1.1GHz or 1.6GHz Intel® Pentium® M CPU has the same interfaces in the same physical location as all other JRex boards have now and will have in the future: 2 x USB, LAN, CompactFlash, keyboard/mouse, VGA and COM1. This enables systems integrators and OEMs - for the first time ever - to develop scalable systems without having to modify housings or connectors.

Frame grabber
The high-speed FrameLink-JFLEX card from Imperx can be plugged and played on the JRex-PM CPU board from Kontron and is compatible with Digital Camera LinkTM. Apart from transfer of image data, all communication with the corresponding megapixel cameras is done via Digital Camera Link. FrameLink software includes a configuration utility, real-time image viewer and playback viewer. The configuration utility allows FrameLink to operate with any Camera Link compliant camera. FrameLink-JFLEX´s outstanding performance can be attributed to 256 MB of on-board memory, flow-through with scatter/gather DMA technology, a communication speed of up to 66 MHz and low-loss compression technology developed by Imperx. Up to two cameras can be physically connected via CameraLink interfaces which include bi-directional serial interfaces for camera configuration. Drivers and user-friendly software development kits are available for Windows 2000 and XP. All Imperx cameras are highly configurable via an easy to use Camera Configuration GUI. The software allows for easy adjustment of all relevant parameters, including Area of Interest, horizontal and vertical binning, shutter speed (1/40,000 s to over 10 s), long integration ( up to 10 seconds ), two-channel gain/offset, external triggering, gamma correction and noise correction.

Cameras
In principle, all of the available D

igital Camera Link-compatible solutions are possible choices. Imperx IPX Series cameras are well-suited for high-speed image processing systems: For VGA resolution, the IPX-VGA210 camera achieves 210 frames/s. Window technology enables the frame rate to be increased to 1,600 frames/s for a resolution of 228 x 164 pixels. The CCD sensors implemented by Kodak are also interesting. With them, cameras meet the well-known quality requirements of CCD chips, i.e., low noise and excellent dynamic range.

More information on JRex and JFLEXTM and an online forum can be found at www.j-rex.com.
About Kontron: A leading global embedded computer technology company, Kontron supplies a diversified customer base of OEMs, system integrators and application providers in the communications, automation, transportation, medical, military, aerospace, and test and measurement markets. The company helps its customers to considerably reduce their time-to-market and to gain a competitive advantage with products including high-performance open computer platforms and systems, single board computers, man-machine interfaces and mobile computers. Kontron employs more than 1,500 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 member of the Intel Communications Alliance. For additional information on Kontron, please visit:

For Further Information, Editors Contact:
Technical Information
Stephen Newbegin
Kontron America
Phone: 858-623-3040
Stephen.newbegin@kontron.com

Media Relations
Lisa Baker
Kontron America
Phone: 858-405-3010
Lisa.baker@kontron.com

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