Alliance aims to expand I/O connectivity options for COM Express specification

According to the organisations, this will pave the way for broader and more rapid deployment of advanced processing technologies, such as Freescale's QorIQ AMP products, including the T4240 processor. The T4240 device integrates a number of hardware accelerators, with 12 dual threaded, 64bit Power Architecture cores, providing 24 threads to address high end data plane processing applications. Dual threaded efficiency, improved DMIPs per thread and higher frequency are said to deliver four times the performance gain and more than twice the power efficiency gain over Freescale's previous generation device – the QorIQ P4080 device. Advanced capabilities allow for intelligent sharing and duplication of resources between threads and a larger amount of on die cache per core. "We have a proven track record in setting standards in the Computer on Modules market and a long standing relationship with Emerson Network Power in a number of standard's bodies," noted Kontron's chief technology officer, Dirk Finstel, pictured. "It was a natural fit to work with Emerson Network Power and Freescale to provide the market alternatives on the popular COM Express form factor. Freescale's presence in aerospace and defence, networking and telecom markets provides greater opportunity for the compatible COM Express modules." Brett Butler, vice president and general manager for Freescale's Networking Processor Division, said: "The collaboration of Freescale, Emerson Network Power and Kontron has proven to be extremely beneficial in developing this pin out for the popular COM Express standard. We recognised that customers wanted alternative architectures on this form factor and the collaboration was able to bring this to the market quickly." Shlomo Pri-Tal, chief technology officer of Emerson Network Power's Embedded Computing business, added: "While we are pleased with the initial definition and acceptance of a pin out for COM Express that we defined with Freescale, we recognise that he newer generation of processors from Freescale provides an opportunity to create more functionality, flexibility and quicker time to market. Working with Kontron and Freescale made this new definition come together quickly."