EK9 EM9 / MPC8548 COM

Embedded System Modules are complete computers on a module. A final application consists either of a stand-alone ESM™, an ESM™ with an application-specific carrier card and/or an ESM™ with additionally plugged PCI-104 modules. The EK9 is a starter kit that allows evaluation of the functions of the EM9 ESM™. The kit consists of the CPU module, an FPGA with additional I/O functions, the carrier card, memory, PSU, various cables, and an adapter for mounting a PCI-104 module. The EK9 provides versatile mounting options and can also be installed in a standard PC. After evaluation, the design overhead for each application is limited to I/O. Depending on the application and quantity it may be necessary to develop a simple carrier card, choose PCI-based standard components, load additional I/O functions into the FPGA, write software drivers for those additional functions, or design a housing. The EM9 is controlled by a 1.33-GHz MPC8548 integrated PowerPC® processor. It comes with fast soldered DDR2 RAM for data and NAND Flash for program storage. EM9 provides front-panel access for three Gigabit Ethernet and one COM interface via four RJ45 connectors. Additional functionality can be realized in an FPGA for the needs of the individual application - with the corresponding connectors on a customized carrier board. The functionality of the FPGA is dynamically loaded by the application software. Standard I/O functions already implemented in the FPGA comprise graphics, IDE, GPIO and additional UARTs. The physical interfaces are accessible on the carrier board which is included in the kit. Separate SA-Adapters™ are necessary to access some of the UARTs. The ATX-compatible carrier board provides the mechanical platform, the power supply, a USB 2.0 interface and the I/O access for the FPGA functions. It comes with one ESM™ slot and three PCI slots, which allow the use of standard extension cards in the PC.