congatec, Kontron agree COM carrier board specification
Arch rivals congatec and Kontron have agreed to standardize the design schematics of computer on module (COM) evaluation carrier boards from both companies, and to publish most of these schematics in public design guides.
The goal is to improve design security through standardization, to reduce development costs, and to accelerate their time-to-market for new modular high-performance embedded and edge computing solutions based on the newly agreed COM-HPC standard for high performance embedded systems.
The deal also aims to provide supply security through dual sourcing strategies from the two German companies alongside the design guide developed by the COM-HPC standards group.
Global supply bottlenecks have drastically increased OEMs’ sensitivity over the last two years and this improves interoperability through joint carrier board design initiatives. congatec and Kontron will focus on plug & play capabilities so that Computer-on-Modules from either vendor can be used on any evaluation carrier board from either company to enable real multi-vendor COM and carrier strategies.
The initial focus of the cooperation between congatec and Kontron is the standardization of evaluation carrier boards for the COM-HPC Client and Server form factors, with further module standards such as COM Express and SMARC to follow. Customers will be able to use not only the design guides but also the carrier board layouts as best practice benchmarks for their own designs. As international threat scenarios have increased, the new standardized and interoperable evaluation carrier boards will follow highest cybersecurity requirements.
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“This cooperation represents a new level of standardization par excellence. Even with the different module specifications and official PICMG carrier board design guides, there are still only a few efforts to ensure real interoperability on the evaluation carrier board level. And up to the application level, for that matter. It is therefore very valuable that we will now tackle these challenges together to achieve ultimate application-ready interoperability”, explains Konrad Garhammer, COO and CTO at congatec.
“Kontron and congatec are both highly focused on the benefits and good service for their customers. Therefore, I am pleased we came to this standardization agreement,” said Michael Riegert, CEO Kontron Europe and COO IoT Europe, Executive Board Member at Kontron.
“In fact, our companies are experienced in this already, having worked closely together in the PICMG and SGET standardization committees and having played a significant role in shaping all current standards. Based on this experience, we are convinced that the carrier board standardization efforts will also be executed with mutual appreciation of the respective inputs.”
Both companies emphasize that the cooperation relates exclusively to the standardization of evaluation carrier boards and that module development will remain strictly separate, as this core business is highly competitive.
www.congatec.com; www.kontron.com
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