Kontron announces support for AMD Embedded G-Series APUs on three embedded platforms

Posted by John McHale
ECHING, Germany, 22 Jan. 2011. Parallel to AMD's (NYSE: AMD) launch of the AMD Embedded G-Series platform, Kontron announced that it will support the accelerated processing units (APUs) on three of the company's small form factor (SFF) embedded platforms. The new AMD Embedded G-Series platform integrates energy efficient processor cores and an advanced graphics processing unit (GPU) with support for DirectX 11 into a single APU.
Kontron is extending its small form factor portfolio of computer-on-modules, embedded motherboards, and single-board computers (SBCs) for high-performance multi-media content delivery applications.
The first available embedded Kontron product that will feature the AMD Embedded G-Series platform is a COM Express computer-on-module. This launch will be followed by a compact embedded motherboard and an ultra-small SBC.
With the support for OpenCL and Microsoft DirectCompute, parallel processing executed by the graphics core will speed up vector processing applications such as situational awareness and video surveillance required by the industrial automation, military, and medical markets.
"The new AMD Embedded G-Series platform extends our portfolio of small form factor embedded platforms for applications that require high graphics capabilities and low power consumption," says Dirk Finstel, chief technology officer at Kontron. "In addition to the kiosk market and professional gaming arena, the new capabilities of the AMD Embedded G-Series platform will enable even more applications in fields such as radar, sonar, and image recognition. This is an area where the advantages of the built-in GPU will result in considerable cost savings as opposed to comparable performance using a number of multicore processors. On top of this, we support OEMs with our cross platform middleware, Kontron Embedded Application Programming Interface (Kontron EAPI), that offers highly efficient hardware access and application migration to simplify the application development. This helps reduce OEMs research and development costs and time-to-market."
"Kontron is a leader in embedded computing systems and its three new platforms that are based on the new AMD Embedded G-Series platform are feature-rich and efficient in both size and power," says Richard Jaenicke, director, product marketing, AMD. "By implementing a high-performance graphics processing unit in our new AMD Embedded G-Series platform to bring a vivid visual experience, we expect that many of Kontron's customers will find new and exciting applications from Kontron's three new embedded platforms."
The AMD Embedded G-Series platform incorporates the APU plus a controller-hub designed specifically for the embedded market. Besides a single or dual core 64-bit x86 CPU based on new microarchitecture, the APU integrates a GPU, a Universal Video Decoder 3.0, memory and a PCI Express controller. With support for HDCP (1080p), MPEG-2, HD and DivX (MPEG-4) plus DirectX 11 and OpenGL 4.0 it features high-performance capabilities on a low power design. Dual independent displays are supported by a rich variety of interfaces, including DisplayPort, DVI and HDMI, as well as the embedded interfaces LVDS and VGA at a maximum resolution of 2560x1600 pixels. By supporting OpenCL and DirectCompute it enables developers to create highly dynamic multi-threaded data-parallel software applications for real-time pattern recognition in quality control, sonar or radar data analysis, video surveillance, or medical imaging applications like the detection of anomalies in 3D X-ray images.
For more information on Kontron COM Express computer-on-modules, visit:
http://www.kontron.com/products/computeronmodules/com+express/.
For more information on Kontron embedded motherboards, visit
http://www.kontron.com/products/boards+and+mezzanines/embedded+motherboards/.
For more information on Kontron single board computers, visit
http://www.kontron.com/products/boards+and+mezzanines/embedded+sbc/.