Press Release

CompactPCI Conduction Cooling Rack for Extreme Environments

• For standard 3U boards with convection cooling in a CCA frame
• 3-slot backplane, PSU slot 9-36V, 35W
• System slot on the left, horizontal installation
• Outer dimensions 200 mm x 350 mm x 145 mm
• 4 MIL-C-38999 connectors
• -40 to +70°C operating temperature
• IP 65-specified

Embedded World, Nuremberg, April 9, 2009 – MEN presents a new safety-critical Embedded application – its first complete conduction cooled rack. This rack allows to use every 3U CompactPCI board designed for ventilated systems even in an environment which needs conductive cooling.

Robust, flexible and cost-effective

MEN Mikro Elektronik presents a completely new Rack concept with Conduction Cooling. This rack allows to use 3U CompactPCI boards - which by standard were designed for an operating temperature of -40 to +85°C with convection cooling - in a conduction-cooled environment. For this purpose MEN develops a special CCA frame for its single Europe CompactPCI boards which is specially adapted to the board in order to ensure appropriate cooling.

The first single-board computer MEN has adapted in this way is the F50C which is based on Freescale's MPC8548. The power-saving F14 to F18 boards (from Celeron M up to Core 2 Duo) of the 3U CompactPCI Intel Family are also suited for these frames.

The advantages of this Conduction Cooling concept are on the one hand the low costs, as no new design of a suitable board is necessary. Only the CCA frame is adapted to the respective board. On the other hand, this solution is extremely flexible. In addition, the whole surface of the 3U PCB can be populated, because the frame is built around the PCB and not on top of it. The housing's dimensions (20 cm x 35 cm x 14,5 cm) are especially adapted to the resulting 5HP height of the boards.

This extremely robust enclosure is compliant to IP65 and is hermetically sealed against impacts from outside, offers high vibration and shock resistance as well as special connector types such as MIL-C-38999. These connectors are alternatively wired to the front and/or the rear I/O of the boards inside the system. The system is designed for 40 Watt performance at -40 to +70°C. It is equipped with three CompactPCI slots for one CPU board with side card and one I/O board as well as a PSU slot with a H15 connector.

MEN Mikro Elektronik – Profile and Mission

Since its foundation in 1982 our company designs and manufactures failure-safe computer boards and systems for extreme environmental conditions in industrial and safety-critical embedded applications. Our mission is to provide innovative solutions while maximizing reliability and flexibility.

With 200 employees and subsidiaries in France and the USA we have an annual revenue of 28 million Euros with an export share of about 50%. Customized solutions make for more than half of our revenue. In addition the standard product range includes far more than 100 different computer boards with Intel Pentium and multi-core processors and PowerPC with the corresponding BIOS, BSP and driver software, manifold I/O boards and completely configured systems based on:

• ESMexpress and ESM Embedded System Modules
• 3U and 6U CompactPCI, CompactPCI Express and VMEbus
• PMC, XMC and M-Modules as system-independent mezzanine I/O standards

The consistent use of FPGA technology gives us high flexibility when configuring customized and standard products.

Our products are used worldwide as control, measuring, test or simulation computers in all kinds of embedded applications. These comprise extremely safety-critical markets such as railways, including buses and commercial vehicles, aerospace technology or the medical industry, but also mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, telecommunications and the automotive industry. Computer systems in such applications are in operation up to 24 hours every day and often need to be available for 10 years and longer. Ideally no failures must occur to avoid costly downtimes of machines or danger to human life.

We are certified to EN 9100:2003 (aerospace), ISO 9001:2000 (quality management) and ISO 14001:2005 (environmental management) in order to meet the severe quality requirements in critical applications and to offer our customers the highest quality in products and services while considering environmental protection and occupational safety on the basis of a recognized quality management system. We are also working on certification to IRIS (railway).

Our aim is to constantly improve and to provide the highest technology and innovation level. Our business ethics is determined by the principles of the United Nations' Global Compact Initiative (human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption).

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In addition, press documents may contain statements that are forward-looking. These statements are based on current expectations as of the date of a particular release. Actual results may differ materially from those projected because of a number of risks and uncertainties.