Tegra Completes its Long Walk to the PC, Courtesy Kontron

[btarunr]

You could soon have NVIDIA Tegra 3 processors running entry-level PCs. COM (computer-on-module) and IPC (industrial PC) designer Kontron developed an NVIDIA Tegra 3 system board in the slim mini-ITX form-factor (170 mm x 170 mm), which is compatible with most ITX/ATX cases. The board has most common PC peripheral interfaces, and is fit to drive an entry-level PC. The KTT30/mITX from Kontron features an NVIDIA Tegra 3 SoC, with 4+1 ARM Cortex-A9 cores clocked at 900 MHz and GeForce ULP graphics. The GPU is fit to drive 1080p displays with H264 MPEG-4 encoding/decoding acceleration. Display outputs include HDMI 1.4a (up to 1920x1080 pixels), and LVDS 24-bit (up to 2048x1536 pixel @ 18bpp).

The Kontron KTT30/mITX packs 2 GB of DDR3L memory. For storage, it has an mSATA 3 Gb/s port, two SD card slots, and a bootable eMMC slot. Two mPCIe slots and a SIM card slot (for 3G HSDPA) handle on-board expansion. System interfaces include two RS232 (serial/COM), three USB 2.0. Apart from 3G HSDPA, the board supports gigabit Ethernet. For audio, there's 2-channel analog and multi-channel digital (S/PDIF) audio outputs. The board draws power from a 2-pin DC input. The board should be able to run most distributions of Linux for ARM (including Android and Chrome OS), and technically should also be able to run the upcoming Microsoft Windows 8 RT operating system.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Deleted member 3]

Picture shows 3 mPCIe slots.

Does Kontron actually claim it will be able to run Windows 8 RT or is it exactly as said "technically should"?

Also, pricing?

 

[EpicShweetness]

Alright awesome any Linux distro's out there for ARM, support a mouse and keyboard? Sign me up if they do!

 

[Frick]

Nano ITX please. They should have the expertise.

 

[TheLostSwede]

This is cooler and most likely a lot cheaper http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php

 

[XoR]

900MHz? are they mad?

 

[Frick]

This is cooler and most likely a lot cheaper http://www.hardkernel.com/renewal_2011/products/prdt_info.php

Feels like that has a different purpose. The Kontron board has SATA and mPCIe and so on, different capabilities. Kudos for the link though, very nice price on that one.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I'd guess the Kontron board will be $300 or something crazy like that, as they make industrial PC motherboards...

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I see IDE and maybe what i think is a floppy connection

 

[Deleted member 3]

I see IDE and maybe what i think is a floppy connection

Then we're not looking at the same picture.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Then we're not looking at the same picture.

^ I see one IDE, Maybe a possible floppy

 

[Deleted member 3]

http://www.techpowerup.com/img/12-07-13/55a.jpg

^ I see one IDE, Maybe a possible floppy

See previous response. Could be 44pin IDE, but no floppy. Look at the density.

 

[Frick]

Not even IDE, it has 44 pins and is too small I think.

The smaller one is LVDS i think.

 

[Deleted member 3]

Not even IDE, it has 44 pins and is too small I think.

The smaller one is LVDS i think.

You counted? If it is 44 pin it is probably IDE, for optical drives, CF or an ancient HD.

LVDS is probably right.

 

[Frick]

Isn't IDE 40 pins?

 

[Deleted member 3]

Isn't IDE 40 pins?

And another 4 pins for power. 2.5" disks use 44 pin connectors. Many thin clients and other embedded devices use 44pin to CF adapters.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Wouldn't it just have been easier to download the data sheet?
2x RS232 (1x 8wire RS232 port and 1x port which can be used either as cc-talk or 4wire RS232)
24 bit LVDS (up to 2048x1536 pixel @ 18bpp) and DSI (up to 1440x900 @ 18bpp)
Touch screen connector, Feature connector - 18x GPIOs, 3 MIPI connectors (1x DSI, 1x CSI,
1x either DSI oder CSI)

There you go, that's all the pin headers in the board.

 

[Frick]

Wouldn't it just have been easier to download the data sheet?
2x RS232 (1x 8wire RS232 port and 1x port which can be used either as cc-talk or 4wire RS232)
24 bit LVDS (up to 2048x1536 pixel @ 18bpp) and DSI (up to 1440x900 @ 18bpp)
Touch screen connector, Feature connector - 18x GPIOs, 3 MIPI connectors (1x DSI, 1x CSI,
1x either DSI oder CSI)

There you go, that's all the pin headers in the board.

I saw that as well but I have no idea what most of them are.

 

[Octavean]

I hope it's cheaper then any NVIDIA Tegra 3 based tablet

 

[INSTG8R]

Ouya?

 

[(FIH) The Don]

which are the msata slot?

 

[newtekie1]

Alright awesome any Linux distro's out there for ARM, support a mouse and keyboard? Sign me up if they do!

Yes, several, even Android supports keyboard and mouse.

900MHz? are they mad?

It is 4 cores running at 900MHz. ARM is a totally different beast, it doesn't need high clock speeds, and the OSes that run on it are very well optimized to run on lower clocked ARM processors.

 

[slybunda]

even nexus 7 has tegra 3 clocked higher than this. for a desktop part i was hoping it would be around 2ghz mark.

 

[Delta6326]

Would be sweet to put it in a touch screen box.

 

[faramir]

It is 4 cores running at 900MHz. ARM is a totally different beast, it doesn't need high clock speeds, and the OSes that run on it are very well optimized to run on lower clocked ARM processors.

Ugh ... alas, no. OS optimization is crappy at best (Android, for example, is very bloated) and usually boils down to compiler optimizations alone, plus the architecture is RISC which isn't the most efficient one (in performance per clock terms) to begin with. The only upside is low power consumption and high performance per watt, but this matters little on desktop once you're below passive cooling treshold. This board will perform along the lines of an imaginary quad core Celeron 300A which all of us used to run at 450 Mhz This is quite slow for most (= non-threaded) tasks nowadays.

It is an interesting product nevertheless and hopefully a sign of things to come. I have predicted something like this (but with a more powerful CPU such as the quad core Snapdragon which is suppsoed to run at 1.7 GHz and with much better GPU built-in) to emerge in the near future. If priced reasonably (as in: targeting your average mom&pop computer users rather than industrial users) it could sell very well ... if not some other similar product will skim the cream from being first to the non-x86 PC consumer market.