GE: Modular single board computers (SBCs)

Able to provide organizations the opportunity for regular technology refreshes – but without the time-intensive and expensive requalification, GE Intelligent Platforms’ family of modular single board computers (SBCs) are intelligent, embedded computing subsystems interconnected to provide high performance, high speed nodes, flexibility, easy upgradability, and cost-effectiveness for critical infrastructure applications.

Gretchen Edelbrock

Aug 7th, 2013

The SBCs also take advantage of the company’s expertise in COM Express technology.  A wide range of applications is served by the new family where the requirement is to embed a powerful computing capability within a system or subsystem.

This new family of modular SBCs can more easily be updated with less effort and at lower cost.  The SBCs achieve this by separating the computing core (processor, chipset and memory) on a COM Express module – from the carrier card (which typically contains system I/O ) on which the core is deployed. This allows the computing core to be simply and inexpensively upgraded. It also minimizes the risk to the critical infrastructure from obsolescence issues, and reduces the cost to re-qualify the complete assembly.   

The first product in the new VM601 family is the VM601P1 modular dual slot 6U VME64 SBC which features the QoriQ P1022 processor. Other family members will offer a choice of VIA Nano or Intel Core i7 processors. They are designed to offer customers maximum flexibility and cost-effectiveness, with the ability to choose precisely the right combination of processor performance, power dissipation and cost. Additional SBC form factors will be added to the modular SBC family over time.   