4.2 Connector X2 (XTX
™
Extension)
congatec AG has chosen to replace the outdated ISA bus, currently found on ETX
®
modules X2 connector, with the latest technologies available in todays market. This
implementation is called XTX
™
. The XTX
™
extension is an enhancement of the highly
successful ETX
®
standard and provides consumers the ability to equip their embedded
applications with the latest technology while still utilizing the ETX
®
standard form factor.
The following subsystems can be found on connector X2.
4.2.1 LPC
As a part of the replacement to the no longer supported ISA bus, conga-X945/XA945
offers the LPC (Low Pin Count) bus through the use of Intel
®
82801GBM (ICH7M).
There are already many devices available for this Intel defined bus. The LPC bus
corresponds approximately to a serialized ISA bus yet with a significantly reduced
number of signals. Due to the software compatibility to the ISA bus, I/O extensions such
as additional serial ports can be easily implemented on an application specific
baseboard using this bus.
4.2.2 USB 2.0
The conga-X945/XA945 offers two additional USB ports, via the Intel
®
82801GBM
(ICH7M), that are connected to the X2 connector. These ports are both USB 1.1 and 2.0
compliant. For more information about how the USB host controllers are routed see
section 6.7.
4.2.3 Serial ATA
™
Two
Serial ATA150 connections are provided via the Intel
®
82801GBM (ICH7M). Serial
ATA is an enhancement of the parallel ATA therefore offering higher performance. As a
result of this enhancement the traditional restrictions of parallel ATA are overcome with
respect to speed and EMI.
Serial ATA starts with a transfer rate of 150 Mbytes/s and
can be expanded up to 600 Mbytes/s in order to accommodate future developments.
Serial ATA is completely protocol and software compatible to parallel ATA.
4.2.4 PCI Express
™
The conga-X945/XA945 offers 4 x1 PCI Express links via the Intel
®
82801GBM
(ICH7M), which can be configured to support PCI Express edge cards or ExpressCards.
Additionally, these links can be statically configured as 4 x1 or 1 x4. AC_SYNC and
AC_SDOUT can be used to switch PCI Express channels 0-3 between x1 and x4 mode.
If both signals are each pulled-up (using 1KΩ resistors) to 3.3V at the rising edge of
PWROK then x4 mode is enabled. x1 mode is used by default if these resistors are not
populated. The PCI Express interface is based on the
PCI Express Specification 1.0a.
4.2.5 ExpressCard
™
The conga-X945/XA945 supports the implementation of ExpressCards, which requires
the dedication of one USB port and one PCI Express lane for each ExpressCard used.
Copyright © 2006 congatec AG
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