Emerson (News - Alert) Network Power has extended its portfolio of rugged embedded single-board computers based on Intel (News - Alert) Core i7 network processors with the launch of a conduction cooled variant of its CPCI7203 3U CompactPCI (News - Alert) blade.

The rugged CPCI7203 has been designed for a wide range of high-performance tasks in harsh environments. Company officials said that it provides an excellent size, weight and power ratio for high bandwidth military/aerospace, first responder and rugged industrial applications.

Thanks to conduction cooling, Emerson Network Power (News - Alert) CPCI7203 rugged variant operates in extended temperatures of -40 to +85 degrees Celsius versus the zero to +55 degrees Celsius capability of the commercial grade board.

Moreover, the storage temperature range is also extended to -50 to +125 degrees Celsius. To withstand higher levels of sine and random vibration, shock and humidity than commercial standards, the CPCI7203 has been further ruggedized, said company officials.

The company has increased the memory capacity supporting the 2.0 GHz Intel Core i7 dual-core network processor on the CPCI7203, and the board now supports up to 8 GB soldered ECC DDR3 memory. Company officials said that the conduction cooled variant is now equipped with an optional 128 GB solid state hard drive. Plus, the trusted platform module (TPM) enhances data security and encryption capabilities.

The Emerson Network Power CPCI7203 supports the CompactPCI PlusIO specification (PICMG (News - Alert) 2.30) J2 pinouts for USB, SATA and PCI Express. Company officials said that connectivity includes SATA ports, one universal PCI and four PCI Express (2.5 Gbps) interfaces.

Additionally, an optional rear transition module offers a number of connectivity options. Company officials said that the Emerson Network Power CPCI7203 can host the baseboard management controller (BMC) or act as a peripheral management controller (PM) node.

A range of operating system and software options are supported by the Emerson Network Power CPCI7203. These includes Wind River VxWorks, Fedora 11 Linux, Microsoft Windows and Green Hills INTEGRITY.

Earlier in March, Emerson Network Power introduced Smart Solutions, a family of intelligent, integrated infrastructure systems for the data center.