Press

Scalable development platform for the Intel® Atom™ processor provides maximum flexibility and a wide range of interfaces to support complex architecture designs

Poing, December 10 -- Semiconductor distribution specialist Silica, an Avnet Company (NYSE:AVT), has released its first board level development platform for the Intel® Atom™ processor Z5xx series and the Intel® EP80579 Integrated Processor Product Line. The platform, called “Megrez” has been developed in conjunction with Padova-based embedded solutions specialist M31.

The Megrez base board is a modular solution to support daughter cards featuring both the Intel Atom processors and Intel EP80579 Integrated Processors, giving developers the freedom to evaluate these processors without breaking the bank. It allows engineers to design their own base board, using the features and integrate the daughter cards for the Intel Atom processor (Mirach) and the Intel EP80579 Integrated Processor (Mizar) as separate modules.

“We are excited about the Intel® Atom™ processor Z5xx series and the opportunity in the embedded marketplace.  This new development tool from Silica will help customers to develop their embedded designs more rapidly,” said Massimo Dall’Occo, vice president Marketing at Silica, in a statement today.

Silica is targeting the platform at embedded engineers, system architects, hardware design, and software engineers in the medical, industrial, transportation, kiosk, security, test and measurement, defense, and instrumentation sectors. The kit comes ready to use, equipped with LCD display, PCI-Express graphic adapter, Power supplies and a USB pen drive containing Windows and Linux demo images.

“This is a great commercial off-the-shelf solution for customers looking to meet stringent time to market requirements and decrease development costs for their embedded applications,” added Dall’Occo. “Designers will benefit from the proven Intel® technology as well as development support provided by Silica’s factory-trained and certified field application engineers.

”The Megrez base board is available now exclusively from Silica for 1250 Euro. The Mirach and Mizar modules are priced between 185 and 260 Euros. More information on the development platform can be found at Silica's Megrez Website.

About Silica

SILICA, a division of Avnet Electronics Marketing EMEA (Europe, Middle-East, Africa), is a highly specialised semiconductor distributor. SILICA operates 37 branch offices throughout Europe and provides customers with a broad portfolio of semiconductor products from 23 leading vendors along with in-depth technical support and the full set of logistics and value added services. The company's Web site is located at www.silica.com.

SILICA PR Contact
Kerstin Kurth
Director Communications
Im Technologiepark 2-8
D-85586 Poing
Phone +49 (0)8121 77 7 340
Fax +49 (0)8121 777 4340
Email: kerstin.kurthsilica.com