Kishan Jainandunsing
(April 2006)

ESC West, April 2006, San Francisco – This month's ESC West was a strong show of support for the COM Express standard with two new entrants - AAEON and E-Value. The total number of manufacturers demonstrating their modules was impressive. These included, ADLink, Advantech, iBase, Lippert, Kontron and RadiSys, next to the two new entrants.

Some companies have started to use the PICMG COM Express logo to promote their own proprietary modules as COM Express modules, to try to get some leverage from the standard's momentum. An example is Digital Logic of Switzerland, which promotes its smartModuleExpress modules with the PICMG COM Express logo in its marketing collateral. OEMs need to be aware that such products do not conform to the standard.

On the whole the COM Express manufacturers on the floor were upbeat about their revenue prospects with COM Express products. And the increasing number of suppliers should bode well for OEMs, who will be able to benefit further from a large supplier base and dropping prices, while they can be confident about their decisions to incorporate COM Express into their product design strategy.