Kishan Jainandunsing
(February 2006)

In the past 6 months since the PICMG adopted the COM Express specification, several new suppliers have added COM Express modules to their product portfolio. These are Advantech, ADLink and iBase. All three are offering Basic form factor, Type 2 pin-out modules, based on the Intel Pentium M and Celeron M processor with Intel 915GM chipset. The addition of these new suppliers brings the total of COM Express suppliers to six. Previously, Kontron, RadiSys and PFU had introduced their product offerings, also in the Basic form factor with Type 2 pin-out and based on the same Intel processors and chipset.

Kontron markets its modules under the name ETXExpress. RadiSys markets theirs under the name Procelerant and PFU under the name Plug-N-Run. Advantech markets its COM Express modules under the name SOM-Express. ADLink markets theirs under the name ETXExpress and iBase simply refers to their COM Express modules as ET810.

This growth in suppliers is a good start for the infant standard and bodes well for OEMs as prices are expected to drop with competition heating up. Additional suppliers are expected to join the supplier base next year and OEM products based on COM Express modules are expected to start shipping next year as well.