Congatet and Kontron, two heavyweight German embedded and edge computing companies, have entered into a collaboration agreement that will standardize design schematics for COM-HPC evaluation boards and publish most of them in publicly available design guidelines to improve design safety and reduce non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs for original equipment manufacturers. Accelerate time to market for new modular high-performance embedded and edge computing solutions based on the COM-HPC® standard.

To address customer challenges, the two German companies, which were originally competitors, not only worked together to promote standardization, but also improved supply security through a dual sourcing strategy. Over the past two years, global Oems have generally experienced supply bottlenecks. The collaboration will combine German design and engineering expertise to improve interoperability and meet market demands for supply chain security through a joint carrier design program. Therefore, Congatet and Kontron will focus in particular on plug-and-play capabilities so that each company’s computer module (COM) can be applied to either company’s evaluation board, enabling a true computer module (COM) and carrier multi-vendor strategy.

The initial focus of the collaboration between Congatet and Kontron is to standardize the size evaluation boards for COM-HPC® Client and Server specifications, followed by further development of module standards such as COM Express® and

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SMARC™. Customers can use not only the design guidelines, but also the carrier layout as a best practice benchmark for their own design. As international disputes intensify, new standardized and interoperable evaluation boards will adhere to the highest cybersecurity requirements.

Konrad Garhammer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer of Congatet, explained: “This collaboration represents a new level of standardization of excellence. Until then, even though there are different module specifications and official PICMG carrier design guidelines, a little effort is needed to ensure that the evaluation carrier can truly be used with each other. In addition, at the application level, we will work together to address these challenges to achieve the ultimate application-level interoperability, which is very valuable.”

Michael Riegert, CEO of Kontron Europe and COO of IoT (Internet of Things) Europe, and member of Kontron’s Executive Board, said: “Providing customers with technological advantages and good service is a shared vision of Congatet and Kontron, and I am pleased to have reached this standardization agreement. Both companies have extensive experience in this area, having worked closely together in the PICMG and SGET standardization committees, which have been instrumental in developing all current standards. We believe that based on these experiences, the standardization of the carrier board will also proceed smoothly.”

Both companies stressed that the collaboration involves only the standardization of the evaluation board, while the fiercely competitive core business of module development will be strictly separate.