Kontron’s fanless EN50155-certified “SR-TRACe-G40x” railway server and router runs a hardened, new hypervisor based on OpenWrt called SEC-Line on a Skylake or Apollo Lake CPU and offers 2x SATA, 2x GbE, LTE, WiFi, and GNSS.

Kontron unveiled an “edge data processing router/server gateway” for the rail industry based on 6th Gen Core or Apollo Lake that offers “data-center grade processing and networking to rolling stock.” The EN50155-certified multi-network SR-TRACe-G40x rail computer is promoted for its new, ultra-secure SEC-Line Open Platform hypervisor based on OpenWrt Linux.

SR-TRACe-G40x
(click image to enlarge)

The hardened SEC-Line hypervisor is not limited to rolling stock applications but is currently being made available only on Kontron railway and avionics computers. These include an earlier, Intel Atom-based, railway focused TRACe-LP1 LoRaWAN gateway and two avionics computers: a Bay Trail Atom based ACE Flight 1600 Gateway Router (AF1600) and Xeon-D based ACE Flight 4608 that we covered back in 2018.

SEC-Line supports any 64-bit, x86-compatible Linux distribution and/or full application stack as the principal OS and can secure deploy unmodified legacy applications and OSes in QEMU-based virtual machines (VMs) for simultaneous operation. The software includes an OpCenter console that “simplifies the remote management of large computer fleets from a single on-premises point of control,” says Kontron.

SEC-Line configuration running on SR-TRACe-G40x (left) and OpCenter architecture
(click images to enlarge)

OpCenter updates the encrypted firmware running on remote hardware with the latest security software and provides system level hardware health monitoring via a GUI. It also hides the complexity of low-level handling for wireless and wired networks, as well as routing between them, says the company.

SEC-Line augments OpenWrt’s routing, firewall, and other networking features with additional security features including OSSEC intrusion detection, AppArmor, and Hardware Root Of Trust with TPM. The software offers “measured” secure boot to enable OpCenter’s “remote attestation” feature for remotely detecting unwanted changes made to the software.

The SR-TRACe-G40x gives you a choice of a dual-core Core i7-6600U or i3-6100U processors from Intel’s 6th Gen Skylake-U family or an Apollo Lake era Atom E3940. RAM ranges from 8GB to 24GB, depending on the processor.

The system provides dual 2.5-inch SATA bays for up to 8TB combined storage. The default configuration is a single 32GB SLC SSD.

The SR-TRACe-G40x is equipped with 2x GbE ports via M12 connectors plus dual-band 802.11ac with enhanced security and a GNSS device that supports GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, and Galileo. You also get a 4G LTE Cat 6 modem with SIM slot with an option to add a second LTE modem and SIM. Other options include antennas, insulated DIO, and 2x insulated RS232/422/488 ports.

The 273 x 190 x 87mm computer offers IP50 or optional IP54 ingress protection and supports -40 to 55°C or optional 40 to 70°C operation compliant with various EN50155 classes. Additional EN50155 compliance is available for power features, and you get EN45545-2 compliance for fire protection.

 
Further information

The SR-TRACe-G40x is available at an undisclosed price. More information may be found in Kontron’s announcement and product page.

 
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