Kontron moves VPX board production to Huntsville
Kontron has started US production of its rugged VX307H computing board at subsidiary Nextek in Huntsville, Alabama. At the same time, the product moves from build-to-order to build-to-stock, to shorten delivery times for US defence customers.
The VX307H is the first product in a broader expansion of Kontron’s VPX manufacturing in the US, according to a press release from the company. The VX3060 and VX30101 are planned to follow. With local production, customers can now choose a VX307H built in the USA, although the components are still sourced globally.
“Defense customers are asking for greater supply-chain resilience, faster availability and closer access to support,” said Stephanie Perdue, Director of Products North America at Kontron. “Bringing VX307H production to the U.S. directly addresses those needs while expanding our domestic VPX manufacturing capabilities.”
In Huntsville, Nextek handles the entire production chain, from PCB assembly to final assembly and test. The facility is certified to AS9100 and ISO 9001, is ITAR-registered and works to IPC workmanship standards.
“Our high-reliability manufacturing and testing capabilities are well suited to the demands of mission-critical defense electronics,” said Dan Meeks, President of Nextek.
The VX307H is a 3U VPX platform based on Intel’s Xeon D-2700/2800 processors, with up to 20 cores, up to 100 Gigabit Ethernet, PCIe Gen4 and a hardware root of trust. It is designed in accordance with the SOSA standard and is aimed at applications such as sensor fusion, command and control, autonomous systems and tactical 5G edge computing.
