A special customer event and a successful showing at G2E Asia 2008 make Atronic a winner in Asia.

The invitation-only pre-show event held at the MGM Grand Macau included casino directors and slot managers from some of Asia’s key casino operators. Members from the gaming industry joined GTECH’s Gaming Solutions Senior Vice President and Atronic CEO, Gerhard Burda, and other Atronic executives for an informational and get-to-know-you evening. Mr. Burda provided guests with an update on Atronic activities following the acquisition of the company by GTECH.

Atronic also exhibited on its own for the first time at G2E Asia 2008 at Macau’s Venetian Casino, unlike in previous years where Atronic shared a booth with Asian distributor RGB. During the show, Atronic welcomed many visitors from all over the world. Under the banner of ‘Gaming Solutions for Asia,’ Atronic showcased new products specifically developed for the Asian market such as the new look tournament concept of Dragonboat™ and the new 5-level jackpot link Fishing for Jackpots™.

Both products were true show highlights and garnished excellent feedback from customers. Dragonboat™ tournaments were held during both days of the show, ending in daily grand finals and the winners walking away with great prizes.

On the systems side, qpon cash™ was launched and presented on the e²™ cabinet along with Dragonboat™. Additionally, chip cash™ was displayed on the Harmony™ Slant Top. Other products on display included King Kong Cash, Roaring Tiger™ and Deal or no Deal™ - The Experience, plus new core games specifically themed for the Asian market.

Atronic has set the standard for slot machines in Latin America with the launch of its e²™ cabinet at the June SAGSE 2008 in Panama.  The exciting design and 19” dual screens of e²™ attracted many visitors to the Atronic booth making SAGSE 2008 another successful show for the company.

“SAGSE Panama is certainly an important event for Atronic given our strong presence within casinos in Panama City,” said Atronic CEO Gerhard Burda. This year we launched our new e²™ cabinet in the Latin American market with the Asian-themed Roaring Tiger™, a 4-level mystery progressive link, and several newly-released games from the Atronic game library.”

Additionally, Atronic exhibited its Mystery Magic™ mystery jackpot, which has proven to be very popular in this region. Also performing well for Atronic in Latin America are the multi-level progressives King Kong Cash and CASH FEVER™, further reinforcing Atronic´s leadership position in the linked gaming sector.

The Atronic booth was busy throughout the show with visitors from all over Latin America, particularly from Central America, Venezuela and the Caribbean. 

Exhibiting for the first time on its own stand at the G2E Asia exhibition in Macao Casino Technology showed a wide range of innovative titles, featuring exciting lovely graphics and proven mathematical models for the different player types.

“We are progressing with GLI approval for the Macau market at the moment with a series of titles that we believe will be perfectly suited to the tastes of the Asian players,” commented Casino Technology’s Sales Director, Sonia Nikolova, at the G2E Asia show.
“We were quite happy to see our products right on target for Macau during the show. As a result all the GLI-approved games will be launched at LT Games casino at Macau strip at the beginning of July. In the meanwhile our game design team are working continuously on developing new game themes so that we can meet the new business year in autumn with an extended slot mix for the Asian-Pacific market.” Steve Surch, Group Director of International Market Development, concluded: “G2E Macau was the next step for us proving that Casino Technology is a world-recognised brand in the gaming industry able to offer high performing game models and best solutions ensuring strong revenues to the operators at any specific market.”

An indication of Casino Technology’s commitment to the Asian market was its ability to secure a seat alongside some of the region’s slot industry big boys at the G2E Asia 2008 forum Sales Solutions: The Slot Vendors’ Round Table.

The company was presented by its Vice President Rossi McKee, who sat alongside representatives from Octavian International, Bally Technologies Inc., WMS International, Aristocrat Technologies and IGT Asia. Speaking at the forum Miss McKee, said: “What’s always been important for us is that in the game design we do develop games for specific markets. Our experience has shown that you can have international versions of games – ones that can be successful across the board – but specifics also really have to be taken into consideration when you develop products for certain territories. That is why our approach especially for the Asian market is to develop a specific library of games taking into consideration a number of factors, including the demographics of casino players.”

The credit card sized nanoETXexpress Computer-on-Module form factor (84 mm x 55 mm) for developing ultra mobile mini-devices based on x86 processors in 45nm technology now has its own dedicated website. The specification and carrier board design guidelines can be downloaded at www.nanoetxexpress.com.

The new dedicated website for the nanoETXexpress form factor, which has been designed as the logical extension to the COM Express™ specification, has the following objectives:
•    Update the PICMG® COM Express™ specification to better address the needs of ultra mobile, handheld applications
•    Key information portal providing all relevant information on the new, open COM Express™ COM.0 Type 1 compatible Computer-on-Module standard – nanoETXexpress.
•    As a manufacturer-independent website, it will incorporate all nanoETXexpress solutions from all manufacturers, thereby underlining the openness of the new form factor. It will also be the main source for documentation on the evolution of the specification. Developers can receive all the latest updates by subscribing to the news alert system that will be implemented soon.
•    Developers of mobile x86 devices are highly recommended to review the information provided on this site as a means of assisting them with the new challenges they face in creating systems. The website offers valuable information on, for example, handling more concentrated heat sources, building SMART Battery Management Systems and integrating various displays with standard software when the screens only offer, for example, 800 x 400 pixels. The nanoETXexpress knowledge base (currently in development) will answer these questions and more.

By utilizing the latest web technologies, nanoETXexpress experts will be able to quickly respond to customers’ questions with precise answers that offer long-term solutions. By providing a knowledge base containing all the relevant information required for designing mobile devices with COMs, hardware and software developers will have a real-time online information resource as well as a community of nanoETXexpress users and designers.

In addition to online content, Kontron (the founding member of the COM-IG and inventor of the nanoETXexpress form factor) also offers comprehensive seminars and company-specific training on developing carrier boards. This program is now being expanded to address the needs of developers of mobile handheld devices.

Eching, Germany, June 25, 2008 - Kontron extends its line of embedded mini-ITX motherboards with a new, ultra low power variant - the high quality Kontron KTUS15/miTX embedded motherboard based on the Intel® Atom™ processor with up to 1.6 GHz and the highly integrated Intel® System Controller Hub US15W.

With a combined thermal design power of less than 5 Watts for the processor and chipset the Kontron KTUS15/mITX motherboard is the ideal choice for solar/battery powered mobile, in-vehicle or stationary applications that require low power consumption, excellent electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and a simple, rugged cooling concept. The smallest ATX compliant footprint of only 170 mm x 170 mm, in combination with a board height of only two USB stacks (20 mm) gives system developers the freedom to design extremely slim and, as required, fully closed and highly protected systems.

The space saving processor and highly integrated system controller hub on the Kontron KTUS15/mITX leave enough room for installing up to 32 GB CF-media parallel to the motherboard, enabling the development of maintenance-free systems without fault-sensitive, rotating non-volatile media. Designed for optimal compatibility and high reliability, the Kontron KTUS15/mITX embedded motherboard offers numerous high quality features such as the network controller from Intel® for hassle-free network communications. Other quality enhancing details include a comprehensive set of interfaces, including two SDIO sockets that enable peripherals such as RFID or laser scanners, card readers, keyboard, keypad and mouse, printers and WLAN or GPRS communication networks to be connected directly to the motherboard. The flexible 2 x PCIe x1 and 1 x PCI slots thereby remain free for application specific extensions. This flexibility speeds time to market for system designs. Moreover, the integrated Intel® Trusted Platform Module (Intel® TPM 1.2) and the wide range power supply (5 V - 25 V DV) options further simplify system design for a vast range of embedded markets, such as POS/POI, kiosk, medical (i.e. ultrasound), multimedia, rugged tablets and industrial automation.

"It gives us great pleasure to launch this new mini-ITX board using the Intel® Atom™ processor said Ulrich Gehrmann, CEO of Kontron Kontron has vast experience in offering embedded platforms using Intel® architecture, and we believe the Intel® Atom™ processor will open many new market opportunities in areas that demand low power and scalability within the embedded Intel® architecture roadmap.

Thanks to its extremely low power consumption, the Intel® Atom™ processor enables the development of extremely slim and passively cooled energy-sensitive embedded applications that require the full feature set offered by mini-ITX motherboards, said Joe Jensen, general manager for the Embedded Computing Division at Intel® Corporation. Kontron's implementation of the Intel® Atom™ processor on ATX compliant embedded motherboards will give developers an ultra-low power variant.

Despite its extremely low power requirements, the Kontron KTUS15/mITX motherboard features impressive processing performance while offering up to 7 years availability with the 1.1 GHz or 1.6 GHz Intel® Atom™ processors for long lifespan product platform designs that demand excellent reliability and performance. Kontron's rigorous testing and quality control measures reduce the potential of board failures and the need for system servicing. With a high-speed digital logic motherboard design using a 12-layer stacking PCB, Kontron ensures signal integrity, reduces radiation, improves signal quality and aids in the decoupling of the power bus, resulting in high quality electromagnetic compatibility and superior motherboard quality and performance for the Kontron KTUS15/mITX.

Furthermore, Hyper-Threading Technology and Intel® Virtualization Technology improve system performance in the latest multi-threading and dual OS applications. Via the Intel® System Controller Hub US15W, Kontron's latest mini-ITX embedded motherboard addresses up to 1 GByte of DDR2-RAM. The integrated graphics engine, with 2D/3D acceleration and directX 9, not only supports dual independent displays, but also boasts hardware supported WMV9, H264.A and MPEG2 decoding, which dramatically reduces the load on the CPU when playing HD-videos. Displays can be connected via the on-board CRT (1280 x 1024) and dual channel LVDS (1366 x 768) interfaces as well as optional DVI or HDMI ports. 2 x PCIe x1 and 1 x PCI slots are available for application specific expansion cards. Mass storage media are easily connected via 2 x Serial ATA 150/300 and 1 x ATA100 interfaces. There is also an on-board flash socket for CF type II media currently up to 32 GBytes (and above 32GBytes as they become available).

The Kontron KTUS15/mITX embedded motherboard connects to networks via a 10/100/1000 network controller from Intel®. External embedded peripherals can be directly connected via 8 x USB 2.0, 2 x RS232 (up to 4 x RS232 if desired), 1 x bi-directional LPT as well as a PS/2 interface, without the need for expansion cards. AC97 compliant HD audio rounds off the feature set.

For OEMs that want to get products utilizing the new Intel® Atom™ processor to market quickly without impacting their internal resources, Kontron offers custom systems design, pre-production, manufacturing and fulfillment services utilizing Kontron's new KTUS15/mITX and Kontron's system development and manufacturing expertise.

The Kontron KTUS15/mITX embedded motherboard solution with low total cost of ownership offers various hardware monitoring functions through Kontron's API (Application Programming Interface) software. The Kontron KTUS15/mITX supports Windows XP (Windows Embedded Enterprise), Vista, Windows CE (Windows Embedded Standard) and Linux. Samples are available now.