Portwell announced a “3.5-inch” embedded system board based on Intel's dual-core Atom D525 processor. The PEB-2771VG2A supports dual displays (VGA and LVDS), IDE or SATA hard drives, and dual gigabit Ethernet ports, according to the company.

Portwell's "3.5-inch" PEB-2771V2GA actually measures 5.75 x 4.0 inches and, like other boards of its type, is designed to match the dimensions of components such as 3.5-inch floppy disk drives. The board is similar to the PEB-2780VG2A Portwell released earlier this year, but where that device featured either the single-core Atom N450 or the dual-core Atom D510, the newer board is offered with the dual-core Atom D525 Intel announced in August.

Where the D510 is rated by Intel as having a TDP of 13 Watts, the D525 is said to use only 10 Watts. The PEB-2771V2GA also benefits from the processor's support for DDR3 memory, and Portwell says the board's single 200-pin DIMM slot accepts up to 4GB of it.

Persistent storage may be provided either by a Type I/II CompactFlash card, or by hard disk drives connected to the board's single IDE connector or dual SATA ports, the company adds.

Portwell's PEB-2771VG2A
(Click to enlarge)

Given that it is a board and not just a COM (computer on module), the PEB-2771VG2A sports real-world ports on its coastline (right), such as an RS232 port, a VGA output, two gigabit Ethernet ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. Meanwhile, pin headers on top of the board provide access to two additional RS232 ports and one RS232/485 port, audio, four more USB 2.0 ports, and dual PS/2 ports, according to Portwell.

According to Portwell, the PEB-2771VG2A also has an expansion interface, carrying a PCI Express x1 signal, for an optional daughterboard. The device also accepts an LVDS display via another pin header, the company says.

Features and specifications provided by Portwell for the PEB-2771VG2A include:

• Processor — 1.8GHz Atom D525
• Chipset — NM10
• Memory — accepts up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM via single SODIMM slot
• Expansion:
  • Type I/II CompactFlash slot
  • daughterboard connection with PCI Express x1 signaling
• Networking — 2 x gigabit Ethernet
• Other I/O:
  • 1 x IDE
  • 2 x SATA
  • VGA
  • LVDS (via header)
  • 2 x PS/2 (via header)
  • 6 x USB 2.0 (2 with Type A connectors; 4 via headers)
  • 3 x RS232 (one DB9 connector, 2 via headers)
  • 1 x RS232/422/485 (via header)
  • Audio — mic in and line out (headers)
• Power — 12VDC input
• Operating temperature — 32 to 140 deg. F (0 to 60 deg. C)
• Dimensions — 5.75 x 4.0 inches (146 x 105mm)

Further information

Portwell did not cite pricing, availability, or operating system support for the PEB-2771VG2A, but the device appears to be available now and should run typical x86 operating systems without problems. More information may be found on the company's website, here.

This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.