A company selling computers in a CompactFlash card form-factor has added support for peripherals with serial interfaces, including Flash storage devices and CFIO cards for GSM/GPRS, GPS, Bluetooth, and data acquisition. C Data Solutions's Compact Flash Computer comes with uClinux, and targets rapid prototyping applications.

(Click for larger view of Compact Flash Computer)

C Data's Compact Flash Computer is based on a 66Mhz ColdFire SoC (system-on-chip) from Freescale, along with 32MB of SRAM and 8MB of Flash. It features a 16-bit CF expansion bus, and is housed in a Type II CompactFlash card enclosure.

C Data first unveiled its Compact Flash Computer in August of 2004, along with an application board consisting of 10 CompactFlash slots. It added a smaller 4-slot board in April (photo).

Previously, the Compact Flash Computer's uClinux OS included drivers for Ethernet and WiFi cards. In order to support a wider range of peripherals, C Data says it has added a serial I/O driver. In addition to supporting a wide variety of CompactFlash and CompactFlash I/O cards with serial interfaces, the new serial driver allows the Compact Flash Computer to interface wtih RS232 (unbalanced) and RS485 (balanced) serial devices, the company says.

C Data says its Compact Flash Computer has been used for rapid prototyping and conceptual proofs by several aerospace, defense, and consumer electronics companies. It offers design and engineering services for the product, and is willing to license the design to high-volume customers, it says.

 
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