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EPIC SBC uses less than seven Watts, offers flexible boot options

Sep 20, 2010 — by Eric Brown — from the LinuxDevices Archive — views

Eurotech announced a fanless, EPIC form-factor SBC based on Intel's extended-temperature Atom Z5xxP processor. Claimed to run on under seven Watts, the “Vector” is equipped with SSD (solid state disk), CompactFlash, SD, and SATA options, each of them bootable, and offers available touchscreen and S-Video interfaces and a bevy of other I/O, says the company.

The Vector single board computer (SBC) measures 6.5 x 4.5 inches (165 x 115mm), adopting the EPIC form factor. The SBC targets the broad embedded market, including transportation, industrial, medical, and defense applications, says Eurotech.


Eurotech Vector

Despite the announcement last week of the Intel Atom E6xx ("Tunnel Creek"), the original Atom Z5xx still has some life left in it. The Vector accepts the 1.1GHz Z510P or 1.6GHz Z530P, each of which has a slightly larger footprint than its original Z5xx counterpart, but offers extended temperature support in return.

The Vector is equipped with 500MB DDR2 SDRAM, upgradable to 2GB, and is available with an optional solid-state disk (SSD) available with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of storage, says Eurotech. A CompactFlash socket is supplied, but can be swapped out for an SD Card socket. Similarly, the Mini-PCI Express (PCIe) socket can be exchanged for an optional SATA controller. Any of these options are available for use as either memory storage or boot disks, says the company.

The Vector offers a gigabit Ethernet port, four USB 2.0 ports, and one USB 2.0 client port, says Eurotech. A configurable RS-232/485 serial port is provided, as is a second optional RS-232 port, says the company.

Additional I/O includes dual CAN 2.0 interfaces, an I2C interface, dual analog inputs, and 18 GPIO 8x keyboard scanning inputs, says Eurotech. Video is supported via VGA and LVDS interfaces, with the latter offered in either 18-bit or 24-bit versions, says the company. Dual display support also is said to be provided.

The board is optionally available with a 4/5/8-wire touchscreen interface and an S-Video output, says Eurotech. Audio support meanwhile features Intel HD audio, two-Watt speaker output, a mic input, and a line input. A battery backed real-time clock is said to be available along with optional TPM support.

Equipped with a seven to 30 VDC input, the Vector is claimed to draw less than seven Watts. A commercial temperature range version is available, as well as an industrial version that supports operating temperatures of -40 to 185 deg. F (-40 to 85 deg. C), says the company.

Operating system support is said to include Wind River Linux, Windows Embedded Standard, and Windows CE.

Stated Pete Dombrowski, Director of Engineering for Eurotech Inc., "The SBC design is targeted for customers who want to simply plug a single board into their design and go to market quickly. We have built a very flexible product through a range of I/O, boot, expansion, and operating system options."

Availability

No pricing or availability information was available for Eurotech's Vector, but it appears to be available now. More information, including a datasheet, may be found 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.



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