In Q4, 2004, Lippert will ship a PCI-104 SBC (single-board computer) that it calls “the smallest and fastest Linux computer today in x86 technology.” The “Cool RoadRunner 4” (CRR4) board is based on an Intel Pentium M “Dothan” 755 processor clocked up to 2GHz.

(Click for larger view of Cool RoadRunner 4)

The CRR4 follows the PCI-104 standard released in February by the PC/104 Consortium. PCI-104 is essentially identical to PC/104-Plus, but has only a PCI bus, rather than having both PCI and ISA buses.

The CRR4 supports the fastest chips in Intel's “Dothan” family, Lippert says, which are based on 90nm process technology and clock up to 2GHz. The Dothan chips include 2MB of L2 cache, and a 400MHz frontside bus.

The CRR4 also uses Intel's 855GME chipset, part of the “Centrino” family of chipsets aimed mainly toward laptops and other mobile devices. The 855GME offers UXGA resolution (1600 x 1200) at scan rates of 85MHz, and includes hardware scaling and 3D acceleration through an integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2 controller. The board includes a VGA port, as well as a dual channel 18-Bit LVDS interface for LCD modules.

The CRR4 offers six USB 2.0 ports and a gigabit Ethernet port. It supports up to 1GB of 333MHz DDRAM in a single on-board SO-DIMM socket. And ultra ATA 100 EIDE interface supports CompactFlash cards as well as hard drives. The board operates from a single 5VDC power source.

Lippert says it plans to offer the CRR4 with various CPU options, including some that will be passively cooled.

 
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