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Linux-friendly mini-ITX boards gain dual-DVI video expansion

Dec 4, 2007 — by Eric Brown — from the LinuxDevices Archive — 2 views

Liantec announced a new Linux-ready dual-display daughtercard for its mini-ITX systems. Adhering to the Taiwanese company's Tiny-Bus format, and based on Intel's DVDO interface, the TBM-16SDVOD offers dual-channel DVI video for digital signage, kiosks, point-of-sale (POS), game consoles, set-top boxes (STBs), and other… embedded multimedia applications.

(Click for larger view of TBM15SDVOD daughtercard)

Liantec's Tiny-Bus format enables the addition of 16x and 1x PCI-Express, AGP, and PCI expansion function cards. The 2.9 x 3.6-inch daughtercard spec is based on four high-density connectors. Currently, Liantec offers the Tiny-Bus interface on various mini-ITX boards, along with various Tiny-Bus daughtercards targeting graphics, storage, and networking applications.


Typical Tiny-Bus equipped mini-ITX board

The TBM-16SDVOD video module interfaces with the host board's PCI Express bus via SDVO (serial digital video out), a proprietary Intel technology introduced with G9xx chipsets. SDVO is apparently capable of interfacing between PCI Express buses and various kinds of video modules, including VGA, LVDS, S-/H-DTV, and so on. Currently available Liantec boards equipped with SDVO interfaces include the EmBoard ITX-6900, ITX-6945, and ITX-6965.

Specs for the three compatible EmBoards include:

  • Liantec ITX-6900:
    • Chipset — Intel 915GME
    • CPU — Pentium M / Celeron M
  • ITX-6945:
    • Chipset — Intel 945GME
    • CPU — Core2 Duo / Core Duo / Core-based Celeron M
  • ITX-6965:
    • Chipset - Intel GME965
    • CPU — Core2 Duo

Availability

Linantec did not offer pricing or availability information on the TBM-16SDVOD, but says the boards come with Linux or Windows CE preinstalled. Liantec also manufactures two other SDVO-based Tiny-Bus video extension modules: the TBM-16SDVOA DVI / HDTV and the TBM-16SDVOB Tiny-Bus DVI and Y/Pb/Pr HDTV. More information 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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