Parvus has announced a modular on-vehicle platform for data acquisition, video surveillance, networking, Internet access, GPS tracking, and video surveillance. Dubbed “Mobile Information Infrastructure” (M2i), the platform supports embedded Linux, among other OSes, and targets mass transit and other mobile… environments.

(Click here for larger image of M2i components)

Parvus's M2i architecture is implemented using the company's ruggedized Alpha components. The modular, configurable, Alpha components are based on the Parvus's PC/104 SBCs (single-board computers), which are powered by Intel ULV Celeron and AMD Elan processors. The devices are designed to withstand the shock, vibration, humidity, extreme temperatures (-25 to +70 degrees C), and power requirements typical of vehicle environments, according to the company.

According to Parvus, all of the Alpha components can be outfitted with a variety of communication and storage options, including 10/100Mbit and Gigabit Ethernet, USB 1.1 or 2.0, 802.11b/g wireless, GSM/GPRS cellular, Flash storage, and fixed or removable internal or USB-connected external hard drives.

Currently available Alpha family components that support embedded Linux as their embedded OSes include:

• AlphaDVR digital video recorder subsystem — up to 8 inputs of MPEG-4 or JPEG-2000 compression, or simple frame grabber.
• AlphaAVL Automatic Vehicle Location subsystem — 12-channel GPS receiver and tri-band cellular communication. Supports NMEA and binary protocols.
• AlphaVDS Vehicular Data Server subsystem — fanless, low power processor unit with isolated digital I/O, analog VGA out and AC97 audio.

6.5 inch EDU (Click image to enlarge)

Other components in Parvus's M2i architecture include the AlphaMAR Mobile Access Router, which implements a mobile IP network router supporting Cisco 3200 series mobile access router (MAR) technology, and a variety of Embedded Display Units (EDUs), which package a range of flat panels and support both analog VGA and LVDS video inputs.

In addition to Linux, Parvus's M2i Alpha components also support Windows XP Embedded and Windows CE, and QNX embedded OSes.

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