Advantech announced an industrial-grade Mini-ITX motherboard supporting AMD G-Series processors including the dual-core 1.65GHz T56N. The AIMB-223 board is equipped with up to 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, plus PCI and PCI Express expansion, four SATA III interfaces with RAID support, and the usual mix of I/O including gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, and serial connections.

Like the recently announced Ibase MI958 Mini-ITX board, the AIMB-223 supports AMD's Radeon-graphics enabled G-Series processors, including the top-of-the-line, dual-core 1.65GHz T56N (18W TDP). The Advantech board offers a different mix of alternative G-Series processors, however. It features  the dual-core T40E (1GHz; 6W TDP) or single-core T44R (1.2GHz, 9W TDP) for more power-constrained designs. An AMD A55E controller hub is also part of the package, says Advantech.

Advantech AIMB-223

The two boards offer very similar specs, but the Advantech board supports only 4GB of DDR3 memory instead of the Ibase's 8GB. Among other minor differences, the AIMB-223 offers an HDMI port in place of DVI-D, supplies two more internal serial connections, and adds an internal CompactFlash slot.

Thanks to the G-Series chips' built-in Radeon HD graphics, the AIMB-223 supports dual display capability using the board's coastline VGA and HDMI ports, as well as an internal 18-bit, single channel LVDS connector, says Ibase. Potential resolutions go as high as 2560 x 1600 pixels, the company adds.

AIMB-223 coastline view

Other coastline ports include dual gigabit Ethernet ports, four out of eight USB 2.0 ports, audio ports, as well as two out of six serial ports. Internal connections include four SATA III ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10, as well as GPIO, says Advantech. Also available are three internal expansion connectors for PCI, PCI Express, and Mini PCI Express, says the company.

Additional AIMB-223 features are said to include a watchdog timer, HD audio, and an operating range that extends from 32 to 140 deg. F. The board comes with both ATX and DC-in power support.

AIMB-223 block diagram
(Click to enlarge)

Advantech provides software for Linux, Windows 7, Windows XP, XP Embedded, and Windows CE. Drivers are said to include GPIO, SMBus, watchdog timer, hardware monitor, panel backlight on/off, and brightness control.

Features and specifications listed for the AIMB-233 include:

• Processor — AMD G-Series, dual-core T56N (1.65GHz; 18W TDP), dual-core T40E (1GHz; 6W TDP), single-core T44R (1.2GHz, 9W TDP)
• Chipset — AMD A55E
• Memory — up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM via 204-pin SODIMM
• Expansion:
  • 1 x Mini PCI Express slot
  • 1 x PCI Express x1 slot
  • 1 x PCI slot
• Networking — 2 x gigabit Ethernet
• Other I/O:
  • External:
    • 1 x VGA
    • 1 x HDMI
    • 2 x RS-232
    • 4 x USB 2.0
    • audio — mic in, line in, line out
  • Internal:
    • 1 x LVDS
    • 4 x USB 2.0
    • 4 x RS-232
    • 4 x SATA
    • CompactFlash
    • GPIO (8-bit)
• Power — AT/ATX; 12V DC input; DC-in jack; power consumption up to 47.57 W with T56N and 4GB RAM
• Operating temperature — 32 to 140 deg. F
• Dimensions — 6.7 x 6.7 inches; Mini-ITX

Availability

No pricing or availability information was provided for the AIMB-223. More information may be found at Advantech's AIMB-223 product page.

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