Shenzhen-based Embest Info & Tech has created an embeddable two-board sandwich that combines a tiny ARM9 daughtercard with a “PC/104-compliant” carrierboard. The EM104V1 obtains the bulk of its functionality from the tiny Mini2410-III CPU card, which in turn relies on a highly-integrated Samsung microcontroller.

(Click for larger view of the EM104V1 PC/104 sandwich)

According to Embest, the Mini2410-III CPU module (shown below) includes Samsung's S3C2410A microcontroller (see block diagram), which is based on an ARM920T core and MMU, and clocks up to 203 MHz. Also included on the CPU module are SDRAM, SRAM, NAND flash, and NOR flash chips, oscillators, and a large number of passive components.

The CPU module mainly contains the Samsung microcontroller and memory
The CPU module plugs onto the carrier board by means of a pair of high density, 140-pin board-to-board connectors, as illustrated below:

Key features and specifications of the resulting “PC/104-compliant” sandwich are listed as:

• Samsung S3C2410A microcontroller, clockable to 203 MHz
• 64MB SDRAM; 64MB NAND flash; 2MB NOR flash, 128KB SRAM
• LCD/TSP interface; supports STN or TFT LCD panels
• 2 x 10/100M Ethernet ports
• USB Host and USB Slave ports (one each)
• 3 x serial ports
• Audio in/out
• 2-channel SPI interface
• I2C/I2S bus
• 4-channel PWM signal output
• 4-channel ADC (precision up to 500KSPS/10bit)
• 2-channel CAN bus
• SD/MMC card interface
• 4 x 8 keyboard interface
• 40 digital I/O lines
• 8-pin JTAG port
• Reset button
• PC/104 and PC/104-Plus stacking connectors

Embest supports the EM104V1 sandwich with a Linux 2.6.14-based BSP (board support package). According to the company, the BSP supports ROM/CRAM/EXT2/FAT32/NFS/YAFFS filesystems, and YAFFS is used for the root file system. Drivers are available for the sandwich's Ethernet, USB Host, serial ports, SD/MMC, audio, I2C bus, SPI, ADC, and PWM functions.

The EM104V1 is available now, priced at $339 in single units, the company said.

Samsung's S3C2410A microcontroller has found its way into a number of Linux-based devices and reference designs, including the Neo1973 mobile phone.

---

 
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.