Datasound Laboratories Ltd. has made a five-year production commitment to its single-board computers (SBCs) based on 386SX processors, which include PC/104, ISA slot, and “Tiny Module” versions. The boards support embedded Linux, the company says, and are optionally available with a free custom “X-Linux” implementation.

(Click for larger version of the 386SX-based Mity Soc)

Long-term production commitments are commonplace among embedded board and component manufacturers. Five-year commitments have recently been announced by Arcom, ATI, VIA, and others.

According to Datasound, availability of 386-based boards through 2009 will help developers avoid the design overhead associated with migrating to needlessly powerful boards with non-legacy I/O ports.

Datasound's 386-based SBCs use the company's M6117D CPU, clocked at 40MHz. Variations include:

PC/104

• ICOP-6054VE — 16 lines of GPIO, 4 serial ports, Ethernet, and VGA (650mA power consumption)
• ICOP-6053 — (pictured at right) 2 serial ports, Disk-on-Chip, 4MB RAM and Ethernet (800mA)
• ICOP-6052V — 2 serial ports, Disk-on-Chip, CRT/LCD/VGA, 4MB RAM (700mA)
• ICOP-6050 — 2 serial ports, and Disk-on-Chip (500mA)

ISA slot cards

• ICOP-6025V — 4 serial ports, Disk-on-Chip, CRT/LCD, 4MB RAM, 16 lines of GPIO (830mA)
• ICOP-6023VE — 2 serial ports, Disk-on-Chip, CRT/LCD 4MB RAM, 16-bit GPIO, Ethernet (900mA)
• ICOP-6022 — (pictured at right) 2 serial ports, Disk-on-Chip (800mA +5V, 20mA +12V)
• ICOP6021 — 2 serial ports, Disk-on-Chip, MDC socket, 4MB RAM, 16-bit GPIO (500mA)

Tiny Modules

• Mity SoC — (pictured at top) 65mm x 45mm, ISA bus, 2/4MB RAM, Disk-on-Chip, 2 serial ports, 16 lines of GPIO (400mA)
• Mity Mite — (pictured at right) 80mm x 50mm, ISA bus, 2MB RAM, 350KB Flash, 1 serial port, Ethernet, 16-bit GPIO
• ICOP-6015/16 — 100 x 86mm, 4/8MB RAM, Disk-on-Chip, 2 serial ports, Ethernet, 16 lines GPIO (450mA)

The Datasound Labs boards are optionally available with customized versions of X-Linux, a distribution for small embedded systems. X-Linux is currently based on a 2.4.26 kernel. It includes syslinux, busybox, and glibc.

 
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