Accelent Systems has announced plans to make the board design of the company's new full-featured SA-1110/1111 Development Platform available for free download. The board includes an extensive set of system functions and is based on Intel's 200 MHz StrongARM SA-1110 processor. Accelent Systems designed the board to serve as a reference for customers developing a broad range of embedded products and… devices. Customers who purchase the SA1110/1111 Development Platform as an assembled and tested product receive extensive software that includes bootstrap loader functions, a full set of device drivers, and a specialized embedded Linux port called “acceLinux”.

Accelent Systems expects the Development Platform to help its customers shorten and simplify the process of rapidly developing feature rich, cost effective, and minimum power embedded devices based on Intel's SA-1110 StrongARM processor and SA-1111 companion chip. In order to support the widest possible range of OEM applications, the development board contains more onboard functions and interfaces than any single application is likely to require. These include:

• 200 MHz Intel SA-1110 StrongARM processor and SA-1111 companion chip
  
• PS2 keyboard interface
  
• 7 x 14 Matrix keypad interface
  
• Touch panel interface
  
• USB interface for Host and Function modes
  
• 10BaseT Ethernet interface (CS8900 based)
  
• Three RS-232 serial ports; one usable as IrDA at 115Kb/s or 4Mb/s
  
• Amplified stereo audio output
  
• PCMCIA interface
  
• JTAG and logic analyzer ports
  
• Two color LCD controllers: SA-1110 built-in; onboard Media-Q or Epson
  
• Size: 10.5 x 7.5 in.
  
• Power: 9-12V input; onboard power management

Additionally, a built-in expansion area allows adaptation to many types of displays, custom functions, or future add-ons.

Dr. Yung-Fu Chang, Accelent Systems CEO, says the Development Platform will become available in July and, at that time, the platform's computer board design will become available for free download in ORCAD and PDF format. A bill of materials (BOM) and basic user's guide will also be provided for download. Although the design of the SA-1110/1111 platform board will be free, the company will sell the fully assembled and tested SA-1110/1111 Development Platform, complete with ready-to-use boot loader software and embedded Linux operating system, for $2995. Accelent Systems also offers consulting and design services to assist customers in adapting the reference design (hardware and software) to specific product requirements.

According to Chang, Accelent Systems has been busy improving the StrongARM implementation of Linux and writing device drivers for the platform's extensive array of peripheral interfaces. “All enhancements to the Linux kernel and other GPL software will, of course, be released back under GPL,” says Chang.

 
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