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X86 SBCs run Linux

Sep 27, 2008 — by Eric Brown — from the LinuxDevices Archive — 3 views

Sanyan is shipping an Intel-based ATX motherboard and an AMD-based single-board computer (SBC), both of which run Linux. The T601 ATX board has a Core 2 Duo clocked to 1.6GHz, and the T502 SBC offers an AMD Geode LX clocked to 500MHz, says the company.

(Click for larger view of Sanyan's T601 ATX board)

Sanyan is primarily known as a vendor of networked video surveillance systems, such as the recently released NDVR (Networked DVR) system, which is built around its SL521 video encoder. The new SBC and ATX board, however, appear to have a wider list of target applications.

T601

The ATX-format T601 is designed for gaming, digital signage, point-of-sale (POS), ATM, medical imaging, multimedia kiosks, and industrial automation, says Sanyan. The board is equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo LGA775 dual-core processor clocked to 1.6GHz, with a 1066MHz FSB. It offers two SODIMM sockets for up to 8GB of 800MHz DDR2 RAM.

With its Intel Q965 chipset, which includes Intel's GMA3000 graphics engine, the T601 can support CRT resolutions of up to 2048 x 1536, says the company. An onboard PCI-X16 slot is available for 3D graphics expansion, and the board is also said to support AC97/HD audio.

The T601 offers dual gigabit Ethernet ports, six USB 2.0 ports, a parallel port, and two serial ports, with an option to add four more. For expansion and storage, Sanyan offers PCI and Mini-PCI expansion buses, two SATA interfaces, and one UDMA EIDE interface.

T502

The lower priced, more power efficient T502 SBC is aimed at systems that “require fanless, diskless, lower power” operation, says Sanyan. Specific applications are said to include thin clients, POS, networked-attached storage (NAS), and H.264 video encoding and decoding.


Sanyan's T502 SBC
(Click to enlarge)

The T502 is built around AMD's CS5536 chipset and Geode LX800 processor clocked to 500Mhz. Its single SODIMM supports 400Mhz DDR configurations between 128MB and 1GB. It also supports NAND or CompactFlash, and offers an LPC Boot ROM, says the company. Display and media capabilities are more modest than the T601, with the system offering analog VGA output and AC97 audio. Audio connections include 16-bit, 48KHz stereo out port, as well as headphone and mic connections.


T502 block diagram
(Click to enlarge)

The SBC offers a 10/100 Ethernet port and four USB 2.0 ports, as well as a 44-pin IDE interface, and it offers support for a 2.5-inch hard drive and optical storage. Measuring only 5.5 x 5.0 inches (140 x 127mm), the board is said to operate from 32 to 158 degrees F (0 to 70 deg. C).

A Linux-compatible development SDK

Sanyan offers a single software development kit (SDK) for both the T601 and T502 boards. The SDK supports “a full range of popular embedded and desktop operating systems, including a full Linux 2.6 kernel-based distribution, Windows Embedded CE 6.0, and Windows XP Embedded SP2,” says the company. The SDK is said to include a board support package (BSP) with a bootable OS image, drivers, and documentation.

The Linux SDK is said to include a Linux 2.6 kernel, root-file system, and a GNU toolchain (GCC, BINUTILS, and Glibc). There is also a cross compiler, a GDB debugger (Insight), and Qemu emulation.

Availability

The T601 and T502 are sampling now along with their common SDK, with production runs occurring over the next three months, says Sanyan. Pricing was not available.


 
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.



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