WA: cheap SBC?

"Lewin A.R.W. Edwards" wrote:
> 
> >>Geode runs a lot cooler. We haven't encountered any situation where
> >>active cooling is necessary. Low-profile heatsinks are the norm.
> >
> > I am curious, how low profile?  I have seen Geode PC/104 boards.  Would
> > this fit inside a stack (0.435" clear space above board)?  I expect
> 
> The Advantech PCM-5820 meets that requirement. They use a heatsink that
> sits approx 0.28" proud of the top of the PCB. It's a little hard to get
> my micrometer in there to measure it accurately, but that's a reasonably
> close approximation. Anyway, it's considerably shorter than the PC/104
> connector. The tallest parts on this board are the DB9 serial connector,
> the RJ45 Ethernet jack, and the mini-DIN PS/2 connector. I can send you
> a photo to illustrate this if you want. The PC/104 connector is on the
> CPU (component) side of the board, and it is not a "through" connector.
> The reverse side of the board has CompactFlash and SODIMM SDRAM sockets.

I understand what you are saying.  So this board can *only* be used on
the bottom of a stack.  This may be more convenient for debugging our
board than one that has to be on top. 


> ICP's board uses a larger custom heatsink panel with a separate 486-size
> heatsin glued on top. e-valuetech (BCM) boards use an off-the-shelf
> heatsink that sits about 0.75" off the top of the PCB. You couldn't
> stack anything on top of these.

I am looking at an Acrosser CPU that they are selling for $104.  I find
it hard to believe that they sell them so cheaply.  Any experence with
Acrosser?  


> The vendor photos of these devices usually show them nude, so you can
> read the pretty numbers on the chips but you can't guess what heatsink
> will ship on the thing. I hate that. It makes it impossible to gauge
> what will fit where.

I know.  You are lucky if the data sheets give the full mechanical info
as well.

>>ICP's board uses a larger custom heatsink panel with a separate 486-size
>>heatsin glued on top. e-valuetech (BCM) boards use an off-the-shelf
>>heatsink that sits about 0.75" off the top of the PCB. You couldn't
> 
> I am looking at an Acrosser CPU that they are selling for $104.  I find
> it hard to believe that they sell them so cheaply.  Any experence with
> Acrosser?  

I eval'd the AR-B1551 a while ago, but I don't have an ongoing 
commercial relationship with them.

I read about that $104 board a while back, and vaguely considered making 
a product around it, but we never got as far as even ordering a sample. 
As I recall, that board is an obsolete item that they're using as a 
promotional tool. I don't recall where exactly I read this, so don't 
quote me on it, but the impression I got was that they geared up for 
some project that never materialized.

Hi, 
have a look at 
http://www.revely.com/AboutRMS101.htm
bief description:

Sharp LH79520 Processor
o ARM720T 77Mhz
o 32 Bit System on chip
� 8MB SDRAM
� 4 MB Flash Memory
� Integrated SVGA controller
o Display on standard monitor
o Up to 800 x 600 resolution
o Up to 32,768 colors
� Composite Video output capability
o NTSC and PAL formats (*)
� PS/2 Keyboard Compatible Port
� Multimedia Card (MMC) Slot
� RS232 Port
� Demo software included on CD
o Open source
o Develop using free GNU tools
price:199$

Regards,
Viron.


buddy.spaminator.smith@ieee.org.invalid wrote in message news:<buru0c$gk6$1@news-int2.gatech.edu>...
> Hi,
> 
> I'm about to start a new project, and am looking for an SBC to use for 
> prototyping. I need something with a VGA output and an ethernet interface.  
> A CF-type drive or HDD as well. I'd prefer a powerpc board, but it's not a 
> requirement. If anyone knows where I could acquire something like this 
> at a decent price (<$1k. maybe the $2-500 range), please let me know. 
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> --buddy

> http://www.revely.com/AboutRMS101.htm

The Revely is nice, but doesn't meet his requirements - no Ethernet,
and no CF or IDE interface. MMC/SD cards are not available in
capacities approaching that of CF.

Lewin A.R.W. Edwards <larwe@larwe.com> wrote:

> MMC/SD cards are not available in capacities approaching that of CF.

Depends on what you count as "approaching".  It's true CF are usually
cheaper for the same capacity, and they tend to be one or two
factor-of-two capacity steps ahead.  But that's not at all bad, given
the fact that an MMC/SD is only a tiny fraction of the physical volume
of a CF.

E.g., just today SanDisk is rolling out their 1GB SD card.  I have
serious trouble seeing how that would fail to be large enough for any
remotely reasonable embedded system ;-> 

-- 
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker@physik.rwth-aachen.de)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.

On Sun, 25 Jan 2004 14:52:35 -0500, Ralph Malph <noone@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>I am looking at an Acrosser CPU that they are selling for $104.  I find
>it hard to believe that they sell them so cheaply.  Any experence with
>Acrosser?  

We use the Acrosser B-1551 in our HMI product.  From a programming
point of view, its the same thing as the Advantech PCM-5820, and the
layout is basically the same.  So far, I have heard no complaints
about Acrosser.

We did decide to active cool the Geode -- we designed a mezzanine
board with a 45mm? fan that sits on top of the processor and pushes
some air, because this can go in a really tight can which then goes
into an enclosed panel which then goes into a factory.


-- 
Alex Pavloff - remove BLAH to email
Software Engineer, ESA Technology

>
> I'm about to start a new project, and am looking for an SBC to use for
> prototyping. I need something with a VGA output and an ethernet interface.
> A CF-type drive or HDD as well. I'd prefer a powerpc board, but it's not a
> requirement. If anyone knows where I could acquire something like this
> at a decent price (<$1k. maybe the $2-500 range), please let me know.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --buddy
>


Check out the Cogent CSB337 with the Atmel AT91RM9200 ARM920.
Should be about $500 and you can get both Linux and WinCE.

-- 
Best Regards
Ulf at atmel dot com
These comments are intended to be my own opinion and they
may, or may not be shared by my employer, Atmel Sweden.