single-board computer

hi all

i am on my way building some sort of "box" which should contain a 
single-board computer. i know that my question is very naive, but:

-what is the "state-of-the-art" type of single board computer if taking 
into account that:
	-it should serve as a "platform"
	-deal with some almost real-time activities (streaming of 	 a/d-data in 
the audio field)
	-run embedded Linux

i have found some examples of single-board "servers" on the web which 
seem promising to me. however it is very hard to find a price tag for 
that. and yes: price has some relevance to me...:-)

do you have any recommendations in this field?

thanks a lot!

michael

On Sat, 16 Sep 2006 09:47:04 +0200, jazzisnow <info@jazzisnow.com>
wrote:

>hi all
>
>i am on my way building some sort of "box" which should contain a 
>single-board computer. i know that my question is very naive, but:
>
>-what is the "state-of-the-art" type of single board computer if taking 
>into account that:
>	-it should serve as a "platform"
>	-deal with some almost real-time activities (streaming of 	 a/d-data in 
>the audio field)
>	-run embedded Linux
>
>i have found some examples of single-board "servers" on the web which 
>seem promising to me. however it is very hard to find a price tag for 
>that. and yes: price has some relevance to me...:-)
>
>do you have any recommendations in this field?

It would be most helpful if you could point to examples that are similar
to the SBC that you have in mind, as well as some that you have already
considered but have decided that, for whatever reason, they do not meet
your needs.

-- 
Rich Webb   Norfolk, VA

hi rich

thank you for responding. i must admit that i am not too far in 
evaluation yet...

one promising boeard i found is this:
http://www.axotec.com/uXpro.htm

but i am not able if this board can "keep-up" against other boards.

best regards

michael

Rich Webb wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Sep 2006 09:47:04 +0200, jazzisnow <info@jazzisnow.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> hi all
>>
>> i am on my way building some sort of "box" which should contain a 
>> single-board computer. i know that my question is very naive, but:
>>
>> -what is the "state-of-the-art" type of single board computer if taking 
>> into account that:
>> 	-it should serve as a "platform"
>> 	-deal with some almost real-time activities (streaming of 	 a/d-data in 
>> the audio field)
>> 	-run embedded Linux
>>
>> i have found some examples of single-board "servers" on the web which 
>> seem promising to me. however it is very hard to find a price tag for 
>> that. and yes: price has some relevance to me...:-)
>>
>> do you have any recommendations in this field?
> 
> It would be most helpful if you could point to examples that are similar
> to the SBC that you have in mind, as well as some that you have already
> considered but have decided that, for whatever reason, they do not meet
> your needs.
> 

On Sun, 17 Sep 2006 13:03:08 +0200, jazzisnow <info@jazzisnow.com>
wrote:

>hi rich
>
>thank you for responding. i must admit that i am not too far in 
>evaluation yet...
>
>one promising boeard i found is this:
>http://www.axotec.com/uXpro.htm
>
>but i am not able if this board can "keep-up" against other boards.

Take a look at http://www.emacinc.com/embeddedservers.htm. I've worked
with one of their smaller offerings in a couple of rugged products that
have shipped. EMAC has a pretty good track record.

Also check out http://www.ampro.com/index_interactive_GIF.asp. Ampro has
been around since the Dark Ages, knows what they're doing, and has a
solid reputation. FWIW, the first generation Ampro "Little Board" was a
cutting-edge (for the time) 4 MHz Z80 running CP/M.

-- 
Rich Webb   Norfolk, VA

jazzisnow wrote:
> hi all
>
> i am on my way building some sort of "box" which should contain a
> single-board computer. i know that my question is very naive, but:
>
> -what is the "state-of-the-art" type of single board computer if taking
> into account that:
> 	-it should serve as a "platform"
> 	-deal with some almost real-time activities (streaming of 	 a/d-data in
> the audio field)
> 	-run embedded Linux
>
> i have found some examples of single-board "servers" on the web which
> seem promising to me. however it is very hard to find a price tag for
> that. and yes: price has some relevance to me...:-)
>
> do you have any recommendations in this field?
>
> thanks a lot!

Care to share what you want the system to do?  I have seen real time
audio done on very low end processors since that was all they were
doing.  If you don't have any specifics on what the processor needs to
do other than "deal with..." it will be hard to suggest anything.

I really don't see how you can know that you want to run Linux unless
that is a customer requirement.  Selecting an OS (or no OS) is normally
a part of the design process after you know your requirements.
Requiring an OS like Linux up front adds significantly to the
requirements for processor speed and memory size.  If your project
really does not require an OS, you can likely get by with a much
smaller CPU and lower cost.

If you can lose the Linux requirement, you can likely get by with a SBC
with an Atmel SAM7 part.  They use DMA to move data between the IO
devices and memory.  But then you may be looking for something along
the lines of an embedded PC with rotating mass storage.  I just noticed
that you used the term "server".

BTW, what exactly does "platform" mean?  I have been seeing this term
tossed about for a number of years now and I don't understand it.  I
even see this in the FPGA world.  Anyone care to enlighten me?