For Single Print Only For Single Print Only www.smallformfactors.com www.pc104online.com

Volume 12 • Number 4

COLUMNS FEATURES 8 Small Form Factor SIG SPECIAL: The lowdown on low power Modules, mapping, and more By Colin McCracken 16 The art of just enough By Don Dingee 10 PC/104 Consortium Expressing the standard 17 10 low-power processors worth watching By Dr. Paul Haris By Don Dingee 12 Focus on Form Factors: Catalyst Module 18 Roundup: Atom-based boards, systems, and tools Maximum performance using minimal power By Don Dingee By Haritha Bandla 14 European Technology 20 The ‘next big thing’ is small: Industrial PCs tackle dusty environments Expanding Atom’s PCI Express lanes By Hermann Strass By Steve Moore, PLX Technology 50 Editor’s Insight 28 Tide of malware threats turning against the network Mini-notebooks are certain to drive NextGen of devices SFF technologies By Adrian Turner, Mocana By Chris A. Ciufo APPLICATION: Not so routine instrumentation DEPARTMENTS 32 Small systems help curb risky driving For By PeterSingle Ellegaard, DriveCam Print Only 40-43 Editor’s Choice Products By Don Dingee 34 Innovation and technology bring performance to 44-49 New Products instrumentation in small packages By Robin DiPerna By Brett Burger, National Instruments 38 PC/104 controls photon beams, acquires data for critical research EVENTS By David Fastenau, Diamond Systems ESC Boston October 26-30 • Boston, MA www.cmp-egevents.com/web/escb E-LETTER Fall: www.smallformfactors.com/eletter  Evolving the next generation of PC/104 technology On the cover: By Jim Blazer and Matthias Huber, PC/104 Consortium A little sunshine goes a long way with the Solio (www.solio.com) low-power universal hybrid charger, which uses solar energy to Technical Committee power portable gadgets such as cell phones, MP3 players, digital  Pico-sized platform ushers in new era for I/O cameras, and GPS devices. By Colin McCracken, SFF-SIG, and John Lin, VIA Technologies Inset photo: Eurotech’s Catalyst Module runs the processor 3 W. For more technical details on this small form factor module, see page 12. WEB RESOURCES Subscribe to the magazine or E-letter at: Published by: OpenSystems www.opensystems-publishing.com/subscriptions Publishing™ Industry news: © 2008 OpenSystems Media/OpenSystems Publishing © 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors Read: www.smallformfactors.com/news All registered brands and trademarks in PC/104 and Small Form Factors are property of their respective owners. Submit: www.opensystems-publishing.com/news/submit Submit new products at: 4 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors www.opensystems-publishing.com/np

For Single Print Only OpenSystems Media/OpenSystems Publishing Advertising/Business Office Regional Sales Managers 30233 Jefferson Avenue Ernest Godsey St. Clair Shores, MI 48082 Central and Mountain States n Tel: 586-415-6500 Fax: 586-415-4882 [email protected] A n Op e n S y s t e m s Pu b l i c a t i o n Vice President Marketing & Sales Barbara Quinlan Patrick Hopper Midwest/Southwest Military & Aerospace Group [email protected] [email protected] Business Manager Denis Seger n DSP-FPGA.com/E-letter Karen Layman Southern n DSP-FPGA.com Resource Guide [email protected] n Military Embedded Systems/E-letter n Sydele Starr Military Embedded Systems Resource Guide Sales Group n PC/104 and Small Form Factors/E-letter Dennis Doyle Northern California [email protected] n PC/104 and Small Form Factors Resource Guide Senior Account Manager n VME and Critical Systems/E-letter Ron Taylor [email protected] n VME and Critical Systems Resource Guide Tom Varcie East Coast/Mid Atlantic Senior Account Manager [email protected] Group Editorial Director Chris Ciufo [email protected] [email protected] Contributing Editor Don Dingee Doug Cordier International Sales [email protected] Account Manager Dan Aronovic [email protected] Account Manager – Israel Senior Associate Editor Jennifer Hesse [email protected] Andrea Stabile [email protected] Senior Editor (columns) Terri Thorson Advertising/Marketing Coordinator Sam Fan [email protected] [email protected] Account Manager – Associate Editor Sharon Schnakenburg Christine Long [email protected] Assistant Editor Robin DiPerna E-marketing Manager New Products Editor Cliff Witte [email protected] European Representative Hermann Strass [email protected] Reprints and PDFs Senior Web Developer Konrad Witte Nan Lamade: 800-259-0470 • [email protected] Web Content Specialist Matt Avella Creative Director Steph Sweet ADVERTISER INFORMATION Art Director David Diomede Circulation/Office Manager Phyllis Thompson Page Advertiser/Ad Title [email protected] 37 ACCES I/O Products, Inc. – Boldly go where no system has gone n yst m 47 Advantech Corporation – Reliability is built-in OpenSystemsi h ng™ Media/OpenSystems Publishing 43 Aprotek, Inc. – PC/104 modems Editorial/Production office: 36 Axiomtek – Innovations for the embedded world 16872 E. Ave. of the Fountains, Ste 203, Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 18 congatec – Highscore for COM Express For Tel: 480-967-5581Single n Fax: 480-837-6466 Print Only 22 Connect Tech Inc. – Whatever you need, we have the solution Website: www.opensystems-publishing.com 2 Diamond Systems Corporation – 4 things you’ll love Publishers John Black, Michael Hopper, Wayne Kristoff 41 DIGITAL-LOGIC AG – New standard for stackable PCI Express bus Vice President Editorial Rosemary Kristoff 23 EMAC, Inc. – System on Module 9 Eurotech Inc. – Eurotech ISIS Communications Group 31 Excalibur Systems, Inc. – Ready for the unexpected 35 Fastwel Co. Ltd. – PC/104-Plus Editorial Director Joe Pavlat 3 Intel – Join our community of bright people Managing Editor Anne Fisher 7 Jacyl Technology Inc. – The Mission Senior Editor (columns) Terri Thorson 25 Kontron – Engineering beyond low power Technology Editor Curt Schwaderer 45 LiPPERT Embedded Computers – Resilient and powerful European Representative Hermann Strass Senior Designer Joann Toth 39 Logic Supply – Compact, fanless, solid 5 Micro/sys, Inc. – Dreaming of embedded super powers 30 MPL AG – MAGBES Embedded and Test & Analysis Group 40 Radicom Research, Inc. – PC/104 modem Editorial Director Jerry Gipper 17 RAF Electronic Hardware – Your electronic hardware source Editorial Director Don Dingee 26-27 RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. – HighRel PC/104 ISA, PCI & PCIe Senior Associate Editor Jennifer Hesse 51 RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. – Rugged, reliable, mission-ready European Representative Hermann Strass 43 SCIDYNE – PC/104 peripherals 21 Sensoray Co., Inc. – 4 channels of uncompressed video ISSN Print 1096-9764, ISSN Online 1550-0373. Publication Agreement Number: 40048627 48 servo Halbeck GmbH – POSYS motion controllers PC/104 and Small Form Factors is published five times a year by OpenSystems Media/OpenSystems Publishing LLC, 30233 Jefferson Ave., St. Clair Shores, MI 48082. Subscriptions are free upon request to 42 StackableUSB.org – Stretching to make your embedded USB persons interested in PC/104 and other small form factor single board computer technology. For others 49 Technologic Systems – 7" touch panel computer inside the US and , subscriptions are $35/year. For 1st class delivery outside the US and Canada, subscriptions are $50/year (advance payment in US funds required). Canada return address: WDS, 15 Toronto MicroElectronics, Inc. – PC/104-P3 Station A, PO Box 54, Windsor, ON N9A 615 29 Toronto MicroElectronics, Inc. – Peripherals POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PC104 and Small Form Factors 33 Toronto MicroElectronics, Inc. – DVR301 16872 E. Ave. of the Fountains, Ste 203, Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 19 Tri-M Systems Inc. – PC/104 FlexTainer 46 Tri-M Systems Inc. – Intel Pentium M 745 24 VersaLogic Corp. – All the features you need 13 VIA Technologies, Inc. – Pico-ITXe 11 WDL Systems – The power inside tomorrow’s technology 52 WinSystems, Inc. – -40°C to +85°C operation

6 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors For Single Print Only Modules, mapping, and more

With the latest low-power chipsets on Besides COM form factors, SFF-SIG legacy interfaces. SFF-SIG is develop- the market now, the Small Form Factor members are starting to address rugged ing legacy-friendly specifications with Special Interest Group (SFF-SIG) has a peripherals. Some OEMs need small, a mixture of high-speed and easy inter- spate of new form factor standards under removable probes, sensors, and storage face buses on expansion connectors. It’s development to take full advantage of the devices. In harsh and industrial environ- not realistic to expect the ISA bus to be I/O and bus interfaces. Because many ments, these peripherals should have around forever, but the near-term future aspects are involved in designing modular retaining clips, as consumer-grade USB looks bright based on off-the-shelf bridge architectures, consideration must be given dongles are inadequate. End users – equip- chips and FPGA cores. After that, a com- regarding how to offer expansion while ment operators and maintenance tech- bination of Serial Peripheral Interface keeping control over cost and power. nicians – need to remove and exchange (SPI) and I2C will cover most of the low- these peripherals in the communications, bandwidth control, communications, and Enabling Computer-On-Modules (COMs) medical, process monitoring, and sampling requirements. The important to hit the mainstream requires two broad sensor markets. The MiniBlade specifica- point is not to abruptly cut off ISA bus, efforts. First, module interoperability tion has been drafted and is now under serial ports, and other legacy interfaces must be extended significantly. It’s easy review by its incubator group. just because tier 1 chipset vendors no to understand why suppliers resist com- longer integrate them. moditization, but some common ground must be reached so that boards from mul- “The best hope To enable low-cost UART and Super I/O tiple vendors can plug-and-play. Carrier devices to be used in a manner that per- board design guides as well as new self- for longevity mits board interchangeability, SFF-SIG powering (self-sufficient) COM standards has launched a legacy firmware incubator can ease the pain. Forinvolves supporting Singlegroup to identify a solution for bringing Print Only the Low Pin Count (LPC) bus off-board. Second, a new wave of COM form factors the upcoming 5 GHz LPC was never intended to be taken off is inevitable for several reasons. The the CPU board, so it’s no wonder that a latest low-power chipsets have buses and differential pair signals mechanism for automatically initializing I/O that don’t map well to existing stan- external ICs does not exist today. dards. Poor mapping results in unused connector pins, space inefficiency, higher like PCI Express Gen 2 SFF-SIG’s membership is growing costs, and signals that can’t come off the steadily, with nearly 20 members repre- board in a standard way. In addition, the and USB 3.0.” senting Asia, , and North America best hope for longevity involves sup- bringing their low-power expertise to the porting the upcoming 5 GHz differential table. Vendors and OEMs interested in pair signals like PCI Express Gen 2 and Another area SFF-SIG members are ad- contributing to the aforementioned top- USB 3.0. Standards developed as few as dressing is secondary/external graphics. ics or to SFF-SIG evolution in general five to eight years ago did not anticipate High-end signage and gaming applica- should consider joining. Check in with the signal integrity needs for higher-speed tions have been deployed with commer- us right here to keep up with the latest signals. New connectors must be selected cial PCI Express x16 cards. For the rest developments. separately to meet the signal speed, of the market that must build with power low cost, and rugged requirements in supplies smaller than 500 W, SFF-SIG is Small Form Factor SIG today’s market. working with graphics chip vendors to 408-480-7900 supply long life-cycle x1 and x4 chips. [email protected] SFF-SIG members are working on several Every x1 lane corresponds to significant COM form factors that address these issues power draw, so SFF-SIG is seeking effi- www.sff-sig.org and are optimized for current and next- ciency. In the future, cards based on the generation chips, such as Intel’s Atom and SUMIT interface will offer low-profile, VIA’s Nano processors and their corre- low-power solutions for dual-headed sponding chipsets. Some of the form factors video applications. will even extend beyond the architec- ture. Visit the SFF-SIG website to learn Finally, system OEMs and integrators more about the COM incubator groups. continue to demand serial ports and other

8 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors For Single Print Only Expressing the standard

In the beginning, most processor chip the PCI Express bus. The resultant stack- if desired. Do all solutions require the full manufacturers focused on increasing able PCI Express connector provides four bandwidth the connector provides? The computational power for the desktop x1 links and a x16 link that can be used answer is no, but having the option gives market. As the world became more as two x4, two x8, or two SDVO links. OEMs more flexibility. mobile, chip manufacturers first slimmed Unique signaling automatically detects down desktop processors for the stacking direction and video card type, A vast array of PCI Express chips has hit market, then eventually moved to opti- if a video add-on module is being used. the market already, and the number is mizing power-to-performance ratios by The bus also offers power management, increasing every day. These chips utilize designing processors from the ground SMBus, and additional high-speed differ- anything from PCI Express x1 links to up. Handheld mobile computers – PDAs, ential lines. Ground pins surrounding dif- x16 links. For those PCI devices that have smart phones, appliances, and the like – ferential pairs and power rails embedded not yet migrated, PCI Express-to-PCI also began to accelerate in use. Today, in the connector ensure maximum power bridges can not only make use of those non-x86 as well as x86 architectures com- delivery for the stack and additional technologies but also help increase the pete for this valuable market space. devices if necessary. number of devices available with its increased bandwidth. If more capability is This trend has pushed the envelope in “Embedding needed, switch technology enables design- designing extremely low-power, high- ers to realize additional PCI Express links performance, x86-based processors. Com- computers and of various sizes, PCI Express over cable, puter control and information gathering and more. and processing have changed not only the sensors into way we look at things, but also the way we Outside the Consortium, the success of the live. Embedding computers and sensors Foreverything is the norm,Single PC/104 standard has prompted designers Print Only into everything is the norm, and solutions to incorporate these bus architectures onto are becoming more varied every day. and solutions are a number of non-Consortium controlled form factors and custom designs so that Custom platforms serve a purpose but becoming more they can enhance functionality without can restrict OEMs, making them unable having to become experts in designing to adapt. For those requiring versatility, it varied every day.” that functionality. is important to choose platforms that are well established as standards while pro- PC/104 stackable buses and versatile viding paths to future advancements. Keeping an eye on continuity among form factors have created an embedded the Consortium’s form factors, this new ecosystem that caters to the greenest of For more than 15 years, the stackable stackable PCI connector has been placed green as well as the highest of perfor- PC/104 architecture that is embodied in on all its form factors, which has resulted mance and power consumption. A vast PC/104, PC/104-Plus, PCI/104-Express, in the adoption of PCI/104-Express V1.0 selection of interchangeable modules PCI-104, EBX, EPIC, and the recently and EPIC and EPIC Express V3.0, with spanning an enormous range of applica- released EPIC Express has thrived and EBX and EBX Express V3.0 currently tions has evolved, enabling designers gained recognition throughout the world undergoing the adoption process. and end users to create next-generation as one of the few de facto embedded upgrades and revolutionary application- standards. The architecture is based on The simplicity of using a single, rugged, specific solutions. well-defined full PC bus architectures, high-speed connector solution maxi- form factors, common mounting holes, and mizes growth in the add-on module PC/104 Consortium bus placements. ecosystem, reduces manufacturing align- 916-270-2016 ment issues, and eliminates multiple [email protected] Implementing PC bus structures like ISA, module configurations. www.pc104.org PCI, and PCI Express allows users to develop common drivers and reuse add-on As IC manufacturers continue on their modules as CPUs evolve in class. path to develop smaller and smaller pro- cessor and peripheral chip solutions using The newest stackable PC/104 bus has con- less power with more functionality, de- tinued this philosophy by incorporating signers can achieve greater expandability

10 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors For Single Print Only Catalyst Module Primary target applications: Gaming, medical, handheld, industrial, and military systems Sponsor: Eurotech Inc. Intel Atom Processor Year of concept release: 2008

DDR2 Product information: www.eurotechcatalyst.com DRAM Dimensions: 2.8" x 3.9" (67 mm x 100 mm) System Bus Intel SCH US15W Mounting: PCIe 0 HD Audio PCIe 1 HD Audio • Computer-On-Module (COM) with custom pinout PCIe IDE IDE Data • Secondary adapter board required to bring out additional connectors and features USB5 USB3 SD/MMC0 Power input: SD/MMC1 USB SD/MMC J1A • 3.3 V and 5 V, plus 1.5 V battery backup USB4 SD/MMC2 USB0 • Module averages 2-3 W in typical applications J1B USB1 USB6 USB7 Features: USB2 SDVO SMBus • Up to 1 GB of DDR2 DRAM SDVO SMBus

LVDS Video V BATTERY • Dual independent display outputs LCD RTC

• Video interfaces for UXGA, XGA, SXGA, and HD LPC Bus • Video codecs supporting H.264, MPEG-4/2/1, DivX, and Windows Media 9 Trusted Embedded Platform Controller • Intel HD audio Mgmt GPIO • Onboard Trusted Platform Module v1.2 System Mgmt I/O ForMaximum SingleSMC I2C System Print Only • Up to two PATA drives BIOS PROM • Up to three SD/MMC cards performance 3.3 V IN using minimal 5 V IN • Up to eight USB 2.0 ports PWR GOOD

J2 VBATA • Gigabit Ethernet power V Battery • PCI Express for high-speed I/O By Haritha Bandla, Eurotech Inc. • Operating system support for , With the Catalyst Module, embedded systems users no longer have to make a trade- Windows XP/XPe/CE 6.0/Vista, and other RTOSs off between performance and power consumption. This module offers the processing capabilities of an Intel Atom processor and System Controller Hub (SCH) US15W • Additional adapter board expandability while maintaining low power. Centered on customization, the design allows engi- neers to readily mount the module onto adapter boards for special device needs.

Using a COM Express connector with a custom pinout optimized for the new Intel processor, the module delivers the Atom’s features while allowing customers to define their final products using customizable adapter boards.

Because the design focuses on maximizing capability while minimizing power consumption, the module offers a broader range of features compared to other Atom-based products. For example, a PATA interface native to the Intel Atom plat- form reduces power consumption. Two PCI Express ports are exposed at the connec- tor to achieve greater user flexibility without sacrificing other interfaces. The design also has added thermal and EMI performance to eliminate the need for heat spreaders or sinks.

“The Catalyst Module offers embedded designers a unique solution, including the full feature set available from the Intel Atom,” says Gregorio Nicoloso, Eurotech Inc. CEO. “The Catalyst Module is backed by Eurotech’s stance that success is driven by building long-term relationships with our customers to get to production as soon as possible with the right product and the right business model. Our flexibility and built-in support help drive Catalyst’s success in the market.”

12 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors For Single Print Only Industrial PCs tackle dusty environments

Protection against graphite Dishwasher-safe assembly control resistant to shock and vibration, as evi- OSRAM, , is one of the world’s The Bosch and Siemens Home (BSH) denced by one of the computers at the largest producers of electrical and elec- Group, Germany, is one of the world’s OSRAM factory that kept working after tronic lighting devices for home and largest producers of white goods (washing a forklift ran into it. industrial uses. Since 1919 the company machines, dishwashers, and refrigera- has manufactured incandescent light bulbs tors), with sales amounting to €8.8 billion These industrial PCs are water and dust- as well as LED devices, including LED (U.S. $14 billion) in 2007. The com- proof, meeting protection standards IP65 vehicle headlights and taillights worth pany’s factory in Dillingen, Germany, and NEMA 4X. A touch controller auto- about €4.7 billion (U.S. $7.7 billion) produced the first fully automatic dish- matically controls and adjusts the touch per year. washer in 2000. screen. A microcontroller executes moni- toring and control functions, including One of OSRAM’s factories in Schwab- Industrial computers manufactured by fan speed, temperature monitoring, and muenchen near Augsburg manufactures noax Technologies control the plant’s backlight control. tungsten and molybdenum wires, which dishwasher manufacturing assembly lines, are used in light bulbs. These materials handling shipping container designations An ebm-papst ventilator inside the sealed are pressed into cylindrical rods, sintered, in preproduction and printing orders enclosure distributes the heat so that it milled, and hammered. The wires are then for equipment identification. A digital can be optimally dissipated by the cool- drawn several times through successively I/O card from Meilhaus, ing fins located outside the enclosure. smaller holes at high temperatures using Germany, inside the com- This thermal management method can extremely high pulling force. Figure 1, puter signals that a new be used in countries where temperatures courtesy of Fraunhofer Institute unit is within proximity reach +40 °C (+104 °F) and humidity is IWM, Germany, shows a computer Forof the work area,Single trigger- very high. Industrial PCs must function Print Only simulation of tungsten wire ing it to acquire the SAP faultlessly under such extreme climatic analyzing the presence of data and complete the job conditions. fissures. The final wire procedure. After completion, is 8-40 micrometers the computer sends a signal via the These small noax computers are available in diameter, depending digital I/O card to start transporting with rugged touch panels in sizes ranging on lamp type. By way the appliance to the next station. These from 8" to 19" (see Figure 2). Versions of comparison, a human computers also support quality inspec- are available in aluminum or stainless hair is about 100 micro- tions, including high voltage testing. steel enclosures, the latter of which can meters thick. Figure 1 be cleaned and sterilized to relevant Appliances from BSH use very little hygienic requirements in food and medi- A mixture of graphite (a form of carbon) power and water. Dishes in dishwash- cine production. dust and water is used as a lubricant in the ers and clothes in washing machines are production process. This fine-powdered treated using optimized automatic pro- electrically conductive graphite dust grams. BSH produces about 10 dishwash- accumulates everywhere, even in indus- ers per minute, equating to 2.2 million trial embedded computers that control units per year. An hour-long production wire production on the factory floor. No delay could result in a loss of €100,000 amount of filtering can keep dust out of (U.S. $156,000) or more, which is why computers or electronics enclosures for fail-safe reliability in the production pro- any length of time. cess is extremely important, requiring rugged, operationally stable industrial To prevent short circuits and other damage computers. caused by graphite dust, OSRAM uses rugged, compact industrial computers Forklift collision-proof computers from noax Technologies, Germany. These Industrial PCs from noax are characterized All-In-One SBC systems are housed in by their compact and rugged designs with Figure 2 hermetically sealed boxes, dust-protected completely enclosed casings. Electronic in compliance with IP65 and NEMA 4 components are fixed to the board with For more information, contact Hermann standards. metal springs, making these computers at [email protected].

14 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors For Single Print Only SPECIAL The lowdown on low power

I submit that the Intel Atom processor is just enough for many embedded applications. The Atom, as we’ve seen in general terms, is close to a 1 GHz Celeron in processing power. The Atom chipset integrates other functions such as video streaming quite efficiently. Its performance per watt is about 8x better than the Celeron solutions it supplants.

Sure, the folks at Intel will gladly sell you more horsepower than what the Atom offers if you ask. Lots more, in fact. The question I have is: Do you really need more?

This isn’t the laptop computer world, where you really don’t know what software is going to be put on the beast that might break its back in terms of performance. Somebody whips out the next Crysis, and all are suddenly obsolete.

This is the embedded computer world. Engineers should know what the performance expectations are because the functions are fixed. There should be few surprises; in most cases, you’re in The of just control of what applications get loaded on the machine. artenough Oh, I’m not suggesting imprudence. Design in sufficient margins to ensure safety, accommodate worst case, and take the neces- sary precautions. Don’t cut corners in processing power until it By Don Dingee could potentially hurt.

I’m certainly not opposed to using something like a Core 2 Duo or larger processor that requires more performance. I expect we’ll see some great advances in multicore hardware performance and software optimization that will enable heavy-duty applications we’ve just imagined up until now. ForBut back Singleto the question: Do you really need more horsepower Print Only than an Atom processor offers?

I can almost hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth right now. What about upgrading system performance? Someone from mar- keting shows up with a new application requirement demanding a lot more horsepower, but there’s no money or time for a complete any hardware types are from the “go big or go home” hardware redesign. school of thought (and I’d include myself in this group). MIt’s bred into our genes. There’s never enough horse- PC/104 and Small Form Factors readers should be able to power, Al. No such thing as too many MIPS. Extra capacity, connect the dots. If you use one of the plethora of small form no worries – someone will figure out how to use it eventually, factor compute modules discussed here, chances are the supplier especially those software types down the hall (with whom I community will have something in a compatible footprint to also sympathize). upgrade performance when it’s needed. Pull out the old module, put in the new module, pass go, collect $200 or more, and go But all this is about to change. It has to. We’re facing the distinct spend some time with the family. possibility that the resources we’ve taken for granted for so long will become scarce or unaffordable in our lifetime. And our elec- And if you’re concerned about finding something that meets tronic designs must change to address this dilemma. your needs, take a look at the Atom Roundup feature on pages 18 and 19. A wide range of Atom-based products is already avail- The new thinking will be the art of just enough. Not overkill, not able, and more are on the way. minimalism sacrificing function for aesthetics, but just enough. The days of ever-escalating clock speeds have, thankfully, come This is a course that Japanese engineering has pursued for quite to an end for the most part. A valid paradigm is taking hold, some time. Not one extra penny is spent where it’s not needed, delivering more compute power in the same (or lower) electrical although I wish someone had coughed up more than 10 cents on power, cooling, and weight envelope. the lousy bracket supporting the lamp power connector in my DLP HDTV. But still, I admire the philosophy, knowing it’s a The Atom processor reflects the art of just enough nicely. challenge to optimize a design without spending any more money, Let’s step back and see how we can make just enough work for time, or energy than is really necessary. a change. ➤

16 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors SPECIAL The lowdown on low power 10 low-power processors worth watching

By Don Dingee

The Pandora handheld gaming console uses the 2008 has seen an explosion in announce- TI OMAP3530. ments of what’s known as the application processor or media processor. From my perspective, this isn’t just a trend driven by the mobile handset space, though these devices can be applied to all sorts of small NVIDIA offers a development form factor systems. platform for its Tegra 600 series processor. What makes this group of proces- sors stand out? All offer a winning processing and several dedicated accel- combination of low power and eration units without much extra connec- high integration. I look at the 15 W tivity outside of USB. and under Thermal Design Power (TDP) point because it enables As can be seen in Table 1, many of the fanless and battery-powered platforms are built on ARM cores, but designs, but the real intrigue with it’s not the only choice – x86, Power, and these processors is how they inte- SuperH are well represented. And while grate advanced multimedia fea- the Intel Atom and VIA Nano aren’t tures – video acceleration, image exactly application processors, when acceleration, audio, storage, security, and robust hardware encryption and a high- combined with their chipsets, they target more – along with a high-speed general- bandwidth memory interface. While some the same space and certainly fit within purpose CPU core. features aren’t integrated, adding them via the power envelope. PCI Express would be straightforward. At first glance, it might seem like these These 10 low-power processor families don’t all go together. For instance, ForOther platforms like the Texas InstrumentsSingle made my cutting-edge list from 2008 Print Only the AMCC 460GTx is really a high- (TI) OMAP3530 are built around the announcements. The data in the overview speed multiport Ethernet engine with video user experience, focusing on fast table is gleaned from the best information available at press time. Specific feature Feature overview availability and relative performance var- ies widely in this group, so be sure to do more homework when considering these and similar devices. ➤

Processor series Core Video acceleration acceleration Graphics Camera Display Audio GPS Ethernet PCI Express USB Security or SATA PATA Memory card AMCC 460GTx Power ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Freescale i.MX37 ARM11 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Intel Atom Z500 x86 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ + chipset Marvell 88F6000 “Shiva” ARM ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ compliant NVIDIA Tegra 600 ARM11 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Qualcomm QST ARM11 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Renesas SH-Mobile UL2 SH3-DSP ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ST-NXP Wireless ARM11 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ STn8820 TI OMAP3530 ARM Cortex-A8 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ and C64+ VIA Nano + chipset x86 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ Table 1

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 17 SPECIAL Roundup: Intel Atom-based boards, systems, and tools

By Don Dingee

The low-power revolution is in progress. Small form factor boards and systems based on Intel’s Atom processor are showing up quickly, along with tools to make them work more efficiently. Most of these products target not only low power, but also very small applications, and some address rugged requirements as well. Here’s a sampling of the latest items we’ve seen with Atom tie-ins.

Express-ing low power Standard COM Express modules were expected to make good Atom-based platforms, and this offering from ADLINK Technology fits the bill. (Editor’s note: PLX Technology offers more insight on how to add PCI Express to this product in the article on page 20.) The Express-MLC comes in two versions: a basic platform with two PCI Express ports, LVDS, SDVO, eight USB ports, SDIO, audio, and LPC and the extended platform with PCI bus, Gigabit Ethernet, and SATA. ADLINK says these platforms target “mobile and light computing needs” like portable test equipment, visual communication for medical gear, entry-level public gaming devices, and public points of communication. ADLINK Technology, Inc. • www.adlinktech.com • RSC# 36492

Deep inside the Atom Getting designs up and running on a Fornew processor requires high-quality Single Print Only diagnostic tools to see both inside and outside the processor. The latest versions of MicroMaster and ScanWorks provide CPU-level emulation test and diagnostics for the Intel Atom processor. According to ASSET InterTech, these tools are capable of true CPU emulation, meaning they take control of the CPU and assert structural and functional test and diagnostic routines through the processor to other devices and nodes on the board. They also support Intel’s Interconnect Built-In Self Test (IBIST), which uses IEEE 1149.1 (JTAG) as the communication protocol for validating high-speed buses and testing interconnects at the board and system levels. ASSET InterTech • www.asset-intertech.com • RSC# 36723

Entertaining passengers As infotainment systems have become standard in vehicles, designers want them to have as low power as possible to save on batteries, generators, wiring, and cooling fans. Getting the most performance using the least amount of power is paramount in cars. Portwell accomplishes this with the PCS-8230, a system based on an Embedded Compact Extended (ECX) small form factor board with an Atom processor. The fanless system includes a DVB-T/FM tuner, Wi-Fi, two USB ports, three SDIO sockets, support for dual displays and 5.1 audio, and optional Trusted Platform Module and USB-Disk Module. Portwell • www.portwell.com • RSC# 38104

18 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors The lowdown on low power

Credit the module Going a bit smaller than the standard COM Express form factor but still retaining full connector and pinout compatibility, Kontron’s nanoETXexpress (featured in our Spring 2008 Focus on Form Factors column) deploys a credit card-sized 55 mm x 84 mm module. The nanoETXexpress-SP features an Atom chipset (in either 1.1 GHz or 1.6 GHz) with up to 1 GB of memory and up to a 4 GB flash drive, along with PCI Express, Gigabit Ethernet, USB, LVDS, and SATA. Kontron also offers the nanoETXexpress-HMI Baseboard to help users get running quickly. Kontron • www.kontron.com • RSC# 37634

Module at the Core Also on the smaller side, LiPPERT Embedded Computers has developed the CoreExpress small form factor for rugged mobile applications like point-of-sale, kiosk terminals, automotive, medical, and other portable devices. The CoreExpress-ECO measures at 58 mm x 65 mm and weighs 28 g, but doesn’t compromise on performance using the same Atom chipset. Features include up to 1 GB RAM, two PCI Express lanes, eight USB ports, MPEG-2/4 support, LVDS and SDVO display ports, HD audio, SDIO/MMC interface, SMBus, and LPC bus for even further expansion. All these signals are made available on a tiny 220-pin connector. LiPPERT Embedded Computers GmbH • www.lippert-at.com • RSC# 37871

Getting connected and displayed For developers that make Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs), Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), and other portable devices, InHand Electronics offers the FireFly development platform to help get their Atom processor designs started quickly. For Single Print Only The platform features an Atom chipset with 1 GB of memory, two PATA interfaces, optional SATA via a daughtercard or ExpressCard, 16 general-purpose I/O pins, Ethernet, USB, microSD slot, audio, LVDS and touch-screen interface, and optional Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. It also includes InHand’s BatterySmart technology, which extends device life through the processor’s Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS). Power comes from a 14.4 V LiIon/LiPolymer smart battery. The platform measures at 95 mm x 104 mm and weighs 50 g. InHand Electronics • www.inhandelectronics.com • RSC# 38011

Panel PC for rugged use A processor like the Intel Atom offers the opportunity to run fanless – a real bonus in panel PC applications, which must be able to withstand harsh environments and exposure to dust, liquid, or other contaminants. The IP65-rated (front) DC1 offers the Atom processor with 1 GB of memory and a 4 GB USB-controlled flash disk, along with two USB ports, two Ethernet ports, an optional UART port, binary inputs, and optional HD audio or I/O Buffer Information Specification (IBIS) fieldbus capability. A 15" display is standard with options from 12"-19". Power choices include standard 9-36 V, 18-75 V, or 36-154 V. Optional wireless functions include Wi-Fi, WiMAX, GSM/GPRS, or UMTS implemented in a Mini PCI Express card slot. MEN Micro • www.menmicro.com • RSC# 38230

For more information about these products, look up the RSC No. at www.smallformfactors.com/rsc

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 19 SPECIAL The lowdown on low power The ‘next big thing’ is small: Expanding Atom’s PCI Express lanes

By Steve Moore

Intel’s latest Atom processors are small by design, which means, like other small packages, they must omit some desired expandability. Although these devices contain a great deal of integrated I/O, many users want more PCI Express (PCIe) ports. Steve offers some tips on how to accomplish this addition.

For Single Print Only

20 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors n his keynote at the Show earlier this More ports for year, Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini called mobile Internet devices COM Express modules Ithe “next big thing in computing,” adding that the world is Figure 1 shows a recently “going ultra-mobile” with devices and embedded comput- announced COM Express ers based on Intel’s new Atom chipset, which began shipping form factor card, the during the first half of 2008. This chipset consists of one chip Express-MLC from that handles Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) functions and an ultra- ADLINK Technology. low-power processor that is a fraction of the size of previous- Measuring a scant generation mobile CPUs. 95 mm x 95 mm, this COM Express Type 2- The Atom chipset was developed for low-power, small form fac- compatible card is tor applications such as UMPCs, Mini-ITX and COM Express based on the Intel Atom Figure 1 systems, and other small devices not yet introduced. Because of processor Z500 series with the new Intel System Controller the chipset’s compact size, only two PCIe ports are included. Hub (SCH) US15W. COM Express modules are off-the-shelf PCIe-based building blocks that plug into custom-made, This limitation poses problems, given that systems using Atom application-specific carrier boards. processors typically need more I/O than those two ports because they connect to networks and storage devices. Additionally, The Express-MLC enables innovative designs in mobile and many systems need PCI connections for various endpoints such “light” computing applications, including: as modems and codecs that have not been implemented in PCIe- native silicon.  Portable and mobile equipment for the automotive and test and measurement industries To resolve this I/O constraint, engineers can implement the latest  Visual communication in the medical field, such as home generation of PCIe I/O switches and bridges with extremely low care and video conferencing levels of power dissipation, advanced power management fea-  Entry-level public gaming devices tures, and very small physical size.  Public points of communication

For Single Print Only

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 21 SPECIAL The lowdown on low power

“Using a PCIe-to-PCI bridge and Atom CPU a five-port PCIe switch ... expands the I/O capability to four PCIe ports and one 32-bit PCI bus that will support SCH Memory four PCI devices.” x1 x1

With a module like this using the low-power (2 W) Intel Atom Z510 series processor and the Intel SCH US15W chipset, devel- PEX 8112 opers can utilize a wide variety of mainstream software applica- Bridge PEX 8505 tions and middleware that will run unmodified with full function- Switch ality on a platform familiar to end users. PCI Bus Connectivity for the COM Express card can be expanded using a PCIe-to-PCI bridge and a five-port PCIe switch (see Figure 2). Figure 2 This expands the I/O capability to four PCIe ports and one 32-bit PCI bus that will support four PCI devices. Thus I/O is expanded Engineers selected the PCIe bridge for this application because by a factor of four to a total of eight potential I/O channels from it features low power dissipation (400 mW) and a small foot- the two PCIe ports provided on the Atom chipset. print (13 mm x 13 mm). The bridge used in the Express-MLC has

For Single Print Only

22 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors Inside the Atom chipset

Built on the Menlow SATA/SAS hard disk drives and host bus adapters, as well as five technology platform, Gen 1 x1 PCIe ports, allowing one upstream port that connects to the Intel Atom the chipset and four downstream ports that expand I/O for PCIe- native endpoints such as Gigabit Ethernet. processor includes the Silverthorne UMPCs adopt the Atom platform processor and the Figure 3 shows a block diagram of a UMPC that takes advantage Poulsbo chipset. of the Atom chipset’s small form factor, reduced cost, and low power. This design expands I/O capability using a PCIe-to-PCI bridge to connect to low-cost, low-power, PCI-based peripheral

Atom PCI 32/33 Chipset

Ethernet x1 Controller

PEX 8112 The Silverthorne processor is optimized first for low power, then Bridge Memory Card for low cost. This 45 nm device comes in a 13 mm x 14 mm Controller package and is targeted for use in mobile Internet devices. The Thermal Design Power (TDP) for the Z500 family ranges from 0.65-2.4 W. Figure 3

Some versions of Silverthorne processors support Hyper- Threading Technology, a feature introduced with the Intel Pentium 4 processor that allows more than one code thread to be executed simultaneously on a single-coreFor processor. Single Print Only

Poulsbo is a low-power System Controller Hub (SCH) designed for use with Silverthorne machines. It combines the Memory Controller Hub (MCH) and I/O Controller Hub (ICH) into a single chip. The US15L supports 400 MHz Front-Side Bus (FSB), while the US15W supports 533 MHz FSB.

Both SCH versions include 3D graphics running on a 200 MHz graphics core with HD video playback (720p and 1080i con- tent) and dual independent display support on the integrated 24-bit LVDS or through dual SDVO extension. The true power of the graphics core resides in the built-in video hardware decoding, which offers acceleration for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, WMV9, and VC1. The integrated hardware decoding enables the system to achieve high transfer rates under very modest CPU loading.

The SCH’s 22 mm x 22 mm package supports the key embed- ded system requirements for small form factor, low-heat designs, and thus requires no fan. Power dissipation is less than 5 W, which is ideal for embedded market segments such as in-vehicle infotainment, portable medical diagnostic systems, interactive clients (kiosks and point-of-sale terminals), gaming, and industrial control.

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 23 SPECIAL

“New small footprint PCIe bridges and switches will provide the additional PCI and PCIe channels needed to deliver rich feature sets while maintaining minimal form factors.”

devices instead of using a switch to get more I/O. Because the Atom chipset does not include any PCI connections, the bridge is used to attain up to four additional I/O channels. In this example, two PCI devices (Ethernet and SD memory card controllers) are aggregated on the 32-bit PCI side of the I/O expansion bridge.

Several UMPCs planned for launch later in 2008 will use the Atom chipset in conjunction with PCIe switches and bridges from vendors such as PLX Technology. In addition to the Ethernet and memory card controllers referenced earlier, applications taking advantage of this expanded I/O include wireless USB (based on ultra-wideband technology), 802.11g wireless LAN, Bluetooth, CardBus, and ExpressCard connections.

These UMPCs have standard feature sets including a 5.6" (1,024 x 600) display, 1-2 GB of main memory, 40-80 GB hard drives, dual cameras, and SD memory card readers. Additionally, these designs are expected to feature four-core batteries that can Forprovide upSingle to seven hours of operation on a single charge. Print Only Looking forward Other small form factor applications that use the Atom chipset include UMPCs, mobile Internet devices, and Internet-focused machines such as (scaled-down used primarily for surfing the Internet) and nettops (low-cost desktop devices and other consumer electronics devices).

Now that the Atom chipset has been released, new embedded and devices will be hitting the market equipped with the power, cost, and size advantages Atom chipsets deliver. To meet these devices’ requirements for expanded I/O connectiv- ity, new small footprint PCIe bridges and switches will provide the additional PCI and PCIe channels needed to deliver rich fea- ture sets while maintaining minimal form factors. ➤

Steve Moore is senior product marketing manager at PLX Technology, based in Sunnyvale, California. His prior experience includes stints in marketing at Mai Logic and IBM. Steve holds a BSEE from the University of California at Berkeley.

PLX Technology 408-774-9060 [email protected] www.plxtech.com

24 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors For Single Print Only For Single Print Only For Single Print Only SPECIAL The lowdown on low power

Tide of malware threats turning against the

network of devices

By Adrian Turner

As connected devices proliferate, the number of nodes that must be secure vulnerabilities found in OSs on the desk- increases, especially as the line between enterpriseFor networks and embedded Singletop. When all these devices’ genetic code Print Only networks blurs. In the following discussion, Adrian calls attention to the risks of is the same and outdated – in a word, stag- malware infiltration through connected embedded devices and presents a proactive nant – an assailant can easily repurpose approach to rethinking security. attacks for a PC to instead target a device or a large population of devices. More ith the surge of malware that into, but that is not the case. The current diversity among processors, OSs, periph- threatens to invade, steal, cor- state of device security is fairly weak. In eral selection, and data transfer options Wrupt, and destroy sensitive and the desktop space, processors are getting would help ensure device security. critical data across business systems, stronger and more powerful and OSs are companies have diligently deployed reac- becoming more secure. Increasing malware frequency tive firewalls and anti-spam software. But and sophistication it was only a matter of time before hack- However, the same is not true for devices; Another prominent concern is that the ers began targeting devices as gateways in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Instead of types and number of threats are increasing to the network. making devices perform better or faster, the focus is on making them cheaper Security experts have been warning of and smaller. Consequently, for the last this possibility for years. As Operating 10 years, embedded devices’ processing Systems (OSs) become more uniform power, memory, security, and RAM have and devices become more open, the odds lagged behind significantly when com- of device attacks are steadily increas- pared to PCs. Complicating this further, ing. Regardless of whether it’s a mobile devices do not have a surplus of CPU phone, iPod, printer, car entertainment power to support security. system, or surveillance hardware, any device that can connect to the network is Another characteristic of devices increases the next frontier for attack. security risks exponentially. In the past, devices were completely proprietary, Device software stagnation but OS and application standardization compromises security has created opportunities for attack- Most people assume that devices are ers. Many devices continue to age in the secure because they haven’t been broken field without receiving updates for prior

28 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors dramatically as malware and viruses are growing in complexity. Malware has turned into a profitable, serious business as shrewd attackers are specializing their trade using professional, advanced soft- ware techniques. In fact, some attackers that put malware on PCs can actually update the malware remotely, making it harder to detect and remove. This could easily cross over to devices, wreaking havoc on printers, routers, control plat- forms, and other applications for small form factor boards.

The Washington Post recently reported that, according to AV Test Labs in Germany, “Approximately 5.5 million malicious software programs were unleashed on the Web last year. That volume forced anti- virus firms to analyze between 15,000 and 20,000 new specimens each day – more than four times the daily average they found in 2006 and at least 15 times as many the company recorded in 2005. In the first two months of 2008 alone, AV Test found more than 1 million sam- ples of malware spreading online[1].”

As data becomes more valuable, no device is safe. To users, a $40 wireless access point may seem insignificant, but to an attacker, it could mean an open door to millions of dollars’ worth of infor- mation. Organizations and users must consider the potential value of data trans- For Single Print Only ferring through their devices and under- stand what it takes to protect devices from being overrun by malware.

Malware detection harder on faceless devices In the PC world, it’s easy to see if a com- puter has malware and unload and reload software if it is corrupted. PC users have more access to the programs running on their machines and can look into their process tasks.

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 29 SPECIAL The lowdown on low power

Conversely, with most embedded de- manufacturers must remotely diagnose Current security models no vices, users can see their applications problems or deliver new patches or soft- longer suffice running but have no easy way of know- ware, resulting in unnecessary labor With malware on the rise, current anti- ing what’s going on behind the scenes. expenses. These increased customer virus and anti-malware models no longer If a device slows down, the user doesn’t care costs pose a significant drawback in meet device security requirements. In know the true cause of the issue; it could terms of device manufacturers’ revenues fact, companies can’t add malware pro- be the network, the router, or the server. and brand reputation, especially at a time tection to innumerable legacy devices that Most embedded devices are in this when product life cycles and margins are exist in the field today. Network firewalls sense “faceless” to the user. This lack continuing to decrease. and other approaches do not work either of visibility makes it very difficult to because attackers can use cryptography diagnose problems and recognize mal- By incorporating security in devices to get past them. Those attacks are dif- ware attacks. during manufacturing, device manufac- ficult to see, particularly when they are turers can avoid customer care costs due constantly evolving and changing. When users misinterpret malware attacks to malware attacks and maintain customer as device performance issues, device satisfaction and brand loyalty. The current approach doesn’t work with wireless devices for many reasons. The sheer number of signatures updated per hour makes this method problematic. Storing signatures is impractical because small wireless devices have a fixed amount of memory. Meanwhile, the signature approach negatively affects performance and drains battery life because it requires more CPU power to communicate with the network for constant updates. Cost is yet another concern.

For legacy devices, device-based intrusion detection is more advantageous than signature-based detection. Some security systems protect the entire device applica- tion code and place minimal burden on For Singlethe device. With intrusion-based anti- Print Only malware protection, security centers on monitoring changes in the device’s behav- ior to detect malware. This offers stronger security but usually involves a trade-off in performance. While this type of device- based intrusion detection software should be used as an added layer of protection, it does not address the entire spectrum of security issues for devices.

Proactive approach to intrusion detection and prevention Given the ineffectiveness of current anti- virus and anti-malware models, develop- ers must start creating next-generation devices that approach security in a com- prehensive manner, detecting intrusion and protecting against security attacks.

30 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors To truly protect devices, companies need fixing the broken design philosophy for operated Internet kiosks in the Australian an extensible security framework that the network of devices, developers can market. Adrian holds a business degree secures all aspects of device data, access, guarantee that the value of being con- in Marketing and Finance from the and communications in a standard way. nected to the Internet continues to University of Technology in Sydney, outweigh the risk. ➤ , and has completed the Execu- Ideally, devices should contain a secu- tive Program for Managing Growth rity framework designed and architected Adrian Turner is Companies at Stanford University. with software residing on the device and CEO of Mocana, capabilities delivered across the network. based in San Fran- Mocana Corporation Security software must have a small foot- cisco, California. 415-617-0055 print and be asynchronous and event- Prior to founding [email protected] driven to maximize the device’s efficiency Mocana, Adrian han- www.mocana.com and performance in light of limited CPU dled security issues References resources. at Kenamea and [1] Krebs, Brian. “Anti-Virus Firms Scram- Philips Electronics. He also launched bling to Keep Up,” Washington Post. Companies should start building a secu- the world’s first network of 225 coin- March 19, 2008. rity roadmap within their organization and take a phased approach. A key first step is simply making security a priority and integrating security into the entire development process. In the interim, com- panies can take other steps to improve device security, such as:

 Taking advantage of advancements in silicon to make devices secure in every respect  Using quality authentication techniques and secure protocols for devices  Protecting user information and user log-in information  Running code through static analyzers to look for potential vulnerabilities  Providing someone on the development team with Certified For Single Print Only Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) training to ensure that security meets standards  Thinking ahead to the event of an attack and developing a plan for how to respond if devices are invaded  Devising a way to update devices in the field to boost their immunity against malware attacks

Networking devices to the Internet brings tremendous risk as well as value. As devices now represent a vital part of the world marketplace, developers can no longer ignore lagging standards. Develop- ers must be proactive rather than reactive and comprehensive instead of shortsighted when it comes to device security. By

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 31 APPLICATION Not so routine instrumentation

Small systems help curb risky driving

By Peter Ellegaard

For Single Print Only

In this interesting application, a small so that drivers receive the appropriate recorder with two cameras, an accelerom- form factor system combines cameras, coaching to help them improve their eter, and a motion sensor that recognizes cellular upload technology, and driving performance. unusual forces and records high-risk driv- motion sensors to protect drivers. ing events. cellular access enables This DRM system offers cellular upload, the technology. river Risk Management (DRM) sys- simplifying technology deployment and tems enable organizations to iden- data transfer. By eliminating investment The system demands a wireless network Dtify risky driving behaviors among in Wi-Fi infrastructure to accommodate that can transfer large video clips across their fleet drivers and provide customized daily data downloads from event record- a homogeneous network and deliver that coaching to improve behaviors before ers, the system enables organizations to data to reviewers, fleet managers, and incidents occur. achieve quicker ROI and manage driv- ing behavior from anywhere at any time. DriveCam Inc.’s behavior-based risk mit- This is especially important to fleets igation system combines sight and sound that employ drivers who do not return to feedback, expert analysis, and driver a home base every night, such as long- coaching to detect and correct risky driv- haul trucking and pharmaceutical sales ing behaviors across fleets. In this system, companies. an exception-based video event recorder mounted on a vehicle’s rearview mirror DRM systems not only protect drivers captures the critical seconds before and and other motorists, they also help orga- after an incident when triggered by forces nizations reduce vehicle damages, per- such as swerving, sudden acceleration, sonal injuries, and workers’ compensation hard braking, or collision. Certified driv- claims costs by more than 50 percent. ing risk analysts review and score events captured on the recorders and provide Looking out the windshield fleet managers with objective evidence Mounted on a rearview mirror, this simple demonstrating risky driving behaviors DRM device (Figure 1) includes an event Figure 1

32 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors parents whose teens participate in the DriveCam for Families and Teen Safe Driver Program.

Sierra Wireless was selected as a part- ner to develop the modem because of its leadership in 3G embedded module pro- duction and expertise in delivering video recorders to the market. The event record- ers are equipped with a Sierra Wireless MC5725 EV-DO Rev A PC Card, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2

These cards enable critical events to be assessed in real time through cellular upload, which ultimately reduces upload and service times. They also include firmware that controls when driving data is uploaded to the review center, where behavior analysts score drivers based on For Single Print Only their actions and reactions.

This DriveCam system is currently installed in more than 100,000 vehicles, protecting drivers, passengers, and other motorists across the country. ➤

Peter Ellegaard is VP of hardware and firmware engineering at DriveCam Inc., based in San Diego, California. He has 16 years of experience in electronics engineering, including his stint at Nokia, where he was involved with hardware develop- ment, engine integration, hardware and software management, product develop- ment, and technology management. Peter has a BSEE from the University of Copenhagen.

DriveCam 858-430-4000 [email protected] www.drivecam.com

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 33 APPLICATION Not so routine instrumentation Innovation and technology bring performance to instrumentation in small packages

By Brett Burger

Two decades ago, instrumentation primarily involved dedicated, mainframe 19" rack-mount or even cart-based instruments. Today’s instrumentation still includes those high-end platforms but now also incorporates PC-based and smaller stand-alone devices. Brett looks at the key trends driving this transition.

or most electronic devices, size and With the virtual instrumentation concept, ADCs provide a study in silicon speed are the measures of improve- Fortest systems that once needed multipleSingle design advancements Print Only F ment, while small and fast serve as racks to house tons of equipment were At an even lower level, advancements the overriding goals. Even with televi- reduced to channel-dense modules packed in silicon design have enabled smaller, sions, where bigger screens are better, the into PCs or PC extension buses such as faster components at more economical objective for all other components on the PXI. Removing components such as dis- prices for pure instrument components set is to disappear, hence the flat-panel plays, controls, processors, and storage such as Analog-to-Digital Converters sets consumers use today. from each instrument instantly reduces (ADCs). The ADC is one of the main the space required, but basing instruments components that has increased in per- This mantra is not at all lost on the mea- on PC technology offers more benefits formance, resolution, and sampling rate surement and automation industry. A than just eliminating duplicate items. while decreasing in price, allowing for combination of vendor innovation and more prolific distribution in today’s test silicon component technology is reduc- Along with the addition of virtual instru- equipment. ing the size of industrial and measure- mentation functions, the absolute size of ment instrumentation while increasing its PC and PC-based instrumentation has A flashback to older, digital multimeter- performance. decreased. Desktop towers have shrunk based data acquisition systems shows to mid-towers, then laptops, and now the that, partially because of high ADC Virtual instrumentation and Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) and other high- prices, these systems had a single ADC multicore processing streamline powered handhelds. and a switch network of relays to provide test systems multiple channel inputs. But as Figure 1 Instrumentation vendors are taking advan- Recently, with the advent of multicore illustrates, ADC prices are trending tage of the large, competitive commercial processors, test systems built with a sharply lower. PC market to drive down equipment size PC backbone are beginning to utilize and cost. More than 20 years ago, the parallel processing to increase through- For a similar price to the previous gen- concept of basing instrumentation on the put. In a virtual instrument, measurement eration with one expensive ADC and a widely available PC platform began to take hardware and user-defined test software switching front end, designers can now shape. This movement, known as virtual are isolated from PC components; there- find devices that are up to a third of instrumentation, removed many computer fore, transitioning to multicore technol- the size and feature multiple ADCs. components such as memory, processors, ogy is more efficient than using instru- More ADCs means a higher aggregate and disk storage from the instrumentation mentation built on traditional system sampling rate and lower phase offset and substituted an actual PC. architectures. between channels.

34 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors requirements, these devices can log data Decreasing price of ADCs for months or years in some cases without $50 needing a fresh battery. $45 Digital isolation offers increased $40 bandwidth for high-speed $35 equipment $30 Analog-to-digital is just one area that $25 has enabled smaller instrumentation; $20 digital isolation, or more specifically, the Price in USD $15 move from analog to digital isolation, is another. The initial perception of isola- $10 tion for instrumentation is that it acts $5 like a surge protector by protecting the $0 unit under test, test instrumentation, and 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 human operators.

12-bit ADC 16-bit ADC 18-bit ADC Besides offering this function, switching to isolation provides other advantages, Figure 1 such as eliminating ground loops. Ground loops can cause errors in measurement For a slightly increased price, designers these multifunction devices’ market price readings by forcing the instrumentation can use a single ADC per channel, which of less than $150. to read not only the test voltage level but all but eliminates phase offset and fur- also the voltage difference between the ther increases throughput. By compari- Smaller yet are devices that have an ADC multiple grounds in a system. An isolated son, some of these older systems have a and are not multifunction. These devices, design breaks these ground loops, rejects sample rate five orders of magnitude less such as small-scale temperature or humid- the common-mode voltage between all than the multichannel, multi-ADC archi- ity loggers, are battery-operated and about channels, and in doing so, provides a more tectures of today. the size of a lipstick case. With low-power accurate system that is easier to set up.

On the other end of the spectrum, devices with a single ADC have become extremely small, even pocket-sized, such For Single Print Only as the National Instruments USB-6008 shown in Figure 2. Some devices on the market are smaller than a deck of playing cards yet still perform multiple functions, such as analog input, analog generation, and digital input/output. These devices, which are often USB-powered, sample at speeds in the 10-50 KHz range and at 14-bit resolutions. If the performance-to- size ratio does not provide enough evi- dence for the ADC evolution, consider

Figure 2

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 35 APPLICATION Not so routine instrumentation

Isolated instrumentation’s expense and With the shift to digital technology, design complexity previously relegated galvanic isolation takes place after its implementation to must-have situa- the analog-to-digital conversion, pre- tions, and it used to be considered more serving the front-end analog design of a luxury for any other purpose. These and eliminating nonlinearities intro- older designs predominantly used an ana- duced by analog isolation com- log isolation architecture, meaning the ponents. Though digital isolation signal being isolated is an analog signal. technology has been around for a The isolation took place on the analog end while, such as the board depicted of the circuitry to protect the costly ADC, in Figure 3, recent developments but this involved special components that have increased bandwidth, mak- needed more space on the PCB and more ing it viable for high-speed mea- power from the system. surement equipment.

Figure 3 Whatever the method of digital isolation – optical, inductive, or capacitive – vendors that sell these digital chips are touting the benefits of reduced board space, required components, and power consumption as well as increased data throughput. These isolator chips, such as the iCoupler from Analog Devices, are about the size of a fingernail and can provide transient iso- lation of up to 5,000 V. The multi-ADC board, module, or instrument can now have both an ADC and an isolator chip for each channel. As little as five years ago, the bandwidth would have been too For Singlerestrictive and the cost too prohibitive. Print Only Virtual instruments perform faster at smaller sizes Customers and vendors alike are cash- ing in on virtual instrumentation. A quick snapshot of products on the market today reveals that customer demands and test- ing requirements are taking advantage of advancements in chip technology by requiring smaller, more cost-competitive devices. Many devices also have simul- taneous ADCs or isolation, and in some cases, both.

An example of a device that integrates the concept of virtual instrumentation, new ADCs, and digital isolator chips is the NI CompactDAQ data acquisition system (pictured at the beginning of this article). This chassis-based system is modular and designed to be controlled by a PC running application-level software devel- oped in one of many languages, such as LabVIEW, Visual Studio, or ANSI C. A simplified block diagram is shown in Figure 4.

Some of the modules, which measure approximately 9 cm x 9 cm, contain not

36 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors Module 1 only multiple 24-bit ADCs but also mul- 4x ADC tiple digital isolators with one pair for 4x ISO chip each channel. This parallel design and compact size is made possible in part by these silicon components’ decreasing cost Multicore PC and size. And with an aggregate sampling rate of more than 5 MSps streaming back to a multicore PC, the bar has been raised significantly over the relay-based systems of years ago. NI CompactDAQ Chassis As for small, lower-cost devices like the USB USB-6008, several companies offer data acquisition and data logging products Figure 4 with power requirements low enough to be run directly from a USB port. These products combine with a laptop to make a portable virtual instrument and would not have as low of prices or as high of performance levels without the latest generation of chip technology. Digital isolators require significantly less power than their optical counterparts, making them an ideal choice for bringing high- bandwidth isolation to portable data acquisition devices.

Advancements in virtual instrumentation by way of innovation in chip and PC tech- nology will continue to drive down mea- surement and computing components’ size and power consumption while main- For Single Print Only taining performance. This trend will col- lide with what seems to be the next grow- ing wave of customer demand: wireless connectivity. Future devices will bring desktop performance to remote locations as the performance of today is achieved with less power and space. ➤

Brett Burger is a product mar- keting manager for data acquisition systems at National Instruments in Austin, Texas. He started his career at NI in 2003 as a member of the engineering leadership program, where he served as a team leader and provided technical support for top accounts. Brett graduated with a BS in Aerospace Engineering from Texas A&M University.

National Instruments 512-683-0100 [email protected] www.ni.com

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 37 APPLICATION Not so routine instrumentation

The resulting application software sup- PC/104 controls ports a distributed control environment with an arbitrary number of control sys- photon beams, tems and operator display stations. The software components are designed to be event-driven, providing faster response acquires data for times and more efficient use of system critical research resources. At the low end of the target computer sys- tems, the EPICS brick or EBRICK imple- By David Fastenau mentation is a low-cost control system with soft real-time requirements. The current EBRICK implementation is built around the PC/104 Athena SBC from Diamond Systems (Figure 2). Additional I/O func- tionality is integrated onto the SBC in the form of PC/104 I/O cards, including Diamond Systems’ Ruby-MM 16-bit DAC module, Onyx-MM digital I/O mod- ule, Pearl-MM 16-bit output relay module, and Emerald-MM serial port module.

Argonne National Laboratory depends on a PC/104-based system to control critical elements of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), which has more than 40 systems controlling a variety of devices. David examines the platform used in this application. For Single Print Only uring the past several years, Argonne National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC, has developed and Ddeployed a robust and reliable platform for controlling and acquiring data in photon beam applications.

The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) platform, which Figure 2 comprises a full suite of software development tools and applications, is installed on a wide range of target computer systems scaling from high-end RISC run- Other hardware components include a ning a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) to a low-end embedded computing platform smart sensor input, motion controller, I/O running Linux. The EPICS environment provides a software infrastructure for use in breakout boards, general-purpose interface designing and managing complex distributed control systems. bus card, and stepping motor drive. The PC/104 hardware stack is housed in a com- At present, more than 250 EPICS pact and rugged Pandora enclosure from control systems are deployed in Diamond Systems (Figure 3), bringing the the laboratory to control white beam slits (Figure 1), an X-ray monochromator, an Ultra-Small Angle X-ray Scattering (USAXS) diffraction enhanced imaging in- strument, and the beamlines at the Center for Nanoscale Materials and the APS. Figure 1

EPICS components EPICS software development and runtime environments lie at the heart of the control system. The EPICS development environment is tool-based, minimizing the need for custom software development and ensuring uniform operator interfaces. EPICS runtime software can be deployed on several different OSs, including UNIX, Linux, Solaris, VxWorks, Mac OS, and Windows NT and XP. Figure 3

38 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors entire PC and data acquisition signals to beamline, USAXS delivers a more con- the test, gathers the data, and transfers it the front of the enclosure and offering centrated X-ray beam with additional to another system for storage. standard connector interfaces. A 4U X-ray photons to the sample under test. rack-mountable enclosure is available for In the same beamline, another EBRICK To date, more than 40 EBRICK systems larger applications. monitors temperatures for the X-ray are installed in a wide range of applications monochromator crystals. controlling motors, XIA Huber photon Argonne National Laboratory selected the beam slits, filters, current amplifiers, posi- Athena SBC and supporting enclosures Also at the APS in Sector 11, a high- tioners, mirror systems, and nanoprobe because of the board’s computing capa- resolution X-ray powder diffractometer beamlines. ➤ bilities and additional features such as utilizes an EBRICK system to control an data acquisition circuitry, onboard video automated sample changer. The industrial David Fastenau is support, and packaging. “These products robot-based sample exchange automation director of marketing and services have enabled our projects to system is integrated into the powder at Diamond Systems, meet their objectives in the timeframes diffractometer data collection pro- based in Mountain required,” says David Kline, a member of cess through a control script run on the View, California. the APS Engineering System Beamline EBRICK that coordinates sample mount- He has maintained Controls and Data Acquisition Group. ing, diffractometer control, and data various marketing collection. During standard operations, roles in the high-tech EBRICK in action the user loads the samples, interlocks the industry for more than 20 years, with In Sector 32 of the APS, the USAXS hutch, and initiates the script; the robot most of his career focused in the facility provides a world-class resource then runs automatically to perform a high- embedded and test and measurement for advanced materials research. Recent throughput operation. marketplaces. David is a graduate projects include characterization of nano- Electrical Engineer from Iowa State particle formation in a flame and gradient Elsewhere at the APS in Sector 4, an University and has an MBA from microstructures in fuel cell layers. EBRICK system controls high-field Santa Clara University. pulsed magnet instrument and data acqui- The EBRICK system coordinates with a sition electronics. The EBRICK runs an Diamond Systems Corporation VxWorks system to control the USAXS application called SPEC to control and 650-810-2500 instrument. In conjunction with a verti- diagnose a capacitor bank that powers the [email protected] cally focusing double mirror system on the test electronics. The application initiates www.diamondsystems.com

For Single Print Only

p

c s

/ r

1 o 0 t 4 c a a f nd m ¸ sm l for al EDITOR’S CHOICE PRODUCT

Small module eats images for lunch Trip on a stick In our never-ending search for small form factor modules, we turned up Here’s something that could provide hours of entertainment to iVeia’s Titan-V5e processing module. the nearest 2.5 m. The Trackstick II is pretty self-explanatory – it’s Based on a Xilinx Virtex-5, this a USB stick that records its position, date, time, speed, heading, platform combines general-purpose altitude, and temperature based on GPS coordinates. signal and video processing in a tiny Powered on two AAA batteries, the Trackstick II can run at full 2.125" (W) x 3.375" (L) x 0.25" (H) power for up to 36 hours depending on GPS signal strength package. It runs Linux 2.6 to manage and stay in power save mode for as long as a week. 1 MB of the Virtex-5’s PowerPC 440 CPU and the DSP48E slice along flash records months of travel history, even when traveling at with additional programmable logic in the FPGA. 300 km/hr. In addition to helping geotag photos, the USB stick The Titan-V5e development kit includes the hardware, a can plug right into Google Earth Velocity-SoC IP core and SDK, and an optimized framework or Google Maps to show you and abstraction layer that decouples the FPGA and software exactly where it has been. design to aid in development. Additional GigaFlex I/O modules Telespial Systems Inc. complete the package. www.trackstick.com iVeia, LLC • www.iveia.com • RSC# 37007 RSC# 38332 Continued on page 43

For Single Print Only

Embedded Computing Knowledge Webcasts

presented by OpenSystems Publishing Coming in September Simplifying the migration to multicore with on-chip debugging solutions for Freescale Semiconductor technology Sponsors: Wind River Systems and Freescale Semiconductor

OpenSystems Publishing™

Register at: www.opensystems-publishing.com/ecast

40 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors For Single Print Only For Single Print Only Graphically modular Take a graphics module from the notebook PC world Continued from page 40 and a PCI/104-Express carrier module, put them together, and you get Beagle Board on the OMAP trail the DIGITAL-LOGIC MSMMX104EX. MXM is short for Mobile PCI Express Module, an open If you can have a Linux community, why not a hardware standard backed by NVIDIA and several laptop manufacturers. community? BeagleBoard.org is all about designing a neat little As its name suggests, the standard defines a small graphics card device around a System-on-Chip (SoC) and exchanging ideas with a x16 PCI Express interface. ATI has adopted the standard on support and applications. in its Radeon E2400 MXM-II module, shown plugged into the Featuring a Texas Instruments OMAP3530 application processor carrier. and its ARM Cortex-A8 core, the Beagle Board packs quite Along with an MXM port that enables graphics module updates, a bite. The OMAP3530 also has an on-chip OpenGL ES 2.0 the MSMMX104EX has interfaces for DVI-I, LVDS, and TV-out. graphics accelerator and a C64x+ DSP A flexible heat pipe is available for cooling. and video accelerator. Board features DIGITAL-LOGIC include 128 MB RAM, 256 MB flash, USB www.digitallogic.com On-The-Go, DVI-D, MMC+/SD/SDIO, RSC# 38334 S-Video, stereo audio, and more. The kit is available for $149 from Digi-Key. Editor’s Choice Products are drawn from OSP’s product database and press releases. Vendors may BeagleBoard.org add their new products to our website at www.opensystems-publishing.com/np and submit press releases at www.opensystems-publishing.com/news/submit. OSP reserves the right to publish products based on www.beagleboard.org • RSC# 38333 editors’ discretion alone, and does not guarantee publication of any product entries.

For Single Print Only

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 43 Clock/timing devices Communications: I/O modules Integrated Device Technology, Inc. ACCES I/O Products, Inc. www.idt.com www.accesio.com 9UM900 USB-IDIO-16 RSC# 37820 RSC# 37770

and up to 40 Vrms field-side protection • Three-pole low-pass filter optimized for time and frequency response

Ultra-low-power timing device designed Communications: Wireless for use in Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs) • GreenPeak Technologies Extends UMPC battery life • Requires 1.5 V www.greenpeak.com power supply, as opposed to the 3.3 V EMERALD GP500C required for standard timing devices • 16 individually optically isolated inputs RSC# 37646 6 mm x 6 mm micro lead frame package and 16 fully protected solid-state FET out- makes it 56 percent smaller than standard puts capable of switching up to 2 A each 8 mm x 8 mm packages • Designed for For• 16 individually optically isolatedSingle inputs Print Only use in applications such as automotive (channel-to-channel and channel-to-ground) infotainment, embedded, and automation • Polarity-insensitive AC/DC inputs accept systems that require an industrial operat- up to 31 VDC or AC RMS • Jumper-selectable ing temperature range (-40 °C to +85 °C) • filtering per input channel for AC or voltage Available in 32 pins to 56 pins with Quad transients • Outputs capable of switching Flat No-Lead (QFN) and Small Shrink Out- from 5 VDC to 34 VDC at up to 2 A • Inter- line Package (SSOP) nal removable screw terminal board for easy wiring • USB/104 form factor for OEM embedded applications • 4" x 4" x 1.4" rug- For more information ged enclosure • OEM version (board only) features PC/104 module size and mounting Enter the product’s RSC No. at compatibility • Extended temperature and www.smallformfactors.com/rsc DIN rail mounting provisions • All required power drawn from USB port; no external Clock/timing devices...... 44 IEEE 802.15.4-compliant communications power adapter required controller chip for ultra-low-power wire- Communications: I/O modules ...... 44 less sensor networks • 2.4 GHz worldwide Communications: Wireless...... 44 band • 250 Kbps data rate • Peak current: Dataforth Corporation 20 mA • Extreme low-power features Integrated development environment. . . . . 46 www.dataforth.com enable energy-harvesting solutions • Sleep Mezzanines...... 46 SensorLex 8B42 SCM current: 100 nA • Incorporates a trans- RSC# 38032 ceiver with a fully integrated communica- Processor boards/SBCs: ETXexpress. . . . . 46 Designed to provide isolation for nonisolated tions layer and an on-chip energy manager Processor boards/SBCs: FlexATX ...... 47 two-wire transmitters • Wire transmitter • Uses an autonomous transceiver instead of a microcontroller to drive and control Processor boards/SBCs: PC/104 ...... 47 interface module • Instrument-class per- formance • Miniature size: 1.11" x 1.65" x data communication Ruggedized/Mil-Spec...... 49 0.40" (28.1 mm x 41.9 mm x 10.2 mm) • ±0.05 percent accuracy (typical) • ±0.02 percent Vision systems and displays...... 49 linearity • 1,500 Vrms transformer isolation Continued on page 46

44 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors For Single Print Only Continued from page 44

DRAM • 4 MB QDR-II SRAM • > 1 GBps, Integrated development x8 PCI Express host interface • Power man- environment agement features • Eight RocketIO private FabulaTech links, 2.5 Gbps each • XMC module (75 mm x www.fabulatech.com 150 mm) PCI Express (VITA 42.3) • Applica- Serial Port Control tions include wireless receiver and trans- RSC# 37606 mitter, WLAN, WCDMA, WiMAX front end, RADAR, electronic warfare, high-speed data recording and playback, high-speed servo controls, and IP development

Processor boards/SBCs: ETXexpress Avalue Technology Inc. www.avalue.com.tw ESM-GM965 RSC# 38085

Easy-to-use control intended for simpli- fying serial port communication tasks • Unlimited number of serial ports can be controlled simultaneously • Powerful and intuitive interface • Delivers all the capa- bilities of the Win32 Serial Communications ForAPI and eliminates its complexity Single• Works Print Only with all types of serial ports, including USB adapters, Bluetooth, IR, or any virtual port • Notifies the application when data arrives or events occur on the port, allowing it to monitor port activity and read data without locking up a user interface or implement- ing messy polling routines • Performs multi- Intel GME965 Core 2 Duo ETXexpress mod- threaded reads and writes with one simple ule • Supports 65 nm Intel Micro FCPGA function call 478/Micro FCBGA 479 Core 2 Duo CPU • Intel GME965/ICH8-M chipset • One 200-pin SODIMM socket supports up to 2 GB DDR2 Mezzanines SDRAM • Two-channel LVDS, dual view • Innovative Integration Broadcom BCM5787 Gigabit LAN • Four PCI, www.innovative-dsp.com five PCI Express x1, one PCI Express x16 • X5-400M Three SATA II, eight USB 2.0, 8-bit GPIO RSC# 37600

Kontron www.kontron.com ETXexpress-WPM RSC# 37632 High bandwidth on a COM Express solu- tion built around Intel Pentium and Celeron processors • Intel Pentium M (up to 2.0 GHz) PCI Express XMC module • Two 400 MSps, and Celeron processors with the Intel 3100 14-bit Texas Instruments ADS5474 ADCs chipset • Dimensions: 95 mm x 125 mm • and two 500 MSps, 16-bit DACs • ±1 V, Power consumption: 60 W at 12 V, 2.0 GHz 50 ohm, SMA inputs and outputs • Xilinx CPU • Up to 12 PCI Express lanes • Up to Virtex-5 SX95T FPGA with 512 MB DDR2 2x 2,048 MB mini-DIMM (2x 244-pin) with ECC

46 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors Processor boards/SBCs: PC/104 North Atlantic Industries www.naii.com 73LD4 RSC# 37383 Six-channel LVDT/RVDT-to-digital converter on a PC/104 card • Each channel has 16-bit resolution, 0.025 percent full-scale accu- racy, and tracking rate to 150 strokes per second • Accurate digital velocity output, incremental encoder (A+B) outputs, and wrap-around self-test • Includes 16 pro- grammable TTL digital I/O channels, a latch Continued on page 49 supported • Fully compliant with PICMG’s COM Express Specification following Pin- Out Type 3 • 3x Ethernet onboard (2x GbE, 1x 10/100BASE-T) • 4x SATA (Type I) and 4x USB 2.0 • 4x GPIO, I2C bus, SMBus, LPC, 2x serial (1x TTL, 1x RS-232) • Includes watch- dog timer, ExpressCard support, and a 20-pin ITP port for debugging, as well as Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) 1.0 for optimized power management • 0 °C to +60 °C operating temperature

Processor boards/SBCs: FlexATX VIA Technologies, Inc. www.via.com.tw MMC 7000 RSC# 37813 For Single Print Only

FlexATX board with C7, MPEG-2, MXM, CompactFlash, VGA, and LVDS support • Integrated VIA UniChrome Pro AGP graph- ics with MPEG-2 decoding acceleration • Supports DDR2 400/533 SDRAM DIMM • Supports one PCI slot, up to three devices by riser card • Supports one PCI Express x16 based MXM-II slot • Supports CompactFlash Type I/II • Supports Multi-Function eXten- sion (MFX) • Supports two SATA and one LVDS/VGA interface • DuoView function for multiple displays • Supports eight USB 2.0 • Optional TPM/second LAN/second LVDS/ DVI/TV support

PC/104 and Small Form Factors Fall 2008 / 47 For Single Print Only Continued from page 47 feature for reading all measurement chan- nels simultaneously, and an optional pro- grammable excitation reference supply

Ruggedized/Mil-Spec Spectrum Signal Processing www.spectrumsignal.com SDR-4803 RSC# 38039

dual Fast Ethernet and Windows XP/CE and WinXPe • Rich I/O portfolio meets many Single card RF-to-Ethernet solution cover- diverse requirements ing 800 MHz to 2.4 GHz • Low-power embed- ded radio module based on reconfigurable System-on-Chip (SoC) technology • Enables Total Control Solutions cost-effective satellite communications on www.totalcontrolsolutions.com a variety of SATCOM networks • Can be TCS-005-01535 integrated into a terminal system and con- RSC# 37410 nected to an existing power amplifier and Low-Noise Amplifier (LNA) or Low-Noise Block (LNB) antenna assembly • Designed to support commercial standards such as INTELSAT Business Services waveforms (IESS-309 and IESS-315), DVB-S/S2, and INMARSAT BGAN • Designed to support For Single Print Only Tactical Military SATCOM (MILSATCOM) waveforms, including MIL-STD-188-165 and MIL-STD-188-181/182/183 • Single board radio module designed to operate at less than 15 W combined for RF, IF, and base- band signal processing • Operates at tem- perature ranges from -40 °C to +70 °C and altitudes of up to 10,000 feet

Vision systems and displays 6.5" panel-mount industrial LCD with touch Advantech eAutomation Group screen (optional) • Aluminum front panel www.eAutomationPro.com meets IP65 standard • Dimensions: 183 mm TPC-870H x 143 mm x 41 mm • Robust steel chassis • RSC# 37618 Easy onscreen display • Analog RGB input 2 8" VGA TFT LCD touch-panel computer • • 640 x 480 resolution • 500 cd/m bright- Designed with an Intel Celeron M 1 GHz fan- ness • 262,144 colors • 0.207 mm pixel pitch • less processor with low power consumption Power supply: 12 VDC • Operating tempera- • Spindle-free storage • Durable and reliable ture: 0 ~ 50 °C platform • For applications where spindle- free storage is not critical, a fast-access HDD module can be used • Download I/O For more information cabling, RS-485 automatic data flow control Enter the product’s RSC No. at • NEMA 4/IP65-compliant front panel and www.smallformfactors.com/rsc compact design with die casting • Supports Mini-notebooks are certain to drive NextGen SFF technologies

When I first created our internal-only Small Form Factor (SFF) and Asus, which all start at about $399. With off-the-shelf list several years ago, it included more than 50 sizes of stand-alone 7" and 8" LCD screens, Wi-Fi, Solid-State Disks (SSDs) or SBCs, carrier boards, mezzanines, and Computer-On-Module 2.5" Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), and 4-hour batteries, the guts of (COM) daughterboards. It soon became my goal to turn this mag- mini-notebooks have fallen far enough down the price curve to azine and its website into the industry’s de facto resource for all create a self-sustaining ecosystem for SFFs. That is, as consum- SFFs, so we changed the name to PC/104 and Small Form Factors. ers (students, business people, and vertical market users) choose Recently, editor Don Dingee updated the list and reported an mini-notebooks as lightweight, all-day replacements for regular astounding increase to upwards of 80 SFFs, which we’ve now Windows and Mac laptops, demand increases and bill of mate- posted online for feedback (see: www.smallformfactors.com/list). rials prices decrease, further reflecting lower ASPs and hence And we’re encountering new SFFs every month. higher demand.

One example among this “viral proliferation” of sizes and shapes Up until Intel’s announcement of the SFF-sized Atom processor, is the consumer mini-notebook laptop category. While it’s VIA’s C7-M was the CPU of choice. But with a Thermal Design unlikely the boards embedded into these mass market products Power (TDP) of 0.65-2.5 W, the Atom is migrating beyond COM, will ever find their way into the general market (nor is it likely nanoETXexpress, and Sumit SFFs and into the mainstream. manufacturers would ever choose an open standard size, simply ASUS’s hugely popular Eee PC now sports an Atom, as does due to the sheer volumes involved), the market for these almost the new MSI Wind NB mini-notebook. Though most of these toy-like devices will surely grow. According to IDC as reported machines start at $399 and include Windows XP, market analyst by InformationWeek in May 2008, the “” market will Rob Enderle predicted during a recent podcast edition of Cranky increase from 500,000 units in 2007 to moreFor than 9 million by Geek s thatSingle buyers really want an OS that’s not a step backwards. Print Only 2012 – a notable 5 percent of the overall laptop market. These are (Does he mean Windows or Vista? Hard to say.) This points to an the kinds of numbers that drive all SFF technology, especially OS X-like Linux distro whose killer feature would be instant-on – because the most significant features of mini-notebooks are just like a radio or light switch. 1) small size, 2) low cost, and 3) ultra-low power consumption. This isn’t possible with any notebook version of Windows, and Mini-notebooks aren’t new; examples such as Toshiba’s Libretto developing such an OS for the mini-note market might finally and Gateway’s HandBook 486 date back to the early 1990s as the break the ties to x86 architectures. That might further open the business laptop market prepared for Windows 95. These machines door for countless other low-power SFF processors, such as ARM sometimes ran Windows but more often used a proprietary or even the new System-on-Chip (SoC) PowerQUICC-like ASSP Operating System (OS) optimized for the platform’s hardware. from Freescale called the MPC5121e “-on-a-chip.” As recently as five years ago, the OQO represented the state of the According to sources at Freescale, the highly integrated MCU art in mini-notebooks and inspired Microsoft to create the over- is already designed into at least one super-cheap Chinese mini- hyped Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) category that (mostly) relied on notebook that’s targeting the ASUS Eee PC. mainstream notebook technology. But CPUs and chipsets from AMD and Intel proved too costly and way too power hungry. As I write this in August, I just returned from a trip where a National Semiconductor’s and VIA’s C7 were x86 com- 2-pound mini-notebook would’ve been mighty handy. But even patible, more integrated, cost less than the mainstream CPUs, and more compelling is how the guts – Atom, MPC5121e, low- consumed significantly less power – until recently making them power always-on Wi-Fi, low-cost SSDs, and others – will find ideal for “all-day” battery-powered mini-notebooks. their way into the SFF market. The ICs are already available and getting cheaper. Add to that instant-on Linux OS, and more SFF One modern mini-note is Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop viral proliferation is a certainty. Per Child (OLPC) educational device, which is powered by a 433 MHz, 0.8 W AMD Geode1 that draws power from a NiMH battery that can be recharged by a built-in hand-cranked genera- tor. The OLPC’s original design target price of $100 was never achieved using myriad custom components, but it’s not far off Chris A. Ciufo of today’s mainstream mini-notebooks from Lenovo, HP, Acer, [email protected]

1 AMD purchased the Geode product line from National in 2003.

50 / Fall 2008 PC/104 and Small Form Factors For Single Print Only