RSC# 2 @ www.smallformfactors.com/rsc RSC# 3 @ www.smallformfactors.com/rsc www.smallformfactors.com www.pc104online.com Volume 10 • Number 5 COLUMNS FEATURES 8 PC/104 Embedded Consortium HARDWARE: Storage and networking Runaway technology threatens our future By Jonathan Miller 16 Net-centric military operations connect with PC/104, 10 Fundamentals 101 Mobile IP Choices, choices, choices By Mike Southworth, Parvus By Joel Huebner 14 European Technology 20 Surviving oil pipeline pigging operations with Speeders busted on film E-Disk SSDs By Hermann Strass By Jun Alejo, BiTMICRO 54 Editor’s Insight Rugged SFFs ... Windows ate my homework ... 24 What’s big in small storage and why I won’t buy another iPod By Don Dingee By Chris A. Ciufo TECHNOLOGY: Taking the heat DEPARTMENTS 26 Micro thermofluidic technology cools rising heat 13,36,50 Editor’s Choice Products By George Meyer, Celsia Technologies By Don Dingee 53 Advertiser Index SPECIAL: Small form factors in outer space 32 SPACE-104: A stackable solution for space electronics By Dr. Robert Hodson, NASA E-CASTS MicroTCA – A Powerful New Standard for Cost Effective BUYER’S GUIDE Carrier Grade Equipment November 16, 2 p.m. EST 38 2007 PC/104 and Small Form Factors Buyer’s Guide www.opensystems-publishing.com/ecast EVENTS E-LETTER electronica Winter: www.smallformfactors.com/eletter November 14-17 XTX versus COM Express – the gloves come off New Munich Trade Fair Centre Munich, Germany By Colin McCracken, Ampro Computers www.global-electronics.net/id/20308 Cooling takes on smaller forms On the cover: By Martin Mayer, Advanced Digital Logic The Gecko EPIC-format SBC from VersaLogic Corp. coordinates communication with the central server and GPS system inside a futuristic media display module that changes advertising messages to correspond with the location WEB RESOURCES of the taxi it’s mounted on. 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Ave. of the Fountains, Ste 203 Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Tel: 480-967-5581 n Fax: 480-837-6466 Website: www.opensystems-publishing.com Publishers John Black, Michael Hopper, Wayne Kristoff Vice President Editorial Rosemary Kristoff Communications Group Editorial Director Joe Pavlat Assistant Managing Editor Anne Fisher Senior Editor (columns) Terri Thorson Technology Editor Curt Schwaderer European Representative Hermann Strass Embedded and Test & Analysis Group Editorial Director Jerry Gipper Editorial Director Don Dingee Technical Editor Chad Lumsden Associate Editor Jennifer Hesse Special Projects Editor Bob Stasonis European Representative Hermann Strass ISSN Print 1096-9764, ISSN Online 1550-0373 Publication Agreement Number: 40048627 Canada return address: WDS, Station A, PO Box 54, Windsor, ON N9A 615 PC/104 and Small Form Factors is published five times a year by OpenSystems Publishing LLC, 30233 Jefferson Ave., St. Clair Shores, MI 48082. Subscriptions are free upon request to persons interested in PC/104 and other small form factor single board computer technology. For others inside the US and Canada, subscriptions are $35/year. For 1st class delivery outside the US and Canada, subscriptions are $50/year (advance payment in US funds required). RSC# 02 @ www.smallformfactors.com/rsc POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PC104 and Small Form Factors 16872 E. Ave. of the Fountains, Ste 203, Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 6 / Winter 2006 PC/104 and Small Form Factors RSC# 7 @ www.smallformfactors.com/rsc RSC# 7 @ www.smallformfactors.com/rsc Runaway technology threatens our future Praise the good old days of PC/104! the board designer as well, from changes could ever need more than 640K?”) Yes, The ISA bus was the expansion method in the underlying CPU technology. By but even on today’s latest processors we of choice, processors consumed modest designing to a common bus interface see the LPC bus, a de facto admission power levels, and chips boasted long life (ISA), I/O board makers could avoid wor- that PCI and PCI Express are not one size cycles. Board developers and their cus- rying about what CPU would drive the fits all. A low-cost, low-speed, simple tomers could count on a stable technol- system, and system designers could rely address/data bus is still optimal for many ogy base, so they designed products with on the fact that virtually all I/O boards functions on a CPU board. the confidence that they could recoup the would work on virtually all CPUs. ISA cost of their investment and not spend too was easy and cheap. A simple $1 PAL much time in redesign or requalification. device was enough to implement a basic A new approach register-map interface for many I/O boards. Then a certain pair of companies had a Then came PCI with its higher bandwidth is needed to big idea: Advance technology as fast and corresponding complexity. PC/104 as possible to outrun the competition responded by adding a new connector for incorporate the latest and keep customers coming back every the new bus. But the interface required a two years when their current products larger and significantly more costly logic bus technology into become obsolete. In the consumer and device. Now board vendors and custom- office market, this concept caused enough ers had to choose between two buses, and a common platform headaches, with nonhomogeneous in- the situation started to get more complex: stalled bases making it difficult to keep My PC/104-Plus Ethernet card won’t for the future that can track of who had what, who needed to work with your PC/104 CPU. match PC/104 in its upgrade, and how to make everything work together. In the embedded market This two-bus complexity could be man- simplicity, reliability, where longevity was critical to compa- aged, but it was only a sign of things to nies’ product life cycles and regulatory come. Now, as technology vendors con- and proliferation requirements such as FDA, this runaway tinue their push into the stratosphere, technology philosophy spelled disaster. ISA and PCI are disappearing and a third of vendors and bus, PCI Express, is taking their place. But Board developers have done a good job the extremely high-frequency signaling products. of keeping up by providing reasonable of PCI Express places serious constraints migration paths from old products to new. on connector choices and board layout And to be fair the core technology sup- and interface logic design. Furthermore, So where does this line of inquiry lead pliers (processors and operating systems) with two connectors on the PC/104 board us? Two conclusions: have done their share to make their new already, there isn’t room to add a third products largely backwards compatible connector. In any case, why should we? First of all, as ISA disappears from almost with the old ones, minimizing upgrade Since when must PC/104 serve all custom- all new processors, the very existence of difficulties. But today the situation is get- ers in all applications and be compatible PC/104 is threatened. A long-term solu- ting out of hand. By the time a CPU com- with all existing products? tion is needed now to maintain the viabil- pany comes to market with the latest Intel ity of this hugely successful market and chipset, they are two generations behind. And who needs PCI Express anyway, integrate products that we have developed Core Duo, and now Core Quattro (what’s with its added cost in complex board for the past 15 years. The PC/104 indus- next: Core Centennial?) chips are already design and layout as well as power- try must consider how to address this on the market, while many (if not most) hungry processors that prevent I/O boards threat head on to ensure the survival of PC/104 and PC/104-expandable CPU from being stacked on top due to the need PC/104, or we risk losing the momentum suppliers are still in the early stages of for larger heat sinks and fans? Yes, many and spotlight we have justifiably earned. introducing their Pentium M/945 prod- applications can use the higher bandwidth Secondly, a new approach is needed to ucts. How can board suppliers keep up? and processing power, but a huge market incorporate the latest bus technology And should they even try? still exists of down-to-earth applications into a common platform for the future where an 8 MHz bus clock is more than that can match PC/104 in its simplicity, The beauty of PC/104 was that it isolated enough still.