Copyright © 2010 RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective companies. RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. Catch the Express! Left: a stellar PCI/104-Express IDAN® including dual, hot-swappable SATA drawers, a 1.86 GHz Intel® Core™ 2 Duo cpuModule™ and Controller with video ports, serial ports, gigabit Ethernet, Advanced Analog & Digital I/O ports, and an 88W high-efficiency power supply. Below: a sample of RTD’s Express offering. RTD is proud to lead the industry in PCI/104-Express selection and development. PCI/104-Express PCIe/104 with Dual Ethernet Intel® Core™ 2 Duo cpuModule™ Intel® Core™ 2 Duo cpuModule™ High-Speed Digital I/O Isolated Digital I/O 88W Power Supply SATA Drive Carrier Dual-Slot Mini PCIe 5-Port Ethernet Switch Dual Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express to PCI Bridge rights reserved. All Inc. Inc. the property of their respective companies. the property of their respective are Technologies, Embedded RTD The Leading Source for Express. 2010 Design, Engineering, Manufacturing & Tech Support Copyright © Copyright All trademarks or registered trademarks All trademarks or registered www.rtd.com AS9100 and ISO 9001 Certified [email protected] www.smallformfactors.com www.pc104online.com Volume 14 • Number 5 COLUMNS FEATURES 6 Small Form Factor SIG Enabling SFF systems: More than just CPUs 10 THE BIG YET SMALL PICTURE By Paul Rosenfeld Mission interoperable Achieving compatibility by 7 PC/104 Consortium Promotions and spec revisions on tap for standardizing SFF designs next year By Robert A. Burckle, WinSystems By Jim Blazer 8 Euro Small Tech 16 Outside the black box: Small controllers push shopping cart production Focusing designs on I/O By Hermann Strass By John Hentges, ACCES I/O Products 26 Editor’s Insight SFF Rx for medical device design challenges 20 BUYER’S GUIDE By Jennifer Hesse 2011 PC/104 and Small Form Factors Buyer’s Guide 3.5-inch COM Express WEB RESOURCES COM/SOM Subscribe to the magazine or E-letter Industrial automation Live industry news • Submit new products Mini-ITX http://submit.opensystemsmedia.com Packaging and power supplies White papers: PC/104 Read: http://whitepapers.opensystemsmedia.com PC/104-Plus Submit: http://submit.opensystemsmedia.com PCI/104-Express Pico-I/O Rugged/Mil-Spec SUMIT ON THE COVER: SFFs require interoperability to allow different manufacturers’ products to work together like gears in a well-oiled machine. Designers’ mission, if they choose to accept it, is to build compatible components by adhering E-CASTS to industry standards and using proven interconnect technologies. Register at http://ecast.opensystemsmedia.com Enabling Telehealth Devices with Embedded Computing Presented by Microchip and Grammatech Published by: November 16, 2 p.m. EST 2010 OpenSystems Media® © 2010 PC/104 and Small Form Factors Four Key Strategies for Enabling Innovation in the Age of Smart All registered brands and trademarks in PC/104 and Small Form Factors are property of their respective owners. Presented by IBM ISSN: Print 1096-9764, ISSN Online 1550-0373 November 17, 2 p.m. EST Take Your Design to the Next Level with Intel Atom Presented by Advantech, Microsoft, Intel Embedded Alliance 4 / Winter 2010 PC/104 and Small Form Factors December 14, 2 p.m. EST TS-WIFIBOX-2 A Complete Solution for 802.11g WiFi Applications Military EMBEDDED SYSTEMS Military & Aerospace Group qty 1 Chris Ciufo, Group Editorial Director Hermann Strass, European Representative 185 [email protected] [email protected] Jennifer Hesse, Assistant Managing Editor Konrad Witte, Senior Web Developer [email protected] Steph Sweet, Creative Director Sharon Hess, Assistant Managing Editor [email protected] Joann Toth, Senior Designer Terri Thorson, Senior Editor (columns) David Diomede, Art Director [email protected] Matt Jones, Web Developer Monique DeVoe, Web Content Editor [email protected] Phyllis Thompson, Circulation/Office Manager Powered by a Christine Capuano, Web/Editorial Assistant [email protected] 250 MHz ARM9 CPU Sales Group Low power (3.2 watts), fanless Dennis Doyle, Senior Account Manager Regional Sales Managers [email protected] Barbara Quinlan, Midwest/Southwest Power via 5-12 VDC, USB, PoE (opt.) [email protected] Tom Varcie, Senior Account Manager 64MB DDR-RAM [email protected] Denis Seger, Southern California 256MB ultra-reliable XNAND drive [email protected] Rebecca Barker, Strategic Account Manager Micro-SD Card slot [email protected] Sydele Starr, Northern California [email protected] RS-232, RS-485, CAN, RTC Bridget Hildebrand Strategic Account Manager Ron Taylor, East Coast/Mid Atlantic Header with SPI and 11 DIO [email protected] [email protected] 480Mbit/s USB, Ethernet, PoE option Christine Long, Digital Content Manager Ad Coordinator [email protected] Steph Sweet Boots Linux 2.6.24 in < 3 seconds [email protected] International Sales Un-brickable, boots from SD or flash Dan Aronovic, Account Manager – Israel Reprints and PDFs [email protected] Customizable FPGA - 5K LUT Plus Nan Holliday Optional DIN mountable enclosure Elvi Lee, Account Manager – Asia 800-259-0470 [email protected] [email protected] Ideal for gateway or firewall, protocol Editorial/Business Office converter, web server, WiFi audio, and unattended remote applications 16626 E. Avenue of the Fountains, Ste. 203 Vice President Editorial: Rosemary Kristoff Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Vice President Marketing & Sales: Over 25 years in business Tel: 480-967-5581 ■ Fax: 480-837-6466 Patrick Hopper Website: www.opensystemsmedia.com Never discontinued a product [email protected] Publishers: John Black, Michael Hopper, Business Manager: Karen Layman Engineers on Tech Support Wayne Kristoff Open Source Vision Page Advertiser/Ad title Page Advertiser/Ad title Custom configurations and designs w/ 8 ACCES I/O Products, Inc. – USB embedded I/O solutions 3 RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. – excellent pricing and turn-around time 11 Advantech Embedded Group – Intel Atom E6xx Catch the express Most products ship next day processor series 14, 15 RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. – INFO 2 Diamond Systems Corporation – Blurring speed HighRel PC/104 ISA, PCI & PCIe modules and systems in a remarkably small package 5 Technologic Systems – TS-WIFIBOX-2 25 EMAC, Inc. – Low cost, low power PC/104+ 7 Tri-M Systems Inc. – PC/104 FlexTainer rugged 13 Excalibur Systems, Inc. – Dense? aluminum enclosure 9 IEI Technology USA Corp. – Fanless Intel Atom D525 25 Tri-M Systems Inc. – Intel Pentium M 745 1.8GHz, processor family 2MBL2, ATX Technologic 27 LiPPERT Embedded Computers – Embedded PCs 24 VersaLogic Corp. – The Leopard moves FAST! SYSTEMS COMplete 17 WDL Systems – The power inside tomorrow’s 19 Logic Supply – Extreme environment solutions technology We use our stuff. 28 WinSystems, Inc. – Embedded Atom SBC with 9 RAF Electronic Hardware – RAF male-female stacking visit our TS-7800 powered website at SUMIT expansion ADVERTISER spacers www.embeddedARM.com (480) 837-5200 Enabling SFF systems: More than just CPUs I’ve written earlier about SFF-SIG’s holistic view of the Small solution and test-marketed its general parameters with a variety Form Factor (SFF) market and the need for multiple standards in of CPU manufacturers outside of SFF-SIG. The results were various technology arenas to truly enable the design and imple- positive, with excellent feedback regarding how to make the mentation of open, interoperable SFF systems. The need goes far solution applicable across a wide variety of CPU solutions and beyond that for SFF CPU and I/O boards. Other areas for consid- form factors, even with form factors not currently supported by eration of new standards include memory modules, display inter- SFF-SIG members. faces, thermal solutions, enclosures, and more. In reality, this is a lot easier to talk about than to do. Each of these areas has its own The group is working to fully define the specification and will set of experts and suppliers. It’s tough to get a bunch of CPU sup- initiate testing to determine if the solution truly meets the needs pliers to talk about I/O boards. It’s even of rugged SFF systems. We expect to tougher to get them to talk (intelligently) “It’s tough to announce the details of the specifica- about enclosures and display interfaces. tion in early 2011. Meanwhile, the draft specification will only be available to SFF-SIG has indeed delivered in this get a bunch of CPU SFF-SIG members. space by issuing standards for inter- faces (SUMIT and COMIT), form fac- suppliers to talk about This experience only serves to reinforce tors for CPU boards (SUMIT-ISM and the perspective that industry subject- Pico-ITXe), I/O boards (SUMIT-ISM matter experts are needed to drive stan- and Pico-I/O), and replaceable expan- I/O boards. It’s even dards as we move outside the realm of sion storage (MiniBlade). Despite this CPU and I/O boards. SFF-SIG is provid- success, I’d certainly hoped to be farther ing a “big tent” for members from various along on “other areas for consideration” tougher to get them technology areas to meet and discuss the by this time. To do so requires bringing unique needs of SFF systems. In the case together key experts in these other areas to talk (intelligently) of the Rugged Memory Working Group, to define new standards under SFF-SIG we have the technology suppliers (the auspices. SFF-SIG is much more about memory suppliers) in a give-and-take broad member involvement and healthy about enclosures and debate with technology users (the SBC debate than simply rubber-stamping and COM suppliers) to ensure that the ideas submitted by members. display interfaces.” solution is viable and meets real needs in the market. That said, I am pleased to report signifi- cant progress in one of these areas – rugged SFF memory SFF-SIG welcomes proposals and participation from other tech- expansion.