[Engineering Feature]
Cautiously Optimistic Exhibitors Revisit ESC In 2007
As the dust settles in the embedded sector, vendors return to the embedded systems conference.
BOARD AND MODULES Developers looking more to buy the parts they need rather than build will find plenty of boards, blades, and modules at the show.
VIA Technologies will display its EX line of Mini-ITX motherboards (Fig. 4). The C7 processor draws only 13.6 W. The motherboard's HDTV encoder supports 1080i displays. Unlike other motherboards, the EX models come with a DVI video output, not VGA. Gigabit Ethernet is an option, but Serial ATA ports are standard. Coax and optical SPDIF outputs are standard, too.
National Instruments' CompactRIO gets a boost with Freescale's new PowerPC-based MPC5200 processor (Fig. 5). Still, users of NI's LabView FPGA and LabView Real-Time may not notice anything but the improved performance, because LabView's model-based graphical programming system effectively hides the underlying hardware.
Attendees interested in a little more customization can check out Advanced Micro Devices' Rapid Deployment Kits (RDKs), which are a quick way to get Opterons into play. The 200 Series AdvancedTCA RDK uses a 55-W single-or dual-core Opteron processor. It has four Gigabit Ethernet ports, two for the front panel and two for the PIMG 3.0 switched-fabric backplane. Another platform, the Geode LX Network Attached Storage (NAS) RDK, uses AMD's single-chip x86 processor. The latest 1.5-W Geode LX900 will also be on display.
The highlights in this preview only scratch the surface (i.e., what vendors let me peek at ahead of time). Be sure to check out our real-time show coverage at electronicdesign.com and tune into EngineeringTV.com for reports from the show floor and what the vendors reveal at the conference.
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