Designing a new system from
scratch? You can probably find a board
form factor that can speed delivery time
with expansion and enhancement options
that a custom solution would lack.
Board-level products are commonly used
in a range of embedded systems, including
rugged applications such as avionics and
military (“Military And Avionics Applications
Demand Rugged Hardware”). In these cases, 3U and 6U
boards plug into a backplane.
Tek Microsystems’ QuiXilica Titan-V5
VXS board offers four 1-Gsample/s, 12-bit
analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) and
four 1.2-Gsample/s, 14-bit digital-toanalog
converter (DAC) channels (Fig.
1). Its three Virtex-5 FPGAs handle these
interfaces, and the VXS support blends the
parallel VME bus with high-speed serial
fabrics such as Serial RapidIO.
The size of the boards and the application
areas lend themselves to expansion
via mezzanine cards. IEEE P1381.1 PMC
(PCI mezzanine card), VITA 42 XMC
(switched mezzanine card), and VITA
57 FMC (FPGA mezzanine card) are
three common standards.
Pentek’s 7800 series of high-performance
I/O boards is based on a common
PC half-length x8 PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0
carrier board (Fig. 2). The carrier board
hosts a single PMC/XMC module versus
the normal 3U or 6U home that’s associated
with board standards such as VME,
VXS, VPX, CompactPCI, and Compact-
PCI Express.
Pentek already supplies PMC and XMC
cards for the Pentek 7800, so this is simply
an expansion to a PC form factor. A PC carrier
board can be used for development, but it
also opens up development platforms that can
utilize the same mezzanine cards that might
be deployed using the 3U or 6U boards.
MORE MOTHERBOARDS
Board form factors don’t have to follow
a set standard. Some follow form factors
associated with other components.
Advanced Digital Logic’s ADL945HD
follows the 3.5-in. hard-disk form factor
(146 by 102 mm). The 2.16-GHz dual-core
Core 2 Duo is on the bottom of the board,
so a case can be used as a heatsink (Fig. 3).
The board also has serial advanced technology
attachment (SATA) and enhanced
integrated drive electronics (EIDE) interfaces
for the matching hard drive.
Pentek had a great idea with its 7800 carrier
board, but it needs a processor board
like Adlink Technology’s NuPRO-730
PICMG 1.0 full-size single-board computer
(SBC). The NuPRO-730 plugs into
a PC backplane and brings out peripheral
interfaces such as SATA and USB via
additional edge connectors (Fig. 4).
Advantech’s ARK-6310-3M04E 1.6-
GHz Atom-based system utilizes a Mini-
ITX motherboard with dual Gigabit Ethernet
ports, four USB ports, three serial ports,
and one VGA port (Fig. 5). Mini-ITX has
a single PCI slot for expansion. The fanless
case has sufficient space for a 2.5-in.
hard drive. It also has an optional Wi-Fi
module and Video Electronics Standard
Association (VESA) mounting bracket,
and it requires 12 V to 24 V dc.
STACK IN THE BACK
Lippert’s Cool SpaceRunner-LX800 is
representative of the PC/104-Plus stacking
approach (Fig. 6). The SBC has an AMD
LX800 Geode processor, 256 Mbytes of
RAM, and a 2-Gbyte solid-state disk. ISA
and PCI bus connectors allow the stacking
of peripheral boards as needed. The
PC/104 Consortium and the Small Form
Factor SIG have standards that add PCI
Express support to this form factor.
ADLINK TECHNOLOGY
www.adlinktech.com
ADVANCED DIGITAL LOGIC
www.adl-usa.com
ADVANTECH
www.advantech.com
LIPPERT EMBEDDED COMPUTERS GMBH
www.lippertembedded.com
PENTEK
www.pentek.com
TEKMICRO
www.tekmicro.com