Analysis
Eurotech's low power single board computer.
Eurotech has been working with Intel Corporation as an early adopter of Low Power Intel Architecture (LPIA) devices. As a result of this work Eurotech have now released the new PROTEUS single board computer. The PROTEUS is available in two configurations, allowing it to be deployed either as a stand-alone device, or as a COM Express module.
In eSharing the same baseboard design, the two variants differ only in how various peripheral connections are presented to the user. On the standalone variant, peripherals are presented via headers and standard connectors on the board itself, whilst on the COM Express version, these signals are presented on a standard COM Express Type 1 connector supporting PCI Express, LPC, USB, dual LVDS, HD Audio, Gigabit Ethernet and SMBus interfaces for connection to a carrier board. For convenience, a standard carrier board is also available for the COM Express version, providing standard breakouts for the various peripherals and expansion buses.
In addition to a full range of standard PC peripherals, the PROTEUS is able to interface directly to LVDS displays and has an integral touch-screen controller. The provision of two independent display controllers allows deployment in applications requiring different content to be served to different users. GPS, Bluetooth and ZigBee are on-board options and the provision of two sites for PCI Express mini cards allows easy and flexible expansion for applications requiring wireless local and wide area networking support.
Having all this performance in such a small package is a truly compelling offering that makes the PROTEUS ideally suited for applications such as infotainment, interactive kiosks, access control, HMI, medical and industrial control.
A key feature of the PROTEUS is its full compatibility with a wide range of desktop and pre-installed, ready to run, embedded operating systems including Windows XP, XP Embedded, CE 6.0 and Linux.