Analysis
Fanless industrial PC for RoHS compliant embedded applications
The family of Geode processors from AMD has been highly successful as longlife, low power, fanless computing solutions. To extend the Geode roadmap, Arcom has introduced a next generation board based on the AMD Geode GX CPU clocked at 400MHz but with performance equivalent to a similar class of CPU running at 533MHz.
The of the original SBCGX1 features including dual 10/100base Ethernet ports, up to 32Mbytes of embedded
onboard Flash memory, two additional USB 2.0 ports, hot swap CompactFlash (CF+) for I/O devices such
as WiFi and modem cards and a PC/104plus expansion connector for PCI addon modules. The SBCGX533
still supports popular legacy features such as serial ports, printer and keyboard/mouse ports. The
serial ports now operate at up to 921kbit/s and, offer deep 128byte FIFOs with automatic RTS control on the RS422/ 485 port – a practical benefit when running highspeed serial communications under Windows XP.
For those building user interface panels, the board also includes a 4 wire analog resistive touchscreen
interface and has direct support for TFT flat panel displays.
The SBCGX53 product has been designed to embrace the requirements of the RoHS Directive. However, Arcom will also offer a board option manufactured using lead based solder for industry sectors which can not accept leadfree solder, such as military systems or which fall outside the RoHS Directive such as control and monitoring, medical and communications infrastructure equipment.
To simplify system integration, the SBCGX533 is offered with Development Kits and ‘board support
packages’ for Windows CE 5.0, Windows XP Embedded, and embedded Linux as well as a rugged
industrial compact enclosure (ICE) for complete system solutions.