Development Kit allows fast design of embedded Linux devices

12th June 2006

Eurotech Ltd

ES Admin

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Arcom’s new Development Kit allows faster and easier development of a wide range of embedded devices in a Linux environment. The kit’s SBC-GX533 board has a compact Arcom Embedded Linux image installed in its onboard Flash. All onboard hardware features are supported, allowing unrestricted access to their functionality, while all unnecessary software functions have been removed, leaving a compact image of just 13 MB. This can save weeks or even months of development effort compared with configuring a Linux image from scratch. Developers can start work on their project immediately, either by writing their own applications code or by accessing the nearly unlimited range of freely available open source applications.

The kit’s SBC-GX533 board is well suited for deeply embedded, remote or unattended installations demanding reasonable processing power. It is a low profile, fan-less, RoHS compliant EBX form factor board, based on a 400 MHz AMD Geode™ GX533 1.1W processor. It has 512 MB of DDR DRAM and 32 MB of Flash installed, of which 13 MB are used by the Linux image. This leaves 19 MB of physical memory, equivalent to about 38MB of usable space, available for Linux application and data storage. The board also features TFT or CRT support, an analog touchscreen interface, dual 10/100BaseT Ethernet ports, CompactFlash (CF+), 4 serial and 4 USB ports. Industrial expansion is provided through an 8-bit TTL I/O port, a PC/104 and a PC/104+ site. All usual PC interfaces are also included.

The Development Kit includes everything needed to start work immediately. As well as the SBC-GX533 board with preloaded embedded Linux, it has an AC power supply and all cables for immediate operation and application download. Color 6.5” NEC TFT display and analog touchscreen options are also available. The Resource CD includes Linux Tutorials, hardware documentation and an Arcom Embedded Linux source code listing.

Typical uses include industrial RTUs and data acquisition modules, networking and communications devices.

Arcom Embedded Linux with optional Java Technology features a compact implementation of the GNU/Linux operating system based on the proven v2.6 Linux kernel release. This, together with the Compressed Journalling Flash File System (JFFS2) included, is highly reliable and can recover from power interruptions. Standard Linux GNU C/C++ software tools are also included, ensuring application development is simple and consistent with desktop Linux.

The SBC-GX533 Linux Development Kit provides a low cost and easy way of developing a very wide range of applications and running them on targets that are robust, stable, secure and licence free.