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With the increased
use of Pentium -level processors in PC/104-based embedded PCs,
standard ISA bus throughput typical of PC/104 limits the full
use of this higher processor power, however PC/104-Plus is answering
these needs. PC/104-Plus allows system integrators to take advantage
of these processor speeds by providing a PCI expansion slot on
a PC/104 form factor.
Design Requirements Accomplished
The design
requirements for PC/104-Plus contained all the present criteria
currently found on the standard PC/104 form factor, plus the additional
requirements. Also, most importantly, PC/104-Plus had to be fully
backward compatible with all existing PC/104 products. In essence,
PC/104-Plus had to retain all the characteristics of PC/104 that
has made it an industry standard, plus, be able to utilize the
latest processor speeds and technology. The common PC/104 characteristics
are summarized below, with the new PC/104-Plus requiremnts added
in red.
- Compact
in size (3.6 by 3.8 inches, standard PC/104 size)
- Self-stacking
- Pin-and-socket
bus connector for harsh environments
- Four corner
mounting for vibration resistance
- low power
- low heat
generation
- PC compatible
to leverage existing software and reduce development time
- High-speed
processor capability (PC/104-Plus)
- Backward
compatible with all PC/104 products
The last items
on this list were smartly achieved by integrating a new 32-bit,
33 MHz PCI expansion slot onto a current PC/104 form factor. This
effectively makes the same kind of breakthrough that PC/104 earlier
achieved (a repackaged version of ISA that answered the unique
needs of industrial and embedded applications). But now, PC/104-Plus
is a repackaged version of PCI that effectively answers the needs
of the embedded market of today and tomorrow. PC/104-Plus upgrades
the throughput capability of PC/104 from 5 MBytes/sec to an impressive
132 MBytes/sec rate.
Opening New Doors
Look for the
July 15th issue of ECG World Bulletin and see how Advantech has
incorporated PC/104-Plus into our new PCM-9550 SBC that is soon
to be introduced. Many feel PC/104-Plus is one of many smart solutions
that will help continue to drive the embedded SBC market forward.
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