PC/104 board gains embedded Linux support

An Eurotech product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Jul 9, 2003

Arcom has released a ready-to-run embedded Linux development kit to support its ultra-low-power Intel PXA255 XScale based single board computer.

Arcom has released a ready-to-run embedded Linux development kit to support its ultra-low-power Intel PXA255 XScale based single board computer.

The Viper board is a PC/104 single board computer powered by the 400MHz Intel PXA255 XScale application processor (ARM v.5TE compliant).

To ensure customers receive the best level of support and the opportunity to rapidly optimise the Linux image, Arcom creates and maintains the embedded Linux distribution using its own development team.

The GNU/Linux distribution offers a compact, high reliability implementation of Linux for developing and deploying C or Java based embedded control and communication products.

It is based on the proven 2.4 kernel and includes read/write and read only support for the onboard Flash memory using the compressed Journaling Flash File System (JFFS2).

Arcom has integrated support for the PXA255 graphics controller and drivers for many of the onboard peripherals.

Power management support includes variable CPU clock frequency selection and dynamic power control of the internal peripherals.

The operating system includes a standard installation of Open-SSH (secure-shell), allowing a wide range of encryption and authentication techniques to be used by the Viper communications channels.

A compact implementation of the IBM J9 Java virtual machine may also be installed from the supplied quick-start installation CD.

This comprehensive development kit includes the 400MHz PXA255 based Viper single board computer fitted with 64Mbyte DRAM, 16Mbyte of Flash, Viper ICE (industrial compact enclosure), the Viper-UPS (uninterruptible power supply), serial and Ethernet cable set, an optional Q-VGA colour display and touchscreen and a comprehensive quick-start manual.

For those developing with embedded Java, the kit includes an evaluation copy of IBM's WebSphere Studio Device Developer IDE development tools.

The Viper is an ultra-low power PC/104 form factor (3.6 x 3.8in) embedded processor board based on the 400MHz Intel PXA255 XScale RISC processor (ARM v.5TE compliant).

The Viper includes an incredible range of onboard peripherals including a flat panel display controller for TFT and STN displays, 10/100Base-Tx Ethernet, five serial ports, CompactFlash socket for hot swap memory and wireless cards and I/O expansion using the PC/104 bus.