Embedded XScale board secures communications

An Eurotech product story

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Jul 19, 2004

Arcom has a new and exciting low power Intel IXP425 XScale based single board computer for secure embedded communication systems.

Arcom has a new and exciting low power Intel IXP425 XScale based single board computer for secure embedded communication systems.

The Mercury is a low power PC/104 compatible single board computer based on the 533MHz Intel IXP425 XScale network processor.

The IXP425 is an implementation of the low power Intel XScale microarchitecture and includes two on-chip 10/100Base-T Ethernet controllers, high speed serial ports and a PCIbus interface to local peripherals.

The IXP425 also includes hardware-accelerated encryption (AES, DES, 3DES) and authentication (SHA-1, MD5) for enhanced Ethernet based communication security.

The Mercury includes four high-speed USB 2.0 ports, four serial ports (RS232/422/485), battery backed SRAM, RTC and a GPIO port.

The combination of 64Mbyte of soldered DRAM and 16 or 32Mbyte Flash memory, along with the high speed local I/O makes this an ideal platform for low power, secure wired/wireless remote terminal units, industrial network gateways and data acquisition systems.

The CompactFlash (CF+) port serves as a convenient interface for memory and inexpensive WiFi cards, and the PC/104 bus expansion connector is an ideal interface to link to a custom I/O baseboard or adding off-the-shelf PC/104 modules.

For security sensitive products, the Mercury includes a tamper switch input to detect enclosure intrusion and a unique 48bit silicon serial number for asset tracking.

A comprehensive embedded Linux development kit is available and includes the 533MHz Mercury single board computer fitted with 64Mbyte DRAM, 16Mbyte of Flash and 256Kbyte SRAM, along with the Mercury ICE (Industrial Compact Enclosure), a serial and Ethernet cable set and a quick-start manual.