Simtec's Mini-ITX ARM Board

Posted 31 Oct 2003 at 14:58 UTC by steve

Simtec has released a new Mini-ITX board based on the Samsung S3C2410, a 200MHz ARM920T SOC. The board requires 3.3 volts at 600ma (3 watts). It's got some interesting I/O including the usual PC-type stuff like Ethernet, USB, five serial, parallel, IR, audio, and video. But it also includes some I/O of the type that's crucial to robot builders: I2C, 50 GPIO lines, LCD, JTAG, 8x13 keyboard matrix connector, and even a PC104 expansion connecter. It seems to lack any A/D inputs however. It runs Linux, of course and includes A Debian GNU gcc tool chain. Full documentation and a gallery of photos can be found on the Simtec website. The only downside is the price: $425 per unit. The VIA Technologies EPIA M10000 combined with an external I/O subprocessor like the IsoPod still wins on price.

But wait til you buy the compiler or OS..., posted 3 Nov 2003 at 12:20 UTC by earlwb » (Master)

Unless you are able to get a GNUC++ compiler to work with it, the C++ compiler costs are going be sky high. Then you still need some kind of a OS too, that's extra.

Any details on the Nano-ITX board?, posted 3 Nov 2003 at 17:09 UTC by tdickens » (Observer)

Steve,
Thanks for posting your experiences with the Mini-ITX. I've read a few items about their next board, the Nano-ITX, a 4.5"x4.5" board, which should be great for robotics. I'm currently building a 6"x6" cube robot anticipating this board.

Does anyone have details such as:
- availability date?
- retail sources?
- price?
- does the iTuner 12VDC power board work for it?

References: http://www.via.com.tw/en/Digital%20Library/PR030924VTF-5_VIAKeynote.jsp

He then displayed the VIA Nano-ITX mainboard, at just 12cm x 12cm, the smallest ever standard platform with full PC functionality, which is ideally suited for the next generation of smaller, quieter, digitally intelligent home, office, mobile, industrial and commercial devices. Declared "the shape of things to come" by Chen, the Nano-ITX board will be launched later this year.

Pictures of the prototype are on: http://www.mini-itx.com/news/computex2003-1/

Nano-ITX spec is unfinished, posted 4 Nov 2003 at 09:41 UTC by Timster » (Master)

Sorry to say the specs haven't been finalized on the Nano-ITX boards yet for me to update you. Suffice it to say they will be smaller (obviously) integrate all the chipset features of the Mini-ITX boards, provide up to 1GHz CPU speeds (and then more)and offer more power management features to get the power requirements down even further.

I'll post more as I can.

Tim

Timothy J. Brown VIA Robotics Program Manager

VIA Robotics Initiative http://www.via.com.tw/en/robotics/robotics.jsp

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