MEN Micro: FPGA offers embedded flexibility for new SBC
Embedded industrial system designers have an additional 3U single-board computer (SBC) to consider for applications with demanding environmental conditions.
F11 single-board computer from MEN Micro is available now with pricing that starts at $1,195 for single units.
Embedded industrial system designers have an additional 3U single-board computer (SBC) to consider for applications with demanding environmental conditions. MEN Micro Inc. ’s new F11 SBC (with Intel Pentium III or Celeron processors) works either as a single-slot Compact PCI (cPCI) system master or as a stand-alone computer, offering speeds from 400 to 933 MHz. An onboard field-programmable gate array (FPGA) from Altera streamlines the board’s I/O point configuration. F11 SBC is well suited to rugged transportation and railway applications.
F11 comes equipped with two fast Ethernet and two serial RS-232 interfaces accessible at the front panel via RJ45 connectors (D-sub connectors are optional). Two USB ports, VGA (or UXVGA) graphics port, and a keyboard/mouse interface also are on the front panel. Flexible memory configuration up to 512 MB of SO-DIMM is available onboard along with a CompactFlash socket and a slot for a 2.5-in. hard disk. For embedded mobile applications, F11’s custom heatsink reportedly has efficient thermal management to allow fanless operation in many systems.
The FPGA is used to implement various I/O functions that are delivered to the front panel via line drivers contained in MEN’s serial adapter (SA) modules. With SA modules added, F11 takes 2-7 slots in a cPCI card cage.
“On-board FPGA gives engineers a high level of I/O flexibility,” says Ernest Godsey, president of MEN Micro. “Instead of expanding the system’s I/O [points] by adding cPCI cards to the system or by mounting mezzanine cards on carriers, additional I/O points can be implemented by loading functional I/O cores into F11’s FPGA.”
Various ready-to-use functional cores for I/O interfaces are available for the FPGA or from third-party sources.
—Frank J. Bartos, executive editor, Control Engineering, fbartos@reedbusiness.com
Do you have experience and expertise with the topics mentioned in this content? You should consider contributing to our CFE Media editorial team and getting the recognition you and your company deserve. Click here to start this process.
