PC/104 and Small Form Factors

VersaLogic high-performance PC104 embedded computer aims at space-limited applications

John McHale, Editorial Director — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 23:01:09 +0000

TUALATIN, Ore. VersaLogic has released a new family of PCIe/104 computers with a high-performance Intel Xeon processor and x16 PCIe expansion.

Arm processors, AI solutions pave PC/104 future paths

John McHale, Editorial Director — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 18:45:26 +0000

The defense industry has been the bright spot for PC/104 suppliers during the economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, say the participants – PC104 Consortium members – in our annual roundtable. The panelists discuss how artificial intelligence/machine learning applications (AI/ML) will be a growth area for PC/104 technology across multiple markets. They also cover how processing technology like Arm and Intel are key to future adaptations of PC/104 and ask if NVIDIA solutions will ever be found on PC/104 designs.

General-purpose FPGAs: an innovationless decade

Brandon Lewis, Technology Editor — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 17:56:17 +0000

Some corners of the electronics universe go years or decades without a significant technology upgrade. Passive electronic components are a good example, as not much more performance or cost can be pulled out of devices like resistors, at least not without a materials revolution. Another is the battery market, where offerings have by and large [...]

The past, present, and future of PC104 for small-form-factor designs

George Hilliard, WinSystems — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 17:14:47 +0000

PC104 has been around for over 30 years. That’s a long time, even for embedded systems. Despite its age, PC104 remains a viable and important architecture for embedded systems.

Changing at the right time makes all the difference

Stephen St. Amant, PC/104 Consortium President — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 16:53:35 +0000

Jay Conrad Levinson (known for the “Guerrilla Marketing” books) offered this advice on advertising: “Don’t change your ads when you’re tired of them. Don’t change them when your employees are tired of them. Don’t even change them when your friends are tired of them. Change them when your accountant is tired of them.”

PC/104 trends in the small-form-factor realm

Roy Keeler, ADLINK Technology — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 19:56:17 +0000

Common wisdom is clear: Don’t fix what isn’t broken. For decades, the PC/104 form factor has spanned many generations of processors and interfaces, always with the goal of making computing solutions as compact, modular, and enduring as possible. PC/104 remains the favored small form factor (SFF) for embedded solutions in markets where vibration, fluctuating power, granular debris, and round-the-clock use can’t be allowed to interrupt critical application uptime.

Why is long-term availability important?

George Hilliard, WinSystems — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 20:15:24 +0000

Megatrends such as the Internet of Things, robotics, and the latest industrial innovations are escalating demand for electronic components. Inadequate raw materials and manufacturer capacity are also adding to the shortfall. As a result, OEMs are looking for ways to extend the life of their existing products by either performing workarounds or making bigger purchases [...]

PC/104 always a factor at Embedded World

PC/104 Staff, OpenSystems Media — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 19:48:44 +0000

Stephen St. Amant, President of the PC/104 Consortium, leads a discussion for visitors to the OpenSystems Media booth at the 2019 Embedded World Conference & Exhibition. In photo (L to R): Stephen St. Amant; Roy Keeler, ADLINK Technology and VP of Branding for the PC/104 Consortium; Jonathan Miller, President of Diamond Systems Corp.; Dr. Paul [...]

Predictions: Spring 2020

Stephen St. Amant, PC/104 Consortium President — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 19:36:04 +0000

The thing about predictions, particularly in tech, is that when you’re wrong, you can lose a lot of money, and you can look foolish while you’re at it. In 2007, the then-CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, laughed at Apple’s newly-announced iPhone. “Five hundred dollars?! Fully subsidized with a plan? … That is the most expensive [...]

PC/104: Who and why?

Stephen St. Amant, PC/104 Consortium President — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 21:14:00 +0000

Admission: PC/104 is not a flashy name.

Tower in a teacup: How the small-form-factor transition is reshaping embedded and military computing

ADLINK Technology Staff — Fri, 22 Nov 2019 20:51:23 +0000

The adage that “bigger is better” pervades many areas, but in computing, greater size is almost always a liability. Large configurations demand power and create heat, consuming precious space and potentially crowding out other vital systems. Even in a 60-ton armored tank, size, weight, and power (SWaP) remain at a premium. Such environments demand the sort of small-form-factor (SFF) solutions that have dominated embedded computing initiatives for decades.

E-cast: A Game-Changing Leap in Autonomous Vehicle Software Architecture

embedded e-cast — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 18:00:00 +0000

A connected and autonomous future for transportation requires a major leap in architecture and software innovation. In autonomous vehicles, an immense amount of data is passed between applications requiring safety, security and a more dynamic solution...

congatec presents SMARC 2.0 Quick Starter Kit for NXP i.MX 8 designs

congatec, Inc. — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 14:37:37 +0000

Everything you need to evaluate the new best in class NXP i.MX 8 QuadMax processors

GOWIN Semiconductor Corporation Appoints Pan-European Representative

GOWIN Semiconductor — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 02:20:09 +0000

GOWIN Semiconductor expands sales channels in Europe

E-cast: Anatomy of Modern Systems: Where Safety-critical and General Purpose Applications Co-exist

embedded e-cast — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 19:00:00 +0000

You seek to meet the evolving needs of your end users by adopting sophisticated technology, from game-changing artificial intelligence applications, to augmented reality and enhanced computer vision capabilities. But how do you deploy these new missio...

Greenliant Brings Full Industrial and Enterprise Storage Lineup to electronica China 2019

Greenliant — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 23:53:46 +0000

At electronica China, Greenliant will showcase its new SATA M.2, CFast and 2.5" ArmourDrive(tm) products, as well as its ultra-high endurance eMMC NANDrive(tm) BGA SSDs using EnduroSLC(tm) Technology. Visitors can meet with technical experts at the Greenliant booth 4885 in hall E4 to discuss their data storage needs.

PC/104 and the Rogers Adoption Curve

Stephen St. Amant, PC/104 Consortium President — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 15:29:01 +0000

I’m certain that there were some project managers in the early 1990s who were hesitant to design with PC/104. “We’ll stick to the older, proven specifications, thank you very much.” Thankfully, there were plenty of early adopters – engineers and designers who saw the value of a stackable architecture, the elimination of the backplane, and [...]

PC/104: The small form factor doing big things

Stephen St. Amant, PC/104 Consortium President — Tue, 05 Mar 2019 12:05:03 +0000

Writing about PC/104 can be challenging: If you’re just talking about the form factor, there’s not a whole lot of new material to cover. In fact, if you’re reading this in a printed magazine, it’s likely that you already know about PC/104. But for the sake of those who don’t know – if you’re a [...]

Intel, congatec and Real-Time Systems present industrial-grade application server platform for multiple real-time controls

congatec, Inc. — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 21:51:40 +0000

Jack-of-all trades server ready to take over industrial controls

congatec presents 8th Gen Intel(r) Core(tm) Mobile processors on embedded form factors

congatec, Inc. — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 21:46:09 +0000

Commercial BGA processors on high-quality embedded boards

E-cast: How Connectivity Solves the Technical Challenges of the Industrial IoT– The Rise of the Robot Overlords: Clarifying the Industrial IoT – Part 7

embedded e-cast — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 19:00:00 +0000

Historians will look back at our time and wonder how we got by without smart things. Medicine is expensive, slow and error-prone. We still burn things for power and, in turn, damage the planet. Large systems, from process plants to defense, are far t...

congatec COM Express Type 7 module with AMD EPYC(tm) Embedded 3000 processor

congatec — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 22:11:18 +0000

Performance boost for rugged edge computing markets

E-cast: A Fine-tuned Approach: Automotive Software-Defined Audio

embedded e-cast — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 19:00:00 +0000

Automakers understand that acoustics are important to their vehicle experience. Up until now, automakers have had to engineer that experience by assembling disparate hardware and software components and to spend considerable effort to integrate and fi...

Take Flight with AI Core X featuring Myriad X

AAEON Technology Inc. — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 07:41:57 +0000

AI Core X is the latest product from AAEON's Up brand and the first AI module available to purchase featuring the Intel(r) Movidius(tm) Myriad(tm) X VPU.

Greenliant Expands Industrial Temperature SATA ArmourDrive(tm) Offerings with 2.5", M.2 2242 and CFast Form Factors

Greenliant — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 00:21:26 +0000

Greenliant has added industrial SATA M.2 2242, 2.5" and CFast storage products to its growing ArmourDrive portfolio. These products join industrial SATA M.2 2280 and mSATA ArmourDrive SSDs, giving customers a wider choice of form factors and capacities for reliable removable data storage.

VersaLogic shrinks server-class computers for embedded applications

Sydney Fara — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 18:54:15 +0000

VersaLogic Corp., the embedded industry's most trusted computer company, has announced a new server-class product in a compact 110 x 155 x 48 mm package.

New Atom Box Module has been added to the PS5000 Series lineup

Janelle Morris — Sat, 23 Feb 2019 23:20:55 +0000

New Atom Box Module has been added to the PS5000 Series lineup

VersaLogic adds global wireless capability to Arm-based computer product line

VersaLogic — Fri, 22 Feb 2019 22:28:20 +0000

VersaLogic Corporation announces the Swordtail--the latest in their line of production-ready Arm(r)-based embedded computers.

Industrial designers continue to choose PC/104 for both traditional and cutting-edge applications

PC/104 Consortium — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 20:57:28 +0000

Reliability and performance still matter for industrial embedded computing applications, which is why the PC/104 standard remains the first choice for those solutions requiring small form factors that can operate reliably in harsh industrial environments. While designers still choose PC/104 for rugged industrial applications, they are also opting for the time-tested architecture in newer technology [...]

Inaugural Embedded Technologies Expo & Conference Agenda Focused on Education and Training for Leading Designers & Implementers; Largest Forum for IoT & Embedded Market in North America

Embedded Technologies Expo & Conference — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 18:11:24 +0000

Sponsored by Bluetooth, Mouser Electronics, Texas Instruments and Trusted Computing Group, among others, the new event will feature more than 30 educational sessions and expert speakers from Google, NXP, and Vodafone

AI Enabled RICO-3399: Power and Flexibility that Fits

AAEON Technology Inc. — Tue, 19 Feb 2019 02:37:37 +0000

AAEON officially launches the RICO-3399, featuring the Rockchip RK3399 ARM hexa-core processor, and 4K Ultra HD video decode capabilities.

New CompactPCI(r) Serial Carrier Card Hosts Two AcroPack(r) Industrial I/O Modules for Data Acquisition, Control, or FPGA Processing

Acromag — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 21:50:53 +0000

Acromag's new 3U CPCI-S.0 board interfaces two ruggedized mPCIe analog I/O, digital I/O, serial communication, and FPGA mezzanine modules to an embedded computing system.

EFCO Announces First Gaming Logic Box for AMD Quad Core Embedded G Series Processor With Twice the Performance of Alternative Industry Solutions Available Today

EFCO — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 22:40:48 +0000

The EGL6087 will be demonstrated at ICE London 2019, from February 5 - 7, in EFCO's booth #N1-309

VersaLogic releases Android Demo/Eval Kit

VersaLogic — Mon, 04 Feb 2019 22:24:12 +0000

VersaLogic Corp., the embedded industry's most trusted computer company, has announced its new Android Eval Kit.

Acromag Releases New 6U OpenVPX Single Board Computer with Intel(r) Xeon(r) E3 CPU and Extensive I/O Support

Acromag — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 21:18:07 +0000

This new processor board provides cost-effective, high-performance computing plus support for many I/O peripherals including XMC and AcroPack(r) mPCIe mezzanine modules.

Pixus Develops Ruggedized Software Defined Radio Solutions

Pixus Technologies — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 15:43:43 +0000

Pixus Technologies, a provider of embedded computing and enclosure solutions, has developed ruggedized versions of commercial software defined radios from National Instruments.

Reduced SWaP and application requirements drive innovations in power supply

Mariana Iriarte, Technology Editor — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 15:00:00 +0000

Reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP) and increased standardization requirements for applications from unmanned aircraft to ground vehicles to portable communications systems are driving military power supply designs. Meanwhile, innovations such as gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon carbide (SiC) are improving efficiencies.

PC/104 vendors head to Embedded World in strong position, atop a billion-dollar market

PC/104 Staff, OpenSystems Media — Wed, 30 Jan 2019 15:00:00 +0000

PC/104, well into its fourth decade, remains strong globally in markets such as aerospace, defense, industrial, and medical. Such longevity is a tribute to its inherent ruggedness and the open architecture that enables PC/104 designers to continually integrate state-of-the-art processing technology from companies such as Intel and Arm. In this conversation with the PC/104 Consortium leadership, they discuss how the small form factor still fosters a robust, billion-dollar industry on the eve of the 2019 Embedded World exhibition and conference; key PC/104 suppliers look forward to hitting the exhibit floor in Nuremberg, Germany to build on the momentum in the industrial market.

Next Generation CAN knocks at the door

CAN in Automation association — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 10:24:59 +0000

CAN XL is the next generation CAN protocol featuring payloads of up to 2048 byte.

E-cast: Get Started with Industrial Ethernet on Sitara(tm) AM65x Processor

embedded e-cast — Wed, 23 Jan 2019 16:00:00 +0000

One of the advantages of Sitara processors is the ability to support multiple industrial communication protocols such as EtherCAT, PROFINET and others by simply downloading new firmware. In this webinar we will cover an overview of the new Sitara AM65...

E-cast: Getting Started with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2019

embedded e-cast — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 19:00:00 +0000

Join Ken Marlin, Windows Champ from Arrow Electronics, to learn how to get started with Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC 2019. Ken will cover the basic "getting started" items such as signing the required CLA agreement, how the product is licensed, bes...

Foreshadow: Researchers discover another Intel processor vulnerability

Sally Cole, Senior Editor — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 15:00:00 +0000

Two international teams of security researchers have independently and concurrently discovered “Foreshadow,” a new variant of the hardware vulnerability known as “Meltdown,” which exploits a bypass of Intel processors’ secure regions to access memory and data.

Rodger Hosking Joins VITA Board of Directors

Barbara Stewart — Thu, 17 Jan 2019 22:30:56 +0000

VITA, the trade association for standard computing architectures serving critical and intelligent embedded computing systems markets, announced that Rodger Hosking, vice-president and co-founder of Pentek, Inc., was elected to the VITA Board of Directors. With this election, the board will consist of four members.

Data Center Interconnect Market worth 6.41 Billion USD by 2023

MarketsandMarkets Research Pvt Ltd — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 10:20:29 +0000

Data Center Interconnect Market by Type (Product, Software, Services), Application (Real-Time Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, Workload (VM) and Data (Storage) Mobility), End User, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2023

New 10-Gigabit Ethernet XMC Modules Feature Quad SFP+ Ports or Dual XAUI Rear I/O and Support for a PCIe x8 Gen3 Interface

Acromag — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 21:07:01 +0000

Convection and conduction-cooled versions of this 10GbE Network Interface Card (NIC) mezzanine module are available offering front or backplane connections to Intel's XL710 Ethernet Controller.

E-cast: The Competitive Advantage for Autonomous Vehicles: Software — The Rise of the Robot Overlords: Clarifying the Industrial IoT – Part 6

embedded e-cast — Thu, 10 Jan 2019 19:00:00 +0000

The smart machine era is transforming the automotive industry. Autonomous vehicles - or carbots - will fundamentally disrupt transportation systems. The biggest change is the way companies compete. For decades, cars competed primarily on performance, ...

DXC Technology to acquire leading digital innovator, Luxoft

Mon, 07 Jan 2019 18:00:04 +0000

DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC) and Luxoft Holding, Inc (NYSE: LXFT) today announced a definitive agreement for DXC to acquire Luxoft, a global-scale digital innovator with differentiated offerings, deep vertical industry expertise and world-class digital talent.

Personal Cloud Market Opportunities Future Guidelines Value Chain Forecast To 2027

MarketResearch.Biz — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 10:49:00 +0000

The growing trend of virtual meetings in real-time with distantly located parties is the primary factor driving the growth of the Global Personal Cloud Market to a significant extent. Personal Cloud smaller companies is another notable growth strategy adopted by companies and is expected to be the major factor driving future market growth.

New Code Compare v5.0 with Greatly Improved Structural Comparison for C# 6.0/7.0 and VB

Devart — Wed, 19 Dec 2018 08:39:54 +0000

Devart announced a new release of Code Compare 5.0 with the greatly improved structural comparison for C# 6.0/7.0 and VB.

Rapid Growth Fuels X-ES Move to New Corporate Headquarters

Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) — Tue, 18 Dec 2018 22:21:47 +0000

To accommodate current and future growth, Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) has moved to a new corporate headquarters in Verona, WI. Completed in September of 2018, the combined office and manufacturing space is located at 9901 Silicon Prairie Parkway, approximately six miles from the company's previous headquarters in Middleton, WI.