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Xilinx® Virtex™-5 FPGA High-Performance Memory High-Speed PCI-X Interface AXM Plug-in I/O Interface Cards Typical Applications Engineering Design Kit Video: "Custom Board Level FPGA Solutions Overview" (.wmv) User-configurable FPGA solutions PMC FPGA Modules | | ||||||||||||||||||||
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The writer was instrummental in formulating the Vision of new Market niche in COM business. Identified two unlikely partners with leading technologies crutial to the vision success, and hammered both sides into signing the Partnership Agreement in February 2008.
The press conference that took place in Nürnberg on February 27, attracted some 2 dozens of Editors, mostly from German speaking countries. Two companies, unlikely partners, sometime and up to a point even competitors, it took guts forge the Partnership.
Kontron a renown and well established vendor of Embedded Solutions beside many other things in the IT Industry. With total revenues touching almost €1 Billion per year. Diamond Systems a known vendor in PC/104 ruggedized solutions with especially strong following in Military and Aerospace industries, the size of annually revenues roughly 30-40 times smaller.
Both being Visionaries and Movers saw a ground breaking Opportunity to the beckoning COM market.
They saw End Users studying their respective product catalogues and could not find satisfactory solution to their problems. They would analyse market, searched for Off-the-shelf products, and failed to find all encompassing solution. Because their annual need was exceeding 500-700 units or more. Easily their bosses have resigned and accepted costs and time-to-market loss to develop its own solution. Any after some 2 years of trial and development time, they usually came up to a solution that mostly satisfied the boss, as far as cost of development, resources and lost time-to-market.
Kontron came up with the EXT idea already in 1998, used its best know how of how to build a CPU on a Module, with standard interfaces to the carrier board.
Diamond Systems build standard boards with variants for strategic customers also for years. Its „forte“ are I/O’s, Neptun is a Customized Base Board that accepts ETX and constitutes a complete solution, it is practically Off-the-shelf too. Thus by joining their respective products a solution is being hammered out that allows customers to purchase their „Custom“ BaseBoards Off-the-shelf with already integrated ETX processor module. Thus cutting the End User development time by about 2 years, freeing resources for other tasks, and Cutting Time-to-Market on their Competitors
On February 26, 2008. in Nuremberg, Germany. Diamond Systems Corporation and Kontron, worldwide leaders of embedded I/O and CPU products and technologies respectively announced a strategic partnership at the Embedded World show to deliver high integration “single board” solutions using Kontron ETX modules with Diamond Systems off-the-shelf and custom I/O intensive carrier boards. As a cornerstone of the agreement, Diamond Systems will develop and produce carrier boards to meet the unique requirements of embedded designs requiring analogue and/or digital I/O, extensive serial communications and/or wide-ranging DC power input. Diamond Systems will then select from a wide performance range of Kontron Computer-on-Module (COM) CPU offerings to deliver complete yet flexible, fully integrated solutions to the customer.
Kontron will promote and fully support Diamond Systems by sharing and jointly pursuing sales opportunities, and by providing special support and marketing programs. Diamond Systems will retain primary customer support responsibilities. This announcement enables Diamond Systems to offer OEMs access to superb CPU technology coupled with the best-in-class analogue and digital I/O technology. OEMs and system integrators around the world who build applications in automation, data acquisition, medical, military, transportation, and instrumentation markets now have a unique choice in Diamond Systems for performance flexibility and obsolescence mitigation without having to manage multiple suppliers for carrier board design, contract manufacturing, and off-the-shelf CPU modules.
“We are excited to partner with Diamond Systems to enhance the usage of our leading line of ETX modules within multiple market segments,” said Dirk Finstel, chief technology officer of Kontron Embedded Modules Division. “Products and services from Diamond Systems and Kontron complement one another very well. Even more system OEMs around the world can now transition to COM-based architectures thanks to this cooperation.”
“As the PC/104 I/O leader for the past 15 years, Diamond Systems has helped hundreds of OEMs develop systems with extensive I/O requirements, especially systems required to operate reliably in the harshest environments,” said Jonathan Miller, president of Diamond Systems. “A key factor in the success of the small PC/104 form factor has been the richness of available off-the-shelf I/O. Now, Diamond Systems is building on this background to enable a broad base of OEMs to use Kontron’s flexible, low cost, rugged Computer-On-Module CPUs, by offering both off-the-shelf and custom COM baseboards with extensive I/O capabilities.”
Diamond Systems’ I/O expertise includes analogue I/O (A/D and D/A), digital I/O, serial communications, multifunction networking, and power supply designs with wide input ranges. This expertise easily carries over into the COM domain. For example, the data acquisition circuitry for Diamond Systems’ COM carrier boards utilizes the same proven high-accuracy circuitry found on Diamond Systems’ industry-leading DMM-32X-AT PC/104 module. Even for modest I/O requirements, Diamond Systems has an extensive database of proven I/O designs for cost-sensitive, long lifecycle, and low power applications.
Diamond Systems’ unique Universal Driver programming software for Linux, Windows XP and CE, and QNX operating systems is available to all carrier board customers. This driver complements and greatly extends the basic CPU support software from Kontron by ensuring that the BIOS, basic BSP and I/O driver software all works together out of the box.
There is no reason not to believe that above numbers to be conservative, as COM Market is huge and annually millions of boards/systems are being deployed. Kontron and Diamond systems may recognize this opportunity and step up marketing and Sales efforts, co-ordinated or not, to participate to the fullest extent in this market. In case the COM market develops rapidly over the next 12-24 months, it is conceivable that both companies may step up and deepen its cooperation to properly address each new opportunities or efficiencies that would shorten End User Time-to-market
However this business seem a bit asymmetrical, the writer is getting more and more inquiries from various places mostly associated with Kontron products, who ask about right to distribute the above solution to their customers. This part of business is not projected here yet, and needs to be added over and above the projection.
Neptune is an ultra high integration EPIC form factor single board computer combining state-of-the-art CPU and I/O technology with Diamond System’s renowned high accuracy data acquisition circuitry on a single board. Neptune is available with a selection of CPU modules, offering you the perfect combination of price, performance and power. Neptune also offers up to 2GB of DDR/DDR2 DRAM via SODIMM, provides a
Renewable Energy Application using Diamond Systems PC/104 based solution reduces operating and maintenance costs
By Stephen Baginski
In recent time we observe quite strong shift in the wide population’s perception of climate status and the prevailing opinion is that we experience Global Warming for some time already. This is nothing new some pundits would say. What is new this time is that people and governments think that humans can do something substantial about it and decided to tax CO2 emissions and to use the funds to subsidise the alternative technologies that would help reduce consumption of fossil fuels. One such technology is wind power.
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into more useful forms, usually electricity, using wind turbines. At the end of 2006, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was some 75,000 megawatts; although it currently produces just over 1% of world-wide electricity use, it accounts for approximately 20% of electricity use in Denmark, 9% in Spain, and 7% in Germany. Globally, wind power generation more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2006.
Most modern wind power is generated in the form of electricity by converting the rotation of turbine blades into electrical current by means of an electrical generator. In windmills (a much older technology), wind energy is used to turn mechanical machinery to do physical work, such as crushing grain or pumping water.
Wind power is used in large scale wind farms for national electrical grids as well as in small individual turbines for providing electricity to rural residences or grid-isolated locations.
Wind energy is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and reduces toxic atmospheric and greenhouse gas emissions if used to replace fossil-fuel-derived electricity (which hasn't ever happened due to the need for conventional backup of all wind inputs to a grid). The intermittency of wind seldom creates problems when using wind power at low to moderate penetration levels (though such intermittency has caused problems for grid stability in
Using the wind to create electricity has been around for a long time - you've probably seen windmills on farms. Ancient Babylonian and Chinese used wind power for water irrigation purposes. When the wind turns the blades of a windmill, it spins a turbine inside a small generator to produce electricity, just like a big coal power plant.
A windmill on a farm can make only a small amount of electricity - enough to power a few farm machines. To make enough electricity to serve lots of people, power companies build "wind farms" with dozens of huge wind turbines.
Wind farms are built in flat, open areas where the wind blows at least 25 km per hour. In
The insides of the wind turbine are shown below:
As seen on the above schematic, it is relatively costly and complicated piece of equipment, that requires top investment funds to build and service and maintenance contracts to cost effectively keep this equipment in running condition as long as possible. Here enters Diamond Systems Europe GmbH with its Distributor in Germany, which together with local System Integrator (SI) have supplied a system to monitor and to predict scheduled maintenance procedures that with given exact mechanical and thermal status would tell service personnel what exact actions are required to reduce down time and reduce or even eliminate the cost of breakdowns thus spare parts savings and increase in produced electrical power.
Diamond Systems Europe GmbH is an international vendor of ruggedized and compact computer boards that can be stacked into small boxes, can work without moving parts themselves (no fan). With low power consumption the systems generates limited amount of heat thus no need for cooling fan. Besides small foot print, low power consumption, the DSE systems are withstanding high degree of vibration on board of such rotating equipment, and in full sun, it could work in temperatures up to +85deg C or at -40deg C in winter.
Diamond Systems Europe GmbH has another speciality is its exceptionally high precision of analogues signal processing abilities. To measure all required analogue inputs a solution based on it Prometheus family of boards was selected by the System Integrator in Baden Württemberg,
The space-saving Prometheus combines a full-featured 486 CPU with an intelligent, professional-quality data acquisition circuit including analogue I/O, digital I/O, and counter/timers, all on one board. Its low power consumption of 5 watts eliminates the need for a heat sink or fan and enables guaranteed operation over the range of -40 to +85oC. Prometheus has been successfully used in applications including satellites, military combat vehicles, and process control.
Built-in I/O includes a 10/100Mbps Ethernet port, 2 USB ports, 4 RS-232 ports with serial console capability, PS/2 keyboard/mouse, IDE port, parallel port, and floppy port. Prometheus also includes a real-time clock with backup battery and a programmable watchdog timer with both hardware and software retrigger capability.
Prometheus is compatible with a solid state flash disk modules that provide IDE-compatible mass storage in a rugged format that bolts onto the board and requires no special drivers. See http://diamondsystems.com for more information. For DOS applications, it includes a built-in flash file system that lets you store DOS operating system and application files right in the on-board flash memory without requiring any external storage. This saves time, reduces cost, and increases the ruggedness of your system. Prometheus is available in three versions:
The built-in data acquisition circuit is identical to the one used on the Athena CPU (http:/diamondsystems.com. It provides 16 analogue inputs with 16-bit A/D resolution and a comprehensive set of features, including programmable input ranges, single-ended and differential inputs, and interrupt-based sampling with FIFO support. The circuit also provides 4 12-bit analogue outputs with selectable output ranges, 24 digital I/O lines with programmable direction and enhanced output current, and 2 programmable counter/timers for sample rate control, event counting, and programmable interrupt generation.
| Version | Description |
| EA | Full-featured model, with 10/100Mbps Ethernet and data acquisition |
| E | Includes Ethernet, no data acquisition |
| LC | No Ethernet or data acquisition; 16MB RAM; Extra-low power consumption of 2 watts |
| The on-board 2MB of flash memory contains system BIOS (http:/www.diamondsystems.com/support/prombios) and plenty of room for an embedded OS and user programs in diskless applications. The BIOS provides support for using this flash memory to emulate a diskette drive. It can be configured as either a bootable A: drive or a non-bootable B: drive. Both MS-DOS and ROM-DOS can be loaded, along with application software, right into the flash, totally eliminating the need for external storage media. (Same link as above) for more information on this exclusive feature. For connection to an external hard disk, a 44-pin IDE connector is provided that includes both IDE signals and power. The board will accept the direct mounting of a flash disk module, providing up to 128MB of additional rugged, solid state memory right on the board. |
PROMETHEUS contains a complete data acquisition circuit at a level of performance matching our Diamond-MM-16-AT board (without auto calibration). It has 16 analogue inputs with 16-bit resolution and 100,000 samples per second maximum sampling rate. The analogue inputs feature programmable gain, unipolar and bipolar input ranges, and single-ended and differential configuration. The 4 analogue outputs have 12-bit resolution and output ranges of 0-5V or +/-5V. The 24 digital I/O feature programmable direction. Two counter/timers provide a means for user-generated timing signals, counting of external pulses, and control of the A/D sampling rate.
PROMETHEUS provides ATX power compatibility. The power can be turned on by pressing a momentary switch. If the switch is pressed a second time and held for 2 seconds, the power will turn off. The auxiliary output power connector for external drives is also switched on and off with this circuit.
A picture of Prometheus CPU board in PC/104 format
The optional data acquisition circuit on Prometheus is equivalent to a full-featured analogue I/O expansion board, with analogue I/O, digital I/O, and counter/timer functions.
The 16 analogue inputs have 16-bit resolution, programmable gain of 1, 2, 4, and 8, and maximum input range of +/-10V in bipolar mode or 0-10V in unipolar mode. Both single-ended (2-wire) and differential (3-wire) inputs may be accommodated. Using the built-in FIFO and interrupts, the board can achieve sample rates of up to 100 KHz in both single-sample and scan modes.
The board also has 4 12-bit analogue output channels. The output range is jumper-selected between 0-10V or +/-10V. On power-up, the outputs may be configured to clear to mid-scale or zero-scale, so that they always power up to 0V for safety.
Prometheus also has 24 digital I/O lines organized as 3 8-bit ports. The direction of each port is programmable. When in output mode, each port has a high-drive buffer capable of supplying up to -10/+30mA of output current per pin.
Prometheus has two counter/timers for timing operations. The first counter is 24 bits wide and is generally used to control A/D sampling rate. Driven by a user-programmable 10MHz or 1MHz on-board clock, it can provide output pulses anywhere from 10MHz down to 0.06Hz. The second counter/timer is 16 bits wide and can be driven by either 10MHz or 100 KHz on-board clocks or a user-supplied input signal. It can be used for timing, counting/totalizing, or programmable interrupt generator functions.
All data acquisition I/O signals are available on a single 50-pin header that mates with a standard ribbon cable.
The optional data acquisition circuit on Prometheus is equivalent to a full-featured analogue I/O expansion board, with analogue I/O, digital I/O, and counter/timer functions.
The 16 analogue inputs have 16-bit resolution, programmable gain of 1, 2, 4, and 8, and maximum input range of +/-10V in bipolar mode or 0-10V in unipolar mode. Both single-ended (2-wire) and differential (3-wire) inputs may be accommodated. Using the built-in FIFO and interrupts, the board can achieve sample rates of up to 100 KHz in both single-sample and scan modes.
The board also has 4 12-bit analogue output channels. The output range is jumper-selected between 0-10V or +/-10V. On power-up, the outputs may be configured to clear to mid-scale or zero-scale, so that they always power up to 0V for safety.
Prometheus also has 24 digital I/O lines organized as 3 8-bit ports. The direction of each port is programmable. When in output mode, each port has a high-drive buffer capable of supplying up to -10/+30mA of output current per pin.
Prometheus has two counter/timers for timing operations. The first counter is 24 bits wide and is generally used to control A/D sampling rate. Driven by a user-programmable 10MHz or 1MHz on-board clock, it can provide output pulses anywhere from 10MHz down to 0.06Hz. The second counter/timer is 16 bits wide and can be driven by either 10MHz or 100 KHz on-board clocks or a user-supplied input signal. It can be used for timing, counting/totalizing, or programmable interrupt generator functions.
All data acquisition I/O signals are available on a single 50-pin header that mates with a standard ribbon
cable.
Prometheus has a total of 9 I/O headers to manage its large quantity of I/O. Because there are several options, including a cable-free method, no cables are provided with the board. All I/O connection options are sold separately.
| | |
About Diamond Systems
Diamond Systems Europe GmbH is located near the
About the author
Stephen F. Baginski was for years the European Bureau Chief at Open Systems Publishing (www.opensystems-publishing.com), one of the largest publishing houses for open systems. He is consulting on Embedded Technology for customers like Kontron, Siemens, Nokia-Mayfair, Diamond and others. He is based in
Prior to OSP, Stephen held positions of responsibility with General Electric at Danforth Facility (classified project), Ontario Research Foundation (nuclear projects), Sniffer Technology (network security, wireless) in
Stephen responsibilities progressed from System Engineer to Managing Director and CEO.
He received B.E and M.E. in Engineering Science from Technical University of Breslau.
Stephen professional affiliations include (past and present): Society of Manufacturing Engineers, American Management Association, Society of American Engineers, Association of Professional Engineers of the province of Ontario now PEO, Royal Engineering Association of Sweden, German Engineers Society (VDI), he was active in VITA
t
He is married, has two children. In his spare time he enjoys yachting, mountain-biking, and reading. Stephen is member of the cantonal champion’s team in Reiden, shooting small calibre sports pistol SIG5.6mm.
Earthquake Research Satellite Demonstrates Ruggedness of Diamond Systems
APPLICATION OVERVIEW
For a long time in history, people have believed that earthquakes were the sign of god’s wrath. They were devastating and unpredictable. Loss of life and long term negative economic effects remanded of the urgent need to find ways to guess the next coming earthquake. Every fresh attempt to predict the coming disaster failed notoriously.
Until now that is. Scientists have felt that now there is a sufficient computer power available to crunch the complex models representing movement of earth’s plates and to find where exactly the next “crunch” comes from. All that was needed was to collect data to produce and to update the model continuously. Since the disaster in Skopje 1963 when thousands died, scientific models have improved rapidly. Since then the Skopje University was compressing rocks to break them to observe how they behave under pressure. Just before the rock broke, the applying cylinders would release the pressure slightly to extend the breaking process almost indefinitely. Piezzo-electric sensors would keep an eye on the rock, all the time saving it from complete breakup.
Others have been doing similar experiments aimed at understanding the process and look for behavioral patterns. At the same time, sensors, computers and software improved rapidly. In effect at the dawn of this century, sophisticated modeling, software and knowledge of the earthquake process, allowed scientists to move to a new level, and to start collecting live data to predict future disasters and warn potentially affected in advance. Several systems have been in place across the globe and some to be put in the space to view and measure tectonic activities. Launching and operating a satellite based system, puts very trying requirements on the system, in terms of vibration, electric, mechanical and thermal stress and limited size etc.
QuakeSat, an innovative and ultra-compact Linux-powered satellite designed to detect earthquakes from space. Its primary scientific mission is to detect, record, and downlink Extremely Low Frequency (ELF) magnetic signal data, which may lead to groundbreaking techniques to predict earthquake activity. It uses the Prometheus integrated PCIIO4 CPU board from Diamond Systems as its main control system. The satellite operated successfully in its orbit 600 miles above the Earth’s surface for about 3 years, twice as long as expected.
QuakeSat measured a tiny 4” x 4” x 12”. It was designed to fit inside an ultra-miniature satellite enclosure that mounts in a Russian rocket decommissioned as a result of the former START talks. This severe size restriction limited the choices for off-the-shelf CPU boards.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS
A satellite involves extreme design restrictions that limit the choices of components. Size, weight, power consumption, and ruggedness are key concerns. Only PC/1O4 was able to meet these criteria and provide a suitable computing platform for the QuakeSat electronics. QuakeSat serves as an excellent example of what can be achieved using rugged PC/104 technology.
DIAMOND SYSTEMS SOLUTION
Diamond Systems’ Prometheus CPU is based on the ZF Micro ZFx86 low-power integrated x86 CPU-on-a-chip. The board includes processor, memory, Ethernet, serial ports, IDE, and a full analog and digital I/O circuit. Prometheus combines two boards (CPU and I/O) into one to reduce the size and weight of the embedded system by 50 percent. Prometheus was chosen for use in QuakeSat because it met these key criteria:
· Miniature size: PC/104 (3.6” x 3.8”) was the only easily expandable form factor that fit inside the small enclosure.
· Integrated design: Combining the processor and data acquisition functions on a single board reduced the size and weight of the CPU and enabled more electronics to fit in the satellite.
· Low power: Total power consumption of less than 3 watts minimized the drain satellite’s limited solar-collector system.
· Rugged design: Prometheus utilizes soldered-on memory for extra ruggedness, and it has a tested and verified operating temperature range of -40 to +85°C. Temperature and vibration immunity enabled the electronics to survive launch conditions and operate in a space environment with extreme temperature swings.
(Insert the diagram with Prometheus here)
The Prometheus CPU features 2-in-I design to reduce size and weight
ABOUT DIAMOND SYSTEMS
Diamond Systems has been a leading designer and manufacturer of highly integrated embedded single-board computers, I/O boards, power supplies, and systems for over 15 years. Today Diamond Systems is using its wide product and technology base to provide custom-tailored single-board solutions for the embedded market.
USA www.diamondsystems.com
Europe www.diamondsystems.ch
PC/104 In the Military
By Paul Rosenfeld
Since its inception in 1991, PC/104 technology has been embraced by military systems engineers for a wide range of applications, from pilotless drones to missile launchers to military radios. Many engineers select PC/104 because its ultra-small (3.55” x 3.775”) form factor enables an off-the-shelf solution for applications that may previously have been possible only with a custom CPU design. For example, the small size allows PC/104 CPUs, and in fact, complete multi-board systems to be placed in the nose cone of a missile or fit nicely inside a small UAV.
Other engineers select PC/104 technology because of the ruggedness inherent in its stacking architecture (See Figure 1). This unique approach to multi-board systems provides for a shock- and vibration-resistant off-the-shelf computing solution by eliminating backplanes and metal card cages, making PC/104 ideal for military vehicles such as tanks or even HUMVEEs. Finally, the light weight of PC/104 systems make PC/104 an ideal architecture for systems carried by soldiers, such as military radios.
There are other features that are not inherent to PC/104 itself, but are provided by many PC/104 suppliers, that make the technology even more well suited for military applications. The inherent ruggedness in the PC/104 mechanical design is enhanced by using boards that have been designed and tested for extended temperature operation. Many PC/104 boards are rated from -40°C to +85°C. Cold temperature is a requirement for operation in an aircraft at high altitude. High temperatures can occur in a sealed enclosure sitting on the ground in a desert country. Developing boards that run reliably at such extreme temperatures is a challenge when fundamental elements such as the CPU and chipset may not be rated at such extreme temperatures. Dissipating heat from a 5W to 15W CPU under such circumstances takes skill and an outstanding design.
Diamond Systems, among others, supplies a number of PC/104 CPUs and I/O boards rated to run over the full extended temperature range of -40°C to +85°C. While many of these boards use some components rated by their manufacturers for only 0 to 70°C, there are certain design techniques that can make extended temperature operation feasible. First, board suppliers have developed broad experience with a wide range of passive components to understand which components can be expected to perform well outside their rated temperature range. The key to designing with passive components is to analyze the temperature effects on their key parameters and then design the circuit to operate reliably under worst case conditions. In addition, more expensive tantalum capacitors are preferred over the aluminum electrolytic capacitors found on commercial grade boards.
Component selection is only part of the battle. Board design must incorporate very conservative timing parameters, particularly with respect to low temperature operation. More attention is paid to matching trace lengths and matching impedence on multi-pin interfaces between components. This can be particularly important on high speed interfaces such as the front-side bus between the CPU and northbridge or the memory bus between the northbridge and the memory components.
For ICs, a common but not universal rule is that derating, such as downclocking processors or using logic chips at speeds much slower than their specified performance, can often yield an increase in reliable operating temperature range. In this case performance may sometimes be sacrificed in favor of reliability; this is a judgment that must be made by both the designer and customer.
Finally, these boards may have more layers, providing greater spacing between traces and more room for copper layers to pick up and dissipate some of the heat. As a final step, the memory refresh rate may be manipulated in the BIOS to prevent memory failures at the temperature extremes.
But it is not enough to just design a product according to these types of design rules. From the very earliest prototype, products must be exercised over the full temperature range. Design tweaks aimed specifically to broaden the operating temperature range of the product may often be tried out. It is important to have extensive experience testing multiple boards operating for considerable time at the temperature extremes to gain sufficient confidence to specify a product over the full range and guarantee operation at the extremes for the duration of the warranty period. But even this may not always be enough. In some cases, there may be sufficient variances in component performance that make it desirable to test each and every product shipped over the full temperature extremes. Some PC/104 vendors, including Diamond Systems, offer optional extended temperature screening of each product shipped to provide the highest level of confidence (See Figure 2).
A second feature that is highly valued by the military is resistance to shock and vibration. The stacking PC/104 architecture provides the basic elements that enhance the performance of a PC/104 stack in such applications. When implemented with four metal standoffs at each of the four corner mounting holes, a PC/104 stack is extremely rugged. But a rugged stack that stays together is not enough if the system fails due to jumpers coming off or socketed memory DIMMs vibrating loose. In general, all sockets should be eliminated in a rugged design. For example, in one real-world application, a DIMM memory module that was held down by a strap vibrated sufficiently within its socket that the socket contacts lost tension over time, resulting in intermittent memory failures in the field a year or more after initial deployment – a very difficult and expensive problem to diagnose and repair.
In this case replacement of the DIMM socket with a different type solved the problem. But the use of soldered–on memory, as implemented on Diamond Systems CPU boards, represents the best possible solution, since it eliminates the source of the problem rather than trying to overcome it.
Similarly, a configuration jumper (or shunt) on a board may represent a cost of less than a penny. But once again, jumpers are available with differing tension and plating characteristics. And after being subject to continuous shock and vibration, shunts lose their grip over time. The most secure way to fix a board configuration in a production system (which is unlikely ever to change) is to hardwire the jumper, either with a soldered wire strap or, preferably, with a zero ohm resistor. Many PC/104 suppliers, including Diamond Systems, make such a configuration option available to their customers by building footprints for these configuration resistors right onto the PCB.
Figure 4 shows Diamond Systems new Elektra PC/104 CPU which incorporates many of the ruggedness features outlined above, including extended temperature operation, soldered memory and optional hardwired configuration jumpers along with on-board data acquisition. [Note that this can be a caption]
Let’s look at how these capabilities available with many PC/104 solutions play a role in a real-life application.
A leading defense contractor was developing a Weapons Station to remotely control light and medium caliber weapons that can be installed on any type of military vehicle. The system required a small form factor computing platform with full analog, digital, and serial I/O and a display interface.
The customer selected a PC/104 CPU with IDE flashdisk storage from Diamond Systems due to its extended operating temperature range and integrated data acquisition capabilities. Since the vehicle would likely see action in extreme environments such as water, sand, high temperatures etc., the customer requested that Diamond conformally coat the PCB and flash disk.
It was also anticipated that the system would be exposed to extreme shock and vibration. Soldered memory on the CPU board was essential for this application. However, the customer requirements called for changes to the standard product in order pass MIL-STD-810 shock and vibration standards. Diamond Systems replaced standard connectors with latching connectors with increased contact plating. The PC/104 connector was replaced by a high reliability MIL style connector. Selector shunts were replaced with zero-Ohm resistors to eliminate any possible dislodging of the shunts due to vibration or misapplication. Finally, to counteract the effects of extreme vibration over and above that of the MIL 810 vibration specification, all of the BGA chips were under-filled to eliminate any solder bond cracking between the board and the BGA balls.
In order to assure consistent and reliable thermal management in this rugged, high vibration environment, Diamond Systems’ engineers worked with the customer to create a custom heat sink that would equalize vibration resistance utilizing several legs positioned about the PCB. The heat sink utilized a thermal contact pad to eliminate the effects of shock and vibration from being transferred from the heat sink to the BGA chips. After extensive testing, the solution successfully passed all of the higher vibration test requirements.
The application described above shows dramatically how the capabilities inherent in the PC/104 architecture – rugged inter-board connections and small size – make PC/104 architecture suitable for vehicle-based and airborne military applications. But they also demonstrate how particular features and capabilities added by suppliers of PC/104 CPU and I/O boards go the extra mile to fit the specific needs and requirements of military systems. Design considerations such as component selection, PCB design, and component derating contribute to a product’s reliability. Extra features, such as an extended operating temperature range, conformal coating, additional ruggedness through elimination of jumpers, latching connectors and soldered-on memory, and burn-in or temperature screening of each board shipped add to the ruggedness of the products. These techniques ensure that PC/104 technology continues to maintain a leadership position in military applications challenged by limited space and harsh operating environments.
