Does EBX config have a real future versus the established PC104 (and/or PC104plus)? - RM
- posted
20 years ago
PC104 vs EBX
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- posted
20 years ago
I think the difference is that EBX is larger and accomodates more connectors for IO or daughtercards. There was an article in a PC/104 magazine in the last year about EBX and a few other derivatives to PC/104. Of course I may be mixing EBX with one of the others. Is EBX the one that is the same size as a 3.5" or 5" HDD? In that case it is just a larger format which can use PC/104 cards for expansion. A lot of designs just can't fit well on the tiny PC/104 format.
-- Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX
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20 years ago
Yes, it is the floppy footprint. I do not think it poses any serious threat to the PC104... in current applications. - RM
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20 years ago
I dug out a spec today and it is a 5" drive format at 5.75"x8". PC104 is used as an expansion connector. This is not an alternative to PC104 since it is not designed to stack EBX sized boards. But rather it is intended to be a mother board to PC104 boards and allow a lot more room to build a very complete PC on the main board.
Of course with the ever increasing distillation of system logic into chips, the current PC104 boards are pretty complete. The only real advantages I can see with the EBX format is that they allow memory to be added with DIMM modules and the CPUs can use reasonable sized fans and heatsinks. PC104 still has some real estate issues with power hungry processors.
-- Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX
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20 years ago
Just to answer a question that you didn't ask, and to throw in some more information.. I am seeing a recurring theme where the "ETX" form factor applies to more and more of our problems. In this standard, a relatively Spartan processor module sits on your own base board, where you contribute whatever custom hardware is required. There are also standard baseboards available, mostly in microATX form factor.
We moved from PC/104 to EBX, unfortunately choosing Motorola's MBX2000 motherboard which immediately they cancelled after we went to market. We could have gone to another EBX board, but the connectors -- pitch, type, and location -- vary between EBX boards and it turned out that only the MBX2000 would physically fit into our assembly. After sizing up the mess we were in, we went to ETX (which standardizes these connectors) and now have a product with 3 interchangeable sources for the processor module.
Good luck!