looking for hardware source

Hi,

I'm coming from the software part of computing and have very limited experience with the hardware part. When I tried to find the hardware for an embedded system (see below) the cheapest I could find was in the US$ 520 area.

Is this the usual range for the described hardware or have I looked at the wrong web sites?

power:

  • minimal power consumption is essential

OS / drivers / software:

  • Open Source operating system like Linux or *BSD
  • I've done my share of kernel debugging/development, thus a "newbe friendly" setup is not required

CPU / RAM:

  • architecture doesn't matter
  • processing power comparable to a Pentium @ 80 MHz with 64MB RAM

connectivity:

  • IEEE 802.11b/g
  • using 3 different WLAN networks concurrently
  • only 1Mb/s per network required

temperature sensor:

  • range: -20=B0C to +60=B0C
  • accuracy: +/- 3=B0C

storage:

  • at least 128 MB for non-OS data/programs
  • preferable on a removable media

optional:

  • hardware accelerated encryption
  • USB (client)

Thomas

Reply to
mail.encoding
Loading thread data ...

That's because your requirements are rather biased towards the "big and expensive" end of embedded hardware.

E.g. this requirement:

rather strongly contradicts this:

Systems capable of running Linux will consume a whole lot more power than "minimum essential".

Same here. 64 MB of RAM are in wild contradiction to the goal of conserving power.

Same here.

Reply to
Hans-Bernhard Bröker

What does minimal mean to you? 10 years on a coin cell? Less than 100 Watts?

not sure what you mean by 3 concurrently, but many of your needs could be met by a PDA, e.g. Palm Tx ($300 US, retail qty 1)

a crude temperature sensor seems rather odd next to the rest of your items, but if you're willing to break open the case you could still use a PDA.

Bob

Reply to
Bob

I don't care what open source operating system is running on it. Linux was just an example.

The problem is that the system has to run an SSH server. Apart from the encryption the required processing power is approx that of a i386 @ 20 MHz with 8MB RAM.

This is actually the essential part. The box is intended as a backup server between several Wlans.

Thomas

Reply to
mail.encoding

s?

One possible source provides 400 mA / 15V.

Most WLAN cards can only connect to one ESSID/network at a time. Some cards can connect to more networks the other possibility would be three WLAN card.

Basically the sensor is just required to detect fire or frocen water.

The Palm TX looks good, but meets neither the open source nor the

3xWLAN requirement.

Thomas

Reply to
mail.encoding

Thomas

You didn't say if this is a one off requirement or if you had a volume application behind it. There are ways to attain equivalent performance using FPGA technology as the processing element/s that are worth considering if your application has some numbers for manufacture. As a very rough guide against the boards you are looking at applications with numbers equal to, or greater, than 50 units it can be worth doing a semi-custom, or custom, hardware platform.

Have a look at our website

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where you will see a number of boards capable of doing various things depending the design loaded into the FPGA. Not for your application but of interest as an example of what can be done in embedded auotmotive applications is our CR1 board
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This board we originally did for a customer and replaced 7 different cards they were using for the same functions saving significant manufacture cost, size and power.

Against the power usage of a Pentium style processor usually a FPGA solution will be significantly better.

John Adair Enterpo> Hi,

Reply to
John Adair

Have you investigated Soekris hardware? They specialize in hardware very much like your requirements.

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A popular minimalist OS install is OpenBSD via flashdist.

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Hope this helps.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaughan

Google for ebox2300 from DMP in Taiwan which has 200MHz 486 class CPU 128 Mb SDRAM LAN, 2 serial, 3 USB host Compact Flash slot 24 GPIO Wall-wart PSU They are available at 1 off prices in the range USD 150-200. We run them using a version of Puppy Linux. We've seen 1000 off prices down to USD 85 FOB Taiwan. If you need 3 LANs, just stick two USB adaptors in. We can supply them if you are desperate!

Stephen

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Stephen Pelc, stephenXXX@mpeforth.com
MicroProcessor Engineering Ltd - More Real, Less Time
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Reply to
Stephen Pelc

Please do not top-post. Your answer belongs after (or intermixed with) the quoted material to which you reply, after snipping all irrelevant material. See the following links:

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Reply to
CBFalconer

snipped-for-privacy@googlemail.com wrote on 04/01/08 22:24 MET:

Might one of the routerboard fit your needs:

What I'm not sure about is if they've got a temperature sensor on-board.

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MfG / Regards
Friedrich Lobenstock
Reply to
Friedrich Lobenstock

Top posting is the preferred way of doing it, especially if the article has got much-read and much-repeated and much-seen-before material quoted which means that the new contribution goes off the bottom of the screen.

When browsing the NG, you can idly sit on one key doing next ....next ....next but if there's a great wadge of quoted material then you have to move over onto the page down key. If you read a large number of groups then you haven't time to do this and the bottom posted article with much-repeated quoting just gets passed over without being read, whereas the top-posted articles all get read.

In any case, as each article is preceded by up to 30 lines of header it is meaningless to claim that anything is ever top-posted.

Generally Usenet is a place of acadaemic learn>>

Reply to
Anonymous.

Personally I agree. I don't want to re-read the same material over and over and more to the point have to search for the new information. A lot of people view through viewers that only show the top lines initially and if you don't have all day to browse I find it useful to only look at posts that might be of interest and tell me something new. Whatever anyone else likes, or dislikes, I remain a convinced top poster.

John Adair Enterpo> Top posting is the preferred way of doing it, especially if

d text -

Reply to
John Adair

NO. If it was the PREFERRED method, the MAJORITY of posters would do it that way. That is NOT the case. There 2 kind of people who top-post: lazy and ignorant.

Stop including EVERYTHING from ALL of the previous posts. That is stupid and UNNECESSARY.

Anyone who has read Usenet posts for a week (as is usually advised BEFORE you make your first post), will see the bottom-posting/middle-posting paradigm used by the VAST MAJORITY of posters and will emulate that.

John Adair top-posted:

NO ONE DOES. If parts of the previous text aren't IMPORTANT enough to appear ABOVE your submission, JUST SNIP THAT OUT. All you need of the previous post is enough to frame your response. The word "context" is generally used to describe this.

A post that has 4-deep reposts of previous material IN REVERSE ORDER demonstrates simple ignorance or a total ***DISRESPECT*** for your fellow netizens.

Reply to
JeffM

You failed to read the URLs I posted. The point is that proper replies have adequately snipped the original quote, so that there is no great amount to skip over, and what there is reads in a proper order. There is no 'much-repeated quoting'.

The preserved URLs:

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 Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
   
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Reply to
CBFalconer

Look at the VIA EPIA boards. They are PC compatible with a lot less power.

Rene

--=20 Ing.Buero R.Tschaggelar -

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& commercial newsgroups -
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Reply to
Rene Tschaggelar

See also "lazy and ignorant." An author who cares about his readers will trim replies for precision and conciseness. The result is superior communication. Top-posters are poor communicators.

Reply to
David Kelly

The case for top-posting is won when those against resort to infantile ad hominem remarks.

Top, bottom and middle postings are just minor variations on style, up to the individual. The content of messages is that which is important.

OK, here's a reply which is bottom-posted. Are you happy now?

The case for top-posting is won when those against resort to infantile ad hominem remarks.

Top, bottom and middle postings are just minor variations on style, up to the individual. The content of messages is that which is important.

OK, here's a reply which is bottom-posted. Are you happy now?

Reply to
Anonymous.

I think the problem is that you are looking at low-volume board level products.

To get the cost down, you may need to look at re-purposing a high volume consumer product as a platform.

For example, you can get an Asus 7-inch display laptop running linux for $300. Power consumption may be higher than you want though, close to 11 watts, but probably you could figure out how to disable (or even remove) the display for some savings.

There are some very small form factor appliance PC's in the $100 range and about 5 watts, but you may need to add a USB dongle for wlan.

There's a linux based wireless messaging device for $50, forget the name, you might have to add memory though.

Linux based wifi routers are another option, but you will have to add memory.

Reply to
cs_posting

You are forgetting that in posting one is asking a favor of the reader to consider your words. One should show respect by making the effort to use good grammar and spelling. To choose one's words carefully. To be brief. And format appropriately and cleanly. This is also why HTML news/email is A Bad Thing.

Failure to reply in the proper format will cause many to ignore one's reply. If you want a reply then you will reply in the format expected by those who are capable of answering.

Is hard for some to understand how one might not be happy to be proven correct. "Anonymous." provided an excellent example of poor communication (infantile too). At least he/she trimmed a bit. Real Top Posters Never Trim.

Reply to
David Kelly

On Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:46:44 -0600, I said, "Pick a card, any card" and David Kelly instead replied:

This is just plain silly. In the early days of USENET, before it was even called that, the norm was top posting to reply leaving the balance of the message for reference only. Period.

Some folk in the business world still do that. Go to any help desk for any software issue and that's how they do it. The even ask you to reply on top leaving the balance of the message dialog as a record of the discussion thus far.

So, if you want to top post, that's your proper format. If you like to middle post, that's your proper format. If you like to bottom post, that's yours. This is a place where YOUR choices are solitary. You don't get to drive everyone else's choices to match yours. You always have the choice to opt out of subscribing to such a vile place where top posting happens even when you forbid it.

-- Ray

Reply to
Ray Haddad

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