single board Pc

Google for p104,they range from 486 to pentium 800mHZ Google for "matchbox pc" if you want it smaller.

You mean PC104.

Also try googling SBC + 486, pentium, cyrix , low power etc...

Graham

Cheap:

I've thought about experimenting with a single board computer from time to time. Whenever I already know what I want (e.g. the specific sbc used in some book that I thought I might want to go through), it turns out to be too expensive for me. At the moment, when I don't know what I want and don't definitely want something, I don't know how to look through a list of SBC's such as one finds at

and decide what their characteristics and capabilities are and what it would be like to try to use them. Maybe the latter subjective aspect becomes less problematic after one has experimented with a few sbc's.

If anyone wants to comment on these aspects of the learning curve for playing with sbc's, I'd be interested in reading what they have to say.

--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 

I still have some of these books. They deal with the following processors:

6502, 8085, 8051, Z80. I don't know whether boards are still available for these processors. Just so it should not be a total loss to own these books, I've downloaded simulators for all the above processors. But if I want to practice interfacing, and I do, it would be better to have SDK's or SBC's for them.

I'm not absolutely clear on the difference between a SDK and a SBC. I think the former has a keypad and an LED display, while the latter is just a board that one will plug into another computer. Is that correct?

--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 

SDK is the tools that helps in writing programs for certain environments or for some specific processors or processor based systems. Those programs will work actually on in the corresponding SBCs or environments.

So SBC is the working environment for which we may write the software in corresponding SDK. Krishna.VJ.

Allan Adler wrote:

single chip computers are easier... something with 32K of flash rom and the same ram is not a large number of dollars,

a SDK (system developers kit) typically has leds and input (buttons/toggle switches) and a interface for loading programs into it from a PC, the SBC (single board computer) just has I/O terminals

--
Bye.
   Jasen

Thanks for answering my question about SDK vs. SBC. From your description, there is no physical obstacle to interfacing to it. How do you enter programs into a SBC?

--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 

That depends. newer flash based micros can often be programmed in-situ but older ones needed to be programmed (or have an eeprom programmed) in an eeprom programmer before installing them in the SBC.

Bye. Jasen

In response to what jasen posted in news: snipped-for-privacy@gonzo.homenet:

Or you install a PROM with a small suipervisory program that implements a serial interface. User programs can then be loaded to RAM and run there.

--
Joe Soap.
JUNK is stuff that you keep for 20 years,

If I understand you correctly, normally, before you buy a SBC, you have to know exactly what memory chips it takes and you have to have an EPROM programmer that specifically takes that memory chip. I didn't see information about memory chips on SBC's at

--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler 

In response to what Allan Adler posted in news: snipped-for-privacy@nestle.csail.mit.edu:

The manufacturers of the SBC usually include such a PROM, or sell it for a small price.

My Comany used to make S100 SBCs, and a monitor PROM was included.

--
Joe Soap.
JUNK is stuff that you keep for 20 years,

Hi all , Thanks for your reply. STPC and geode include entire PC ports inside including VGA . I thought the SBCs which use STPC or Geode will be very small.But it is not the case .They are also of same cost and size as the other celeron, pentium, etc based SBCs.

if you're wanting X86 compatability VIA's "nano itx" range are probably the smallest,

If you're wanting cheap you may have to forego intel compatibility. or go larger eg via's "mini itx"

Bye. Jasen