Single board PC? / Computer Science / Forums

Forums

4hv.org :: Forums :: Computer Science

« Previous topic | Next topic »

Single board PC?

1 2 next

Move Thread

LAN_403

Avalanche

Fri Mar 03 2006, 03:35PM

Registered Member #103 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845

I've just found what looks like a single board embedded PC, see attachment.

It's a socket 7, ?RAM, IDE, and a cirrus GPU chip is on the board - although there does not appear to be a header for a monitor. Also it has a PCI and an ISA connector on the same side of the board

Sockets at the back - 2 serial ports, 2 ps/2 ports (keyboard/mouse?)

Just wondering what it is used for (guessing some kind of realtime system), and if I can use it as it is, or is part of a larger board? (can't fing any power or monitor headers, guessing it's on either the 'PCI' or 'ISA' connectors). Anyone ever seen anything like this?

It'll probably end up on eBay anyway, that's if it's worth anything. Interesting find anyway!

Bjørn

Fri Mar 03 2006, 03:58PM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

It looks like it is supposed to be plugged into a passive backplane with ISA/PCI connectors and a PSU. Quite a few years ago they were not very uncommon. Some suppliers that have parts for industrial applications sometimes still have backplanes and CPU cards like that.

Steve Conner

Fri Mar 03 2006, 04:27PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

We bought a couple of those passive backplane machines a few years back. They are just like Bjoern says. I'm not sure how much use your board is without the matching backplane for it, and I don't know whether the backplanes are standard or not.

As far as I know, the monitor connector is not on the backplane, it should be on the CPU board somewhere. Our machines had a VGA socket on the CPU card.

Bjørn

Fri Mar 03 2006, 04:48PM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

I can't see any sockets suitable for video signals, it is probably meant to run side by side with a standard PCI graphics card.

Tetrafluoroethane

Fri Mar 03 2006, 06:34PM

Registered Member #127 Joined: Fri Feb 10 2006, 03:36PM
Location: Cincinnati, OH - USA
Posts: 44

I have come across several boards like that. They are mostly useless without the backplane, unless you are feeling adventurous.

I have powered a similar board through the ISA connector (look up the ISA pinout and connect the right contacts to the output from a normal computer power supply).

The couple I found did have an integrated graphics controller, just not built-in d-sub connector. There may be a VGA header on the board itself. And is that a Cirrus Logic chip I see on there? And it looks like there is some DRAM next to it. That is a good candidate for a GPU, but check the number on it since Cirrus made quite a few other things.

It would be a pretty nich market trying to sell that on eBay, but you never know. If you have the time to put into getting it running it would be a great little "I don't care if I blow this up" PC.

Alex

Fri Mar 03 2006, 09:07PM

Geometrically Frustrated
Registered Member #6 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373

There seems to be a steady supply of boards like that on ebay. A quick search for "single board computer" finds quite a few. I'm not really sure if they sell. Maybe you should pick up a backplane and a couple more and start building a BOINC node or something.

Avalanche

Sat Mar 04 2006, 01:03AM

Registered Member #103 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 08:16PM
Location: Derby, UK
Posts: 845

cool, ok, I have decided I am going to try and get this working, (supposing that really is a GPU and I can hook a monitor to it) then install Damn Small Linux or something. It should make a nice little 'elite' computer

I wonder if there is a real PCI bus on the board, or if that is what the 'pci' connector is. Hooking an ethernet card to it would be useful!

Just have to find something to mount it in now...

Hazmatt_(The Underdog)

Sat Mar 04 2006, 01:48AM

Registered Member #135 Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735

mini server?

Philcogrump

Sat Mar 04 2006, 03:47AM

Registered Member #212 Joined: Sun Feb 19 2006, 05:42PM
Location: Texas
Posts: 20

Is it possible you could get one of those ISA "extenders," you know those boards with extra ISA slots which plugs into one main (probably ISA) port on the motherboard... those are used often to change the board orientation to horizontal rather than vertical.

With that kind of board, perhaps you could add an ISA video card to it using that "extender" board and hook up the PSU like Tetrafluorethane suggested? I don't know if that would work though, perhaps the BIOS would not recognize it or so?

Tetrafluoroethane

Mon Mar 06 2006, 04:11PM

Registered Member #127 Joined: Fri Feb 10 2006, 03:36PM
Location: Cincinnati, OH - USA
Posts: 44

Chances are you can hook various ISA devices to it, if you can do the wiring. Normally the backplane these things plug into have a hookup for a PSU on them. The backplane just connects all the ISA slots together and whichever one has the CPU board in it controls the rest.

Mine didn't have a PCI slot, but I wouldn't be surprised if that extra connector was PCI. You could probably order the FoxConn ISA and PCI connectors and rig something up pretty easily.

If you cannot find a video out, you might also want to check for a serial port console. Many embeded and industrial computers use them to save on hardware. Just hook up a null modem cable and pop open your favorite com program.

1 2 next

Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob