Single Board Computer replaces EBX and 5.25 in. SBCs.

Press Release Summary:

Measuring 5.75 x 8.00 in., LittleBoard(TM) 620 addresses need to replace 486-, Pentium® MMX, Celeron®-, and Geode(TM) GX1-based SBCs, and also updates technology from SDR PC100 and PC133 RAM to DDR RAM. Migration is facilitated by legacy interface such as serial ports, IDE disk drive interface with on-board CF socket, and both TTL and LVDS flat panel LCD interfaces. Compliant with RoHS and ETX, board also includes two 10/100 Ethernet ports using Intel® 82551 controller and 4 USB 2.0 ports.


Original Press Release:

Ampro Provides a Migration Path for EOL EBX Products

LittleBoard(TM) 620 addresses the need to replace 486-, Celeron®- and Geode(TM) GX1-based SBCs Boston, MA, September 18, 2007. - Ampro Computers, Inc., a leading supplier of standards-based computer systems, single board computers (SBCs), and computer-on-modules (COMs), is introducing this week at the Embedded Systems Conference a product that replaces the tens of thousands of EBX and 5.25" form factor SBCs on the market that use 486, Pentium® MMX or Geode(TM) GX1 processors, or use Celeron®, C3 or Eden(TM) 100/133 FSB processors with the Twister-T chipset. These SBCs are now end-of-life (EOL), meaning that system OEMs using these boards need to qualify a compatible replacement SBC that will be in production through 2010 or beyond. Ampro's new LittleBoard(TM) 620 EBX SBC not only addresses the processor and chipset availability issues, but updates the technology from single data rate (SDR) PC100 and PC133 RAM to the mainstream inexpensive DDR (double data rate) RAM. In addition, the board is fully RoHS compliant and EBX compliant, to address environmental regulations and issues with 5.25" SBCs that don't comply with the EBX standard. "Ampro has paved a path forward for hundreds of electronics manufacturers who are not sure how to keep EBX-based systems in production after a wave of obsolescence," said Joanne Mumola Williams, president and CEO of Ampro. "The LittleBoard 620 meets the demands of military, transportation, automation, acquisition, and other rugged and extended temperature applications without the extensive hardware and software re-designs associated with moving legacy PC/104 peripherals to newer buses like LPC, PCI, or PCI Express." Migration is greatly simplified by the inclusion of popular "legacy" interfaces, such as serial ports (UARTs or COM ports), IDE (Parallel ATA) disk drive interface with on-board Compact Flash socket, both TTL and LVDS flat panel LCD interfaces, and full support for the legacy ISA bus through a unique combination of circuitry, industry-standard BIOS and Ampro extensions. I/O connectors and the PC/104-Plus interface follow the EBX specification. Given the uncertain future of single data rate (SDR) RAM such as PC133, as well as specific soldered RAM packages, this board uses mainstream DDR 333 DIMM RAM, which provides a substantial performance increase in addition to the clear lifecycle benefit. At 5.75" x 8.00", the LittleBoard 620 SBC brings this technical innovation to the popular EBX form factor at a critical time when system companies' revenues are at risk due to the depletion of end-of-life (EOL) CPUs and chipsets. Ampro satisfies the urgent migration need using the new 500 MHz Geode(TM) LX 800 processor from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in order to meet the price and low power requirements of legacy embedded systems, coupled with a PCI-to-ISA bridge for true 16-bit I/O and data and DMA support, industry-standard AMI BIOS, and BIOS extensions which initialize and support critical features that are necessary to maintain compatibility with the hundreds of off-the-shelf and custom PC/104 modules used in these systems. Without a full implementation of the ISA bus, many of these system OEMs would face substantial re-architecture, sourcing, and re-qualification challenges just to keep production running. A very rich set of on-board legacy I/O including (4) UART serial ports, (2) ports with RS-485 support, a parallel / floppy port, PS/2 keyboard and mouse, IDE interface for up to 2 disk drives, integrated graphics, AC'97 audio, and general-purpose digital I/O pins (GPIOs). In addition, the LittleBoard 620 provides (2) 10/100 Ethernet ports using the Intel® 82551 controller, (4) USB 2.0 ports, a Compact Flash socket, and both TTL and LVDS LCD interfaces to support new and existing flat panel displays of various sizes. For product information, please visit the LittleBoard 620 product page on Ampro's Web site. QuickStart Kits include cables, 512MB DDR RAM, plus device drivers and Board Support Packages (BSPs) for Windows® XP, Windows XP Embedded, Windows CE, VxWorks®, QNX® and a full Linux® 2.6 distribution. Pricing and Availability LittleBoard 620 samples will be available within 60 days. Prices start in the mid-$500's in production quantities. For product photo, please use the following link: www.ampro.com/assets/images/Littleboard620.jpg About Ampro Computers, Inc. Ampro Computers, Inc. is a leading global provider of modular embedded computing solutions for OEM applications. Ampro's mission is to provide time saving solutions for embedded systems designers that accelerate the product deployment process. Ampro pioneered the embedded PC industry creating the popular PC/104 and EBX standards, and recently co-invented the new EPIC and EPIC Express standards. Ampro offers the ReadySystem, ReadyPanel, and MightySystem Computers as complete off-the-shelf industrial computer solutions, ETX, XTX, and COM Express Computer-on-Modules, PC/104-compatible CoreModule CPUs and MiniModule I/O expansion products, EBX form factor LittleBoard single-board computers (SBCs), EPIC form factor ReadyBoard SBCs, and Mini-ITX form factor MightyBoard SBCs. For more information about Ampro Computers, please visit www.ampro.com. AMPRO is a registered trademark and CoreModule, LittleBoard, Little Board, MightyBoard, MightySystem, MiniModule, ReadyBoard, ReadyPanel and ReadySystem are trademarks of Ampro Computers, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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