X-scale computer-on modules or boards

[Christophe_work]

Hi,

I just wanted to ask the designers here who's had some experience in designing an application with such a module? It's a sort of mini computer based on an intel X-scale processor running Windows CE.

An example X-board from kontron:

**broken link removed**

Do you know other such boards? I want to make a comparison of what is available and choose the right one.

regards

 

[Tamasco]

Actually there are a lot of those SOM available for Xscale.

Check the following links:

SBC-X270 Board: **broken link removed**




Colibri XScale Computer Modules:
**broken link removed**

Embedded products:

**broken link removed**



You can also take a look at the following--a low cost Xscale dev kit (well, a low cost by its standard):

**broken link removed**


I hope this hels you.

 

[Christophe_work]

Hi,

thanks for your reply.

I notice some of these boards have a BTUART (bluetooth UART). Can you give some more explanation about that? What kind of chips are to be interfaced with that ? Is that just TxD, RxD and GND ?(How) Is data sent serially?

 

[Tamasco]

Hi,
With most of these System-On-Modules (SOMs) There's normally OS pre-installed.
The X-scale SOMs more or less are compatible with most standard PC interfaces (PCI-compatible).
This means you can mount your system, interface with the necessary peripherals and ur application is ready for deployment (with little effort). You can install the necessary hardware and/or applications.
Of course, this depends on the type of application. You may want to override these features and do your own low level programming (development from scratch). You can do this in C or Assembly. The X-scale is ARM/Thumb compatible at the instruction level (ARMv4).

Added after 3 hours 15 minutes:

What specific application do u need to design? You can download the Data sheet and the developers guide. There's more information there.

 

[Christophe_work]

The application will be a portable braille decoder for visual impaired students. So basically it includes:

* keypad scanning
* battery management
* LCD driving
* printing
* (wireless) communication with a PC
* writing data to memory and SD card interface