Custom Hardware

[gstercken]

For a recent project, we need a custom (embedded) PC-compatible hardware. Think of a single-board Intel or compatible CPU with memory, HDD, and interfaces like USB, audio etc. (or, the other way round: Something along the lines of a mini notebook PC without screen and keyboard) which will be built into a custom case.

Does anybody know about manufacturers (possibly in Europe, but also worldwide) which sell hardware of this kind or which are able to build it upon specification and manufacture high numbers of items?

I tried google, but I'am afraid I don't even know what exactly to search for...

Thanks for any suggestions.

[TDM]

Hi

Did you look at the PC-104 architecture or is that too large?



http://www.versalogic.com/

TDM

[gstercken]

TDM, thanks for your input. Regarding size / form factor, PC-104 is just what I'm looking for. Unfortunately, the PC-104 spec seems to be a little outdated, and all I manage to find are boards with something like 133 - 400 MHz CPUs (while our application requires a 1GHZ+ CPU). I've also found lots of references to EBX Single Board Computers (also at the versalogic link you posted), which might be even more suitable for our needs.

However, I'm still wondering if standard SBC boards like PC-104 and EBX are the only (or yet, the most sensful) approach for manufacturing and shipping devices with custom embedded hardware, or are there any vendors / service providers which use a more tailored approach, that is, specifically designing and building a board up to customer specifications (just as an example, not including a graphics adapter for the sake of decreasing size, power consumption and heat development)? Or would that have to be ruled out due to cost?

Let me try to explain it again from the other perspective: Prototypes of our application run on a JVC MP-XP7250 Mini Notebook. It has a 933 MHz Pentium III CPU, 384 MB of RAM, a 40 GB HD, PCMCIA, integrated WLAN adapter etc. Now in theory, we could just order a few thousand of those notebooks, take them apart, throw away display, keyboard, case and and WLAN adaper, and build the rest into our own custom case. We were still left with needless on-board components as the graphics adapter, PCMCIA etc., and had a lot of payed, but useless components (just think of all those costly LCD displays in the trashcan...;)). What I'm looking for now is a way to get more or less the same resulting hardware, but without all that extra cost and garbage... Hope I explained my problem.
Thanks again for any further ideas...

[Sickboy]

Hi Gstercken,

thanks for your many helps on this forum!

Take a look at:

http://www.sbs.com/products/singleboard
http://www.ete.com.au/html/products/singleboard.htm
http://industrial-computers.baber.com/singleboard_computers/index.htm

They all got boards which supports cpu´s above 1ghz.

Hope i helps

bye
daSickboy

[Cyber Bandit]

Maybe this will help
http://www.cybernetman.com/
they have one zero foot print pc. Take a look at that.:wave:

[Sam Hobbs]

Have you talked with an Intel representative? I am sure they will talk with you about things like that. Intel has representatives throughout the world. Also, IBM, Texas Instruments, Hewlet Packard and Motorola would be very likely vendors. After talking with them, there are dozens of other companies to talk with. I think it is nearly certain that there is off-the-shelf hardware that would be very useful and reasonable. You will probably find a better deal from a smaller hungrier company but you are likely to understand what is available much better after talking with the companies I listed.

Just call them and/or send an email message.

[TDM]

gstercken

There are EBX solutions that can support PIII processors with speeds of 1GHz. However I am not aware of any EBX boards that do not have built in video capabilities. There are other possibilities like micro ATX motherboards. You could add the components to PCI slots and use processor that you need. However, using PCI slots may not allow the enclosure size you want. One additional thing to think about is the power supply and whether that will need to be custom as well.

You can go with a completely custom solution. I don't know how big your project is, what your budget is or what the marketing goals are but a custom solution will definitely be more expensive than an off-the-shelf solution. The custom solution will be a more unique product which may be more advantageous for IP. With off-the-shelf the time to market, and consequently development costs, will be lower. You can run into problems with the off-the-shelf solution if the products are discontinued. You then have to find a replacement and scramble to re-validate the product with the replacement parts.

There are companies like Plexus (http://www.plexus.com) that can provide complete solutions including electronics and mechanical design as well as manufacturing. For single board computers and your location (Germany?) Kontron (http://www.Kontron.com) has many off the shelf single board computers and also provides OEM services. As far as the off-the-shelf or custom design debate it is something that the design and development engineers will need to sort out with management, marketing and acounting. It all comes down to how much you want to spend on development and whether you can recover the development costs after release.

TDM

Some additional links

http://www.ampro.com/html/white_papers.asp

http://www.ploskit.com/pub/pdf/philo-sftx-ebx-atx.pdf

http://www.compulab.co.il

http://www.tme-inc.com/

http://www.arcom.com/

http://www.digitaltechinc.com/

http://www.aaeon.com/w3/

http://www.business.com/directory/electronics_and_semiconductors/microelectronics/microprocessors/embedded_systems/

http://www.ampro.com/index.asp

[Sam Hobbs]

There are lists of possible companies in:

Open Directory - Computers: Hardware: Embedded (http://dmoz.org/Computers/Hardware/Embedded)

Yahoo! Directory Computer Hardware > Embedded (http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Hardware/Embedded)

[gstercken]

Many thanks to all of you for your feedback, especially to TDM for the many links and thoughts. It looks like Kontron might be a good starting point.

Sam, I never thought about contacting the CPU manufacturers directly, that's definitely a good idea too.

Since most of your links point to something related to off-the-shelf SBC's like EBX or PC/104, that seems indeed to be the way to go. I wanted to be sure not to miss another obvious way (like an entire category of manufacturers which routinely develop boards for notebook computers or embedded portable devices upon specification) just because I didn't know what exactly to search for.

Thanks again to all. :) :)

[Sam Hobbs]

Something else that probably would help is joining IEEE (ieee.org?).