PCI Single Board Computer

L

lastmile77

n00b
Joined
Dec 13, 2008
Messages
31
Does anyone know of any single board computers that can be used in PC PCI or PCI-X slot and either run its own instance of Windows or Linux or function as an added CPU in addition to the motherboard CPU?

I know most of these things are meant for specialized PCI backplanes for industrial computers. I'm looking for something along the lines of the old SunPCI cards. There were similar products for Macs way back, starting with the 68K Radius Rockets and followed by AMD and Pentium boards that went in PPC systems.

I'm looking for something P3 or newer just to play around with. And not looking for something that is going to require specialized programming to use.
 
Yesh, they make SBCs of all shapes and sizes. Here is just one product:

http://www.advantech.com/products/PCI-7031/mod_1-DWEA51.aspx

But I have no idea if you can use a PC-based PCI bus, or if you need a custom PCI bus in a standalone chassis to make this kind of thing work (my experience is mostly with VME SBCs). You may or may not have to write your own software to make your PC talk to this second processor board.

Send them an email, and ask about your particular situation. You have to email them for a quote anyway (trust me, it will be expensive).
 
defaultluser said:
Send them an email, and ask about your particular situation. You have to email them for a quote anyway (trust me, it will be expensive).
Click to expand...

I think I saw that before, I'm surprised google searches haven't brought up anything along the lines of my question - somebody else must have wondered about this at some point.

I don't have any particular use for one other than the usual hobbyist interest in unusual stuff. And I was thinking ebay; the boards definitely are expensive elsewhere.
 
lastmile77 said:
I think I saw that before, I'm surprised google searches haven't brought up anything along the lines of my question - somebody else must have wondered about this at some point.

I don't have any particular use for one other than the usual hobbyist interest in unusual stuff. And I was thinking ebay; the boards definitely are expensive elsewhere.
Click to expand...

Well, the problem is that the SBC market is targeted at industrial and military clients. Boards are built in small batches with a guaranteed support lifetime of 5-10 years, and they are built to military and/or industrial specs for vibration and temperature.

You're just not going to get a good price on these things.

And the problem becomes bigger when you consider this: most customers for these boards don't use them for what you plan to do - they use them in a standalone configuration, and build their own communications frameworks for whatever they need. So, you're very unlikely to find a pre-made bit of software that allows you to use both boards at-once.

If you insist on not writing the software yourself, then I have just one suggestion for you: get a SheevaPlug. Although it is a little lacking in computer horsepower, this really IS designed to do what you want to. It says you can buy the dev kit for $99, and there are likely ready-to-install linux distros if you do some research.
 
I've seen boards like this pop up occasionally in the FS/FT......you might try putting a wanted thread in there to see if anything shows up. I'd have to do some real digging in my subscribed threads to find who had listed them......it's been a while.
 
Well, frag that idea.......I forgot about a month ago, I cleaned out my sub's and dumped all the old FS/FT threads.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top