Diamond Systems Athena II

Introduction

Athena II is a high performance, third generation PC/104 expandable single board computer combining high integration CPU and peripheral technology with Diamond Systems’ renowned high accuracy data acquisition circuitry on a single board. Athena II utilizes the new VIA ultra low power Mark CoreFusion™ CPU, operating at 500MHz or 800MHz and features 256MB of soldered DRAM for increased resistance to shock and vibration.

The highly integrated Mark CPU incorporates VIA’s proven Nehemiah CPU core along with a feature-rich Northbridge in a single package. The Mark CPU provides full support for legacy devices such as PS/2 keyboard and mouse and full support for the legacy ISA bus.

System I/O includes a 10/100BaseT Ethernet port, four RS232 ports, four USB 1.1 ports, Ultra DMA IDE controller with support for two drives, and PS/2 keyboard and mouse support. Athena II contains an integrated S3 Savage 4 video controller providing hardware 2D / 3D acceleration with full internal AGP 4x level performance. The board supports both CRT and LVDS flat panel displays. Audio features include an integrated AC97 digital audio controller and codec.

Athena II is extremely rugged, featuring 256MB of soldered SDRAM, optional hardwired jumpers and latching connectors for increased resistance to shock and vibration. All Athena II SBCs have a fan-less operating temperature range of -40°C to +85°C except models ATHM800-256NLP and ATHM800-256ALP which have a fan-less operating temperature range of -40°C to +70°C. Conformal coating is available as an extra cost option.

System Block Diagram

Integrated Data Acquisition

Athena II includes an autocalibrating analog and digital I/O circuit. It has 16 16-bit analog inputs with 100KHz sample rate, backed by a 2K-sample FIFO with programmable threshold. Programmable input ranges from a wide-range +/-10v down to 0-1.25v are provided. The analog circuitry also includes 4 D/A channels with 12-bit resolution and jumperselected output ranges. Multi-range autocalibration on both A/D and D/A ensures maximum accuracy over time and temperature and enables reliable, maintenance-free performance over the life of the board.

On the digital side, Athena II provides 24 digital I/O lines with programmable direction, as well as two counter / timers for A/D sample rate control, pulse counting, frequency generation, or other applications. Its advanced control logic has the features and flexibility to fit almost any application, such as internal / external A/D clock source, scan and single-sample modes, and Diamond Systems’ exclusive programmable FIFO threshold that lets you tune the board’s performance to your application

Diamond Systems' free Universal Driver programming software for Linux, Windows 98 / 2000 / XP / CE and DOS is available free of charge.

Athena II Development Kit

A development kit is available with all the hardware you need to get started on your embedded design project. The kit contains an Athena II SBC with data acquisition, FlashDisk module, cable kit, panel I/O board and software on CD.

Other parts are also available:

Athena II Cable Kit

The Athena /Athena II cable kit includes cables for Athena II input and output. All cables are also available individually.

CPU Enclosure

The Athena II can be mounted inside the Pandora enclosure with cable-free panel I/O board to form a rugged, compact, completely self-contained industrial computer system. Click here for more information on Pandora.

Solid State Storage

Athena II is compatible with the Diamond Systems solid state IDE flashdisk modules. These modules provide mass storage that is fully IDE compatible and requires no drivers to work with your operating system. They mount directly onto the board's IDE connector and are held in place with a mounting screw for extra ruggedness. Click here for more information on flashdisk modules.

Operation System Compatibility

Athena II supports DOS, Linux, RTLinuxPro, QNX, Windows 98/NT/XP/2000, Windows CE.Net, and VxWorks.