Diamond Systems Aurora

Introduction

Aurora is a rugged, single board computer (SBC) based on the 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530P CPU and conforming to the compact, PC/104-sized, SUMIT-ISM form-factor.

The SBC supports up to 2GB of DDR2 SO-DIMM SDRAM and provides high-resolution LVDS and SDVO graphics interfaces. Additional I/O ports include SATA, USB, serial, digital I/O, and Gigabit Ethernet. Flexible system expansion is based on industry-standard, stackable PC/104 (ISA) and SUMIT-A (PCIe) modules. A location is also provided for an optional on-board USB flashdisk.

Aurora's power-efficient design leverages Intel's ultra-low-power (Menlow) silicon platform, consisting of the Atom Z5xx (Silverthorne) processors and US15W chipset (Poulsbo). These ICs are positioned on the bottom of the board, resulting in easy and efficient heat removal via a heatspreader for wide-temperature, fanless operation.

Aurora is compatible with Linux, Windows XP®, and Windows® Embedded Standard. All
necessary drivers are provided. All necessary drivers are provided with the product.

Intelligent Thermal Solution

Old-style, top-mounted heat sinks are being abandoned in favor of more effective new-generation techniques. The heat-generating CPU and chipset are located on the bottom side of the SBC, and an integrated bottom-mounted heatspreader dissipates heat efficiently to the system enclosure. This configuration leaves the SBC’s top side free for easy access to memory, on-board I/O, and expansion sockets.

Aurora Development Kits

The Aurora Development Kit (DK-AUR-01) provides all the components you need for fast and efficient embedded development. The kit includes an Aurora SBC, USB flashdisk with Linux pre-loaded, cable kit, power adapter cable, and software CD.

Two software development kits are also available for Aurora; a Linux kit and a Windows XPe kit. The Aurora Linux Kit (SDK-AUR-LNX) contains a 4GB USB flashdisk with a bootable linux image pre-loaded, a software CD with the linux tool chain and a backup image, and documentation. The Aurora Windows XPe Kit (SDK-AUR-XPE) contains a 2GB USB flashdisk with a bootable Windows XPe image pre-loaded, a software CD with development tools and a backup image, and documentation.

Aurora System Block Diagram

Aurora Cable Kit

The Aurora cable kit includes cables for Aurora input and output. Many cables are also available individually.

Pandora and Panel I/O Board

Aurora single board computers can be mounted inside Diamond's Pandora PC/104 enclosure with a cable-free panel I/O board to form a rugged, compact, completely self-contained industrial computer system. The Pandora enclosure, coupled with the panel I/O board, features fast and easy assembly due to the fact that most or all internal cables can be eliminated. Rather than requiring the installation of special corner mounts or forcing the stack into a set of corner guides, the entire stack is bolted directly to the front plate of the case, forming a rugged, easily-handled assembly.

Note: It is not possible to use the panelboard and PC/104 boards at the same time - the connectors are on the same side as the bus connector (and the PC/104 is not stack through.

Transition Cables or PC-Style Connectors

All I/O on Aurora is made available on 2mm pitch pin headers for use with low-cost cables. To enhance the use of Aurora in harsh environments requiring outstanding resistance to shock and vibration, Diamond Systems offers our rugged Pandora PC/104 enclosure that provides a cable-free configuration via a small panel I/O board that installs directly on top of Aurora to instantly convert all I/O to PC-style connectors.

Corona SUMIT-ISM WiFi & Ethernet Module

Also available from Diamond Systems is the Corona SUMIT-ISM WiFi & Ethernet Module. As well as wifi and dual 10/100 Ethernet, the board has an onboard SVDO to VGA converter. The SDVO to VGA converter is designed to accept the SDVO output from this' Aurora single board computer and convert it to an analog VGA output.

SMT-DAQ1616 Analog I/O and SMT-GPIO96 Digital I/O Cards

Also available from Diamond Systems are the SMT-DAQ1616 and SMT-GPIO96 SUMIT-ISM cards.

SMT-DAQ1616 is a module which offers 16-bit A/D sampling at 2MHz, supported with an expanded 16K-sample FIFO for reliable data collection in any operating system. Analog output capability has been expanded to 16 16-bit channels with programmable output ranges. All analog I/O features are enhanced with our industry-leading autocalibration technology, featuring independent calibration factors for each input and output range to guarantee maximum accuracy across all operating modes and the entire operating temperature range.

SMT-GPIO96 is a programmable SUMIT-ISM DIO module using a high-capacity (700K gate equivalent) PCI Express FPGA for maximum density and flexibility. The base hardware configuration features 96 digital I/O lines grouped into 12 8-bit ports. All ports have I/O buffers to protect the FPGA and feature 5V logic drive levels. The ports are organized into a combination of byte-wide, nibble-wide, and bit-wide direction control for maximum flexibility and application compatibility.