STACKABLE ARCHITECTURES DIVERGE

摘要

with recent additions to the official specification plus multiple customized variations to extract more performance, PC/104-like architectures continue to be prime candidates for rugged and space-constrained embedded designs. These architectures could face troubled waters in the future, however. PC/104 has been a flexible and rugged favorite of the embedded-system industry since its introduction, allowing designers to choose from hundreds of off-the-shelf processor and expansion boards coupled with widely available desktop software to simplify system integration. Unfortunately, as users are increasingly demanding higher data rates for some applications, industry associations have not yet agreed on a strategy for the next generation of board-to-board communications. In addition, users content with the currently available data rates also face problems as the latest processor chip sets omit support for the legacy PC/104-bus architecture.