john

All:

I am building a prototype for a home computing appliance. This
appliance in essence will be a computer under-the-covers, so will need
a configuration that contains:

* Low cost 32-bit processor and standard DRAM (say 256MB)
* Sound card - nothing fancy - enough to play back recorded voice
clearly
* Support for 2 USB ports
* A low-end video card (600x800 would be fine/1024x768 good, too)
* A way to hook in an 802.11x-based network card (or, better yet, one
that has one built in)

I am a 20-year veteran in software, but only know hardware from the
perspective of code. Any help appreciated.

Thank you,
John
jpuopolo

Paul

john wrote:
> All:
>
> I am building a prototype for a home computing appliance. This
> appliance in essence will be a computer under-the-covers, so will need
> a configuration that contains:
>
> * Low cost 32-bit processor and standard DRAM (say 256MB)
> * Sound card - nothing fancy - enough to play back recorded voice
> clearly
> * Support for 2 USB ports
> * A low-end video card (600x800 would be fine/1024x768 good, too)
> * A way to hook in an 802.11x-based network card (or, better yet, one
> that has one built in)
>
> I am a 20-year veteran in software, but only know hardware from the
> perspective of code. Any help appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
> John
> jpuopolo
>

Via.com.tw has been making a variety of computing products,
which are small (mini-itx, nano-itx) and have a lot of the
normal features of other computers. What they don't have,
is a very powerful processor. Think "1 GHz" in terms of
performance.

Intel has become interested, in "eating some of Via's dinner",
and has introduced this. At the moment, this appears to be
an OEM item, and the only examples I can find, are in
finished computer boxes. I think the Celeron 215 is soldered
to the board.

http://www.intel.com/products/mother...1GLY/index.htm
http://www.pcdirectsource.com/Item.cfm?ID=2170

An example of a VIA offering, is the computer that Walmart is
selling.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=7754614

For bare motherboards, this site has lots of examples. None
of the processors here goes really fast, and 1.5Ghz may be the
peak for these. The slower ones run cooler, which is important
for some applications. To power these, some use the equivalent
of a laptop adapter, and a power conversion module that can
drive the ATX 20 pin connector. Power consumption can be in
the 60W range, for a complete system.

http://www.mini-itx.com/
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/

This is another place that sells the small stuff.

http://www.logicsupply.com/

I'm not a big fan of Jetway, but they're also making
products like that. With a PCI slot on the thing, you
would have room for a wireless card. For a compact solution,
it would be better if there was a mini-PCI slot or something
planar to the motherboard, but that would take some more
searching, to find a good example.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...via+c7&x=0&y=0

So there is stuff out there.

With all of these products, the tendency is to have the
CPU soldered to the motherboard. So, unlike desktop computers,
you cannot upgrade the processor if it turns out to be too slow.
Soldering the CPU, is more in line with an "appliance" concept.

For movie playback, these boxes are pretty close to the edge.
It isn't like having a 3GHz P4, and horsepower to spare. If
you're doing movie playback, you'll have some sweating to do.

Paul

Andy

gOS Develop Kit with VIA pc-1 Processor Platform VIA C7-D 1.5GHz CPU +
VIA CN700 Chipset Motherboard Retail PC2500E $59.99
<http://www.clubit.com/product_detail.cfm?itemno=CA4842001&tab=4#>

On Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:18:54 -0800 (PST), john <puopolo@gmail.com>
wrote:

>All:
>
>I am building a prototype for a home computing appliance. This
>appliance in essence will be a computer under-the-covers, so will need
>a configuration that contains:
>
>* Low cost 32-bit processor and standard DRAM (say 256MB)
>* Sound card - nothing fancy - enough to play back recorded voice
>clearly
>* Support for 2 USB ports
>* A low-end video card (600x800 would be fine/1024x768 good, too)
>* A way to hook in an 802.11x-based network card (or, better yet, one
>that has one built in)
>
>I am a 20-year veteran in software, but only know hardware from the
>perspective of code. Any help appreciated.
>
>Thank you,
>John
>jpuopolo

john

On Nov 21, 5:15 pm, Paul <nos...@needed.com> wrote:
> john wrote:
> > All:
>
> > I am building a prototype for a home computing appliance. This
> > appliance in essence will be a computer under-the-covers, so will need
> > a configuration that contains:
>
> > * Low cost 32-bit processor and standard DRAM (say 256MB)
> > * Sound card - nothing fancy - enough to play back recorded voice
> > clearly
> > * Support for 2 USB ports
> > * A low-end video card (600x800 would be fine/1024x768 good, too)
> > * A way to hook in an 802.11x-based network card (or, better yet, one
> > that has one built in)
>
> > I am a 20-year veteran in software, but only know hardware from the
> > perspective of code. Any help appreciated.
>
> > Thank you,
> > John
> >jpuopolo
>
> Via.com.tw has been making a variety of computing products,
> which are small (mini-itx, nano-itx) and have a lot of the
> normal features of other computers. What they don't have,
> is a very powerful processor. Think "1 GHz" in terms of
> performance.
>
> Intel has become interested, in "eating some of Via's dinner",
> and has introduced this. At the moment, this appears to be
> an OEM item, and the only examples I can find, are in
> finished computer boxes. I think the Celeron 215 is soldered
> to the board.
>
> http://www.intel.com/products/mother...em.cfm?ID=2170
>
> An example of a VIA offering, is the computer that Walmart is
> selling.
>
> http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...uct_id=7754614
>
> For bare motherboards, this site has lots of examples. None
> of the processors here goes really fast, and 1.5Ghz may be the
> peak for these. The slower ones run cooler, which is important
> for some applications. To power these, some use the equivalent
> of a laptop adapter, and a power conversion module that can
> drive the ATX 20 pin connector. Power consumption can be in
> the 60W range, for a complete system.
>
> http://www.mini-itx.com/http://www.mini-itx.com/store/
>
> This is another place that sells the small stuff.
>
> http://www.logicsupply.com/
>
> I'm not a big fan of Jetway, but they're also making
> products like that. With a PCI slot on the thing, you
> would have room for a wireless card. For a compact solution,
> it would be better if there was a mini-PCI slot or something
> planar to the motherboard, but that would take some more
> searching, to find a good example.
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...NE&DEPA=0&Desc...
>
> So there is stuff out there.
>
> With all of these products, the tendency is to have the
> CPU soldered to the motherboard. So, unlike desktop computers,
> you cannot upgrade the processor if it turns out to be too slow.
> Soldering the CPU, is more in line with an "appliance" concept.
>
> For movie playback, these boxes are pretty close to the edge.
> It isn't like having a 3GHz P4, and horsepower to spare. If
> you're doing movie playback, you'll have some sweating to do.
>
> Paul

Paul,

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your knowledge with me.
This will be immensely helpful!
I will post my final configuration to this forum.

Best,
John