Re: Old platforms: bring out your dead

William Breathitt Gray
2021-01-13T12:58:42Z

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On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 09:30:28PM +0900, William Breathitt Gray wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 01:02:20PM +0100, Linus Walleij wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 13, 2021 at 11:27 AM Andy Shevchenko
> > <andy.shevchenko@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 11:55 AM David Laight <David.Laight@aculab.com> wrote:
> >
> > > > basically 486 but have a few extra instructions - probably just cpuid
> > > > and (IIRC) rdtsc.
> > > > Designed for low power embedded use they won't ever have been suitable
> > > > for a desktop - but are probably fast enough for some uses.
> > > > I'm not sure how much keeping 486 support actually costs, 386 was a
> > > > PITA - but the 486 fixed most of those issues.
> > >
> > > Right, we have "last of mohicans" (to date) Intel Quark family of CPUs
> > > (486 core + few i586 features).
> > > This is for the embedded world and probably not for powerful use.
> >
> > What is the status of PC/104?
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC/104
> >
> > I have three GPIO drivers for PC/104 machines and these are for
> > embedded industrial usecases. I am curious about what CPUs these
> > beasts run on in practice? Are they getting upgraded?
> >
> > Paging William, I think he work on these daily.
> >
> > Yours,
> > Linus Walleij
>
> I don't really see pure PC/104 systems around that much anymore, but
> there are still plenty of PC/104-Plus and PCI-104 setups in production.
> The PC/104 form factor is popular because users can stack PC/104
> compatible modules easily together to build custom solutions; see for
> example the diagram on this page:
> https://www.advantech.com/embedded-boards-design-in-services/embedded-single-board-computers/pc104-and-pc104-plus
>
> As far as the CPU is concerned, these systems are typically for
> industrial applications and run CPUs geared for low-power consumption --
> you're looking at processor series such as the Intel Bay trail
> (https://www.winsystems.com/product/epx-c414/), DMP Vortex86DX
> (http://www.diamondsystems.com/products/helios), and AMD G-series
> (https://www.advantech.com/products/1-2jkltu/pcm-3356/mod_0706f4d5-2e44-473a-a7b7-53bd1a7bd1a0).
>
> TLDR; PC/104 is certainly a niche market focused on industrial
> consumers, but the form factor and devices are still popular and
> upgraded reguarly.
>
> William Breathitt Gray

Oops, I misread what you were asking. If you mean, are the systems that
run these PC/104 stackable devices running older processor series, then
yes that's typically the case.

It seems like newer systems have migrated to the PCIe/104 form factor,
which although having the same dimensions as the PC/104 form factor
lacks compatibility with PC/104 devices; for example:
https://www.rtd.com/i7/default.htm

I suspect the general trend in the market is moving towards these PCIe
modules because PC/104 ISA communication just lacks the bandwidth
necessary for many applications.

William Breathitt Gray

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