My New Toy(SBC mobo, smaller than mini-ITX)

Recieved this earlier today, an SBC(single board compuer) motherboard slightly smaller than most mini-ITX boards (about the footprint of CDROM). Has smaller pitch connectors for the breakoutsfor VGA, USB, etc. that's going to make it a bit harder/longer project than I thought when I bought it.


Overly bright (but oddly good looking) pic of when I got it. Note the size relative to the CD at the bottom.


Rear of board, showing 256MB Compact Flash card and 32MB SODIMM on top of an I-Opener (donator of the SODIMM)


It next to my older,bigger SBC system.(grabbed the processor from it)



This should be a pic of it booting Monowall off the CF card (on bottom of motherboard), but for some reason it halted because there was no keyboard present (odd behavior for an Embedded system) and I haven't built the adapter for keyboard/mouse yet. BTW, the system is running and the CPU fan is spinning, even my crappy camera can stop the blades in a picture.

Unofficial site for this board

can i have your old sbc

lookin good man, dont even want to know how much it costs... Socket 7?

It's a Socket 370. That's a Via C3 you see.

can i have your old sbc

Click to expand...

If you're serious, how's $50+shipping sound? A few caveats: It's really picky about RAM (will see only half if it doesn't like it),seems to want 8-chip (density)x64 dimms, 100MHz FSB is the highest it officially supports(though it'll go up o150MHz FSB in small increments, but I've not been able to push it past 100MHz), and the top slot of he PCI riser doesn't seem to work.

More about the old box here.

what power source does it use? and what io does it have? does it have LVDS or any other LCD hookup?

The old one doesn't have an LCD connetor (though the manual mentions it can control one, perhaps it's an option like the SCSI). It's powered by a connector carrying +5 and +12 Volts (you could build an adapter for a regularmolex), the power supply with it currently is a regular AT powersupply in a custom enclosure.

IO that's brought out is VGA, PS/2 mice and keyboard, and Ethernet. It has headers on the board for; USB, 2 RS232 COM ports, parrallel, and a GPIO connector.
Standard connectors for eveything but audio and GPIO, you should be able to find all the connectors from an old Pentium system. IDE (one channel), Floppy connector (not standard size, uses a 2mm pitch connector), PC104+ connector (can't operate at the same time as PCI), and a PCI MG slot (supports riser, included) round out the IO.

Motherboard manual

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The newer one has an 18-bit TFT and STN controller. (one of the reasons I bought it to replace the old one) I wish it had the 'Panel Link' option, that can connect to virtually any LCD out there. Has about the same IO as the old one, but uses 2mm pitch (like notebook IDE) for everything. That's gonna make things harder/more expensive. This one gets it's power from a standard molex, which is pretty cool.

Hi. I have a question for you since I notice you are the only other SBC user I can find. I also have a few SBC systems mainly by ADVANTECH and MITAC. I have an ADVANTEC 686LCD/MB board that powers up but does not post. I have tried the recomended cpu's and edo memory (new) to no avail. Since this is not the first SBC I have worked with I can not figure out what's wrong. All I have to go by is the owners manual offered by ADVANTECH because they say it is unsupported due to EOL (end of life ) I'm thinking EOL really means end of life of the board literally, I hope not. Maybe you can give me some ideas on how to revive it. Thanks

Does your new toy use DDR or SD So-dimms? I'm asking because I have two 256MB DDR SODIMMS that need a home with their cousin cash staying in their place here.

Holy flashbacks man. I hacked an Iopener forever ago. Thought it would be the ultimate web surfing PC. It blew ass.