We’ve seen a lot of single-board computers in the past few years, ranging from the $35 Raspberry Pi to the significantly more powerful (and much more expensive) Arndale Octa-A board. But most of these little computers have been powered by ARM-based processors.
Now Aaeon has introduced a new single-board PC called the EPC-CV1 which is powered by an Intel Atom N2600 Cedar Trail x86 processor. It’s designed for point-of-sale systems and other specialized commercial and industrial applications, but it could also be an interesting board for someone looking to put together a low-power mini computer with an x86Â processor.
The board features a 1.6 GHz dual-core processor and supports up to 2GB of RAM. It has SATA, USB, Serial, and Gigabit Ethernet connectors and support HDMI and VGA output.
While the 3.5W Atom N2600 has integrated graphics that can handle HD video playback, the EPC-CV1 can handle dual-display high-res output thanks to the AMD HD7410M graphics.
The board has 6 USB 2.0 ports, which is about 4-5 times more than you’d expect on a device this size, two mini PCIe expansion slots (one full-sized, and one half sized), analog and digital audio ports, and 2 Ethernet ports.
Another thing that helps this board stand out is support for a range of operating systems including Windows XP, Windows 7, and Linux-based operating systems such as Ubuntu and Fedora.
Unfortunately the Aaeon website doesn’t list a price for the EPC-CV1. You’ll have to contact the company to inquire about pricing.
via LinuxGizmos
Seeing 2 LAN ports on it reminded me of a barebones atom pc that newegg sells for $130: the OEM Production 2550L2D-MxPC. It also includes USB 3.0, along with an itx case and PSU, but it doesn’t have the external RS-232.
Looks like a commercial embedded product. I’d be shocked to see a price under $250 USD for quantiy of 1, and would expect even as high as $400.
Very interesting.
Isn’t Cedar Trail a nogo with Linux anymore ?
That’s for the PowerVR graphics but this also has an AMD HD7410M. Don’t know how well AMD suuports Linux though I did hear about AMD getting rid of many of their Linux kernel developers some months back.
I wonder if there’s a BIOS switch to switch between the graphics and how much power if any the Intel graphics consumes when just using the AMD one and vice versa.
For my intended use, I’d like the ability to disable all graphics and just have a serial terminal for the initial local setup and use SSH for normal access.
Thanks. And yes, I’d like that too. I can’t care less about accelerated graphics.
This might be useful for me. It’s easier to get Linux running on an x86 chip plus some drivers I’m using are x86/x86_64 only. Any of these SBCs have 1 gigabit ethernet port and at least one USB 3.0 port?
Easy Linux install and dual gigE ports? I’m interested in this. Are the graphics switchable?
My ideal board would have USB 3.0 though. At least for my current personal project.
MiraBox: Two USB 3.0 ports and 2 Gbit ethernet ports. Not much of a processor and no graphics output, but it would make a terrific network file server by adding a multi-TB USB 3.0 hard drive. Might make a good 4-6 channel media storage device too, by connecting a pair of multi-channel HDTV tuners via the fast ethernet.
Amazing. We’ll waiting for details (especially for information about the price).