Flexible Pentium III SBC drives network appliances

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Feb 4, 2002

A new socket 370 single board computer is designed for high reliability use in security monitoring, network administration, storage and management appliances, and voice and media gateways

The versatile PCM-9576 from Advantech is a socket 370 single board computer (SBC) designed for high reliability use in a wide variety of applications.

These include security monitoring, network administration, storage and management appliances, and voice and media gateways.

The PCM-9576 supports Pentium III and Celeron processors with clock speeds of up to 850MHz.

The compact unit that measures just 5.75 x 8 inches is able to supply two or three scaleable 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports, enabling it to be used as either a dual Ethernet firewall device, or a triple Ethernet firewall/DMZ device.

Additionally, by using the PCI expansion slot provided, a four Ethernet port device giving centralised management of a secure virtual network, including firewall security and VPN's can be set up.

A wide range of optional features enables the customer to choose on-board hardware to best meet their own specific application needs.

These options include a VGA/LCD controller, a PC/104 connector and TV-out.

Support for up to two FDD's and two EIDE devices, plus three general purpose inputs/outputs are included as standard.

Serial and parallel ports, two USB ports and infrared capability provide further peripheral connectivity.

Configuration of the PCM-9576 is carried out through a standard PC console connected via an available COM port.

The PCM-9576 has two 144 pin SO DIMM sockets that allow the insertion of between 32 and 256MB of SDRAM system memory, 256KB of Award Flash memory is also provided.

Power requirements for the SBC are 5.2A @ 5V (typical for Pentium III 500MHz and 64MB DRAM), with a power management function giving normal, standby and suspend modes.

The operating temperature range for the PCM-9576 is 0�C to +60�C.