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PC104
PC/104 (or PC104) is a family of embedded computer standards which define both form factors and computer buses by the PC/104 Consortium. Its name derives from the 104 pins on the interboard connector ( ISA) in the original PC/104 specification and has been retained in subsequent revisions, despite changes to connectors. PC/104 is intended for specialized environments where a small, rugged computer system is required. The standard is modular, and allows consumers to stack together boards from a variety of COTS manufacturers to produce a customized embedded system. The original PC/104 form factor is somewhat smaller than a desktop PC motherboard at . Unlike other popular computer form factors such as ATX, which rely on a motherboard or backplane, PC/104 boards are stacked on top of each other like building blocks. The PC/104 specification defines four mounting holes at the corners of each module, which allow the boards to be fastened to each other using standoffs. The sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Real-time Operating System
A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which manages the sharing of system resources with a scheduler, data buffers, or fixed task prioritization in a multitasking or multiprogramming environment. Processing time requirements need to be fully understood and bound rather than just kept as a minimum. All processing must occur within the defined constraints. Real-time operating systems are event-driven and preemptive, meaning the OS is capable of monitoring the relevant priority of competing tasks, and make changes to the task priority. Event-driven systems switch between tasks based on their priorities, while time-sharing systems switch the task based on clock interrupts. Characteristics A key characteristic of an RTOS is the level of its consistency concerning the amount of time it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DIP Switch
A DIP switch is a manual electric switch that is packaged with others in a group in a standard dual in-line package (DIP). The term may refer to each individual switch, or to the unit as a whole. This type of switch is designed to be used on a printed circuit board along with other electronic components and is commonly used to customize the behavior of an electronic device for specific situations. DIP switches are an alternative to jumper blocks. Their main advantages are that they are quicker to change and there are no parts to lose. History US patent 3,621,157 is the earliest known DIP switch patent. The patent discloses a rotary style DIP switch invented by Pierre P. Schwab. Schwab's patent application was filed on June 1, 1970, and the patent was granted on November 16, 1971. The DIP switch with sliding levers was granted US patent 4012608 in 1976. It was applied for 1974 and was used in 1977 in an ATARI Flipper game. Types The slide, rocker, and piano types, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jumper (computing)
In electronics and particularly computing, a jumper is a short length of conductor used to close, open or bypass part of an electronic circuit. They are typically used to set up or configure printed circuit boards, such as the motherboards of computers. The process of setting a jumper is often called strapping. A strapping option is a hardware configuration setting usually sensed only during power-up or bootstrapping of a device (or even a single chip). Design Jumper pins (points to be connected by the jumper) are arranged in groups called ''jumper blocks'', each group having at least one pair of contact points. An appropriately sized conductive sleeve called a jumper, or more technically, a shunt jumper, is slipped over the pins to complete the circuit. A two-pin jumper only allows to choose between two Boolean states, whereas a three-pin jumper allows to select between three states. Jumpers must be electrically conducting; they are usually encased in a non-conductive b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Direct Memory Access
Direct memory access (DMA) is a feature of computer systems and allows certain hardware subsystems to access main system memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU). Without DMA, when the CPU is using programmed input/output, it is typically fully occupied for the entire duration of the read or write operation, and is thus unavailable to perform other work. With DMA, the CPU first initiates the transfer, then it does other operations while the transfer is in progress, and it finally receives an interrupt from the DMA controller (DMAC) when the operation is done. This feature is useful at any time that the CPU cannot keep up with the rate of data transfer, or when the CPU needs to perform work while waiting for a relatively slow I/O data transfer. Many hardware systems use DMA, including disk drive controllers, graphics cards, network cards and sound cards. DMA is also used for intra-chip data transfer in multi-core processors. Computers that have DMA channels can ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interrupt Request
In a computer, an interrupt request (or IRQ) is a hardware signal sent to the processor that temporarily stops a running program and allows a special program, an interrupt handler, to run instead. Hardware interrupts are used to handle events such as receiving data from a modem or network card, key presses, or mouse movements. Interrupt lines are often identified by an index with the format of ''IRQ'' followed by a number. For example, on the Intel 8259 family of programmable interrupt controllers (PICs) there are eight interrupt inputs commonly referred to as ''IRQ0'' through ''IRQ7''. In x86 based computer systems that use two of these PICs, the combined set of lines are referred to as ''IRQ0'' through ''IRQ15''. Technically these lines are named ''IR0'' through ''IR7'', and the lines on the ISA bus to which they were historically attached are named ''IRQ0'' through ''IRQ15'' (although historically as the number of hardware devices increased, the total possible number of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Current (electricity)
An electric current is a stream of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space. It is measured as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface or into a control volume. The moving particles are called charge carriers, which may be one of several types of particles, depending on the conductor. In electric circuits the charge carriers are often electrons moving through a wire. In semiconductors they can be electrons or holes. In an electrolyte the charge carriers are ions, while in plasma, an ionized gas, they are ions and electrons. The SI unit of electric current is the ampere, or ''amp'', which is the flow of electric charge across a surface at the rate of one coulomb per second. The ampere (symbol: A) is an SI base unit. Electric current is measured using a device called an ammeter. Electric currents create magnetic fields, which are used in motors, generators, inductors, and transformers. In ordinary cond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voltage
Voltage, also known as electric pressure, electric tension, or (electric) potential difference, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a static electric field, it corresponds to the work needed per unit of charge to move a test charge between the two points. In the International System of Units, the derived unit for voltage is named '' volt''. The voltage between points can be caused by the build-up of electric charge (e.g., a capacitor), and from an electromotive force (e.g., electromagnetic induction in generator, inductors, and transformers). On a macroscopic scale, a potential difference can be caused by electrochemical processes (e.g., cells and batteries), the pressure-induced piezoelectric effect, and the thermoelectric effect. A voltmeter can be used to measure the voltage between two points in a system. Often a common reference potential such as the ground of the system is used as one of the points. A voltage can represent either a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WinSystems, Inc
WinSystems is an employee owned embedded systems manufacturer specializing in ruggedized, highly reliable industrial computer systems. The company was founded by Jerry Winfield in 1982 and is headquartered in Grand Prairie, Texas. History Founded in 1982 (as WinTech), WinSystems manufactures and distributes embedded computers for use in industrial applications. Products include embedded x86-compatible single-board computers, COM Modules, COM carrier boards, touch panel PCs, analog boards, digital input/output (I/O) boards, industrial CompactFlash and many other items that are useful in industrial embedded systems. On September 19, 2007 - Jerry Winfield, President of WINSYSTEMS, announced that the company instituted an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) and joined a growing list of companies whose employees are stockholders.( Employee ownership ) This corporate structure offers stability and longevity for the WINSYSTEMS Corporation insuring long-term availability of product ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PCI Express
PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common motherboard interface for personal computers' graphics cards, hard disk drive host adapters, SSDs, Wi-Fi and Ethernet hardware connections. PCIe has numerous improvements over the older standards, including higher maximum system bus throughput, lower I/O pin count and smaller physical footprint, better performance scaling for bus devices, a more detailed error detection and reporting mechanism (Advanced Error Reporting, AER), and native hot-swap functionality. More recent revisions of the PCIe standard provide hardware support for I/O virtualization. The PCI Express electrical interface is measured by the number of simultaneous lanes. (A lane is a single send/receive line of data. The analogy is a highway with traffic in both direct ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peripheral Component Interconnect
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) is a local computer bus for attaching hardware devices in a computer and is part of the PCI Local Bus standard. The PCI bus supports the functions found on a processor bus but in a standardized format that is independent of any given processor's native bus. Devices connected to the PCI bus appear to a bus master to be connected directly to its own bus and are assigned addresses in the processor's address space. It is a parallel bus, synchronous to a single bus clock. Attached devices can take either the form of an integrated circuit fitted onto the motherboard (called a ''planar device'' in the PCI specification) or an expansion card that fits into a slot. The PCI Local Bus was first implemented in IBM PC compatibles, where it displaced the combination of several slow Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) slots and one fast VESA Local Bus (VLB) slot as the bus configuration. It has subsequently been adopted for other computer types. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
