4th Generation PC/104 SBC Extends Product Lifecycles ATHENA IV includes integrated data acquisition and COM architecture
Diamond Systems has introduced ATHENA IV, a wide-temperature, COM‐based SBC with integrated data acquisition and PC/104 I/O expansion. This combination of features makes the compact 4.2″ x 4.5″ board appealing to a wide range of embedded computing applications.
Summary of product highlights
- 4th generation, backward compatible for product life extension
- COM‐based design for long life & performance scalability, with multiple processor options
- Integrated data acquisition with autocalibration and Universal Driver software support
- PC/104 socket for versatile rugged I/O expansion
- Designed for rugged applications, previous generations have been used in military vehicles, railway, agriculture, and industrial control applications
As its name implies, Athena IV is the 4th generation in the Athena series of SBCs from Diamond, an extremely popular platform that has been serving long-life applications in military, transportation, agriculture, and industrial industries since 2004. Athena IV maintains backward compatibility in terms of form factor, features, and I/O connectors with previous generations of the product, while incorporating the newest technologies to enable long-term applications to stay current with the state of the art as well as to attain increased CPU performance.
Customers using previous generations of Athena can easily upgrade to Athena IV with dramatically reduced re‐engineering effort, compared to migrating to an entirely different SBC. Also, embedded systems using competitor PC/104 SBCs approaching the end of life can migrate to the Athena platform to extend their product lifetimes practically indefinitely, due to its use of COM architecture.
A COM‐based SBC consists of 3 layers: the COM, or computer‐on‐module, containing the processor and associated circuitry; a carrier board, containing additional I/O, power supply, and I/O connectors; and a thermal solution, consisting of either a heat sink or heat spreader (which also serves as a mounting plate).