Saturn runs rings around rugged, vibrating operation
Designed from the ground up with a set of features to meet the challenges of rugged environments and applications, the Saturn Rugged Apollo Lake x5-E3940 SBC (single board computer) is available from Diamond Systems.
It combines a professional-quality industrial analogue and digital data acquisition subsystem and flexible I/O expansion in a single board measuring 4.0 x 4.5 inches (100 x 114mm) designed for rugged applications.
In addition to the Intel Apollo Lake x5-E3940 1.6GHz (burstable 1.8GHz) quad-core processor with 15-year lifecycle, the SBC has 4Gbyte non-ECC (error code correction) or 8Gbyte ECC RAM soldered down to resist vibration. There are also thicker PCB and latching connectors designed to increase resistance to shock and vibration.
The bottom side heat spreader has integrated thermal pad to provide efficient cooling and convenient mounting. Operating temperature for the Saturn Rugged Apollo Lake x5-E3940 SBC is -40 to +85 degrees C, the industrial operating temperature range.
The analogue and digital data acquisition subsystem includes a PCIe/104 OneBank I/O expansion connector with four PCIe and two USB 2.0 connections. There is also a Minicard expansion socket for versatile, inexpensive I/O and a M.2 2242 SATA socket which supports up to 1Tbyte flash disk.
Memory is soldered down to avoid problems that can occur with commercial style SODIMM type memory modules, reports Diamond. The 50 per cent thicker PCB increases rigidity and improves reliability of fine pitch and high-ball-count BGA solder joints, said the company.
All I/O connectors are latching for increased ruggedness. In addition, processor and memory chips are both thermally connected to the heat spreader and the exterior surface features recessed thermal pads for improved thermal connectivity to the system enclosure.
Four models are available offering digital I/O or combined analogue and digital I/O data acquisition, with 4Gbyte non-ECC or 8Gbyte ECC RAM.
Board support packages are available for Windows 10 64-bit and Linux 64-bit operating systems.
