586Core

[Francois Tigeot]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2004 at 01:20:35AM -0600, soralx at cydem.org wrote:
> 
> I'm starting some small project, and I need to decide what hardware
> will fit its needs. I'm looking for a small single-board computer that
> should have minimum: 2 serial ports (RS232 & [RS232 | USB(preferable)]),
> 8-bit databus, FLASH disk, RTC, 486 CPU performance, low power consumption;
> should be able to run FreeBSD. PCB size does not matter much. One
> of the applications I plan to run on it is 'gnokii'.
> 
> I've found this: 'http://www.compulab.co.il/586core.htm', and I'd appreciate
> to get some opinions on this product. Is anyone using it? How well does it
> work with FreeBSD (or *BSD)? How well FBSD works with its USB controller
> (ScanLogic SL811HST)?

I have no experience with this product, but it seems to be quite specific.
Be prepared to buy special cases, power supplies and so on...

> Maybe someone can suggest a better and possibly less expensive alternative?

How about a mini-itx board ?

Via Epia are becoming quite common, they can be used with atx power supplies
and some models are fanless. The USB part is the same one found on many
Pentium-3 and Athlon mainboards and work well with FreeBSD.

See here for some pictures and prices:

http://www.mini-itx.com/

You can put a flash disk on the IDE ports or if you want something more
exotic some manufacturers like Commell sell some models with a
Disk-on-Chip socket on-board.

-- 
Francois Tigeot