Diamond Systems ARIES PC/104-Plus SBCs with Intel Atom E3845 and On-Board Data Acquisition

Systems in vehicles and outdoor cabinets need a processor that survives vibration and temperature swings, and often a measurement front end as well. The Diamond Systems ARIES series answers both on one PC/104-Plus board: an Intel Atom SBC with soldered memory and latching connectors, with a professional-quality data acquisition circuit available on the same board. Fitting the processor and the I/O on one board cuts the number of boards in the stack, which makes the system smaller and easier to assemble and maintain.

Every ARIES in this range uses the quad-core Intel Atom E3845 at 1.91 GHz with 4 GB of DDR3 SDRAM soldered on board. Two independent displays run from VGA, dual-channel 24-bit LVDS and either HDMI or DisplayPort. I/O covers two Gigabit Ethernet ports on Intel I210IT controllers, four RS-232/422/485 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, one USB 3.0 port, HD audio on an ALC892 codec and a SATA port for a drive or SATA DOM. Expansion is through a PC/104-Plus (ISA and PCI) stack and a PCIe MiniCard / mSATA socket for up to 64 GB of flash, with a watchdog timer programmable from 0 to 255 seconds. The MiniCard socket and a board-mounted SATA DOM can be used together, which keeps the whole computer one board high.

The ARS3845-4GA carries the full data acquisition circuit: 16 single-ended or 8 differential 16-bit analogue inputs at up to 250 kHz, four 16-bit analogue outputs, 22 digital I/O lines, eight 32-bit counter/timers and four 24-bit PWMs, with autocalibration through the Universal Driver software. The ARS3845-4GN keeps the digital I/O features and drops the analogue section, for systems that only switch and count signals.

Power is +5 V DC, with a typical draw of 8.5 W. ARIES operates from -40 to 85 °C without a fan, using a bottom-mounted heat spreader that conducts heat into the enclosure wall, with a 0.5 inch heat sink accessory for installs that cannot use conduction. Humidity is rated 0 to 90% non-condensing and the board is MIL-STD-202G shock and vibration compatible. It supports Linux, Windows 7, Windows 10 and QNX Neutrino 7.0. Diamond Systems names vehicle, wide-temperature and high-vibration environments as target uses.