Diamond Systems HELIX PC/104 SBCs with Dual-Core Vortex86DX3 and On-Board Data Acquisition

Control and measurement systems in vehicles and field cabinets need standard PC I/O, some analogue or digital lines and a board that tolerates heat, cold and vibration. The Diamond Systems HELIX series brings those together on one PC/104 board, with mid-range processing, soldered memory and on-board data acquisition on a single board. Diamond pitches it as mid-range performance, standard PC I/O and data acquisition at a competitive price.

Every HELIX uses the DMP Vortex86DX3 dual-core processor at 1 GHz with DDR3 SDRAM soldered on board. Graphics cover 24-bit LVDS and VGA up to 1920 x 1080. I/O covers one 10/100Base-T and one Gigabit Ethernet port on an Intel I210, two RS-232/422/485 and two RS-232 ports, USB 2.0, HD audio on an ALC892 codec, PS/2 keyboard and mouse and a 1.5 Gbps SATA port for a drive or SATA DOM. A PCIe MiniCard socket, shared with mSATA, takes Wi-Fi, CAN, Ethernet and I/O modules without adding height, and PC/104 ISA stacking takes existing I/O modules. A watchdog timer is programmable from 0 to 255 seconds.

The HLX1000-2GA has 2 GB of DDR3 and the full data acquisition circuit: 16 analogue inputs with 16-bit resolution at up to 100 kHz, four 16-bit analogue outputs with a waveform buffer, 27 digital I/O lines, eight 32-bit counter/timers and four 24-bit PWMs, with autocalibration. The HLX1000-1GD has 1 GB of DDR3 and 16 buffered digital I/O lines from the processor, for systems that only switch and monitor signals. The A model’s inputs are programmable for 0 to 5 V, 0 to 10 V, ±5 V and ±10 V, and its digital I/O includes an 8-bit edge detection circuit.

Input power is +5 V DC ±5%, with a 9 to 36 V DC supply option for easier integration into industrial or military systems, and consumption is 7.5 W. HELIX runs from -40 to 85 °C under a heat sink with no fan and is MIL-STD-202G shock and vibration compatible. It supports Linux and Windows Embedded Standard 7. Diamond Systems names vehicle and other harsh-environment applications as target uses. Note that the board does not boot from the mSATA socket.