Diamond Systems SATURN PCIe/104 SBCs with Intel Atom x5-E3940 and Integrated Data Acquisition

Rugged systems with intensive I/O often end up as tall stacks of processor, analogue and digital boards, each adding weight, cabling and failure points. The Diamond Systems SATURN series reduces that stack by combining an Atom-class SBC with an industrial analogue and digital data acquisition circuit and PCIe/104 expansion on one board, designed for rugged applications. OneBank uses a smaller connector than full PCIe/104, keeping PCIe x1 and USB host links while freeing board space for I/O.

Every SATURN uses the quad-core Intel Atom x5-E3940 at 1.6 GHz, bursting to 1.8 GHz, with memory soldered down and a TPM 2.0 chip. Graphics drive two HDMI ports and dual-channel 24-bit LVDS with backlight power. I/O covers two Gigabit Ethernet ports on Intel I210 controllers, two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, two RS-232/422/485 ports and one RS-232 port, HDA audio and a 7-pin SATA connector, with an M.2 2242 SATA socket for up to 1 TB. A top-side PCIe/104 OneBank socket gives four PCIe x1 lanes and two USB 2.0, and a full-size MiniCard socket takes PCIe or USB cards. Because the heat spreader covers the underside, PCIe/104 modules stack on the top side only.

The series comes in two memory sizes and two I/O builds. The SAT-E3940-4GA has 4 GB of non-ECC RAM and full data acquisition: 16 single-ended or 8 differential 16-bit analogue inputs at 250 kHz, four 16-bit analogue outputs, digital I/O, eight counter/timers and four PWMs, with autocalibration. The SAT-E3940-4GD keeps the 4 GB with digital I/O only. The SAT-E3940-8GA and SAT-E3940-8GD use 8 GB of ECC RAM with the same two I/O choices. A graphical control panel in the Universal Driver software gives quick access to every data acquisition feature for testing and debugging.

Power is 5 V DC. SATURN runs fanless from -40 to 85 °C, with a bottom heat spreader and integrated thermal pad that doubles as the mounting surface, and latching connectors throughout. The board supports Windows 10 64-bit and Ubuntu Linux 64-bit. Diamond Systems quotes a 15-year lifecycle for the x5-E3940 processor and designed the series for rugged applications with intensive I/O requirements.