Thanks to Stuart
Adams.
Andover, Massachusetts, March 6, 1999 – Bright Star Engineering
(BSE) announced today the immediate availability of its embedded
Linux toolkit for the ipEngine-1, BSE’s credit-card sized
PowerPC-based single-board computer.
The Linux kernel and applications that run on the ipEngine are
the same as those used in millions of desktop Linux installations
and hence developers are able to take full advantage of the wide
range of functionality and interoperability that comes with the
Linux environment. Unlike traditional Linux installations which
require a hard disk and hundreds of Mbytes of disk space, BSE’s
Embedded Linux configuration can fit the full kernel plus network
utilities, the Apache Web server and a Java Virtual Machine into
the ipEngine’s on-board flash memory with room to spare.
The ipEngine-1 incorporates a PowerPC processor, 16 Mbytes of
DRAM, 2 Mbytes of flash memory, Ethernet interface, an LCD display
controller, USB interface, Ethernet interface, 16,000 gate FPGA and
switching power supply onto a board about the size of a credit
card.
Unlike traditional board-level products with fixed interfaces,
the ipEngine-1 is capable of adapting itself to the user’s hardware
requirements. The external connection to the ipEngine hardware is
via an FPGA-based “virtual interface” which can be configured on
the fly to adapt to the user’s needs. The FPGA can be configured to
emulate a variety of bus architectures as well as to implement
peripheral functions like UARTs, PWM control, memory emulation,
data capture and synthesis, and interfaces to a variety of input
devices.
More information is available on BSE’s web site at: http://www.brightstareng.com/.