What Is A PC/104 Single Board Computer?

There are many different pieces required to create a functional computer and when these pieces are combined this is known as a single board computer. The single computers have many different pieces including the following single circuit board, microprocessor,  memory, and intake and output. These are the main features of the single board computer that makes it function. When choosing one of these types of computers you can choose from a few different options and they are EBX, EPIC, FEMTO-ITX, NANO-ITX, and PC 104. The most popular brand is the PC 104. These computers were made for a specific reason and they were two be used as embedded computer controllers, for educational purposes, and for demonstration purposes. Most home computers, laptops, and tablets have all of these functions on one single circuit board. The first form of a single board computer was called the dyna- micro and this system was created by a company called E&L Instruments in 1976. 

The reason why the PC/104 is one of the most popular forms single computers is because it comes in many different styles and options. The PC/104 Single Board Computer is in the embedded computer standards family and the purpose of this computer is too define computer buses and form factors. The PC 104 is best used for rugged computer systems that are located in specialized environments. The PC/104 also comes into two types the PC form factor and the PC motherboard are the two types. Their is a difference between the two. The PC form factor is considerably smaller than the PC motherboard. There are a least six different pieces that form the PC/104 and they are the wireless lan controller, cpu board, power supply board, gps receiver, data acquisition module, and peripheral boards. 

When installing the PC/104 they can be either stacked or mounted. When stacking the PC/104 you can stack boards from multiple vendors. If you stack all these PC/104 you must be aware that the height, weight, and power consumption will vary depending on the amount of boards that are stacked. The PC/104 is also known as the stackable PC. The PC/104 can use various operating systems such as Windows, DOS, and Linux. Most of the PC/104 will often be hooked up to real time operating systems. The PC interfaces that are included in the stackable PC are Serial Ports, USB,Ethernet, and VGA. Ampro created the PC/104 form factor and the bus in 1987. The same company in 1992 also standardized the PC/104 Consortium.  

They are currently multiple different brands and styles of PC/104 Single Board Computers that are on the market. They are the PX1-C415 and this brand is OneBank Intel E39000 and it has dual ethernet. The next style of PC/104 is the PPM-C407 the brand is the Fanless E3800. Then you have the PCM-VDX-2 this is an SBC with dual ethernet with 512 mb ram. There are also two different legacy brands available. The first legacy brand is the PPM-C393 -S this brand is industrial and a PC/104 plus. The second legacy brand is the PXM- C388- S. Listed here in this article is just a few of the available SBC’s and PC/104’s on the market it. There are many more different types of brands that are available to the consumers. It is amazing all of the different aspects of a  computer. They are very simple to use but very complex to make.