News

Artila Electronics Co., Ltd., an emerging force in the industrial PC solutions field, announced their new ARM9-based, Linux-ready, industrial box computer -- the Matrix-504. Its fanless ARM9 RISC CPU and strong metal case design make the Matrix-504 ideal for industrial applications that require a powerful and reliable automation controller.

The Matrix-504, powered by a 400MHz ATMEL ARM9 AT91SAM9G20 RISC CPU, comes with onboard 128MB SDRAM and a 128MB NAMD Flash memory and 2MB DataFlash. In addition, the Matrix-504 integrates one 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, four high speed RS-232/422/485 serial ports, two USB hosts into a compact 78x108x25 mm metal box. A serial console port is available for system configuration and software debug. The DIN RAIL mounting kit simplifies either wall or DIN Rail mounting of the Matrix-504.

Linux 2.6.29 OS and busybox utility collection are pre-installed in the Matrix-504 NAND Flash and the UBI file system is employed to provide improved performance and longer lifetime for NAND Flash compared to JFFS2. Moreover the DataFlash includes a backup Linux file system which will automatically boot Matrix-504 in case of the primary NAND Flash fails. The fail-safe and redundant booting design makes Matrix-504 an ideal platform for many safety-critical applications.

The Matrix-504 uses ipkg, a lightweight package management system that is resembled to Debian’s dpkg to install, upgrade and remove the software package. Artila will continuously increase and update software package at its ftp site and users are free to install the software package they need from the internet.

The Matrix-504 is shipped with the GNU tool chain, which includes a C/C++ cross compiler and Glibc. Many handy software utilities such as webmin are also included in the Artila CD.