NB is it time to expand out to other platforms ?

[seulater]

I am not a big fan of the 0.1 connectors at all. Ever try to pull off a MODxxxx board off the main board? It makes you cringe doing it. There are just to many .1 " connectors there.
Mini PCI connector is my flavor, just like what Rabbit is using. That connector is only ~$2.00
If one still needs more I/O i would move to one of the laptop memory style sockets. small and cheap too.

What features would you be willing to give up?
Smaller is hard as the connectors pretty much set the size limit,
what pins would you vote off the island?

Thats just it, i dont see the need to give up anything. Mini-PCI has plenty of I/O there to get everything out.

[pbreed]

The Rabbit min-pci connector is 52 pins

What 48 of the MOD5270 pins would you vote off the island?

[yevgenit]

I also guess: reliability, especially unbreakable pins, is the major requirement to a connector.

Maybe times have changed, but when we surveyed customers before designing the module format
the number one request was connectors that don't break. (about 6 years ago)

[seulater]

What 48 of the MOD5270 pins would you vote off the island?

Below is what i would keep

Power - 4 pins
CPU Misc - 3 pins
Address / Data Bus interface - 26 pins
UART - 4 pins
SPI - 4 pins
I2C - 2 pins
-----------------------
Total = 43 of 52 total.

**************************
Pins Defined Below
Power - 4 pins
+3.3v x 2
Gnd x 2

CPU Misc - 3 pins
~RSTI
~IRQ1
~IRQ3

Address / Data Bus interface - 26 pins
R/~W
CS1
CS2
CS3
~OE
~TIP
A0-A3
D0-D15

UART - 4 pins
U0-RXD
U0-TXD
U0-RTS
U0-CTS

SPI - 4 pins
QSPI_CLK
QSPI-MOSI
QSPI-MISO
QSPI-CS0

I2C - 2 pins
I2C_SDA
I2C_SCL

[seulater]

Note, that my intended goal is not to mainly shrink the size of the MODxxxx boards.

its to accomplish 3 things.
#1) reduce cost
#2) reduce size
#3) reduce power requirements.

Sicking with the MODxxxx and shrinking it would not achieve this goal, which is why i suggest the ARM platforms. then you can have all three.

I would make the board as shown below for the 200 pin SODIMM socket.
Also shown below is the socket for it. With a cost $2.24 in multiples of 25 from digi-key (A97498CT-ND).

Sure it may be more than dual row 50 pin 0.1" headers. however, 0.1" headers are through hole parts and cost more to have stuffed at a board house. With a connector of this style and high pin count its a pita to insert and remove. With having many surface mount parts on my main board i cringe when i insert the MOD boards as i feat one day the force it takes to insert it will flex the board in a way to loosen or even crack a SM part near the connector.

Board Style

dimm.jpg (53.03 KiB) Viewed 6666 times

Connector

connector.jpg (30.58 KiB) Viewed 6666 times

[jsampson]

The Rabbit min-pci connector is 52 pins

What 48 of the MOD5270 pins would you vote off the island?

Hi, I'm not saying you that should repackage your MOD52xx modules or make a completely new module. But for point of reference, this page:

http://www.rabbit.com/products/rcm5700/largeView.shtml

shows the connector on the short side of the board. This page shows other PCI-Express connectors that are available:

http://en.kioskea.net/contents/pc/pci-express.php3

So maybe it not a question of which pins to leave out as opposed to which connector to use?

[v8dave]

With having many surface mount parts on my main board i cringe when i insert the MOD boards as i feat one day the force it takes to insert it will flex the board in a way to loosen or even crack a SM part near the connector.

Not so much the SMD parts with pins, but the processor being BGA is where I fear it could be damaged.

It would be interesting to hear if anyone has actually had a board damaged during removal.

I have been looking around to find a suitable connector with low insertion force for the headers. Not too loose that the board could vibrate out, but enough to make insertion and removal a little easier.

Dave...

[seulater]

Actually i meant the surface mounted parts on my board where the MOD board plugs into,
just to clarify.

[seulater]

Here is another reason to get crack-en on other new devices. I just found out about this.
http://www.rabbit.com/products/rab6000/#description
Dont get me wrong, NB has much more to offer than rabbit, but people dont allays look at what they get and how well it may work before they look at the price and size.

If i was going to the moon, i would stick a NB in there, as i trust it.

[rnixon]

How much in low quantity?