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| Balloon boards |
We have now produced the Balloon, a high-performance single-board computer.
Balloon is aimed at application developers using Linux, and the design files are all available without licence or royalty charges. You can devise an accessory board for your needs, to plug in the expansion connector or ask for a partially-populated version that includes the functions you want.
It is supplied with CPLD code, bootloader and YAFFS root file system already loaded so at Power On it boots to an ARMLinux prompt. All the code used is supplied on-line.
Detailed information about this board - schematics, BOM, layout files, and image-map pictures are on the balloon developers website.
Samples are available now. A sample board costs £460 + tax or postage, and includes a Serial Cable to use with a terminal. Cables for reprogramming the NOR flash and CPLD using JTAG are available as extras.
We offer a flexible build service for balloon variants to suit your needs. You can have a version with a battery/automotive 6-40V power supply as well as the usual 3.3 and/or 5V, or with an extra 128MB flash instead of the smartmedia socket. With/without the RTC, LCD, expansion bus, audio, compact flash socket etc. Contact Sales for details.
This table shows a selection of build options. The 2.05g board is the one available now, from us. The TCL build is used by TCL for their lightwriter and the Hydra has also been built for another client. Feedback on your preferred build options is welcome and will help guide the current Balloon 3 design process.
For a full explanation of the options see the balloon developers site.
| TCL | Aleph 2.05 | 2.05g | Hydra | |
| Core Audio, (Codec, Clock) | y | y | y | |
| Audio In (Mono) | y | y | ||
| Audio Mic In | y | y | ||
| Audio Power amp | y | y | ||
| Audio Out to speakers | y | y | ||
| Pinko audio I/O connector J12 | y | y | ||
| CF Card buffers and socket [1] | y | y | y | |
| Expansion bus, 200-way [1] | y | y | y | |
| Associated smoothing capacitors | y | y | y | |
| ID chip (unique) | y | y | y | y |
| JTAG connectors for CPLD & CPU | y | y | y | y |
| MEMORY: | ||||
| Boot Flash - 8MB NOR | 1MB | 8MB | 8MB | 1MB |
| RAM - 64MB | y | y | y | y |
| NAND Flash, MB | 64 | 192 [3] | 192 | |
| Smart Media Socket | y [3] | y | ||
| RS232 level shifter | y | y | y | |
| Real Time Clock | y | y | y | |
| Regulator, 3.3V from 5V | y | y | ||
| Switches for 5V power [2] | y | y | ||
| Reset pushbutton | y | y | y | |
| USB Host controller | y | y | y |
Some provision for driving LCD screens is made in the design: pads are present for connectors for the screens, and for fitting components to provide power to bias a screen. The connectors and components are not fitted, except on the Hydra variant, but can be fitted using a soldering iron.
Last Updated: 2004.12.03
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