Our customer widely uses industrial PC104 form-factor computers in their scientific imaging and spectrometry products. This project objective was to provide background software platform for customer’s product line and research projects.

The team has chosen a development model with regard to reliable build systems distribution and open source technologies. The deliverables include a pre-installed distribution Compact Flash, a distribution CD, a reference guide and an additional custom software packages. The right choice of the development model has allowed our company to deliver high quality software solution in short terms.

The solution features as follows:

• SSH support;
• Network filesystem ( NFS ) support to ease debugging;
• Busybox: core command line utilities with minimized footprint;
• 2.4.x or 2.6.x linux kernel;
• Realtime extensions for linux kernel ( RTAI );
• QT Embedded : GUI library suited for use on embedded systems;
• 8Mb minimized footprint.

The filesystem image was built using custom scripts based on Linux-from-Scratch (LFS) project. Quality testing was implemented using Linux Test Project (LTP) technologies, which reduced development time. Embedded Linux Distribution for PC104 Industrial computers supports standard PC peripherals such as serial ports, parallel ports, high-speed USB, AC97 compliant audio-codec as well as the following specific hardware available on Advantech PC104 modules:

• Embedded low power AMD Geode CPU;
• AMD CS5530 , AMD CX5530, VIA VT8606 chipsets;
• Specific display drivers for LCD and CRT;
• RTL8139C/D and Intel 82559 ER network card interfaces;
• Programmable watchdog timers.

Technologies used: x86, PC104/PC104+, C, C++, Bash, RTAI, Qt-Embedded, LTP, Dotproject 2.0, MS Project 2002

Efforts: 3 man-months.