What are the features of embedded motherboards?
Embedded motherboard generally refers to the CPU board embedded in the device to do control, data processing, in short, the device’s “brain”. Embedded into the device, it will be the size of the motherboard and power consumption, including embedded motherboard thermal issues have more stringent requirements. So generally speaking, embedded motherboards will have small size, high integration, low power consumption and other characteristics! The smaller the motherboard size, the smaller the weight, the less power consumption will be, but the performance will also be limited.
ATX, EATX, Mini-ITX and MicroATX embedded motherboards offer a variety of form factor options.
The strengths of Mini-ITX motherboards naturally lie in their compact size and low power consumption. It can also be easily integrated into a car or small stereo, and additional hardware may be added. Mini-ITX motherboards are the most compact and come with up to 1 expansion slot for Intel’s Atom or Core series low power processors.
Micro ATX motherboards support up to four expansion slots that can be a combination of ISA, PCI or AGP specifications depending on the motherboard manufacturer. micro ATX is primarily intended to reduce the overall cost of a PC system and reduce the amount of power needed by the computer system. It is primarily used for power hungry mainframes such as desktop processors.
ATX uses 7 I/O slots, CPU and I/O slots, and memory slots are more rationally located. Improved compatibility and expandability of the motherboard. Optimized location of the floppy disk drive interface.
EATX motherboards are also commonly referred to as EATX server motherboards, which mostly support more than two CPUs, because for server and workstation motherboards, the most important thing is high reliability and stability, followed by high performance. This is because most servers have to meet the full workload requirements 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The dual processor configuration allows for much greater processing power and the ability to expand other features such as memory capacity with the number of bus and interface standard (PCIe) lanes. And most support ECC memory to improve reliability.
Embedded motherboards are more commonly available in two general categories：
X86 based embedded motherboards are based on RISC ARM embedded motherboards (produced under license by ARM, each chip manufacturer has its own special features). Embedded ARM boards generally have an on-board CPU, while x86 CPU-based motherboards do not necessarily.
Embedded motherboards are a cost effective solution for many types of industrial computing applications and can rely on X86 technology without excessive communication interface requirements. Embedded motherboards are compact in size and tough in performance, so they can be used in many applications with large motherboard instruments, including medical, financial, industrial control industry, drones, intelligent robots, home entertainment, business office, petrochemical, physical exploration, field portable, environmental protection, military, electric power, railroads, highways, aerospace, subways, etc.
