Creating the Raspberry Pi credit card sized

The initial goal in creating the Raspberry Pi credit card sized, Linux-based Single Board Computer (SBC) – targeted primarily at education – was to develop a response to the decline of students engaging with computer science and related engineering disciplines. Our desire was to reverse the trend of children becoming consumers rather than creators. The following case study follows the hardware development process from an early failure, initial prototypes, and through to the finished production design.

Over recent years there has been an increasing trend for children to be consumers of digital content rather than be future creators or engineers. This trend is driven by manufacturers looking to provide a seamless experience for target customers on a variety of electronic platforms, from gaming consoles to tablets and laptop computers.
As a result, access to raw I/O has become restricted. Similarly, any packaged provision of a programming environment is an anathema to the products’ commercial goals. 
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refer to :http://embedded-computing.com/articles/case-card-sized-sbc/

MSC presents a Starter Kit for COM Express(tm) Type 6 Modules

A new starter kit for COM Express(tm) modules with AMD Embedded R-Series Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) is now available. The intelligent starter kit MSC C6-SK-A7-T6T2 contains a COM Express(tm) Type 6 baseboard, an active heat sink with fan and two DDR3 memory modules.


The intelligent starter kit MSC C6-SK-A7-T6T2 contains a COM Express™ Type 6 baseboard, an active heat sink with fan and two DDR3 memory modules. Users of the kit are free to choose one of four COM Express™ Type 6 computer modules with Embedded R-Series APU from MSC’s MSC C6C-A7 product family. Furthermore, the starter kit is also offered with a 15 inch XGA TFT display with LED backlight. Different display types or touch screen panels are available on request.


The compact baseboard with dimensions of 140 mm x 184 mm offers the module socket and numerous important connectors, above all the newly available Type 6 interfaces defined in the COM Express™ specification V2.0. The interfaces include configurable Digital Display Interfaces (DDI) which can be used via three each DisplayPort and HDMI connectors and a DVI port. In addition, four USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet, VGA, HD audio, SATA and even a PCI Express™ x4 slot also found place onboardThe COM Express™ Type 6 module platform MSC C6C-A7 from MSC integrates an Embedded R-Series APU from AMD and is characterized by very powerful graphics and high parallel computing performance with low power dissipation. Today, there are four processor variants available. For power demanding applications, the MSC C6C-A7 computer-on-modules integrate an AMD R-460L 2.0 GHz (2.8 GHz Turbo) or AMD R-452L 1.6 GHz (2.4 GHz Turbo) quad-core processors. The thermal design power (TDP) levels are 25 W and 19 W, respectively. The two dual-core versions are populated with the AMD R-260H 2.1 GHz (2.6 GHz Turbo) processor or the AMD R-252F 1.7 GHz (2.3 GHz Turbo) processor – each featuring 17 W TDP. The processors support the AMD64 technology and the AMD-V™ virtualizatiotechnology..................




refer to:http://smallformfactors.com/news/msc-kit-com-expresstm-type-modules/#at_pco=cfd-1.0