Development platform arrives out of the blue

-- EDN, 4/13/2000

For designers in search of a ready-to-run software-development platform for Windows CE projects, Embedded Planet has introduced a self-contained hardware system based on the Motorola PowerPC MPC8xx family. Dubbed the Blue Planet because of its colorful plastic case, the Windows CE system complements similar products from the same vendor for Linux and MobileGT development.

The Blue Planet (picture) includes a PC/104-size CPU board featuring the PowerPC 823e processor, a 640x480-pixel color LCD with a touchpanel, an infrared keyboard/trackball, and the Windows CE operating system. Other hardware highlights are 16 Mbytes of flash memory, 16 Mbytes of synchronous DRAM, a 10BaseT Ethernet interface, an RS-232 interface, a PCMCIA channel, and 16-bit sound support.

The Blue Planet development system includes a board support package from Annasoft (www.annasoft.com), Bsquare (www.bsquare.com), or VenturCom (www.vci.com). Prices for the development system start at $4995, including credits for engineering technical support.

Embedded Planet, 1-440-646-0077, www.embeddedplanet.com.

-by Warren Webb