News and New Products

Process yields custom boards in five days

By Warren Webb, Technical Editor -- EDN, 4/4/2006

Hardware developers are constantly under fire due to the excessive leadtimes between the start of a new project and hardware availability. It often takes months to design, lay out, fabricate, and debug a custom embedded-processor board with a unique set of peripherals that exactly fits the project. At the Embedded Systems Conference this month in San Jose, CA, Rabbit Semiconductor addressed that problem by announcing the innovative RabbitFlex process for creating and manufacturing customized boards. Customers can go to the Rabbit Web site and create designs by choosing from an array of available board options, including Ethernet, RS-232, RS-485, and RabbitNet, as well as analog- and digital-I/O circuits. All of these configurations reside into a customer-specific DesignID, which Rabbit then processes without NRE (nonrecurring-engineering) charges or setup fees. A streamlined manufacturing process results in custom products that the factory builds and ships within five working days.

RabbitFlex offers a base level single-board computer powered by either the 51.6-MHz PowerCore 3800 or the 25.8-MHz PowerCore 3810. In addition to serial and digital options, customers can select from as many as 16 ADC channels or two DAC channels. RabbitFlex also supports a matrix keypad and LCDs with or without backlighting. The vendor’s Dynamic C software-development system supports RabbitFlex, and programming requires an interface cable from the PC to a RabbitFlex connector. The process creates a unique Dynamic C library for each RabbitFlex board whose design reaches completion. Once a customer purchases a board, the library becomes finalized. Prices for the RabbitFlex boards range from $149 to $279, depending on customer configuration. A RabbitFlex tool kit, supporting first-time development, sells for $199 and includes a development-software package, product documentation, programming cable, and accessories. An optional display/keypad-accessory kit is available for $69.