 Anders Electronics launches custom development service for Intel
XScale TFT display applications
Turnkey design and
manufacture service can dramatically reduce costs and shorten development times
for low- to medium-volume designs
 Anders Electronics, the specialist supplier and designer of
LCD solutions, has announced the first European custom
development and manufacturing service for display applications using the
highly efficient Intel XScale RISC processors. The turnkey service covers all
aspects of design, prototyping, testing and manufacture of embedded systems
built around XScale technology and the latest low temperature polysilicon (LTPS)
2.8-inch or 3.5-inch QVGA TFT displays.
Anders Electronics’ new service
is ideal for developers of industrial handheld devices, such as chip & PIN
terminals and rugged PDAs, home automation, automotive multimedia systems,
vending machines, and other embedded applications requiring standard or
touchscreen display interfaces.
The service will be particularly
suitable for customers who have low- to medium-product requirements in the
region of 1000 to 5000 pieces per year, where the time and cost of in-house
development of custom hardware and software has not always been commercially
viable, or is not core to their business. Now, the Anders custom service allows
customers to significantly reduce cost and time-to-market by outsourcing all
aspects of embedded computer and display development and integration. As a
result, they can focus in-house effort on developing the application-specific
features of their product that will give them the best competitive advantage.
Discussing the launch of the new service, Tony Saigh, business
development manager at Anders Electronics, states: “For customers who are
looking to launch products in volumes of between 1000 and 5000 pieces per year,
the associated hardware and software development costs are relatively high and
the time it takes to develop a fully custom solution in house can be 12 months
or longer. Even when using a computer-on-module approach, there can be a steep
learning curve which lengthens the design process. By choosing Anders
Electronics as their expert hardware partner to develop a custom solution, costs
can be dramatically reduced and development times shortened to just a few
months, depending on the complexity of the application. This allows our
customers to focus on what they do best – creating their killer application!”
Offering both Windows® CE 5.0 and Linux solutions, Anders’ custom
designs are based on Intel’s XScale PXA255 and PXA270 processors and Toppoly
2.8-inch or 3.5-inch QVGA TFT displays, although larger, high-resolution LCDs
are also available. System options include touchscreen functionality, on-board
flash memory, CMOS/CCD cameras and a variety of wired and RF connectivity
capabilities including Ethernet, PCMCIA, RS232, GSM/GPRS/EDGE, WiFi and
Bluetooth. In addition to hardware and software design, Anders can also offer
housing and casing options to meet the requirements of the target application.
A key element in the launch of the new service is the flexible and
configurable CM-X255 and CM-X270W ARM-based computer-on-modules (COMs). These
both feature a smaller footprint than a credit card yet integrate an Intel
XScale CPU up to 520MHz, high-speed memory, up to 512MB of NAND flash and 4MB of
NOR Flash. On board functionality includes an integrated LCD controller,
optional Intel 2700G multimedia accelerator, synchronous and asynchronous serial
ports, IrDA and USB connectivity, interfaces for PCMCIA/CompactFlash, 100Mb
Ethernet, a touchscreen controller, audio output capability and a high-speed MSL
camera interface. In addition to a local bus, the COMs provide PCI and LPC buses
for interfacing to off-board peripherals.
Design and development of the
custom solutions will take place at the Anders Electronics European Display
Design Centre in London, while manufacturing takes advantage of Anders’ low-cost
and high quality off-shore facilities.
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