High-performance Ethernet connectivity
Future Electronics releases ‘Quebec’ Ethernet connectivity Future-Blox development board
• High-performance Ethernet board connects to other upcoming Future-Blox boards to form a proof-of-concept realisation platform for rapid system prototyping
The Quebec is a high-performance Ethernet Future-Blox board which enables rapid proof-of-concept realisation for applications that require 32-bit microcontroller and 10/100Mbit/s Ethernet capability.
The Quebec is one in a series of Future-Blox boards that share a physical interconnect format and a common bus. All Future-Blox boards plug together and share a common integrated development environment (such as IAR Systems, CodeWarrior™ or Keil™). This means that developers can begin compiling, simulating and debugging code as soon as two or more Future-Blox boards are plugged together (or on any single Future-Blox board that includes a microcontroller or microprocessor).
The Quebec Future-Blox board provides a prototyping platform for Ethernet connectivity and low-cost 32-bit processing in an industrial application. It is preconfigured for development within a µClinux environment, with the µClinux OS and TCP/IP stack loaded into the Flash memory.
It also aids evaluation of the MCF5208 32-bit microcontroller from Freescale Semiconductor and the DP83848 Ethernet physical layer device (PHY) from National Semiconductor.
The Quebec Future-Blox board includes:
• Freescale Semiconductor MCF5208 microcontroller
• National Semiconductor DP83848 Ethernet PHY
• 160-position I/O board connector providing access to address/data lines, serial communications ports, interrupts and timers
• Debug port (BDM)
• UART 0 port with RS232 DB9 connector (interfaced to the on-board dBUG monitor firmware)
• UART 1 port with RS232 DB9 connector
• ZigBee™ module socket compatible with MaxStream ™ ’s 'XBee' ZigBee™/802.15.4 module
• RJ-45 jack supporting 10/100Mbit/s Ethernet connection
• 8MB SDR +3.3V SDRAM
• 4MB +3.3V Flash memory
• CodeWarrior™ Development Studio v6.0 Special Edition
• All reference design files and firmware
The board is preconfigured for development within a µClinux OS environment with µClinux OS loaded into Flash memory. It can be connected to other Future-Blox boards via a common 160-position I/O board connector. Future-Blox board users can have free access to all its reference design files and firmware.
Future-Blox boards are available free to members of Future Electronics’ ‘Board Club’. Design engineers can apply to receive a Future-Blox development platform and join the Board Club by registering for membership here.