October 27, 2010 - Artila Electronics released the Matrix-518 box computer. Its fanless ARM9 RISC CPU and robust metal case design makes the Matrix-518 ideal for industrial applications that require a powerful and reliable automation controller.Matrix-518 is powered by a 400MHZ/MMU ATMEL ARM926EJ-S ARM Thumb Processor, and equipped with 64MB SDRAM, 128MB NAMD Flash memory, and 2MB DataFlash. In addition, the Matrix-518 integrates two 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, eight high speed RS-232/422/485 serial ports, and two USB hosts into a compact metal box. A serial console port is available for system configuration and software debug.
The DIN-Rail and wall-mounting capability also makes Matrix-518’s onsite installation flexible. Matrix-518 is pre-installed with Linux 2.6.29 OS and busybox utility collection. The UBI file system is employed to provide improved performance and longer lifetime for NAND Flash compared to JFFS2.
Moreover, the DataFlash includes a backup Linux file system which will automatically boot up Matrix-518 in case the primary NAND Flash fails. The failure-proof and redundant booting design makes Matrix-518 an ideal platform for many mission-critical applications.In terms of package management system, the Matrix-518 uses ipkg, a lightweight system that is resembled to Debian’s dpkg. This allows users to easily install, upgrade, and remove the software package. Artila continuously increases and updates the software package to its ftp site for the users to download for free to install the software package they need from the internet.
Useful software utilities are also provided for easy management and development of the Matrix-518, including webmin, and the GNU tool chain, which includes a C/C++ cross compiler and Glibc.
