(Click here for a larger view of the eBox600-FL)

The eBox600-FL is packaged in a housing made of aluminum and steel, which measures approximately 10 x 6 x 2.5 inches -- large enough for a 2.5-inch hard disk drive, although alternatively an operating system could be installed on flash via the device's Type II CompactFlash slot.

The main board used in the system is Axiomtek's EP811 (shown below). The board supports either a Pentium M or Celeron processor, but in the eBOX600-FL is available only with a 600MHz or 1GHz Celeron, likely due to cooling requirements. Using Intel's 852GM+ICH4 chipset, it has a Phoenix-Award BIOS with RPL/PXE LAN boot ROM and a CMOS backup feature.


Axiomtek's EP811 main board

The Axiomtek EP811 mainboard can support dual CRT or LVDS displays with resolution up to 1600 x 1200 pixels; however, the eBox600-FL has only a single VGA output. Both board and box support up to 1GB of DDR memory via a single SODIMM slot.

Expansion and I/O possibilities for the eBox600FL include four USB ports -- three external and one internal. The latter is intended for an optional wireless LAN adapter, and the eBOX600-FL also accepts an external range-extending antenna, visible in our photos.


The rear of the eBox600-FL, showing a variety of ports
In addition to the CompactFlash slot mentioned previously, the eBox600-FL also has a PC/104-Plus connector on its main board (seen at the lower left in the above photo of the EP811). It's said this provides for both 16-bit ISA and 32-bit PCI expansion.

Key features and specifications listed by Axiomtex include:

• Processor -- Intel Celeron M clocked at 600Mhz or 1GHz
  
• Memory -- up to 1GB of DDR memory on single SODIMM slot
  
• Display -- VGA, resolutions not specified
  
• Networking -- 10/100 Ethernet
  
• Other I/O:
  • 2 x serial ports with 9-pin D-Sub male connectors
    
  • 15-pin D-Sub female connector for VGA
    
  • 1 x 15-pin D-Sub male connector for 7-in/out Digital I/O
    
  • line in, line out, and mic in connectors
    
  • 1 x RJ-45 connector for 10/100Base-T Ethernet
    
  • 3 x USB 2.0 connectors externally, 1 x USB 2.0 internally
    
  • 1 x PS/2 connector, supports both keyboard and mouse through Y-adapter
    
  • Wireless antenna connector
• Expansion:
  • PC/104-Plus connector
    
  • Type II CompactFlash slot
    
  • 2.5-inch hard drive bay
• Dimensions -- 10 x 6 x 2.5 inches
  
• Weight -- 5.7 pounds (2.6 kg)
  
• Vibration endurance:
  • With CompactFlash, 5G rms (5-500Hz, X, Y, Z directions)
    
  • With HDD, 1G rms (5-500Hz, X, Y, Z directions)
• Operating temperature -- -20 to 50 deg. C

While pricing was not cited, Axiomtex says the eBOX600-FL will be available in mid-December. In addition to being compatible with Windows CE and Windows XP Embedded, it can also run Linux, according to the company.

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