information kiosks, according to the company.
(Click for larger image)The Sirius platform is based on a 520MHz Marvell (formerly Intel) XScale PXA270 processor and features a 3.5-inch LCD panel with touchscreen. It also integrates a range of I/O, including two USB host ports, a USB client port, two serial ports, 10/100 Ethernet, Bluetooth, and audio in/out. CompactFlash and SD/MMC card interfaces are also provided, for use in adding WiFi, memory, or other functions. The platform also comes with 1GB of NAND flash nonvolatile storage memory, along with the requisite Windows CE flash filesystem support. Sirius additionally has an external camera module -- this, too, is accompanied by suitable Windows CE drivers.
E-con Systems points out that
Windows CE 6.0's redesigned kernel includes a number of valuable enhancements, such as support for up to 32,000 processes -- each able to address 2GB of virtual memory space -- as well as support for larger file systems, better disk caching, and "many other great features."
Among those "great features," according E-con Systems, is the inclusion of a camera driver MDI interface with directshow. "As a result there is no need of any special applications needed for capturing the stream and applications can directly use directshow API," the company says. "This creates lots of flexibility like encoding the video and streaming it through the network."
According to the company, the Sirius reference design is intended to assist designers of devices such as navigation handhelds, multimedia players, industrial handhelds, retail transaction terminals, video conferencing terminals, video streaming nodes, surveillance devices, and information kiosks.
In addition to Windows CE 6.0 and 5.0 BSPs, the company also supports the Sirius platform with Linux.
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