An SBC with High-End Video in Mind

by James Murray
Published on Feb 6, 2006 3:00 PM



February 6, 2005 - Zendex Corporation has announced the release of their new Single Board Computer, intended to appeal directly to the high-end video and audio sector. The Zendex P4 features support for either a Celeron or Pentium 4M processor, allowing for a choice between lower power consumption or faster performance. To further cool the board, the Zendex ZXE-856 dismisses the louder and less reliable cooling fan in favor of a non-mechanical convection cooling system. It even offers an on-board thermal monitor.

In the company’s press release last week, Zendex CEO Howard Czapla stated, "We designed this board to surpass the performance of virtually every other SBC on the market in its class. We used over 25 years of experience to include features that high end video applications will appreciate. We anticipate that companies using the ZXE-856 will have a significant advantage over their competitors."

The ZXE-856 aim at versatility. Users can configure their system for six USB 2.0 ports, one 10/100 Ethernet port, five RS-232 serial ports, two RS422 serial ports, and one TTL serial port. It also provides AC97 amplified stereo outputs and multiple VGA outputs. Users can engage two VGA video ports to drive two 1600 x 1200 resolution displays, and the dual VGA outputs have a maximum shared memory of up to 64 MB. All I/O is available on a passive Backplane. Customers can also modify the board for up to 1 GB of DDR DRAM for applications demanding greater graphical and performance ability, and the board may be customized in other ways.

Lastly, the ZXE-856 is quite small at 12" x 9-1/4" x 2", which earmarks it for the gaming and tech-savvy user. Users into modding will appreciate a board that can fit into smaller cabinet slots. Likewise, they will appreciate that the ZXE-856 supports multiple operating systems, e.g. Microsoft Windows XP, 2000, XP Embedded, and Linux.

To view a summary data sheet, click here.