Commell’s 5.25-inch “LE-578” SBC offers Apollo Lake SoCs, 8x USB ports, 2x SATA ports, triple display support, and up to 4x GbE ports.

Commell has released the LE-578, a 5.25-inch (203 x 146mm) form factor SBC that runs on Intel’s Apollo Lake SoCs. Targeted LE-578 applications are said to include gaming, surveillance, medical, defense, transportation, industrial automation, imaging, machine vision, and digital signage.

LE-578
(click image to enlarge)

The LE-578 supports the dual-core Celeron N3350 or quad-core Pentium N4200. As usual with Commell, no OS support was listed, but Linux and Windows should run fine. The only difference between the Celeron and Pentium versions — aside from performance — is that the Celeron SKU gives you the option of 2x or 4x Gigabit PoE Ethernet ports, while the Pentium model offers only 4x GbE ports. The GbE ports offer PoE power sourcing of up to 90W.

You can load up to 8GB DDR3L and store data via SD cards. Other storage features include dual SATA III ports and mSATA via one of the dual mini-PCIe slots. A SIM slot is also available.

Taking advantage of the larger 5.25-inch real estate, Commell has bulked up the LE-578 with plenty of features. Coastline ports include the GbE ports, 4x USB 3.0 ports, 2x USB 2.0 ports, and an HDMI port. Triple displays are available via the HDMI port and dual-channel LVDS connection, as well as two optional packages: a DisplayPort or either a second LVDS or VGA connection via an internal header.

You also get 6x serial interfaces, an audio input, PS/2, GPIO, and more. The LE-578 features a 9-30V power input, according to the product page and 9-24V per the press release. The SBC supports 0 to 60°C temperatures.

Specifications for the LE-578 include:

• Processor — Intel “Apollo Lake” Celeron N3350 (2x cores @ up to 2.4GHz, 6W TDP or Pentium N4200 (4x cores @ 1.1GHz/2.5GHz, 6W TDP)
• Memory — Up to 8GB DDR3L (1866/1600/1333 MHz) via 1x SODIMM
• Storage — SD slot; 2x SATA III (6Gbps); mSATA (via mini-PCIe)
• Display (two options):
  • Option 1: HDMI port, LVDS, and DisplayPort
  • Option 2: HDMI port, LVDS, header for 2nd LVDS or VGA
  • 4K and triple display support
• Networking — 2x or 4x GbE (Intel I210-AT) ports (4x only on Pentium model) with PoE power sourcing support for up to 90W
• Other I/O:
  • 4x USB 3.0 ports
  • 2x USB 2.0 ports
  • 2x USB 2.0 headers
  • 4x RS-232 headers
  • 2x RS-232/422/485 headers
  • Audio interface (Realtek ALC262 codec)
  • LPC, PS/2, GPIO, SMBus, LCD inverter
• Expansion — 2x mini-PCIe slots (1x with mSATA); SIM slot
• Other features — RTC; watchdog; heatsink
• Power — 9-30V DC 4-pin input; 24-pin ATX supply
• Operating temperature — 0 to 60°C
• Dimensions — 203 x 146mm (5.25-inch form factor)

 
5.25-inch SBCs: an aging SBC format

The venerable 5.25-inch SBC form-factor, pioneered by Ampro in 1983 and standardized as “EBX” by the PC/104 Consortium in 1992, is becoming increasingly rare. Other SBCs following the format that we’ve covered in recent years include Advantech’s Apollo Lake based PCM-9563, Avalue’s Skylake based EBM-SKLU and Braswell based EBM-BSW, Perfectron’s Skylake-H based OXY5739A, VersaLogic’s Bay Trail based Viper, and WinSystems’s Bay Trail based EBC-C413.

Interestingly, Adlink, which acquired Ampro in 2008, currently has designated all three of its remaining EBX SBCs as “end-of-life” (EOL). All that’s left of its former EBX product line is a single “EBX Base Board” that supports COM Express Type 2 modules and offers “legacy” I/O.

 
Further information

The LE-578 is available at an undisclosed price. More information may be found in Commell’s LE-578 product page.