There are three types of product in this category: Reference Designs, Development Boards, and OEM Modules for design-in.

Reference Designs:
Reference Designs are comprehensive designs implementing a wide range of peripherals based on a particular microcontroller, and usually offering Board Support Packages (BSPs) for advanced operating systems such as Windows Embedded CE or Linux. Reference designs include royalty free access to the design source (schematics and BSP code) which can provide a fast-to-market solution for your hardware, which uses a subset of the reference as a starting point. This is on the understanding that the Reference Design itself is just that - something to refer to while designing, and not a production-ready design in itself.

There is usually a development kit, including a board, documentation and software which you can use to help evaluate the reference design and create a prototype.

Our Reference Designs include the Sophia's SandGate II for PXA270, and Sandgate III for PXA320,which each include both Windows CE 5.0, CE 6.0 and Linux BSPs, with variants optimised for graphics, VoIP and teleconferencing applications.

Reference Design development kits are available from our online shop. Many of our development boards are also available as Reference Designs.

Development boards:
Development boards are intended to provide your project with a starting point before your own hardware is available. Many development boards double as reference designs, in that the rights to the design source are available for purchase - for example Embedded Planet's Freescale and AMCC boards are optionally available with schematic source. KickStart Kits from IAR are a low-cost way to evaluate a complete development environment, including a very-low-cost, basic board as well as a code-size restricted Development Environment and JTAG interface.

Modules for design-in (OEM boards,  "COTS", or Computer-on-Module):
These are small processor modules with basic on-board resources which are cost-engineered so that your finished product can be based around them. They are usually available at a low price for quantity orders. By using the module board in conjunction with a simple baseboard which includes the required connectors and any peripherals missing from the processor module, you can create a complete, cost-effective solution without the time and expense of developing your own embedded hardware and software platform. In all cases we offer a custom baseboard design service.

Examples of OEM modules include the TRITON PXA270, PXA320 and iMX27 series modules and Embedded Planet's credit-card boards.

If you have a project which might benefit from our boards and modules, please don't hesitate to contact our experts for further information. Many of these products can be purchased individually via our online shop . Please contact us for quantity pricing.