The Epson Corp arm of Seiko Epson Corp in Torrance, California has made good on its promise to offer 8086-class embedded personal computer power on a credit card-sized board with the launch of the Cardio-X86, which uses the F8680A highly integrated 8086-compatible microprocessor from Chips & Technologies Inc, which includes the entire motherboard bar memory and disk control on a single chip. Aimed at designers of point-of-sale terminals, video cassette recorders, facsimile machines, factory automation systems and the like – anyone indeed considering Microsoft Corp’s Microsoft at Work or wanting to use MS-DOS as an embedded operating system, the board, which joins the Intel Corp 80386SL-based Cardio-386, is 3.4 by 2.1. It includes direct support for liquid crystal displays, hard and floppy disk drives, and keyboards and connects to outside devices via a 236-pin card connector; it has an XT bus and proprietary Epson All-in-one System Interface for system upgrades; a PCMCIA interface is also supported. There is also an optional new programmable co-processor for programmable logic systems in industrial control applications. Sampling now, with volume in June, Cardio-x86 costs $300 when you order 1,000 or more for the basic board with processor, CGA controller with liquid crystal interface, 1Mb RAM, 256KB of ROM and the interface chips to create a complete subsystem.
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