New Mini-itx Epia M2 with PCMCIA slot

[pacux]

I've just seen news in www.mini-itx.com about new mini-itx board : Epia M2.
It looks VERY interesting to build a StarOS AP.
It has all usual mini-itx features plus Cardbus/CF adapter, and with 2 PCI Riser Card (http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=8#p50) from VIA, it could be an ideal option for our systems.

http://www.mini-itx.com/news/images/story0166.jpg

More pictures in http://www.mini-itx.com (http://www.mini-itx.com/news/cebit2003-1).

What do you think about?

Greetings,
Pacux.

[lonnie]

WOW. :D :D :D :D

It will most likely be pricey but if you only need what it has it will sure make a nice unit.

Did they have any announcement as to availability? I'll make some calls on Monday.

[pacux]

Sorry, I've no more info on this beautys. Only that seen on mini-itx.com . I'm expectating for price and avalability, too. ;)

We're building our system with Soekris right now. And purchased 3 micro-atx with server licenses this week to test it. Sure it would be amazing. We use Hermes/Ruby based cards because it has great support in StarOS, and are looking for good PCI to PCMCIA converters for use with this mobos. Specially interested in dual slots converters for use with Agere Integrated PCMCIA card to make they fit in this tandem like stuff, so we can have 6 cards in one system.

Sure it could be useful for all us using StarOS to have a hardware compatibility list, or forum related...

About the pictures in the your hardware pricing, what kind of radios are these (http://www.star-os.com/images/a2o.jpg)?

Right now, is full of 22 Mbps stuff, and are growing 802.11g and 802.11a (here in Spain 5Ghz isn't an unlicensed band) cards. Now Orinoco is the best supported radio in StarOS, but what direction(chipset) you are taking ?

And about StarOS... Great, great job. We like it very much. We're expectating for version 2 to come out.. Any availability date or timeline ? ;)

Pacux.

[lonnie]

Those radios are the original LinkSys WMP-11. Please be careful as LinkSys made a chipset change last Fall but there was no model change. All you will see is the V27 tacked onto the FCC ID. DLink did the same thing with the DWL-520. They tack on a C1 to the FCC ID but other than that they make no mention, and in fact they use the old pictures for any advertising.

We grabbed a whole bunch of the DWL-520C1 cards because at the pricing offered it allows us to do a client install for $200 CDN and we even make a slight profit. We think that is OK and Dlink and LinkSys are to commended for that. We just wish they would change model numbers to let people know they have made a significant change - and a new chipset is significant if it does not use the old drivers.

We are supporting prism2.5 cards and of course Orinoco which is our all time favorite. Agere/Proxim and Intersil have made available information that the others keep as closely guarded secrets and the result is we have excellent support for their cards.

The new Intersil 802.11a,g, and duette drivers are being worked on. We are waiting for commercially available cards before we release the drivers. We want to test this quite a bit before unleashing it on you guys.

Version 2 will make its debut next Fall, but we are also adding and expanding the current one.

[georgew]

I've just seen news in www.mini-itx.com about new mini-itx board : Epia M2.


Have you seen any pricing/specs on this? With 3 months gone past I would hope to see availability. Web searches all point to the page you have the link to...

[georgew]

Oh!

I saw a better picture of the board... not so good...

The CF adapter seems to be associated with the pcmcia bridge, rather than being an IDE port. The cf and pc card slots are on a daughterboard over the sound/TV chipset. This seems to be intended for making a TIVO style cable converter with network service. I could be wrong, but I don't think the cf is likely to be bootable.

[bobbyc]

any updates on this board? I was hoping to use it for backhauls; to take the backhaul radios out of our current cpu which house backhaul radio plus AP's.
Bob C

[bobbyc]

So did anyone ever get this board to see if it works?

[bkehoe]

We've several of them and they're working fine. I am still investigating a possible problem with the 4minipci slot adapter from mikrotik though - links seem rather sluggish when 2+ cards on the board are in use.

[georgew]

does it boot from the cf module?

[bobbyc]

Does the pcmcia slot work?
Bob C

[bkehoe]

No, it doesnt boot from the CF. The PCMCIA works just fine.

[bobbyc]

That's great news. Please tell me how you are powering yours? I want to tower mount mine, but I assume that it is not POE ready.
Bob C

[djdodo]

i just test via epi mii and CF slot does work.I try use 1x Orinoco Gold PCMCIA and 2x Prism 2.5 via PCI riser.So work fine,but with use 12V ATX power,not work right,sometimes with problem.
By the VIA EPIA distributor have this board special power solution.If you use standard ATX power supply,work correct,but with passive ATX 12V/65W no!
Now we use EPIA V5000 and we are happy:)All works fine.No problem.
For more informations and photos visit www.star-os.cz .