MSI Unveils New Haswell-powered Embedded Motherboard
Perfect for digital signage, according to MSI.
MSI today announced a new embedded mini-ITX board dubbed the MS-98C7. The board is intended for high-density processing and graphic application markets and uses Intel's 4th generation Haswell. It supports up to 16 GB of RAM and features output interfaces for VGA, LVDS, and DP. As such, MSI is pushing this on the industrial scene for digital signage, onboard MOD and gaming.
The MS-98C7 packs support for 1080p, dual gigabit LAN, dual Mini-PCIe, 5 COM ports, 8 or 10 x USB ports (4 x USB 3.0; 6 x USB 2.0), support for SATA 3.0, and mSATA via Mini-PCIe, and 8 GIPO (general input output) connections (users can define the I/O via BIOS).
MSI says the MS-98C7 is available as two separate SKUs aimed at different application requirements: the more budget-friendly H81 and high-end Q87. Both offer scalable CPU options.
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The 2 slots on the left look like RAM slots. PCI express is a single slot on the right.
http://www.msi.com/product/ipc/MS-98C7.html
http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/thinminiitxcomponentcatalog.pdf
The 2 slots on the left look like RAM slots. PCI express is a single slot on the right.
That is absolutely right.
Slots on the left are Mini-PCIe (next to the SATA ports) and 2x SO-DIMM (a.k.a. notebook memory); slot on the right is PCIe 16x.
It sounds like a rather nice board for quite a few applications besides industrial, actually... A version without all the COM ports (maybe leave one, though you'd probably be able to get away with using only the GPIO pins) and an HDMI port would probably be fantastic as a low-power HTPC, or a rather powerful router. I'd like to know about price, though.
My understanding behind this is the fact that there are not currently many boards that are Mini-Itx that are Haswell specific.
Uh, how is it "embedded" if there's a release for the CPU?
Hmm... Maybe because it's designed to be used on self-contained industrial applications? That's at least plausible, no?
Hmm... Maybe because it's designed to be used on self-contained industrial applications? That's at least plausible, no?
No idea.
I guess they mean it's the motherboard that's embedded into the system, not the CPU embedded into the motherboard.
I just don't understand what in particular makes this "embedded" versus any other motherboard of the same form factor.