If youve never heard of an embedded board system, its basically a very limited computer system designed to perform one or two dedicated tasks. Before you ask, it wont let you go on the internet, and it gets very little use in the home computer market, if by home computer market youre talking about PCs and Macs.
Rather,
embedded boards are primarily used in specific devices that need some degree of computing. For example, embedded boards are used in pretty much any dinky little Tiger Electronic Handhold Video games you might remember if you grew up in the 70s or 80s. The computing capabilities of an embedded board are lower than that of a home computer, obviously, but the board is usually only given one or two tasks that it can perform like clockwork.
Whats kind of interesting to note is that, while these items do tend to be fairly cheap, with some going for as little as 25 cents, they can be expensive at first. The problem is that, with a motherboard and various daughter boards, you can afford to simply put together what you need from various components. When creating embedded single board computers, then, the problem is that you need custom carrier boards. This is why its always a good idea for anyone who needs an order of
embedded system hardware to shop around and get a low price. Its not the unit itself that can be costly, but the fact that you need to have a relatively smaller number of them custom made.
One cool thing about embedded boards is the ridiculously low amount of power they actually require. If you ever want to void your warranty and crack open a portable DVD players remote control or something, you might be surprised to find a low power sbc running on a miniscule battery no larger than you would put in your digital watch.
Embedded boards are basically a requisite for anyone who needs to produce a bunch of small electronics, but it can be hard finding someone who will make you a set number at a low price. The fact is that motherboards and graphics cards and so on are, on an individual basis, produced en masse. Literally thousands and thousands of NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards are produced at once, and that keeps production costs low, which is why a laptop maker can afford to include one in every new model they put out. Almost any piece of electronic equipment requiring custom made hardware is usually going to cost a little more.
Low priced embedded board manufacturers are out there, but youll want to keep your eyes peeled for them. Most manufacturers, knowing that your options are limited and that its understood that custom hardware can get pricy, wont go out of their way to give you a lower price. The smarter companies will try their best to stay competitive by offering you lower prices and good quality at the same time.
