Remember seeing this sort of thing on Tomorrows World - the home of the future which turned on your heating, drew the curtains and informed you when you'd run out of milk. Today the intelligent building is a reality for both residential and business premises - bringing together security and energy management, housekeeping services and infotainment. The RE series of single board computers from Blue Chip Technology are the perfect embedded engine for the Smart Building.

The entry level RE1 board runs at 300MHz or 500MHz, a versatile embedded engine capable of driving colour TFT touchscreen interfaces up to 800 x 600 resolution. The higher performance RE2 incorporates an OMAP 3530 ARM Cortex A8 CPU core and an additional 430/520MHz DSP - a specialised processor optimised for hi-speed digital signal processing, perfect for image transfer. Add a camera interface and you have the ideal platform for video surveillance and remote communications. Applications can run on WIN CE 6.0 or Linux kernel operating systems with a covering Board Support Package (BSP) to speed up application development. The RE2 also has a whole host of connectivity options, making to easy to communicate with the Smart Building - wireless cellular communication over GSM/GPRS as well as Wi-Fi (802.11), Bluetooth and data transfer using a 10/100Mbit Ethernet interface.

Embedded control devices installed in Smart Buildings need to complement interior designs making the aesthetic value of the components another key consideration. The RE boards are a low power fanless build with a neat, low profile footprint - about the same size as a playing card. With a circa 2 Watt power consumption the RE single board computer lends itself to PoE (Power over Ethernet) installations, potentially simplifying installation.

Of course, the IPhone generation will expect to interact with their buildings or homes using a touchscreen terminal and an image-based user interface.  We've made it easy with the REsolution display kit, which brings together all the basic building blocks needed for a versatile embedded HMI module. The resulting package is an integrated solution which is small and low power for fanless operation. You don’t have to manage the associated issues of integrating a display and the RE single board computer – the mounting, cabling, signalling, power and connectors are all sorted out.  The whole package is managed for long term availability and problem free fit, form and function upgrades.

Post-installation maintenance is also a factor - after all a building should a pretty permanent fixture whereas a typical commercial computer platform may only last a couple of years before it becomes obsolete or breaks down. Working with an industrial manufacturer like Blue Chip Technology can help tackle this problem. We have over 25 years experience in designing stable platforms for an industrial user base who need extended product lifecycles. We typically design a minimum  5 year product life into our range, closely managing spares availability and fit, form and function upgrades. 

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