India Firm Offers Terminal Reference DesignIndia Firm Offers Terminal Reference Design

BANGALORE, India — Dexcel Electronics, a five-year old design services house based here, has developed a reference design for portable electronic terminals powered by Intel’s X-Scale processors.Called DesignFlex, the design was developed jointly with Mediatronix Pvt. Ltd., (Kerala, India). It will enable product companies to migrate to the handheld/portable segment more easily and speed time-to-market, said Amit Sinha, chief executive of Dexcel Electronics Designs Pvt. Ltd.Dexcel will hold the IP rights and have a royalty-based agreement with Mediatronix, according to Dexcel executives.The first version of DesignFlex is a single-board computer with Linux 2.6 ported on it. Subsequent versions of the reference design will be released in the coming months.Using the PXA 255 200 MHz X Scale processor, the design includes 16 to 64 Mbytes of SDRAM/Flash SDRAM, 8 to 64 Mbytes of Flash, support for a 640 x 480 pixel TFT LCD, 10/100 T LAN, an iRDA port, two serial ports, IDE and GPIO interfaces, and different power supply options."Usually, no one speaks of a motherboard for handhelds, but this is an initiative we see huge potential for,” Sinha added. "Most similar products are now imported into India, and people buy these with several unnecessary features. We are offering a custom board without any design charges. We are sure there will be a lot of takers in India, if offered with local support."