Igel M320C: Hardware 

• Hardware
• Firmware
• Linux
• Using

The M320C was once the hardware base of Igel's UD3 line of thin clients. It reached end-of-life in February 2014 but was supported through to February 2017.

M320C v M330C

In May 2016 I got hold of a M330C. From looking at the old press releases my best guess was that this hardware was launched in May 2013 as the M320C. In February 2014 the packaging (case) was changed and it became the M330C. Having now (March 2017) got hold of a M320C I see I was right.

The obvious difference is the case which was restyled. The on/off button changed from being mechanical to a touch switch. Visually the two motherboards look the same, but the M320C is marked 30D3B9C00-010B V0.2 whilst the M330C is marked 30D3C4C00-200B V1.0 so there are a few hardware revisions. One can be spotted in the lspci listings. We have for the M320C:

02:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controller

..being replaced by

02:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1042A USB 3.0 Host Controller

Specifications

The basic specs are:

Processor
Type    Speed	Via Eden X2 1GHz
Chipset
Type	VX900
Memory
Flash    RAM	2GB(LX) 4GB(W7) 8GB(W7+) 1GB(LX) 2GB(W7/W7+)
Video
Chip    Max resolution	Via ChromotionHD 2.0 2x 1920 x 1200 16-bit colour
Ports
Video    Network    USB    Serial    Parallel    PS/2	1 x DVI-I 1 x DVI-D 10/100/1000 1 x USB2.0 front 1 x USB2.0 rear 2 x USB 3.0 rear none none Kybd
Power
Supply    Plug    Off    Running    Idle	12V 3A (label) Coax 5.5mm/2.1mm 0W 12W 8W
Dimensions
W x H x D	6.9cm x 21.0cm x 20.7cm

The M320C is available in various guises and could be running Linux or Windows 7.

CPU

For those to whom it matters here is some detail from Linux's /proc/cpuinfo

vendor_id	:	CentaurHauls
cpu family	:	6
model	:	15
model name	:	VIA Eden X2 U4200 @ 1.0+ GHz
stepping	:	13
flags	:	fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm syscall nx lm constant_tsc rep_good pni monitor vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr sse4_1 popcnt rng rng_en ace ace_en ace2 phe phe_en pmm pmm_en lahf_lm ida

PCI

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 Host Bridge: Host Control (rev 80)
00:00.1 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 Error Reporting
00:00.2 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 CPU Bus Controller
00:00.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 DRAM Bus Control
00:00.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 Power Management and Chip Testing Control
00:00.5 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 APIC and Central Traffic Control
00:00.6 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 Scratch Registers
00:00.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 North-South Module Interface Control
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 Graphics [Chrome9 HD]
00:01.1 Audio device: VIA Technologies, Inc. Device 9170
00:03.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 PCI Express Root Port 0
00:03.1 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 PCI Express Root Port 1
00:03.2 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 PCI Express Root Port 2
00:03.3 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 PCI Express Root Port 3
00:03.4 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 PCI Express Physical Layer Electrical Sub-block
00:0f.0 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 Serial ATA Controller
00:10.0 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.1 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.2 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.3 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a0)
00:10.4 USB controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 90)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX900 Bus Control and Power Management
00:11.7 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX8xx South-North Module Interface Control
00:13.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VX855/VX875/VX900 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:14.0 Audio device: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A/VT8251 HDA Controller (rev 20)
02:00.0 USB controller: ASMedia Technology Inc. ASM1042 SuperSpeed USB Host Controller
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 07)

Power Supply

The IGEL M320C uses an external 12V supply with a conventional 5.5mm/2.1mm coaxial connector. The M320C data sheet gives it power consumption as 11W when idle and 1W in sleep mode.

Expansion

Both the Flash memory and the RAM in the M320C are easily replaceable.

Flash: The flash memory is a SATA DOM plugged into a socket - top left in the photograph.

RAM:There is a single DDR3L SODIMM socket for the RAM. The 1GB DIMM supplied with the unit is labelled: 2G 1Rx8 DDR3L 1333 SO 684503-1183 and is manufactured by Transcend. The M320C data sheet says: "DDR3 1066 SO-DIMM x 1 (up to 4 GB)"

PCI-E There is a mini PCI-e socket located under the SATA DOM. I had an AzureWave 802.11b/g/n PCI-E Mini Card to hand and plugged it in. Running the lspci command again showed a new entry:

03:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT2790 Wireless 802.11n 1T/2R PCIe

USB: There are two 4-pin sockets on the board labelled CN4 and CN5. These are two internal USB 2.0 ports. As pictured the connections run left to right: +5V/data/data/GND. The sockets take a 4-pin 2.0mm Micro JST plug.

On the underside of the unit is a 44-pin plug. This is for use with a connectivity module that offers wireless network connectivity and/or an additional serial port for legacy peripherals. These modules fit between the case and the foot.

For more details see the M310C entry.