Mini-ITX

Because a mini-ITX motherboard is really a PC, you can choose any development tool available for a PC. Dr. Tak has successfully used gcc (GNU C compiler) in a Linux-based environment. If you are a fan of Windows, you can use tools from Borland, Microsoft and etc.

Setting up the development environment can be easy, or it can be a little challenging. The determining factor is how close the target system resembles a regular PC system. If your target system has 128MB of RAM and 30GB, it can be its own development environment! You can easily install gcc, gdb, telnet and other tools in the so called target system, and remotely develop your application using telnet.

On the other hand, if your target system has little resources, it can be difficult to set up the software development platform. For example, Dr. Tak's 8MB RAM and 8MB flash deployment required some fine tweaking to make everything fit. You can still develop much of the software on a resourceful system, but building an image for deployment requires attention.

With the mini-ITX solution, you also need to develop the application running on the separate printed circuit board. This cross development is a little more difficult than porting code from a resourceful PC to a less resourceful mini-ITX platform.