The Bifferboard: tiny, low power embedded x86 board

A nice, cheap and tiny x86 embedded board that runs Linux and just consumes 1W. It has all the basic connectivity you need in an embedded system.

As you may already know, we maintain a list of attractive and Linux friendly embedded boards. Whenever we find a new board that is attractive and meets our strict criteria (supporting Linux or other free kernels, public pricelist, public documentation and website with an English version), we add this board to our list. This way, we don’t forget about any useful board, and we can offer useful guidance to our customers and to any embedded system developer looking for a suitable hardware platform.

Somebody at Bifferos.com has just contacted us to let us know about their Bifferboard product. Here are its announced features:

• 150MHz RDC CPU, Intel 486SX compatible
• 1 watt power consumption (200mA @5v)
• 68mm x 28mm x 19mm
• 32MB SDRAM/1MB Flash
• OHCI/EHCI USB 2.0
• 10/100 Ethernet
• Serial console 115200 baud
• 4-pin JTAG (can be used as GPIO)
• 2 GPIO (1 LED, 1 button)
• Linux 2.6.27.5 + OpenWrt
• 29 UK pounds

The board has two components: the CPU board, and the I/O one, offering Ethernet and USB host connectivity. For a serial port, you can order a special cable from their shop, which connects to a USB port on your workstation.

Thanks to its low power consumption, the Bifferboard can even be powered by USB. According to its makers, the board can do anything a NSLU2 device can do. It is just cheaper (approximately 33 EUR at the time of this writing).

Last but not least, most Bifferboard hardware can be emulated with QEMU.

While it could also be suitable for mass production projects, it can be at least a nice platform for prototypes, hobby, research and educational projects.

Of course, if you know about other attractive boards that we could add to our list, please post a comment or send us e-mail.

Author: Michael Opdenacker

Michael Opdenacker is the founder of Bootlin, and was its CEO until 2021. He is best known for all the free embedded Linux and kernel training materials that he created together with Thomas Petazzoni. He is always looking for ways to increase performance, reduce size and boot time, and to maximize Linux' world domination. More details... View all posts by Michael Opdenacker