Product Description:

The P5MB15 is an industrial PC motherboard produced by B&R Automation within the P5 Circuit Boards series. The board serves as the central computing layer in machine controllers, where it hosts a CPU, memory, and field interfaces for deterministic motion and process control. By consolidating processor, video, and I/O resources onto a single circuit board, it supplies the logic, data logging, and visualization functions required in automated assembly lines and packaging equipment.

At power-up, the board is initialized by the AWARD EliteBIOS, which configures the system and handles POST routines specific to industrial I/O. Core traffic is coordinated by the Intel 430HX chipset, providing a 64-bit memory path to two PS/2 SIMM sockets that accept EDO or FPM modules. When both sockets are populated, total capacity reaches 128 MB, allowing large recipe or log buffers without disk access. A ZIF Socket 7 hosts the CPU, and the floating-point unit is integrated so no external math coprocessor is required. Interface points include an Enhanced AT PS/2 keyboard port, a PS/2 mouse connector, and a bidirectional parallel port supporting SPP, EPP, and ECP modes. Temperature probes report CPU, I/O, and display readings to supervisory software.

Graphics are delivered through the FPD + CRT 15-pin VGA connector, and the controller can render 1024 x 768 with 256 colors for operator interfaces. Configuration data survive power removal because CMOS contents are mirrored in FlashPROM rather than a battery-dependent SRAM. The real-time clock keeps long-term drift within 10 ppm, enabling precise timestamping for process historians. Two RS-232 ports with 16-byte FIFOs handle asynchronous links to drives, scanners, or diagnostic consoles, and their deep buffers prevent overrun during high-speed data bursts.