Embedded PCs for electronics-control in LHCb

LHCb has a large number of complex electronics boards, which need to be controlled, configured and monitored. Instead of using a bus-based solution like VME, LHCb has decided to equip each board with an embedded micro-controller card for this purpose. A commercial component based on an i386-compatible microcontroller from AMD has been chosen. This combines the advantages of commercial-off-the-shelf hardware with the widespread knowledge of the i386 family, cutting down developing needs and shortening the learning and support curve.