Best suited board for a .NET MF downloader project

[Reedy]

Hi All,
Looking for a bit of advice.


I'm doing my university (At University of Hull) dissertation using the Micro Framework (version 4) - the intention is to create a .net mf low powered embedded downloader device. Ie a download manager on the MF. So HTTP/FTP clients wrapped in a usable system.

My project supervisor (Rob Miles, MS MVP, and a big MF fan) has various bits of your hardware for different purposes.

Although I don't need to test/run it on actual hardware, I believe it'd be useful to have some actual hardware with my software running on it for future interviews etc (and just for fun).

Basically, the "major features" i need are networking - Ethernet or wireless (Ethernet preferred), and some sort of storage, either via USB stick or via SD/SDHC or derivatives.

Screen would be an extra, not really needed.

For the Fez devices, it seems the ethernet drivers might be a bit of a sticking point (seemingly not very mature, to quote rob - "and they look a bit elementary to me")

He suggested the Embedded Master, which is now superceeded by the EMX.. The Dev system could be bought here...

There is also the ChipworkX Module, in the dev system... But the speed and ram are quite attractive. Price, unfortunately, is quite expensive.

In the ideal world, i'd just buy them all... Ahh well...

Will need to factor in shipping to the UK, or at least, the price difference from a uk distributor

Thanks in advance


Sam

[SupportAdmin]

Everything you said is correct but I am not sure what is your question!

[Reedy]

Haha, sorry.

I wrote it in a bit of a rush before heading out, hence didn't proof read it.

Was wondering, from your perspective, what would probably be the best board (or board + components)/dev kit to buy for this application?

[SupportAdmin]

EMX or ChipworkX development systems will do great. FEZ is good as long as you need simple networking and simple display