Computer question

[LoLay]

This is more like a newbie computer engineering question. I am not asking how to build a complex PCB myself. Our company had a meeting today and I am appointed to look into embedding a webserver onto a piece of PCB.

At a business point of view, I'd guess most hardware companies would just purchase the piece of PCB they need for their application instead of re-designing themselves(considering the piece they need is not the core component of their product).

How does a company hardcode a certain software onto a piece of PCBoard? What is the usual procedure a company has to go through to create a PCB board? Any websites I should take a look?

I have no clue on where to start, what kind of guys to hire, and what should I tell them to do. Well, I guess they picked the wrong guy, but It will be great if I can pull this off.
Please help. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks.

[MidgetsBro]

They usually have a small battery and CMOS/BIOS on the chip to store data. I'm not really into making chips, but I know you will have to have some kind of BIOS on it keep it running. How to program it, I have no clue. You will probably need some sort of long term storage to store the pages and/or images you would like to host, if it is going to be a webserver.

[scoutt]

Originally posted by LoLay
How does a company hardcode a certain software onto a piece of PCBoard? What is the usual procedure a company has to go through to create a PCB board? Any websites I should take a look?

well it is not that diffucult. you will need access to a Semiconductor called EEPROM or EPROM. I have some sites at home that explain this so you will have to wait. you will need to learn the machine language to program that chip. almost like assembly language on the computer. but depends on the chip you get. I have worked with Motorola eproms. here is something like what I am talking aobut. http://www.arlabs.com/motorola.htm

Quote form MidgetsBro
They usually have a small battery and CMOS/BIOS on the chip to store data.

close but you are wrong. a BIOS/CMOS is an EPROM or EEPROM. they don't need a battery to run but to keep the info running like a clock you do. you can store code on a chip and then take that chip off the board and a month later put it back on and it will still work.

[MidgetsBro]

Originally posted by scoutt
close but you are wrong. a BIOS/CMOS is an EPROM or EEPROM. they don't need a battery to run but to keep the info running like a clock you do. you can store code on a chip and then take that chip off the board and a month later put it back on and it will still work.

I knew that. Actually I didn't, but now I do Thanks for the info. I'll store it in the back of my brain for when I am on Jeopardy.