Evaluation of single board computers for the antenna controller at the Allen Telescope Array

We review a variety off-the-shelf single board computers being considered for application in the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) for antenna control. The evaluation process used the following procedure: we developed an equivalent small program on each computer. This program communicates over a local area network (Ethernet) to a remote host, and makes some simple tests of the network bandwidth. The controllers are evaluated according to 1) the measured performance and 2) the time it takes to develop the software. Based on these tests we rate each controller and choose one based on the Ajile aJ-100 processor for application at the ATA.