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COMPUTER HARDWARE 121
COTS
This acronym stands for Commercial off the Shelf. Basically, we can buy
computer boards with processors already on them. We’ve discussed this before,
but it bears listing here. For each processor candidate, how many companies are
selling PCBs (suitable for the robot) containing the processor?
Third-party software Has anyone written specialized software for this proces-
sor that can be of use in the robot design?
Tech risk Will any features of the processor help defuse the project’s technical
risk?
More issues should be considered when choosing a processor. Here are a few more
web sites and PDFs detailing how others might approach the process:

www.cs.berkeley.edu/ liblit/darwin/slides
www.cs.berkeley.edu/ liblit/darwin/darwin.pdf
http://bwrc.eecs.berkeley.edu/Publications/2000/Theses/Evaluate_guide_
process_archit_select/Dissertation.Ghazal.pdf
http://dec.bournemouth.ac.uk/staff/awatson/micro/notes/Lect1_98.doc

Picking a processor and computer hardware for the robot is much more complex than
it may seem at first glance. But with proper attention paid to all the questions outlined
above, the process should go smoothly.