Chip down or Computer on Module?

When starting an new embedded computing design you need to consider few things.

1. What architecture to go for x86, ARM or maybe RiscV...?
2. What is the the power envelope and how to realize the cooling?
3. What kind of performance is needed for the application?
4. What is the real estate are of the design?
5. What kind of interfaces are needed...

So quite few topics to consider + many more not mentioned here.

But maybe the first thing should be should I design it from scratch or should I use something available from the market? There are for sure Cons and Pros for both approach but I would start thinking my application and what I want to achieve? What is the core competence of the company? Is there something suitable for my application? What kind of value add it will bring if I do my own design? How fast I need to be in the market to be competitive? Do I want to have scalable platform or absolutely cost optimized? How much money and effort is needed for upkeeping of the design? What effort is needed for the software support? etc.

Platform thinking can turn to an chip down design

Today most of the facts are pointing towards buying platform, instead of doing chip down design. Module platform is giving you great advantage of speed, flexibility, software support, maintenance, lifecycle management. In other words: total cost of ownership is better with module, than chip down design. As well nothing is preventing to move to chip down design in later stage, in case it seems to be better in product life cycle. Below you can see example of Q7 evolution to chip down design

Computer on module standards

Computer on module is offering an power & technology ranging from various RISC -based CPU's to most powerful x86 CPU's. One of the most versatile platform is SMARC (Smart Mobility ARChitecture) by SGET https://sget.org/standards/smarc/. It is offering both Arm and x86 architecture in same standard and enabling truly flexible solution for many applications. The standard boards are available from several leading vendors. Other great standards are Q7, COM Express and COM-HPC. Standards are defining sizes, connectors and interfaces.

SMARC Standard

Easy to start with

It is easy to start with standard module as you have all things in place. Starter kit including cables, displays and software packages from example Yocto project. You are up and running in minutes, instead of long design effort. You can spend your scare resources on features which really are making difference in your application. Software development can be as well started simultaneously as you have the CPU -environment ready from day 1.

Here is an example of an starter kit

Conclusion

Most likely you have already figure out that I'm pro computing platforms, instead of chip down designs. There is a place for chip down designs as well, but in very many cases the computer on modules is worth to look at first. In my mind it does not often pay of to invent the wheel again. So have a good debate with your colleagues and suppliers, have different view points before you start your next design.