Thursday, 3 July 2014

Customized Single Board Computers


What is a Customized SBC?

SBCs are off-the-shelf products that can be used to develop end-products or applications for a variety of industries. SBCs come along with integrated software and hardware, which includes SoC, memory, power requirements and real world multimedia and connectivity interfaces such as USB, UART, CAN, HDMI, Ethernet, SDIO, MMC, Analog Audio, display etc. The SBC approach helps system developers to focus on the application specific parts. An extensive range of SBCs based on variety of microprocessor, memory size, supported interfaces and operating system support are available in the embedded market. This offers flexibility to the users to choose the appropriate Single Board Computer based on their cost, features and performance requirements. Low cost SBCs are widely used in academic research projects and in feature specific end-products.

Single Board Computer
However, the SBC approach suffers inherently from various drawbacks. First of all, SBC approach ensures high switching cost to migrate to future technologies. As SBCs comes in standard sizes and real world interfaces, so it is difficult to accommodate future improvements in technology and thus the OEMs need to switch to an entirely new SBC solution. Secondly, customizing a SBC is cumbersome as the processor chipset and surrounding I/O are closely coupled due to the single-board design. Finally, space constrained applications may also struggle to use the standardized SBC available in the market.

The Computer On Module (COM) or System On Module (SOM) coupled along with a baseboard offers an equivalent solution as that of the SBCs. The COM approach separates the complex microprocessor part from the relatively simple I/O part and thus offers flexibility to customize the baseboard part based on the feature and size requirements of the end-product. Further, pin-compatible modules ensures convenient and cost effective way to migrate to future technology.

A Customized SBC is an off-the-shelf embedded solution that is a combination of a COM/ SOM and a carrier board. This combination provides a desirable alternative to SBCs in developing any embedded end-products as the former offers the flexibility and scalability inherent to the COM approach and yet, is a ready-to-use complete embedded solution, one of the main benefits of the SBC approach.

Our Offerings

Toradex offers a variety of Customized SBCs with different performance levels, features and price points. Customers can create their own Customized SBCs by combining any module along with a supported carrier board from our pin-compatible modules of respective Apalis & Colibri ARM family and carrier boards. Below we present the ultra-low cost Customized SBC -


Toradex introduces Viola, a new open source concept for ultra-low cost customized single-board computers. When combined with Colibri VF50 COM, a Freescale® Vybrid™-based Computer-on-Module, a Viola based single-board computer starts at a price € 39 for 1K units (€ 49 for single unit price) and offers a very interesting set of functions for numerous embedded applications. Viola carrier board can also be combined with any other pin-compatible modules from the Colibri ARM family to offer variety of Customized SBCs.

Viola Carrier Board




The 4-layer Open Source Viola carrier board measuring just 74mm x 74mm is compatible with the entire Colibri family of COMs. The long product lifecycle of 10+ years, complemented with the availability of key communication interfaces – including USB 2.0 host and 100 Mbit Ethernet – and a host of industrial interfaces – such as I2C, SPI, UART and GPIO – makes the Viola carrier board perfectly suited for industrial and embedded applications. The Viola carrier board is ideal for low cost volume production of embedded devices. This carrier board is not intended for evaluation purpose as offering debug and development interfaces will increase the BOM(Bill of Materials) cost. For development and evaluation projects on Colibri modules, it is advisable to use Colibri Evaluation board or Iris carrier board. The schematics, layout, libraries and BOM are all available free of charge in electronic format, thereby enabling a full custom design, if required.

Colibri VF50 COM




Colibri VF50 is a miniaturized module that offers unparalled cost-performance trade-off and consumes very low power . This module is powered by Freescale Vybrid VF5xx SoC based on ARM Cortex A5 clocking up to 400 MHz. The Vybrid VF5xx family is a single-core (ARM Cortex-A5) solution with 1.5 MB on-chip SRAM, DDR3 memory interface, dual high-speed USB with PHY, dual Ethernet with an L2 switch, and a digital video camera interface. The Colibri VF50 is suited for applications including simple HMI in appliances and industrial machines, secure control of infrastructure and manufacturing equipment, automotive infotainment and panel cluster, ruggedized wired and wireless connectivity, and control of mobile battery-operated systems such as robots and industrial vehicles.

Tuesday, 10 June 2014

Intel Atom Z510 S - Robin Z510 S


High Performance - Low Power Consumption

Robin Z510 S is an embedded Nano COM Express™ computer on module designed for high performance computing with low power consumption. The Robin Z510 S is based on the Intel® Atom™ Z510 ('Silverthorne') microprocessor, running at 1.1GHz, and the Intel® System Controller Hub US15W and features 512MB DDR2 RAM.

This module is compatible with the nano COM Express and nanoETXExpress® form factor.



Connectivity and Storage

 

Robin Z510 Embedded computer module provides various possibilities for storing data. A Solid State Drive (SSD) and a MicroSD card slot are provided on the module itself.

A SATA and SDIO interface are available on the COM Express™ connector. A 30 pin FFC connector features an additional SDIO channel for SD cards, MMC cards, WLAN adaptors, Bluetooth adaptors, modems, IrDA adapters, RFID readers or GPS modules.

Intel Atom Z530 M - Robin Z530 M


High Performance - Low Power Consumption

Robin Z530 M Computer module is an embedded Nano COM Express™ computer on module designed for high performance computing with low power consumption. The Robin Z530 M is based on the Intel® Atom™ Z530 processor, running at 1.6GHz, and the Intel® System Controller Hub US15W and features 512MB DDR2 RAM.



Connectivity and Storage

 

Robin Z530 offers a single PCI Express x1 lane, GLAN, HDA and up to 7 High Speed USB ports for fast signal connectivity. One USB port can be configured as USB client. In standard configuration, it features dual independent graphical outputs with VGA and LVDS.


Robin Z530 embedded computer module provides various possibilities for storing data. A Solid State Drive (SSD) and a MicroSD card slot are provided on the module itself.


A SATA and SDIO interface are available on the COM Express™ connector. A 30 pin FFC connector features an additional SDIO channel for SD cards, MMC cards, WLAN adaptors, Bluetooth adaptors, modems, IrDA adapters, RFID readers or GPS modules.

Intel Atom Z530 L - Robin Z530 L


High Performance - Low Power Consumption

Robin Z530 L is an embedded Nano COM Express™ computer on module designed for high performance computing with low power consumption. The Robin Z530 L is based on the Intel® Atom™ Z530 ('Silverthorne') processor, running at 1.6GHz, and the Intel® System Controller Hub US15W and features 1GByte DDR2 RAM.

 
 

Connectivity and Storage 

 

Robin Z530 computer module offers a single PCI Express x1 lane, GLAN, HDA and up to 7 High Speed USB ports for fast signal connectivity. One USB port can be configured as USB client. In standard configuration, it features dual independent graphical outputs with VGA and LVDS.

 

A SATA and SDIO interface are available on the COM Express™ connector. A 30 pin FFC connector features an additional SDIO channel for SD cards, MMC cards, WLAN adaptors, Bluetooth adaptors, modems, IrDA adapters, RFID readers or GPS modules.