A Recently Developed Board Format Is Being Targeted System Designs Requiring a Dedicated Set of Individually Located I/O at Low Power, High Performance Applications

in mind, the first two modules are Get based on the x86 DMP Vortex DX2 SoC processor. Later this year, the company adds, more DMP Vortex SoC processors will be available on SMARC and Qseven modules. Yin-Chen Chou, president and CEO SMARC of ICOP Technology’s European operations, said: “We see a strong trend towards small form factor A recently developed board format is being targeted system designs requiring a dedicated set of individually located I/O at low power, high performance applications. interfaces. Both QSeven and SMARC By Graham Pitcher. modules deliver a sophisticated platform to meet this demand in a most efficient and highly cost effective here is no shortage of board successful and notes that the format (Below left) manner. “The DMP Vortex SoC formats available to product exploits contemporary PC chipsets ADLINKÕs LEC- processors on SMARC and Qseven T designers – and it seems very well, as well as providing support iMX6 features modules can deliver Kexible I/O there is always room for a for USB, PCI Express lanes, PCI FreescaleÕs i.MX6 connectivity in combination with new configuration to be introduced. Express Graphics, the LPC bus and the processor.. scalable ultra low power x86 One of the more recent formats to PCI bus. A further benefit, it says, is (Below right): performance. Consequently, DMP be unveiled is SMARC – short for the presence of power pins supporting ICOPÕs SMARC Vortex processor technology is a Smart Mobility Architecture. The more than 100W. board has an x86 perfect fit for ‘long tail’ x86 format was developed by SGET, the SMARC, says SGET, targets lower based SoC at its deployments, as well as for all the new Standardisation Group for Embedded power, small form factor systems, with heart upcoming IoT connected ultra low Technology. SGET was launched at a pinout optimised for features power appliances.” Embedded World in 2012, with common to ARM CPUs, rather than founding members including those from the PC world. Outlining Advantech, congatec, Data Modul, some of the benefits, SGET says Kontron, MSC and SECO. features include parallel LCD At the time, Christian Eder from interfaces; serial and parallel camera congatec, noted: “The fast pace of input; multiple I2C, I2S and serial ports; technological progress in the USB client/host mode; and SD and embedded market necessitates eMMC card operation. cooperation, even between competing While SMARC includes some companies. This is why we welcome features found in COM Express, says the new consortium.” SGET, pointing to a limited number of According to SGET, the SMARC PCIe, SATA and USB ports, the mix is format has been developed for use in different. applications that require low power, low Modules are intended to operate cost and high performance. While it from an input voltage in the range from says SMARC modules will typically use 3V to 5.25V, allowing the use of ARM SoCs similar to those used in lithium-ion battery packs, as well as tablets and smartphones, there is also fixed DC supplies. The power pins the opportunity to use x86 devices and support a maximum of 5A or 15W at other RISC CPUs. Whatever the 3V. Typically drawing less than 6W processor, the module’s power during active operation, the boards are envelope is typically less than 6W. suited to fanless applications. Two module sizes have been One of the latest companies to defined: 82 x 50mm, or short; and 82 back the SGET’s efforts is ICOP x 80mm. Each board features a low Technology, which has launched profile 314pin right angle connector Qseven and SMARC boards in with a 0.5mm pitch. response to what it sees as rapidly In the specification document, growing demand for small form factor SGET compares SMARC with the COM system designs. Express format. It acknowledges that Although SMARC has been COM Express has been very developed with ARM based processors

22 24 February 2015 www.newelectronics.co.uk EMBEDDED DESIGN BOARD LEVEL TECHNOLOGY

Engelbert Hörmannsdorfer, SGET the line’ performance, but with a power chairman, noted: “By 2017, VDC consumption suited to mobile predicts a CAGR of approximately 15% applications. for the Computer on Module and COM The LEC-iMX6 has been designed carrier market. As SMARC and Qseven with portable and small stationary are the latest form factor standards in systems in mind. ADLINK says this area, we expect to see much potential applications range from higher growth. ICOP Technology’s industrial automation and medical designs will make a valuable systems to transportation and digital contribution to this growth and we signage. It adds the module will also envisage new application areas for this 1.5Gbit/s SATA interface, as well as be suited to use in mobile systems x86 processor performance class.” In SD and eMMC interfaces. requiring high performance graphics. his opinion, potential applications ADLINK Technology has also added LEC-iMX6 modules can operate in include smart meters, decentralised a SMARC form factor module to its temperatures ranging from -40 to IoT data servers and edge devices. portfolio. ADLINK is not a stranger to 85°C, with a commercial grade variant ICOP’s SMARC and Qseven the SMARC world, having previously suited for temperatures ranging from modules are SGET compliant and released ARM based SMARC modules, 0 to 60°C. come with a soldered DMP such as the LEC-3517, as well as x86 The ADLINK LEC-iMX6 has been Vortex86DX2 x86 SoC running at up to platforms, including the LEC-BT. developed using the short format. 800MHz, along with 1Gbyte of DDR2 However, rather than the x86 based Each module supports LCD controllers system memory. The modules enable SoC featured on the ICOP boards, the for up to three independent displays, fanless and rugged designs suited to LEC-iMX6 features Freescale’s i.MX6 including 24bit TTL parallel, HDMI1.4a use in temperatures ranging from -20 processor, an ARM Cortex-A9 based and single channel 24bit LVDS. to 70°C. Integrated graphics support device available in dual or quad core In addition, eMMC Kash ranging resolutions of up to 1280 x 1024 via format and running at up to 1.2GHz. from 4Gbyte to 64Gbyte is supported VGA, LVDS and HDMI, whilst there is With up to 2Gbyte of DDR3 memory, and this can be used as a boot device. also support for storage media via a the LEC-iMX6 is said to deliver ‘top of There is a gigabit Ethernet port, as well as a PCIe x1 Gen2 port. Other features include two lanes of MIPI CSI camera interface, three USB 2.0 ports and up to 12 GPIO, one SD/MMC and a SATA 3Gbit/s port. There is also support for two SPI, one SMBus and one I2S port, as well as S/PDIF, CAN, UART and I2C interfaces. Having unveiled its first SMARC format modules at embedded world 2014, SGET founding company Kontron added a further SMARC module to its portfolio at the end of last year. Called sXQU, pictured above, the board is designed around Intel’s Quark X1000 processor series. With the choice of X1000, X1010 or X1021 processors, the board – which comes in the 82 x 50mm format – supports up to 1Gbyte of DDR3 memory. “The SMARC-sXQU provides greater Kexibility at higher integration levels and is more efficient in use in terms of both cost and energy consumption,” said Daniel Piper, senior EMEA marketing manager. “That makes it ideal for the next wave of smart interconnected devices, with which we can create extremely energy efficient IoT applications based on x86 technology.”