Pico-ITX vs Q7 & SMARC Form Factor

Giuseppe Amato European Technical Manager &

Business Development 04 Nov 2014

• High-level of complexityin developing x86boards

• I/O integration: lowbarrier to entry withstandard driver support

Technical Support

Hardware

Software

System Integration

Core Technology

Business Model Customer

Resources

Vendor Platform

Traditional x86 Embedded Development Model

• SBC– Highly integrated solution can

provide smaller form factors

• Module– Standard form factors allow

quick I/O customization oncarrier board

– Provides flexibility, greaterinventory control

x86 Single Board vs Modular Approach

Changing Market Landscape

• Increased application specific embedded computing tasks

• Shorter product cycles

• Faster time to market critical

• Growing popularity of ARM SoC platforms

Embedded ARM Solutions:

• Open standard developed by Q7 Consortium

• 7 x 7cm or 7 x 5cm modules + carrierboard

• Non-standardized auxiliary connector

• Open standard developed by SGETConsortium

• 8.2 x 5cm or 8.2 x 8cm modules +carrier board

• Standardized Alternate FunctionalBlock (Auxiliary connector on Q7)

Carrier Board presents high-level of integration challenges

A Modular Approach

• 10 x 7.2cm Pico-ITX form factor

• Provides almost all connectivity required by embedded applications onboard

• Extension cards allow for customers to quickly customize I/O ports

VIA Approach: Single Board Pico-ITX

• BSP fully optimized to take advantageof all the acceleration provided bythe main SoC allowing customers tofocus on their “Real Time HWDomain”

No carrier board required

Modular Approach

• In order to take advantage of multi-vendor offerings of Q7 or SMARC modules, carrier board must be designed considering only the minimum features forced by the standard.

• Often requires resources by customer and module vendor to integrate a new Q7/SMARC module into an existing carrier board.

The 80/20 Split

Pico-ITX Approach

• Low software development costswith highly optimized BSP

• Easy expansion and I/O customizationthrough extension boards

• Faster time to market

Customer

Customer

Vendor

Vendor

Embedded ARM Pico-ITX vs Q7 & SMARC

Technical Support

Hardware

Software

System Integration

Core Technology

Business Model

Hardware

Software

System Integration

Requirement

Co

re Techn

olo

gy

Bu

siness M

od

el ARM Module VIA Pico-ITX

Customer

Resources

High Speed Network

Cloud

Anything as a Service

App Store

Android Open Accessory Device

• Provides a way for externaldevices to connect through USBor Bluetooth (Pico-ITX with Android

3.1 or later in BSP)

• Designed for mobile devices notEmbedded

• Heavy integration work left tothe customer

Open Accessory

Normal Control

Power

Control

Power

Device

Device Host

Host

Open Accessory

Android and Pico-ITX VIA SMART ETK

• Provides the easiest way for apps to access I/O andmanageability services– Input/Output

• COM port, GPIO, I2C, CAN Bus, ...

– Monitoring• CPU/system temperature, Fan speed,…• Memory usage, storage usage, CPU usage,…

– System Management• Watchdog Timer, RTC, Auto power on/off, Remote power on/off,…

• Benefits– Time to market

• Save time from datasheet study, driver implementation, fine tuning and co-workbetween teams (including chip vender, BIOS, H/W, F/W and S/W).

– Resource Concentration• Allows R&D resources to focus on high level applications and essential technologies.

VIA SMART ETK Features

For Embedded Requirements (Many embedded components are not supported by the Android framework)

Watchdog Timer GPIO RS-232

CAN BUS

RTC

I2C System Management

How VIA SMART ETK Works on Android

VIA SMART ETK helps Android Apps to access embedded components.

Keeps the integrity of

framework for ease of

maintenance

US patent pending 13/835,249

VIA SMART

ETK

Pico-ITX vs Q7 & SMAC Form Factor Conclusions

• Standardized platform with easy expandability

• Lower hardware and software development costs

• Highly integrated BSP with optimization flexibility

• Faster time to market

• Allows customers to focus on high level applications andessential technologies