Tiny Embedded Boards (2020)

Mini but Mighty An impressive amount of computing functionality can be squeezed on to a small form factor board these days. These tiny board-level products meet the needs of applications where extremely low SWaP (size, weight and power) beats all other demands. Topics Covered What's happening in tiny embedded boards?What is SGeT's new OSM standard? Tech Discussed Exor Embedded's NanoSOM nS02OSM-MX8MM from F&SElektronik SystemeKa-Ro Electronics' QSMP moduleKeith & Koep's Myon II CPU moduleMYC-C335X-GW from MYIRSigmaStar's IDO-SOM2D01 There was a time when building a complete embedded computer required a PC motherboard-sized PCB with processor, memory modules and I/O cards. But, over the years, semiconductor integration evolved, enabling more and more functionality on a board-level computer. Today you see powerful levels of functionality shrunk down to one or a handful of chips. Leveraging that trend, makers of board-level embedded computers are now able to design computing modules that now occupy extremely small form factors. Many of these are non-standard form factors. Non-standard form factors free designers from the size and cost overheads associated with including a standard bus or interconnect architecture. One exception to this “non-standard“ form factor trend is the Open Standard Module (OSM) form factor for solderable compute modules. The open source OSM standard was developed by an SDT.05 working group within the Standardization Group for Embedded Technologies (SGET), the group behind the SMARC form factor. OSM is notable for its small footprint and capacity to be soldered directly onto a baseboard (Figure 1). FIGURE 1While most tiny embedded boards are in a non-standard form factor, the SDT.05 working group within the Standardization Group for Embedded Technologies (SGET) is developing Open Standard Module (OSM) form factor for solderable compute modules. For purposes of this product round-up, we've selected repre