ARM in competition with x86 on COM solutions ICC Media, July 2014 Gerhard Szczuka Portfoliomanager COM, SBC, Motherboards, PC104
On the way to a complete solution Services Software Platforms Silicon Operating System GUI, Application BIOS, Firmware, Computer-on-Module Kontron SMARC-sAMX6i Drivers FPGA, ASICs, Carrier Board B-plus SMARCpico-Carrier -2
Key Feature Differences ARM COM Designs requires fewer pins and lower cost power circuitry ARM + Parallel TFT display bus MIPI display interface Camera interfaces Multiple SPI links Multiple SDIO interfaces No bulky therma solution Many USB (8 lanes) Lots of PCI Express (6 lanes) PCI Express graphics (16 lanes) LPC (an x86 only bus)..and more X86 + Designed for mobility» Mobile / portable application requirements» Housing constraints» Feature set» Thermal limits» Power / battery life» ARM processor based & optimized for low-power mobile apps -3
Why ARM on standardized COM?» Powerfull SoC with comparable feature sets» Second and third source for a previous proprietary industry» ARM SOC offers largely unknown features than x86» ARM processor based & optimized for low-power mobile apps» COM Express pin-out is optimized for x86 features» Q7 is originally developed for x86» nanorisc represent a ARM module concept» SMARC is developed specialy for ARM purposes -4
Standardized COM for X86 and ARM Designs Module Pins Size Area Vin nanorisc 230 pins 70 mm x 50 mm 3500 mm 2 5V SMARC (short) 314 (285) pin 82 mm x 50 mm 4100 mm 2 3.0 5.25V COM Express Mini 220 pin 84 mm x 55 mm 4620 mm 2 4.75 18V Q7 230 pin 70 mm x 70 mm 4900 mm 2 5V MXM 2 (GPU card) 230 pin 82 mm x 70 mm 5740 mm 2 6-20V MXM 3 (GPU card) 314 pin 82 mm x 70 mm 5740 mm 2 7 20V SMARC (full size) 314 (285) pin 82 mm x 80 mm 6560 mm 2 3.0 5.25V MXM 3 (Big GPU card) 314 pin 82 mm x 100 mm 8200 mm 2 7 20V COM Express Compact 440 pin 95 mm x 95 mm 9025 mm 2 12V COM Express Basic 440 pin 125mm x 96 mm 11875 mm 2 12V + a huge number of other standardized and proprietary Formfactor and designs
Feature overview Q7 COM Express compact COM Express mini SMARC Small size COM Express Type 6 COM Express Type 10 Q7 min/max SMARC min/max Connector 440 pin 220 pin 230 pin 314 pin Paralell LCD 0/1 LVDS 0/1 0/1 0/2 0/1 edp see LVDS see LVDS see LVDS DDI 0/3 0/1 HDMI see DDI see DDI 1 0/1 DP see DDI see DDI 0/1 optional VGA 0/1 CAM 0/2 Par.CAM Support 0/1 Ethernet 1 1 0/1 0/1 PCI Express 1/8 1/4 0/4 0/3 PCI Express Grafic 0/1 USB 2.0 4/8 4/8 3/8 2/3 USB 3.0 0/4 0/2 0/2 0/2 SATA 1/4 1/2 0/2 0/3 Audio 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/1 I2S 0/1 1/3 SPI 1/2 1/2 0/1 2 SPDIF 0/1 I2C 1 1 1 4 LPC 1 1 0/1 Serial 0/2 0/2 0/1 2/4 CAN 0/1 0/1 0/1 0/2 GPIO 8 8 0/12+4 SDIO 0/1 0/1 0/1 1 SDMMC/eMMC 0/1 AFB 0/20 (USB3.0)
Technology Overview: SMARC ARM Single Core ARM Dual Core ARM Quad Core X86 multi Core Intel Atom Bay TRail Intel Atom Next Gen Cortex A9 800MHz Cortex A9 800MHz Cortex A9 800MHz i.mx6 Cortex A9 1.2GHz Tegra 3 Cortex A8 800MHz/1GHz AM3874-7
Processor Positioning 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 CPU Performance Higher is better 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Graphics 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Price Lower is better 6 4 2 0 TDP
Board Level Products based on Intel Atom Bay Trail COM Express mini Pico-ITX SMARC Small size COM Express compact Mini-ITX Q7 SMARC Full size -9
Key Decision Criteria» Find out for what reasons exactly you want to have a COM or a Motherboard design» Find out what your complete ecosystem currently looks like, i. e. Operating System, Application Developer» Find out the volume, you are talking about» Find out about power dissipation and mobility issues» Find out what our end customers pays for -10
Common Scenario 1 Scenario 1:» Your company currently uses COM Express modules in high volume» Your company uses Linux from the scratch.» Software Application Developers are real open source gurus. Future Way:» Your company could select ARM modules for power dissipation, price or mobility reasons» Due to broad Linux support, most of source code might be re-used -11
Common Scenario 2 Scenario 2:» Your company currently uses COM Express modules in high volume» Your company uses Windows Embedded Standard 7, WinXP Embedded.» Software development and even drivers are done in house. Think about:» If you select ARM for any reason a switch in your Software Development is the consequence. Two software image branches (ARM and existing x86 solutions) must be maintained» Operating System need to be switch, i. e. WEC7-12
Common Scenario 3 Scenario 3:» Your company currently use for special mobile applications ETX modules» Standard-Software is installed by partner or 3 rd party externally Future way:» Platform switch is recommended: COM Express or ARM COM» ARM is very interesting for mobility due to low power-consumption» Check with your partners if they can handle ARM structure Alternatively: Ask your COM manufacturer for their Ecosystem for ARM modules. -13
Common Scenario 4 Scenario 4:» Your company build Industrial Standard PC or HMI based on COM Express» Operating System and Applications are installed mostly by customers» Customers sometimes add additional customized hardware Think about:» x86 is an established system with many interfaces for extensions» Customized Windows drivers (x86) may not be re-used on ARM» Software Applications need to be recompile, customer needs to handle different images» Windows Embedded Standard is NOT available for ARM -14
ARM Positioning» ARM processors are powerful enough to drive a graphical user interface at very low power consumption, (Smartphone, Tablet)» ARM delivers exceptional performance/watt ratio» SOC performance with dual/quad core is comparable with ATOM range» Extreme low power consumption at operation (<2W) ARM better serves Ultra Low-Power market requirements» Extended temperature selections available» Longevity up to 15 years -15
Thank you for your attention Gerhard Szczuka Portfoliomanager www.kontron.com Munich/Eching Kaufbeuren Deggendorf Toulon Copenhagen Chichester Linz/Hagenberg Solothurn Brussels Liberec Pilsen Warsaw San Diego/Poway Columbia Fremont Montreal Beijing Hong Kong Taipei Penang Bangalore Mumbai Moscow Kiev Sydney