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COM Express: The Next Generation Computer on Module Standard
Abstract:
This White Paper outlines Computer on Module advantages and discusses the ripple effect movements from legacy and parallel bus interfaces to high-speed differential serial interconnects have had on standard form factors. The concept of a Computer on Module, or COM, is not new within the embedded computer industry. Various COM solutions and implementations have been around for years, but none ever took hold as a dominant or de facto standard within the embedded computer industry. Conceptually, the function and benefits of a COM are straightforward. Modularize the processor, North bridge, South bridge, memory, and Flash of a typical PC in a compact, highly integrated fashion and you have a COM. The key advantage of the COM in a typical embedded design is that the most rapidly changing part of the design, the portion riding along on Moore’s law, is modularized and decoupled from the rest of the system design. By segmenting the processor complex onto a COM module, embedded designers can focus on the key features and devices within their systems and design an embedded COM carrier board free from the rigors of keeping pace with the continuous board turns of the commercial PC industry.
Taking advantage of a fragmented embedded market and technological disruptions within the PC industry, the PICMG COM Express specification defines a standard COM form factor that brings modularity and standardization to unite embedded COM designs in the future.
Pages: | Date: 06/0/2005 | 
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Successful Carrier Card Design for COM Express: Introduction to Thermal Design Considerations
Abstract:
Gordon Moore, one of Intel’s founders, predicted in 1965 that the number of transistors placed on a computer chip would double each year. Over time, the pace has slowed a little and the prediction has been updated accordingly, but it still generally holds true, now doubling approximately every two years. Intended as a rule of thumb, this prediction became a guiding principle for the industry to create faster and denser powerful semiconductors at proportionately less cost.
Moore’s Law deals with the growth in chip circuit density. It leaves the practical problems of dealing with the effects of this observation, including thermal management, for design engineers to solve. Because the COM Express specification combines significant numbers of high density integrated circuits into a tightly packed module that’s typically embedded into compact products, engineers need to carefully consider thermal management as they develop their designs.
Through understanding of a few basic principles, engineers can improve the reliability of their designs and prevent premature failures when their products go into the field. This white paper provides an overview to help systems designers successfully manage the thermal aspects of their COM Express applications. By paying attention early in the design to potential “hot spots” and considering airflow during their design and prototype phases, designers can limit thermal management problems and assure reliable application operation in the field. Because every thermal design has a unique set of interdependencies, examples in this white paper are only for the purpose of illustrating general points and not as recommended solutions for any specific design.
Pages: 16| Date: 01/01/2006 | Download PDF
