Companies in the Industry 4.0 era are facing new technical and marketing challenges, and need to balance capacity, investment, company direction and decision-making processes to deliver viable solutions and win market share.
It is important to understand the risks and the rewards associated with introducing new technologies in the race to be first to market. New working models may be necessary to avoid falling into the 60% category of projects that wind up behind schedule, according to a recent EEtimes study(1), with the two most pressing issues being debugging and achieving milestones.
Consider an application requiring the development of a new industrial-grade microprocessor (MPU) -based system. Such systems typically consist of the processor IC, DDR SDRAM and non-volatile memory, I/Os, a power management and ancillary components or passives that would pose several challenges for engineers attempting to build an in-house integrated solution, including:
- designing a PCB layout that ensures signal and power integrity and compliance with EMC requirements for high-speed interfaces with DDR memory and high-speed I/O links;
- designing a robust and reliable power management system.
To accelerate application development and circumvent certain pitfalls, engineers have two increasingly popular integration strategies open to them:
- The System-on-Module (SoM) approach
- The System-in-Package (SiP) approach
With analysts forecasting robust growth for the system-on-module (SoM) segment(2) as well as the Single-Board Computer (SBC) market, industry is taking a closer look at these two solutions.
To help you choose the best solution for your project, we explain the opportunities, cost benefits and other important aspects of deploying System-on-Module (SoM) or System-in-Package (SiP) solutions in Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) applications.
In addition to learning about the benefits of using SoM and SiP solutions to implement MPU-based industrial systems, you will also see what is involved in developing a full discrete solution. To help you get started, we have included some useful resources.
