Guneet is an executive at Arduino and investor with successes in scaling businesses in Fortune 100 and Early/Growth stage companies.
Chip-down design has become the de facto standard for embedded computing across IoT, robotics and other industrial equipment. Selecting each component and building from the ground up results in a highly specialized product sold in large quantities, an ideal fit for large global companies.
But what about the many small- to medium-sized companies producing less than 50,000 units annually? With a constant demand for new electronic products (and for the workforce to support their production), most companies can’t afford to wait while the process of completing custom-designed products runs its lengthy course. This can sometimes take years and miss out on the current trends. Even if they did, they often don’t have the technical expertise in-house to achieve it in the first place. There’s got to be a better way.
The answer is the System on Module (SOM) approach, which makes the most sense as a path forward for everyone (but the industrial giants). In an era when time-to-market often decides a company’s fate, a modular SOM can give companies a head start on innovation at a lower cost and a competitive advantage in development through mass production. Companies simply are able to move faster than the competition by adopting this method.
SOMs begin with a pre-built module containing the necessary hardware (processor, RAM, flash, power, etc.) and access to a large community of open-source software developers. To use an analogy: Chip-down design is like building your own car and picking out exactly which component you want, down to the smallest detail. SOM is like buying a car, which comes pre-built. Ideally, not just a car, but a Tesla that also has a vertically integrated technology ecosystem. One path leads to faster time-to-market, lower production costs, expanded customization options and ease of integration. That’s a pretty easy choice.
Before joining my current company, I spent years leading product teams specializing in changing how old-school industries converted to new revenue models. This has given me firsthand knowledge of the challenges these industries face when trying to adapt to rapidly changing technological landscapes and market demands.
Faster Development Equals Faster Time-To-Market
Speed is king in today’s market. The first-mover advantage is real, and a lack of speed can sink a company’s prospects. Every delay in a product launch can mean lost market share and missed opportunities.
SOMs hold a significant advantage here because they employ pre-designed, thoroughly tested modules incorporating a complete computing system. Using SOMs, teams can accelerate the prototyping and testing phases, slashing development time and getting products on the market faster.
Lower Costs
Developing custom chips calls for a significant upfront investment that often exceeds what many companies can support. Choosing a SOM distributes the development costs across multiple users, creating a more economical approach.
Volumes are significant to consider here. A chip-down approach makes financial sense for a large consumer device company that can turn out usually more than 50,000 units per year, in some cases 100,000. But the market is so much larger than that. Industrial companies that produce devices on a smaller scale (less than 50,000) benefit from a SOM by reducing development costs and ongoing maintenance efforts.
Enhanced Customization and Scalability
Once a chip-down design is approved, it’s notoriously difficult, if not impossible, to change. That can be a bad fit for the fast-evolving IoT and electronics industries. Products need to keep up with the latest in memory capacity and CPU speed, and a chip-down approach often means a total redesign.
SOMs provide a more versatile approach, with easy access to the newest product versions. They’re scalable by nature and can be tailored to accommodate multiple product lines with different requirements.
Getting The Most From A SOM Approach
As businesses begin to implement a SOM, there are a few technical and practical factors to keep in mind to ensure they get the most out of their efforts. Meeting specific technical requirements is at the top of the list—the SOM must deliver on processing power and efficiency, memory, storage and connectivity. If security is a concern, built-in features like hardware encryption and secure storage are also must-haves.
There are also big-picture concerns, such as what’s happening with the global supply chain and any necessary contingency plans to deal with disruptions. Building strong relations with established vendors can help head off any problems with manufacturing and distribution.
Finally, budget is always an important issue. A well-planned SOM program should include resources for the purchase of the module itself, but also any needed development, testing and maintenance.
Potential Challenges
There’s likely to be a SOM out there to fit any business’s specific needs, but there may be a specific use case where a custom solution makes better sense. If some special features or components aren’t available on a single SOM, chip-down might offer a better solution.
In cases where a SOM approach does not align with the business’s needs, leaders may consider alternative solutions such as fully custom hardware designs or single-board computers. Each of these options offers varying degrees of flexibility and complexity.
The Holy Grail: SOMs Paired With Open Source
Tapping into the open-source world gives companies hardware and software support, documentation and vibrant user communities. Their collective expertise helps the boundaries of innovation farther than a single company could.
In contrast to the specialized, even proprietary, details of a customized chip, SOMs serve as a gateway to an open-source ecosystem of languages and systems that are robust enough to offer knowledge applicable to all industries.
Nobody builds their own car anymore. Companies building the future of industrial innovation will rely on an ecosystem with an open-source foundation and no longer need to pour money and other resources into a custom chip for a single purpose. SOMs represent the future of electronics design.
Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Read the full article here
