If your application looks like a PC, it might be treated like a PC and this might not necessarily be a good thing. It can mean users have certain expectations about how the interfaces work and attempt to work outside of the application's remits. It means that IT departments get involved - potentially complicating installations and inter-departmental budgets. It can even ultimately de-value your end product as people will compare your pricing with the latest consumer desktop special offer. Using a COM board gives you the freedom to design a chassis with the shape, size and interfaces you need without having to work around a standard rear IO layout. This is a perfect opportunity to set your product apart form the competition.

Think of a COM as an off-the-shelf building block with all of the functionality if a typical single board computer - CPU, main chipsets, RAM etc but without the usual IO connectors, eg: PS2, D-type etc. Instead the COM plugs into a custom host board using defined interface connections. The host board footprint, connector layout, GPIO and any application specific electronics are all tailored to your target application. So you get all the advantages of a custom board which you can further image with a custom embedded OS. Decoupling the custom aspects of your design onto the host board keeps your design fast and relatively simple, so you get all the benefits of a custom board design without losing time to market.

Blue Chip Technology can design and build your host board, our COM Design Service typically takes 30 working days from brief to prototype through to production. Alternatively we can provide you with all the technical guidance and documentation you need to bring up your host board and are happy to review customer schematics.   

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