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How to Select a Single Board Computer (SBC) for Your Application

Posted on by William Wong
20
Nov

What is an SBC?

It’s a single board computer that has all the components of a computer: microprocessor, memory, and input/output (I/O) interfaces built onto single circuit board. Only a few SBCs provide an expansion header connector that allows for an SBC system to be expandable.

Today, VEST engineered SBC solutions can be found in all industrial, commercial and consumer electronics sectors. VEST (Venture Embedded Solutions Technology) offers products, tools and services that can help with the selection of the right SBC for your needs. Using an off-the-shelf SBC will reduce the time and cost of embedded device development and ultimately create an end-product of highest quality and reliability.

VEST provides fundamental electronics and software system building blocks allowing VEST’s customers to focus their overall product design. VEST embedded solutions are value added products that are designed to work as a functioning system with the option of integrating key features such as Wi-Fi/BT support and cloud connectivity.

Leveraging VEST’s multi-year R&D investment in electronics and firmware/software system design can help when choosing the right SBC for your application, a choice that will depend on several key requirements:

  1. CPU Processor- the Central Processing Unit of a computer. The NXP series of application processors is a feature and performance scalable platform that includes single, dual and quad core families based on the Arm Cortex architecture. This scalable platform allows for performance /CPU core adjustment later in the product life cycle, if the need arises for a higher performance.
  2. Memory – a device that is used to store information. Memory needs depend on your application. Two types need to be considered:
    1. RAM – Random Access Memory – short-term volatile data storage that is used by the CPU to carry out instructions. This memory affects the speed, responsiveness and performance of your application and helps with the switching between tasks.
    2. Flash Memory – on-board memory that retains the stored information even when not powered. This is the place where your operating system and application are stored. Today’s most common non-volatile memory in use is eMMC, which stand for embedded MultiMedia Card.
  3. Interfaces – I/O devices – the board with the right peripherals mix. The SBC must provide the right types and the quantities of needed interfaces, such as USB, Serial Ports (RS-232, RS-485), CAN, Ethernet (RJ45), I2C, SPI, Microphone input, speakers output, expansion header, and wireless connectivity options (802.11a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth). Additionally, you may need to use a general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pin to get input or provide output to the user. Determining the number of these GPIO pins is required.
  4. Security – VEST SBCs incorporate the Microchip ATECC608, a security IC device that provides Trust&Go, TrustFLEX, and TrustCUSTOM elements for TLS based network secure authentication. This device is ideal for the rapidly growing IoT market by supplying the full range of security and authentication to systems running encryption/decryption algorithms. With the cryptographic security device, the SBC can also be used as an Edge Compute device providing a secure connection to any network/cloud of choice.
  5. Display – a bright, colorful LCD with touchscreen interface may turn heads, but the display itself needs to last the lifetime of your device. VEST works with many display vendors to offer the size, number of pixels, brightness, contrast ratio, LED lifetime, and operating temperature to source a display that best fits your application needs.
  6. Operating System – Operating systems may impact the SBC choice due to availability of the OS on the chosen SBC. VEST has you covered; we offer several choices: Linux, Android, and Ubuntu (of which there are many versions). This dictates what software you will need to run to meet your HMI/GUI, application requirements. All the above-mentioned operating systems are the fastest-growing due to their openness and have highly customizable features.
  7. Form Factor – spatial constraints of your overall application device size determine the form factor of the SBC (most of the time this is not a problem, unless you are looking for an SBC that needs to fit into a small device).
  8. Power – most of the VEST devices offer a wide range of power options for a given application (most of the time this is not a problem, unless you are looking for an SBC that fits into a small device and has limited cooling capabilities). The latest SBC offers a much lower power draw in comparison to traditional desktops and laptops.
  9. Technical Support – one of the most overlooked components during the selection process. VEST provides unsurpassed customer service and engineering teams that can help answer questions and move your project forward.

In Summary:

A Venture Embedded Solutions Technology partnership (www.apc-vest.com) has helped many companies over the years with embedded electronics and software/firmware solutions for numerous HMI/GUI applications using many of our off-the-shelf/custom embedded computing solutions.  VEST provides fundamental electronics and software system building blocks allowing VEST’s customers to focus their overall product design.

VEST would welcome the opportunity to discuss how your company can leverage VEST’s unsurpassed customer service, electrical/electronic, firmware and software system design expertise to take your project to the next level. Please contact us: https://apc-vest.com/about-us/contact/