November 2016
44
I
ndustrIal
C
ontrol
& C
omputIng
New COM Standard SMARC 2.0
starts with Apollo Lake
By Christian Eder,
congatec
At the beginning of June,
the Standardization Group
for Embedded Technologies (SGET)
released the new SMARC 2.0
specification. congatec is offering
its first modules for this form factor
equipped with the new Intel Atom,
Celeron and Pentium processors
developed under the code name
Apollo Lake.
n
With the revision of 1.1 to 2.0, SMARC has
evolved from a specification that was par-
tially outdated and rather arbitrary due to
the Alternate Function Blocks to a basically
new standard with a clear profile and unique
positioning. With its numerous graphics,
camera, sound, network and optional wire-
less interfaces, the new specification is suited
for IoT-enabled multimedia platforms as
well as many other graphics-intensive low-
power applications. SMARC 2.0 positions
itself exactly between the two well estab-
lished module standards, Qseven and COM
Express. Compared to the Qseven standard,
which allows low-cost entry into the world
of computer modules and integrates various
x86 and ARM low-power processors for the
process and field levels, SMARC offers more
interfaces – in particular, more multimedia
interfaces. Compared to the high-perfor-
mance COM Express modules that make up
the COM performance class, SMARC 2.0 is
positioned in the low-power processor seg-
ment and also supports fewer interfaces than
COM Express.
SMARC 2.0 provides predominantly mod-
ern serial I/Os as well as video and network
interfaces, making it a choice for many multi-
media and graphics-oriented IoT applications
(Internet of Things). To make life particularly
easy for developers of such applications, con-
gatec also offers optional WiFi and Bluetooth
in compliance with the M.2 1216 interface
specification, thereby rounding off the inter-
face portfolio of SMARC 2.0 modules for IoT
designs. Applications can be found in digi-
tal signage systems, commercial streaming
clients, industrial thin clients and HMIs, all
kinds of GUI devices, POS systems, profes-
sional gaming machines, infotainment plat-
forms, as well as IoT gateways.
With 314 pins, the SMARC 2.0 connector –
which is also used in the MXM 3.0 graphic
card standard – can support up to four video
outputs thereby affording SMARC 2.0 a strong
multimedia orientation. 2x24-bit LVDS/eDP/
MIPI DSI plus HDMI/DP++ and DP++ are
further provided, plus 2x MIPI camera inter-
faces and two audio interfaces over HDA and
I2S. New features include additional USB
ports for up to six USB, including two USB
3.0, a second Ethernet port for segmented
IoT connection or line and ring structures, a
fourth PCI Express Lane and one ESPI. Dis-
continued is the support for the obsolete par-
allel camera and display interfaces, external
eMMC, SPDIF, one of the three I2S channels,
and the Alternate Function Blocks. The latter
was perceived as too open by many vendors
and customers, since it allowed manufactur-
ers to implement whatever they wanted and
no standardisation efforts were made prior to
the SMARC 2.0 specification. This is also why
SMARC 1.1 modules offer very little design
security if the module interfaces are executed
on these pins.
SMARC 2.0 offers a large selection of internal
and external graphic interfaces. For the con-
nection of external screens two Dual Mode
DisplayPorts (also called DisplayPort++ or
DP++) are provided. The advantage: Systems
supporting DP++ functionality for external
displays can be controlled via DisplayPort,
HDMI and even VGA signals. SMARC 2.0 is
also very flexible and forward-looking with
regard to the control of internal displays.
The interface most commonly used today
is LVDS. However, thanks to the two 24-bit
data channels it is also possible to control
panels with very high resolutions. In addi-
tion to the display signals, a complete set of
support signals is available. As an alternative
to LVDS, SMARC 2.0 modules also provide
two independent embedded DisplayPort
(eDP) signal sets to control two internal
panels. A third, forward-looking alternative
is the option to control panels via MIPI DSI
(display serial interface) as specified by the
Mobile Industry Processor Interface Alli-
ance. Displays that support MIPI DSI are
mostly used in smartphones. While gener-
ally smaller, these displays still feature high
resolutions and are produced in very large
Figure 1. The conga-SA5
Computer-on-Module features
Apollo Lake processors and
provides optional onboard WiFi
and Bluetooth (BLE).
