What's a SOM

SOMs make the impossible possible for developers, reducing time-to-market and keeping costs down. Creating an embedded system is typically a lengthy process, requiring custom board design and manufacture. A SOM streamlines the steps needed to bring a design to fruition. Simply choose a SOM that fits your needs, integrate it into your end system, and you’re ready for deployment. Beyond enabling high volume deployment, module-based designs simplify product life cycle management and reduce bill of material (BOM) expenses.

Whether your focus is software, hardware, or even AI development, SOMs are worth a close look:

• Software developers can unlock the potential of edge computing, processing data locally without latency. SOMs remove the need for deep hardware experience, providing a comfortable, intuitive design environment. And software developers working with vision applications will love the flexible, easily configurable sensors a SOM can provide. The best SOMs even offer built-in drivers and other software that saves design time.
• Hardware developers need to complete production as quickly as possible and focus their limited resources on the highest impact tasks. With a SOM, they can get field programmable gate array (FPGA) performance and flexibility without the difficulty that comes with PCB design and integration. This enables them to complete projects ahead of time and under budget.
• AI developers need a system that offers high, efficient performance without requiring them to become hardware experts. Thankfully, they can choose a SOM that provides the required compute power while maintaining the flexibility to easily swap out AI models, thanks to the pre-built applications the best system on module providers offer.

SOMs are being used worldwide. Here’s a look at just a few of their applications.