Developers are seeking to migrate ever thinner devices to Intel Architecture (IA, or x86) to claim significant advantages in performance and software support, but these thin devices cannot tolerate the disadvantages in cost, power or size that can impact multi-chip IA design approaches. A true single-chip Atom system on chip (SoC) is required, with thin I/O and breakthrough BOM costs on par with lower end OMAP or ARM processors.

While Intel’s new Atom-based E6xx SoC has the potential to fill this need, there are specific technical issues that if left unaddressed preclude single chip operation. As a result, all other currently announced E6xx-based single board computers (SBCs) and Computer on Module (COM) products use a separate I/O hub (IOH) as a companion chip for the E6xx, so that it remains a two-chip Atom chipset that reduces the large single chip savings potential. Two-chip E6xx designs may not be able to achive the highly aggressive BOM costs required by these new thin applications.

ADI Engineering’s “Thin E6xx” approach is fundamentally different: Enable the E6xx SoC to operate without an IOH at all, eliminating the costliest system component next to the CPU itself, and creating a wave of efficiency that ripples througout the entire system design. Not only is the IOH eliminated, but so is the circuitry to support it – the extra power supply rails and managmenent and control circuits. While thin E6xx hardware can use a traditional embedded BIOS, combining the thin hardware with ADI’s royalty-free Linux boot loader derived from Intel boot loader development kits, in place of commercial BIOS, compounds the cost reduction.

Production cost savings in these thin applications are further enhanced with ADI’s tiny semi-custom single board designs offering feature sets specifically tailored to each application, without the “one size fits all” approach, extra board area, expensive multi-board solutions, and the cost of unused features inherent with other COTS SBC and COM products. The modest NRE and time required to create a semi-custom Thin E6xx design is offset many times over by the large production cost savings. And ADI’s Thin E6xx boards are usually significantly smaller than even the smallest COTS SBCs and COM modules – ADI’s thin designs can be up to 50% smaller than even the new cutting edge COM Express Ultra form factor, and provide cost savings up to 60% compred to conventional BIOS-based multi-chip E6xx archtiectures. ADI’s Thin E6xx semi-custom products shatter barriers in cost, size and power consumption.

ADI Engineering’s Thin E6xx Solutions

Cinnamon Bay EX Single Board Computer

Based on the new Intel Atom Processor E6xx series, Cinnamon Bay EX is a next-generation member of ADI’s Cinnamon Bay SBC product line. Cinnamon Bay EX will be available in late Q1 of 2011, and comes in both commercial and industrial temperature grades, including single-chip thin E6xx configurations offering substantially lower costs than E6xx SBCs based on the conventional E6xx two-chip architecture.

ADI’s unique Open IP business model empowers customers with “We Build/You Build” manufacturing and IP licensing on Cinnamon Bay EX. With Open IP, ADI customers decide whether to purchase COTS boards from ADI, or to license ADI’s design and produce it themselves.

ADI Engineering Whitepapers

True Single-Chip Designs with the Intel® AtomTM Processor E6xx Series System on Chip

With the release of the Intel Atom Processor E6xx Series, Intel has added a number of useful features to its very popular embedded Atom processor Z5xx series, such as improved graphics performance, a built-in hardware video encoder, and industry-standard PCI Express (PCIe) instead of a proprietary front side bus (FSB) as the primary interface to the CPU.

But the main innovation of the E6xx is that it’s Intel’s first embedded Atom SoC, raising hopes of finally offering the true single-chip savings needed by deeply embedded “thin” applications awaiting an ultra-low cost Intel Architecture SoC. IA offers advantages such as extensive software support and high performance, but has long held significant disadvantages in cost, size and power consumption. The E6xx SoC can be used as a true single-chip Atom CPU in these ultra cost sensitive applications, but certain issues must first be addressed.

In this new whitepaper, ADI Engineering explains our bold new “Thin E6xx” design approach, and how it enables true single-chip operation of Intel’s new Atom SoC to shatter the ultra-low BOM cost barrier.

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