Embedded Open Modular Architecture

Introduction

With recent embedded processors becoming mainstream and powerful enough for general-purpose computing, the Embedded Open Modular Architecture is an initiative to create interoperable hardware standards for mass-volume systems based around embedded processors. The first initiative is to re-use the PCMCIA form-factor, in a similar way to [Conditional Access Modules].

Interface Types

The re-use of industry-standard connectors and sockets is a very common practice. Typically in the Embedded world, SO-DIMM is the form-factor of choice to re-purpose, because CPU, RAM, NAND Flash and even some micro-connectors can fit onto the 35mm x 68mm size. Other suitable form-factors include MXM and PCMCIA (CardBus) and potentially ExpressCard, although the limited pincount of ExpressCard makes it much less attractive.