Scientists of the St. Petersburg Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SPC RAS) have developed a system module – microcomputer, to be particularly used in computer-aided control of various electronic systems (the international standard SMARC v1.1.). The device is almost entirely assembled out of components available in Russia and its characteristics match similar products of the world's leading manufacturers of system modules at a lower cost. Therefore, the development looks promising for serial production within the framework of achieving the technological sovereignty of the country in a considered industry.
Embedded system modules (also known as systems-on-module) are single–board computers consisting of the most necessary elements: a processor, RAM and non-volatile memory, a set of signaling interfaces of system trunks (PCI, PCI-e, USB, and other buses), the main peripheral apparatus (HDMI, SATA, UART, SPI, I2C and other). Currently, many companies produce system modules matching the industrial branches standards (e.g., SMART): ETX, COM Express, SMARC, Qseven, PC104. Due to their versatility, these compact apparatus ideally fit solving many automation tasks, where a sufficiently high level of software complexity goes well with a small series.
Standardization of system modules allows for arranging their efficient mass production, thus, leading to a reduction in their costs and ultimately reduces the prime cost of final products. The second important advantage is the possibility of upgrading products in the future by replacing the system module with an advanced one; the hardware redesigning for the final product is not required then. The main manufacturers of system modules and their components are based in Europe, North America, Taiwan, so in the current conditions they fall under the restraints in delivery to the Russian Federation.
“Ongoing economic conditions (the West economic crisis, sanctions against the Russian Federation) impose serious restraints on the ability to purchase ready-made system modules of foreign production. To solve this problem, we developed our own system module from available components, and it turned out to be significantly cheaper than its Taiwanese prototype and other analogues,” says Vladimir Dashevsky, Senior Researcher at SPC RAS, Candidate of Technical Sciences.
Initially developed by scientists in 2016, the SMARC-AM335x system module is made according to the SMART v1.1 specification. The 82*50 mm board accommodates a central processor, RAM, non-volatile eMMC memory, an Ethernet physical layer chip and power circuits. In 2023, this module was upgraded; all components except for the processor were replaced with affordable analogues from friendly countries. Moreover, the researchers have adapted the software for the module on the Linux operating system and provided software support for application system developers.
“This is the fourth revision of the earlier developed by us system module, that complies with the SMARC v1.0 and v1.1 specifications. At the same time, it is several times cheaper than foreign analogues, since we have completely redesigned it for the use of the element base available in the Russian Federation today. The key component of our module is the Texas Instruments AM335x processor, which is still American, but it is the only component possessing complex logistics, and is quite affordable because of its wide application at many markets,” notes Vladimir Dashevsky.
Production of system modules is established on the “SIT” LLC company basis, a subsidiary of SPC RAS. To date, the system modules have been transferred to a number of domestic industrial customers, particularly, to the technology company GC Ravelin Ltd.
The here presented development is one of several projects developed by the SPC RAS scientists, and aimed at achieving technological sovereignty in the field of domestic industry automation. So, earlier the researchers developed a complex (network gateway) for predicting accidents and equipment at enterprises.