SMALL FORM FACTOR FORUM
SFF State of the Union by Colin McCrackin
Every once in a while, we look back and reflect on how far the small form factor (SFF) industry has come, re-learn past lessons, and pay respects to those who built this industry. Now there are SoCs and hobbyist boards that encroach on the status quo. This reflection also takes the form of a “swan song”, as I hereby wind down my writing activities and pass the torch. One score and ten years ago, our SFF founding fathers brought forth on this industry a new form factor, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all embedded engineers are created equal. (Note: A “score” is 20 years.) Now we are engaged in a great form factor civil war, testing whether that form factor, or any form factor so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here devoted their careers that that form factor might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave consortium members, working and retired, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the working, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly
10 | RTC Magazine DECEMBER 2014
advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored retired we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these retired shall not have died in vain—that this SFF market shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the engineers, by the engineers, for the engineers, shall not perish from the market. The year was 1984, and the 5.75 x 8” Little Board was unveiled to bring desktop PC technology to the masses. A benign CGA graphics card interface soon gave way to a standardized embedded stackable bus, and a PC/104 ecosystem was born. The American governing body donned big wigs, gloves and hats and assumed the ruling positions. After much deliberation, Little Board ultimately led to the EBX open standard SBC form factor. Halfway into the 30-year cycle, 1999 emerged with much affront to the ramping non-desktop non-backplane boards business. The Asian Invasion was in full swing, brought about by better “biscuit” boards and Socket 370 sockets for customers to install their own CPUs. Sold on price, price and price, the boards were snatched up by all but the most rugged discriminating system OEMs. The same year, the ETX form factor was launched in Europe as a shot heard around the world. More than yet another E-blank-X name, a quiet ruler was born in the form of a revolutionary shift in design methodol-
ogy, from full custom and full off-theshelf-stackable to some weird hybrid in between. A tower of I/O cards gave way to a purpose-designed I/O carrier card that the ETX processor simply plugs into and upgrades over time. ETX split into King COM Express for the mid- to high end, and Prince Qseven for the low- to mid-range. Even more significant is the shift toward light, responsive trade groups that can crank out a new, free open standard as I/O and expansion buses cross over established boundaries. More still is the onslaught of cheap hobbyist boards. For the ambushes and all-out turf wars of the past have given way to bunker busters, stealth strikes, and terrorism from within. Bigwigs only watch from afar. A heartfelt ‘thank you’ to all the OS and tool developers and the application software troops who make our lives much easier when bringing up small boards, and who make useful platforms out of mere boards. The very topic of form factors even gets demoted in favor of how the entire scope of work can be completed with reduced budgets and resources. “Off-the-shelf ” is now more about finding software than finding hardware. It’s been a pleasure writing for you all these years. May your form factors decrease in size and your designs prosper. With proper attribution to the Gettysburg Address, this swan has sung.