Venture Development Corp. (VDC) forecasts that an emerging category of single-board computers (SBCs) which VDC calls “Computers-on-Modules” (“COMs”) will make a significant dent in the embedded computing market over the next several years. These devices are intended to be mounted upon, and to become integral parts of, carrier board systems or subsystems that require processing power in addition to… specialized I/O functionality, says VDC in a recently published report.

VDC estimates that the global market for COM and carriers, combined, was nearly US$ 49 million in 2002, and projects it to be US$ 407 million in year 2006, as shown in the chart below. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for the entire market is expected to be 70% over this period.

Unlike traditional mezzanine CPU cards, COMs are not intended to be optional upgrades to carrier boards, says VDC. Rather, COMs are designed and marketed to be integral parts, or “macro-components”, of carriers that require integrated on-board computing power. Carrier boards may be active backplane motherboards, slot cards for passive backplane systems, or stand-alone embedded boards (such as may be found in a lottery machine, for example).

VDC sees the demand for COMs as being driven by OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) which require the ability to increase or upgrade processing power, but which are reluctant to make the investment in a full redesign. According to VDC COMs may allow these companies to . . .

• Reduce time-to-market;
• Concentrate on their areas of prime competency (the carrier boards), rather than devoting resources to designing the processor portion of these boards; and
• Establish a relatively painless path for processing power upgrade for themselves and for their customers.

“We believe that increasing numbers of OEMs will adopt the COM approach to board design, particularly under present economic conditions,” said VDC analyst Eric Gulliksen in a statement. “Usage of COMs will allow these firms to reduce design and debugging costs. COM modules will also allow them to increase the breadth of their product lines without increasing finished board inventories, by offering combinations of different modules with common carrier boards.”

Further information on VDC's report on the emerging Computers-on-Modules market is available here.

 
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