Frequently Asked Questions
What problem did the DE System on Module solve for the customer?
The DE SOM was developed to address the recurring challenge customers face when building complex IoT and industrial products: designing a reliable, certifiable processor subsystem from scratch is expensive, time-consuming, and risky. By providing a pre-engineered, production-proven compute module with a defined software BSP, the DE SOM lets product teams focus engineering effort on their application-specific hardware and software — eliminating the 6–12 months typically required to design, validate, and certify a custom compute core.
What hardware components make up the DE System on Module?
The DE SOM integrates a production-grade application processor, LPDDR RAM, eMMC flash storage, PMIC (Power Management IC) for multi-rail power regulation, crystal oscillators, and the PCIe/SDIO/UART/SPI/I2C/GPIO interface connectors in a compact, rugged form factor. The SOM is designed to plug into a customer-designed carrier board that adds application-specific peripherals — wireless radios, sensor interfaces, motor drivers, display connectors, or whatever the product requires.
How does the DE SOM reduce time to market for customers building IoT or industrial products?
The DE SOM eliminates the processor bring-up phase entirely. The customer receives a SOM with a validated BSP (Board Support Package), U-Boot bootloader, and Linux or RTOS image that boots and runs immediately on their carrier board. This alone saves 3–6 months of firmware engineering effort. Additionally, since the SOM has passed FCC/CE pre-certification for the compute subsystem, the customer's end-product only needs to certify the carrier board additions — reducing certification time and cost.
What operating system does the DE System on Module support?
The DE SOM ships with an embedded Linux BSP (Yocto-based) as the primary supported OS, providing a full networking stack, device driver support for the SOM's peripherals, and a package management system for adding application software. For applications requiring hard real-time control, DE Design Works also supports FreeRTOS running on a co-processor core (in dual-core SOM variants), enabling a hybrid Linux + RTOS architecture for products that need both rich application functionality and deterministic real-time I/O.
How does DE Design Works support customers after they adopt the DE SOM platform?
DE Design Works offers multiple levels of post-adoption support: BSP maintenance and security patch releases for the Linux image, carrier board design review services (schematic and layout review to catch integration issues before prototyping), firmware development for custom drivers or application code, and manufacturing support for SOM procurement and incoming inspection. Long-term supply chain management is also provided — the DE SOM is designed for a minimum 10-year production lifecycle with proactive component lifecycle management.


