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"CM3+ will be available until at least January 2026" - That's an impressive commitment. I'm pleasantly surprised to see them stick their necks out that long int

"CM3+ will be available until at least January 2026" - That's an impressive commitment. I'm pleasantly surprised to see them stick their necks out that long into the tech future.

pdpi 8y ago
It’s not consumer electronics, they’re targeting industrial applications. Is it that long a timeframe in that world?
- lovelearning 8y ago
  7 years availability seemed impressive to me, but I don't know, may be it's common in industrial embedded.
- bradfa 8y ago
  It's not horrible but it's not remarkable either. 8 years is a decent but it's nothing compared to other SoM (system on module) vendors like Toradex. Toradex generally offer 12+ year commitment on their SoMs. Consider that if you start a design now using a SoM that you probably won't get to market for at least 1 year. Then in the industrial/commercial space it'll take at least another year for your sales to ramp up. If you started today designing with a CM3+ then you'd get 6 more years of sales out of the product after sales ramp, but since the above timeline is going to hold for your replacement of the current product, you're going to have to start engineering on the replacement 6 years from now. For some industries this will sound amazing, for others it'll sound like a deal breaker. If you look at SoC (system on chip, the processor) vendors, generally they're offering 20+ years of sales from release for SoC which target the industrial/commercial embedded markets. Vendors like TI or NXP don't generally end of life their silicon for a very very long time.
  - pdpi 8y ago
    Oh sure. My point was precisely that the commitment wasn’t that impressive once you consider the application
- eurg 8y ago
  If you need 15/20 years, you get a separate contract. 7 years as a baseline is not too bad, for that kind of device, but likely not sufficient on its own. Automotive test-beds etc. would require longer timeframes.
flyinghamster 8y ago
The other thing that impresses me is that the modules have remained electrically compatible, so (at least in theory) you could slot out a CM1 for a CM3+ and still expect it to work.
- bpye 8y ago
  Perhaps, the CM3 (and I assume CM3+) have significantly higher power requirements.
  - jagger27 8y ago
    From the PR: "Note that due to power-supply limitations the maximum processor speed remains at 1.2GHz, compared to 1.4GHz for Raspberry Pi 3B+." So I guess they're doing what they can to keep the power envelope consistent.

"CM3+ will be available until at least January 2026" - That's an impressive commitment. I'm pleasantly surprised to see them stick their necks out that long into the tech future.

pdpi 8y ago

It’s not consumer electronics, they’re targeting industrial applications. Is it that long a timeframe in that world?

lovelearning 8y ago
7 years availability seemed impressive to me, but I don't know, may be it's common in industrial embedded.
bradfa 8y ago
It's not horrible but it's not remarkable either. 8 years is a decent but it's nothing compared to other SoM (system on module) vendors like Toradex. Toradex generally offer 12+ year commitment on their SoMs. Consider that if you start a design now using a SoM that you probably won't get to market for at least 1 year. Then in the industrial/commercial space it'll take at least another year for your sales to ramp up. If you started today designing with a CM3+ then you'd get 6 more years of sales out of the product after sales ramp, but since the above timeline is going to hold for your replacement of the current product, you're going to have to start engineering on the replacement 6 years from now. For some industries this will sound amazing, for others it'll sound like a deal breaker. If you look at SoC (system on chip, the processor) vendors, generally they're offering 20+ years of sales from release for SoC which target the industrial/commercial embedded markets. Vendors like TI or NXP don't generally end of life their silicon for a very very long time.
- pdpi 8y ago
  Oh sure. My point was precisely that the commitment wasn’t that impressive once you consider the application
eurg 8y ago
If you need 15/20 years, you get a separate contract. 7 years as a baseline is not too bad, for that kind of device, but likely not sufficient on its own. Automotive test-beds etc. would require longer timeframes.

flyinghamster 8y ago

The other thing that impresses me is that the modules have remained electrically compatible, so (at least in theory) you could slot out a CM1 for a CM3+ and still expect it to work.

bpye 8y ago
Perhaps, the CM3 (and I assume CM3+) have significantly higher power requirements.
- jagger27 8y ago
  From the PR: "Note that due to power-supply limitations the maximum processor speed remains at 1.2GHz, compared to 1.4GHz for Raspberry Pi 3B+." So I guess they're doing what they can to keep the power envelope consistent.