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High end SoC vendors generally don't care about you until you're buying millions of devices. If you can't find it on Digikey/Mouser/etc you're probably not goin

High end SoC vendors generally don't care about you until you're buying millions of devices. If you can't find it on Digikey/Mouser/etc you're probably not going to get your hands on these parts without an in with one of the big name suppliers or the SoC vendor itself. However, in the case where you are shopping for millions of devices - say you're looking for the centerpiece of a new smartphone, its not unusual for them to fly a team of applications engineers to you to facilitate getting the part into your system. Of course, merely procuring the part itself is just the beginning. The early revisions of a SoC (and in many cases even small microcontrollers) can have fairly extensive errata sheets (basically a list of known hardware bugs). If you aren't a first class customer (usually based on order volumes), this is a world where you can spend weeks to months wondering why your code doesn't work only to find out that it legitimately was a hardware problem in the silicon. Trying to source displays is also a nightmare for relatively low volume (<100K) designs.

YZF 13y ago
That's not always the case. It depends how hungry they are. I was involved in a project that was clearly not going to require millions of devices. We were a small startup (though with some big partners). Texas Instruments really wanted to get their SoC into this segment though and we got a lot of their attention + pre-production samples + technical support. If this is an SoC looking for customers (like this was) and you can get the ear of the marketing team and/or have the right partners things will work out. There are a lot of other electronic parts that are like that. If you get to talk and have a relationship with the right people you can get samples and support. Otherwise it can be virtually un-obtainium if it's not in Digikey's inventory. It's always been like that...
- jwr 13y ago
  Yes, Texas Instruments does that, I had the same experience (were we involved in the same project?). They do it if they are strategically interested in a certain market segment. Your project might look like a demo to them — worth investing some time and effort into. Unfortunately, I'd say they are the exception. Good luck even getting someone at Broadcom or Qualcomm to speak to you. If your projected volumes are not (convincingly) into at least hundreds of thousands, you will get a simple "no", if you even manage to get an answer at all.
  - KRuchan 13y ago
    Engineer at Qualcomm here - I did check with our biz dev folks and we have mechanisms in place to supply in smaller quantities (a few hundreds..)
    - jwr 13y ago
      Interesting! Things might have changed, then. But to confirm: do you mean I can simply start developing a product based on Qualcomm chips (with projected volumes into hundreds or low thousands), and I'll get access to all the necessary documentation (datasheets, reference designs, etc)?
      - KRuchan 13y ago
        @jwr: Sorry for the delayed reply, was down with a fever. (Posted the info below in a separate comment, in case anyone stumbles across the thread later). 1. http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/qualcomm/dragonboard-development-kits.aspx http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/qualcomm/dragonboard-devel... Intrinsyc is one of two partners who offers "Dragonboards" with the latest (so far, that will change soon) SoCs (APQ8064 and contemporaries). AFAIK, these boards can be ordered in any quantity from 1 to 100s, so they should be a good start for a development kit. Intrinsyc offers a Linux distribution for the 8074 SoM. Not too sure about the maturity of Linux support, but I am expecting updates in the near future, and will post them here. For those who need to eventually build their own boards using Qualcomm SoCs, Intrinsyc's FAQ here should be useful: http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/qualcomm/dragonboard-faq.aspx http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/qualcomm/dragonboard-faq.a... 2. Inforce computing also offers a cute board with the APQ8064. http://www.inforcecomputing.com/product/qualcomm.html http://www.inforcecomputing.com/product/qualcomm.html Not sure if these offer the level of detail/support that folks here are looking for, but they seem like a good start.

YZF 13y ago

That's not always the case. It depends how hungry they are. I was involved in a project that was clearly not going to require millions of devices. We were a small startup (though with some big partners). Texas Instruments really wanted to get their SoC into this segment though and we got a lot of their attention + pre-production samples + technical support. If this is an SoC looking for customers (like this was) and you can get the ear of the marketing team and/or have the right partners things will work out. There are a lot of other electronic parts that are like that. If you get to talk and have a relationship with the right people you can get samples and support. Otherwise it can be virtually un-obtainium if it's not in Digikey's inventory. It's always been like that...

jwr 13y ago
Yes, Texas Instruments does that, I had the same experience (were we involved in the same project?). They do it if they are strategically interested in a certain market segment. Your project might look like a demo to them — worth investing some time and effort into. Unfortunately, I'd say they are the exception. Good luck even getting someone at Broadcom or Qualcomm to speak to you. If your projected volumes are not (convincingly) into at least hundreds of thousands, you will get a simple "no", if you even manage to get an answer at all.
- KRuchan 13y ago
  Engineer at Qualcomm here - I did check with our biz dev folks and we have mechanisms in place to supply in smaller quantities (a few hundreds..)
  - jwr 13y ago
    Interesting! Things might have changed, then. But to confirm: do you mean I can simply start developing a product based on Qualcomm chips (with projected volumes into hundreds or low thousands), and I'll get access to all the necessary documentation (datasheets, reference designs, etc)?
    - KRuchan 13y ago
      @jwr: Sorry for the delayed reply, was down with a fever. (Posted the info below in a separate comment, in case anyone stumbles across the thread later). 1. http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/qualcomm/dragonboard-development-kits.aspx http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/qualcomm/dragonboard-devel... Intrinsyc is one of two partners who offers "Dragonboards" with the latest (so far, that will change soon) SoCs (APQ8064 and contemporaries). AFAIK, these boards can be ordered in any quantity from 1 to 100s, so they should be a good start for a development kit. Intrinsyc offers a Linux distribution for the 8074 SoM. Not too sure about the maturity of Linux support, but I am expecting updates in the near future, and will post them here. For those who need to eventually build their own boards using Qualcomm SoCs, Intrinsyc's FAQ here should be useful: http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/qualcomm/dragonboard-faq.aspx http://www.intrinsyc.com/products/qualcomm/dragonboard-faq.a... 2. Inforce computing also offers a cute board with the APQ8064. http://www.inforcecomputing.com/product/qualcomm.html http://www.inforcecomputing.com/product/qualcomm.html Not sure if these offer the level of detail/support that folks here are looking for, but they seem like a good start.