why develop with snapper?
reducing cost, improving performance
Using Snapper as the system core in the development, prototyping and production of a product will dramatically reduces the products development risk, cost and time. This is due to the Snapper circuitry all being fully tested and verified, enabling engineers to focus on the design and development of the more unique aspects of a project. The Snapper Single Board Computer (SBC) Module is ready at the beginning of the project rather than at the end, with traditional development.
By using Snapper as an ARM SBC, product development time and associated costs are reduced by up to 60%. In addition, Snapper can be used in low run or prototype scenarios where previously the cost of development made a products’ unit costs uneconomic and a project unviable. Often the hardest part of a products design is the CPU and memory systems, by using Snapper the need to develop these elements is removed.
Cost effective production
Once a product is developed using the Snapper ARM SBC it forms a cost effective solution for production runs of up to several thousand units. The ARM SBC module can be purchased in any volume, enabling a company to manufacture to order, or hold inventory if they prefer. For higher volume sales the Snapper design can be integrated into a product specific circuit board and then produced at whatever volumes are required. This production can be arranged by Bluewater or alternatively by the customer. In this scenario the customer is charged a licensing fee based on actual volumes for the integrated Snapper design and IP.
Truly Flexible Hardware
Most system modules and single board computers support a set range of functions. If you want to add more UARTs, CAN, timers, digital I/O and other functions you must add chips to the expansion bus (if it has one) or find another unit that suits.
Snapper changes all of that. By using the FPGA you can make use of a large number of already-available pre-tested IP blocks to implement a large range of functions. You can also design your own blocks and incorporate these. Snapper provides full access to the FPGA I/O pins and the processor system bus, so the only limit is your imagination.
Storage Options
NOR flash is fine in small amounts but for large flash storage you need NAND. But NAND chips are hard to source and never in the size you want.
Snapper's innovative approach is to provide an xD socket. You can add from 16MB up to 512MB of flash in this socket at very low cost. Snapper provides a reliable flash filing system for storing anything you wish in this solid state memory.
Using the FPGA to handle verify and ECC operations, write performance in excess of 1 MB/s is provided (read is around 4MB/s). This functionality is shipped with the Snapper ARM SBC as standard.
For demanding data logging and processing applications, with tiny power consumptiong and form factor, nothing can compare with Snapper.