Ohad Yaniv

The global component crisis is forcing embedded teams to confront an uncomfortable reality: not all SoM vendors are equally equipped to weather it. In the latest episode of the Embedded Executive Podcast, Variscite CEO Ohad Yaniv joined Rich Nass of Embedded Computing Design to discuss what it takes to keep customer projects on schedule when supplies are under sustained pressure and why the answer starts with who controls your manufacturing. Unlike vendors who rely on subcontractors, Variscite designs and manufactures its entire System on Module portfolio in-house, with production fully certified to ISO 9001, 13485, and 27001 standards.

Sold under brand names like Arduino, Udoo, Raspberry Pi and others, hacker boards increasingly are serving as the foundation of technology projects found in IoT, wearables, robotics and portable devices. Starting as low as $15, these boards are part of a new manufacturing trend supported by a community of hobbyists and DIY developers that use low-cost hardware components and open-source software to create mini-computer platforms. As they move up the ecosystem from a hobbyist device to handling more advanced, commercial applications, are hacker boards an economically viable option or a costly mistake?
Here are the factors that lead SOMs to be a better value than hacker boards:
• Support – professional and fast support helps shorten development time and ensures the product will continue to function as designed. Variscite has in-house professional support provided by the R&D team in addition to an extensive frequently updated online documentation center vs. hacker boards that rely on contributions from community forums for troubleshooting.