Talk:Embedded Open Modular Architecture/CompactFlash

Requirement for SATA seems to make the use of inexpensive SoCs harder
Is it really necessary to have SATA on the specification? Most inexpensive SoCs do not have SATA, this feature being reserved to the more expensive SoCs, which will greatly increase the price of boards produced to this standard. I don't consider SATA over USB to be a good alternative, due to the added board complexity, which is something one doesn't want to have on a board this small, not to mention the performance problems on such an application, unless this circuitry was installed in the motherboard - won't solve the performance problems but will move complexity away from the CF card, which is likely to be more crowded than the motherboard. I propose the following alternatives:

A) 16-bit NAND memory interface through a SerDes. Easily found on many inexpensive SoCs. I'm not the signalling guy though, so I don't know if the SerDes would be adequate for this kind of operation. Purpose-made NAND modules would need to be used though. The OMAP SoCs by TI (not familiar with SoCs from other manufacturers) use this interface as a general-purpose parallel bus, and are used for Ethernet and other sorts of high-speed interface devices, so it might be possible to use this interface (along with a appropriate controller) to provide SATA.

B) SD/MMC. While not as fast as SATA, it's also very easy to find on inexpensive SoCs, some of which have several of such interfaces. This kind of flash memory packaging is also very inexpensive, but has somewhat poor performance on computer usage.

C) A extra USB port for the solution mentioned before the 2 previous solutions. Now, I'm not a big fan of SATA over USB due to aforementioned performance issues, but if cost's too high, it might be worth a try.

--Victhor393 01:47, 27 January 2012 (UTC)