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Low Power. Advanced Technologies. Open Standards. In today's economy, device manufacturers (OEMs) want to use off-the-shelf electronics building blocks where possible, then add in-house technology to complete their applications. Sourcing proprietary components, or relying upon superficial originator-run "spec groups", increases the risk of frequent revisions and obsolescence.
The Small Form Factor Special Interest Group (SFF-SIG) is an independent non-profit industry group that develops, promotes, and supports small form factor circuit board, I/O, and storage specifications with long-term stability in mind. The group embraces the latest technologies, but also has a philosophy of maintaining legacy compatibility and enabling smooth transitions to next-generation interfaces. For example, the SFF-SIG is the only industry group with an entire family of SBC, COM, Stackable, and SSD / Flash form factor specifications with interfaces optimized for the new sub-10W 2-chip x86 platforms including Intel's Atom™ and VIA's Nano™ CPUs. The interconnect technologies, SUMIT™, COMIT™, and MiniBlade™ connect easily to high- and low- speed modular I/O, and many low-power products are already on the market!
In November, a new Working Group was established to consider the adoption of the CoreExpress™ specification as a standard. SFF-SIG Voting Members approved a revision to the SUMIT™ and COMIT™ specifications and released the new ISM™ and SUMIT-ISM™ specifications in September. In August, Voting Members approved the new ISM™, SUMIT-ISM™, Pico-ITXe™, and Pico-I/O™ specifications.
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