Computer-on-module architectures drive sustainability
Sustainability has moved from corporate marketing to a board‑level mandate. For technology companies, this shift is more than meeting environmental, social, and governance frameworks; it reflects the need to align innovation with environmental and social responsibility among all key stakeholders.
Regulators are tightening reporting requirements while investors respond favorably to sustainable strategies. Customers also want tangible progress toward these goals. The debate is no longer about whether sustainability belongs in technology roadmaps but how it should be implemented.
The hidden burden of embedded and edge systems
Electronic systems power a multitude of devices in our daily lives. From industrial control systems and vital medical technology to household appliances, these systems usually run around the clock for years on end. Consequently, operating them requires a lot of energy.
Usually, electronic systems are part of a larger ecosystem and are difficult to replace in the event of failure. When this happens, complete systems are often discarded, resulting in a surplus of electronic waste.
Rapid advances in technology make this issue more pronounced. Processor architectures, network interfaces, and security protocols become obsolete in shorter cycles than they did just a few years ago. As a result, organizations often retire complete systems after a brief service life, even though the hardware still meets its original requirements. The continual need to update to newer standards drives up costs and can undermine sustainability goals.
Embedded and edge systems are foundational technologies driving critical infrastructure in industrial automation, healthcare, and energy applications. As such, the same issues with short product lifecycles and limited upgradeability put them in the same unfortunate bucket of electronic waste and resource consumption.
Bridging the gap between performance demands and sustainability targets requires rethinking system architectures. This is where off-the-shelf computer-on-module (COM) designs come in, offering a path to extended lifecycles and reduced waste while simultaneously future-proofing technology investments.
How COMs extend product lifecycles
Open embedded computing standards such as COM Express, COM-HPC, and Smart Mobility Architecture (SMARC) separate computing components—including processors, memory, network interfaces, and graphics—from the rest of the system. By separating the parts from the whole, they allow updates by swapping modules instead of by requiring a complete system redesign.
This approach reduces electronic waste, conserves resources, and lowers long‑term costs, especially in industries where certifications and mechanical integration make complete redesigns prohibitively expensive. These sustainability benefits go beyond waste reduction: A modular system is easier to maintain, repair, and upgrade, meaning fewer devices end up prematurely as electronic waste.
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Open standards that enable longevity
To simplify the development and manufacturing of COMs and to ensure interchangeability across manufacturers, consortia such as the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturing Group (PICMG) promote and ratify open standards.
One of the most central standards in the embedded sector is COM Express. This standard defines various COM sizes, such as Type 6 or Type 10, to address different application areas; it also offers a seamless transition from legacy interfaces to modern differential interfaces, including DisplayPort, PCI Express, USB 3.0, or SATA. COM Express, therefore, serves a wide range of use cases from low-power handheld medical equipment to server-grade industrial automation infrastructure.
Expanding on these efforts, COM-HPC is the latest PICMG standard. Addressing high-performance embedded edge and server applications, COM-HPC arose from the need to meet increasing performance and bandwidth requirements that previous standards couldn’t achieve. COM-HPC COMs are available with three pinout types and six sizes for simplified application development. Target use cases range from powerful small-form-factor devices to graphics-oriented multi-purpose designs and robust multi-core edge servers.
Alongside COM Express and COM-HPC, the Standardization Group for Embedded Technologies developed the SMARC standard to meet the demands of power-saving, energy-efficient designs requiring a small footprint. Similar in size to a credit card, SMARC modules are ideal for mobile and portable embedded devices, as well as for any industrial application that requires a combination of small footprint, low power consumption, and established multimedia interfaces.
As a company with close involvement in developing COM Express, COM-HPC, and SMARC, congatec is invested in the long-term success of more sustainable architectures. Offering designs for common carrier boards that can be used for different standards and/or modules, congatec’s approach allows product designers to use a single carrier board across many applications, as they simply swap the module when upgrading performance, removing the need for complex redesigns.
Virtualization as a path to greener systems
On top of modular design, extending hardware lifecycles requires intelligent software management. Hypervisors, a software tool that creates and manages virtual machines, add an important software layer to the sustainability benefits of COM architectures.
Virtualization allows multiple workloads to coexist securely on a single module, meaning that separate boards aren’t required to run essential tasks such as safety, real-time control, and analytics. This consolidation simultaneously lowers energy consumption while decreasing the demand for the raw materials, manufacturing, and logistics associated with more complex hardware.
Enhancing sustainability through COM-based designs
The rapid adoption of technologies such as edge AI, real‑time analytics, and advanced connectivity has inspired industries to strive for scalable platforms that also meet sustainability goals. COM architectures are a great example, demonstrating that high performance and environmental responsibility are compatible. They show technology and business leaders that designing sustainability into product architectures and technology roadmaps, rather than treating it as an afterthought, makes good practical and financial sense.
With COM-based modules already providing a flexible and field-proven foundation, the embedded sector is off to a good start in shrinking environmental impact while preserving long-term innovation capability.
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