Hi people,
Pinmuxes are dangerous, because they sometimes
mux the wrong thing like having 2 differential pins one
could choose between usb or sata. If one wants both?!
Many SOCs I encountered work like this.
Such pain should be avoided. A pinmux needs proper planing.
Go for a large package with a good socket and have not
too much need to mux, as if it is done extremely one could
end in a castrated system.
I would suggest to use old Intel sockets as the ZIF-Sockets are
in the wild and the package manufacturers also produce them.
Cheers,
Ludwig
On 06/26/2018 12:15 AM, David Lanzendörfer wrote:
a pinmux. a pinmux allows a chip to be targetted at multiple simultaneous markets at a reduced package cost, by permitting software-controlled redirection of up to four times (or even eight times if you are Texas Instruments) as many peripherals as there are actual physical pins on the chip.
by targetting multiple markets the chip sells more units. by selling more units the quantities increase. by increasing the quantities the foundries have time to tune the fab in order to increase yields. by increasing yields the price of the chip comes down. by decreasing the price, the chip sells more units.