It's competing with the pi compute module, and it's significantly nicer (onboard eMMC, WiFi).
Also, you're really, REALLY underestimating the additional effort involved in a complex BGA layout for any modern device. For low-volume, specialist stuff, it's generally FAR more economical to buy-in a compute module then design in house. If you expect to sell a few thousand expensive specialty $INSTRUMENT_THINGs, the hundreds of hours of engineer time needed to bring up linux on a new board layout can buy a lot of compute modules.
After all, if at a later point you do want to move to in-house, you can always just design a footprint-compatible module at a later date.
Shit, I'd personally have been really excited about this if it were a few years ago. I was doing board layout for a project with a compute-module. The selection now is so much better then it was in 2012.
It's competing with the pi compute module, and it's significantly nicer (onboard eMMC, WiFi).
Also, you're really, REALLY underestimating the additional effort involved in a complex BGA layout for any modern device. For low-volume, specialist stuff, it's generally FAR more economical to buy-in a compute module then design in house. If you expect to sell a few thousand expensive specialty $INSTRUMENT_THINGs, the hundreds of hours of engineer time needed to bring up linux on a new board layout can buy a lot of compute modules.
After all, if at a later point you do want to move to in-house, you can always just design a footprint-compatible module at a later date.
Shit, I'd personally have been really excited about this if it were a few years ago. I was doing board layout for a project with a compute-module. The selection now is so much better then it was in 2012.