Re:A $1, Linux-Capable, Hand-Solderable Processor
by makomk on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @01:01PM
(#18016990)
I don't think manufacturers offer QFN packages in this high a pin count. Not sure why. Presumably there's some kind of manufacturability issue that TQFP doesn't suffer from. (The much smaller PMIC that's designed to be partnered with this is QFN though.)
Re:A $1, Linux-Capable, Hand-Solderable Processor
by fermienrico on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @02:18PM
(#18017766)
Wirebonding a massive footprint is less yielding. Also the large packages take up more room on JEDEC processing trays in semiconductor manufacturing and leads to higher costs due to low chip/tray throughput. Furthermore, warpage of large packages is of concern and so is inability to ship in Tape & Reel.
All serious stuff in IOT is WLCSP which has an insanely small footprint __and__ z-height.
Re:A $1, Linux-Capable, Hand-Solderable Processor
by hotpotjunkie on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @02:46PM
(#18018012)
Maybe they mean it's not BGA?
"Hand-solderable"? Every QFN package is hand-solderable, too, using hot air, and is much smaller than the TQFP. And what is the benefit of "hand-soldering" if you still need to use DDR3 DRAM? It won't come in TQFP, and for good reasons, and good luck connecting it to that Allwinner CPU.
If you want tiny chips that can be hand-soldered, go with microcontrollers (ESP32 or Kinetis), which have everything on-board. You really do not need the overhead, complexity and incidental bugginess of Linux for most things, trust me. Also, choose QFN, not TQFP, use hot-air and have the entire thing soldered in 30 seconds.