My journey into the world of modular electronics and a sneak peak of my upcoming project Hexabitz -the world's first modular electronics platform that works for both prototyping and real-life applications- set to launch in Q2/Q3 of next year.

1. Chasing the Holy Grail..
My Search for Modular Electronics!
Asaad Kaadan
HDDG San Francisco Meetup, December 7, 2017
Bricks for the Digital Age!
asaad@hexabitz.com
1

2. Outline
• Why are we here, today?
• Hexabitz concept
• The journey so far
• What’s different about Hexabitz?
• State of The Module
• Examples
2
Bricks for the Digital Age!
2

3. Bio
• BSc. In electronics eng. from Univ. of Aleppo, Syria. MSc. and PhD. In
electrical and computer eng. from Univ. of Oklahoma, US.
• Worked with agencies like NASA, DLR and ODOT on topics related to
drones, optics, wireless and optical communications, IoT and
intelligent transportation systems.
• Senior embedded/robotics eng. with Freefly Systems in Seattle
working on stabilized gimbals and other robotics platforms for the
cinema industry.
3
Bricks for the Digital Age!
3

4. Why are we
here, today?
Value of modularity is undeniable!
4
These two gentlemen provided us “developers” with software and hardware tools to
build our own computer and smartphone software and change the world!
Software is so accessible because it’s modular are reusable.
The value of giving hardware developers similar tools to make modular and reusable
hardware is simply tremendous .
4

5. Hexabitz Concept
5
Bricks for the Digital Age!
Electronic boards (modules) with specific sizes and shapes. When assembled
together, side-by-side, they create larger contagious boards.
Fully modular and symmetric and can be connected in any configuration.
Each module has a single functionality by design.
No connectors, wires or cables. Lower size, weight and cost and higher reliability and
rigidity mimicking a custom made PCBAs
5

6. The Journey So Far
 Toying with modularity ideas seven years ago. Bumping into a wall
after few prototypes. Gave up temporarily :(
 Optical Wireless com. for my PhD. Explored concepts for pixilated
elements and low-SWaP optics for drones.
 Started seeing modularity everywhere in nature and got some
inspiration. Suddenly realized this is what I’ve been looking for :)
 Revealed first prototypes to close friends four months ago!
 This is FIRST ever public talk about the topic and I’m so excited!
6
Bricks for the Digital Age!
The journey was not straightforward!
6

7. What’s different about Hexabitz?
1. Modularity is a fundamental concept
7
Bricks for the Digital Age!
A,B,C,D,E Kaadan, Asaad “Modular Optical Wireless Elements”, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Oklahoma 2016
Modularity has a specific mathematical solution. Taking inspiration from nature and
math, Hexabitz builds modular electronics boards.
7

8. What’s different about Hexabitz?
2. Formfactor is important!
8
Bricks for the Digital Age!
Formfactor is important to move beyond prototyping into the real world.
Default mode of integration in Hexabitz is horizonal to mimic the form and
functionality of custom-made PCBAs.
8

9. What’s different about Hexabitz?
3. Virtualization – or front-end/back-end architecture
• Handling different module types (analog/digital, voltage level,
bandwidth, etc.) requires virtualization and standardization.
• The front-end is the module part (hardware and software)
responsible about its unique functionality.
• The back-end is the module part handling all background activities
including communication, addressing and other array-related
functionality.
9
Bricks for the Digital Age!
9

10. What’s different about Hexabitz?
4. P2P wins over bus architecture for the sake of modularity
and scalability
• Fully distributed and decentralized,
wired-mesh network.
• High-speed 2-pin serial com.
(UARTs) coupled with DMA magic.
10
Bricks for the Digital Age!
All electrical buses have topology and capacity limitation destroying modularity and
symmetricity.
We took some ideas from wireless sensor networks world.
Tailgating serial ports and DMAs enable broadcasting, multicasting, routing,
synchronization and neighbor discovery.
10

11. What’s different about Hexabitz?
4. P2P wins over bus-architecture for the sake of modularity
and scalability
11
Bricks for the Digital Age!
37 modules connected with ease in a small formfactor.
11

12. What’s different about Hexabitz?
5. We’re already in the age of dust computing!
• True parallel-execution and multi-tasking is a killer even if
individual MCUs are small.
• Think about it as a present-day form of futuristic smart PCBs! Logic
blobs embedded in the PCB itself.
• Current embedded code development solutions suck. Period.
12
Bricks for the Digital Age!
The smart mother-board / dump daughter-board scheme which we invented back in
70s when computing was expensive is outdated.. We can, and should, put computing
everywhere.
Every configurable Hexabitz module has it own Cortex-M0 MCU (STM32F0).
Bottleneck in current embedded code development tools designed for single-
processor systems. We should design in a holistic approach.
12

13. Bricks for the Digital Age!
oops.. Is it the wrong audience?
• Lecturing about ditching custom hardware
design for a group of hardcore hardware
designers is not smart..
• I’m here because you’re the ones
who can make it happen!
14
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
14

14. Preemptive answer:
• Modular electronics… Really?!!
• Huge difference between user-facing and backend
electronics.
• Sorry.. No modular smart phones and smart watches!
15
Bricks for the Digital Age!
Thinking about Google’s Ara and similar projects?
User-facing electronics (smartphones, smartwatches) must be extremely streamlined
for weight, size, cost etc. and thus can NOT be modularized. Modularity adds
overhead by definition.
Backend electronics (washing machines, cars, elevators, roombas, etc.) are ripe for
modularization! Modularity adds customization and reuse and formfactor is not
extremely constrained.
15

15. State of The Module
16
Bricks for the Digital Age!
Hardware roadmap!
Green: prototyped and tested
Blue: designed and being tested
Grey: the future!
16

16. 17
Bricks for the Digital Age!State of The Module
Key BOS features:
 Array exploration
 CLI
 Messaging
 DMA streams
 Remote Read/Write
 Emulated EEPROM
 Buttons/Switches
 Logging
 RTC & Calendar
 …
Embedded software.
17

17. Examples
19
Bricks for the Digital Age!
Youtube link: https://youtu.be/DpY2Al28Cb8
Simple example: 12 x AC solid state relay modules
19

18. • Would you like to try the future :) Shoot me an email.
asaad@hexabitz.com
• What’s next for Hexabitz?
• Thank you!
Final words..
20
Bricks for the Digital Age!
20