The first modular tablet in the world developed by ImasD and Circular Devices
by Giulio Minotti, Phonebloks
Puzzlephone is an alternative modular smartphone developed by a Finnish start-up called Circular Devices. It has, only, three easily replaceable and customizable modules: “The Brain” (main electronics), “The Heart” (battery) and “The Spine” (screen).
Circular Devices wants to create a mobile standard where companies and entrepreneurs are welcomed to produce and develop PuzzlePhone compatible modules and solutions, offering end users a wide range of features and prices.
The company is, also, developing the PuzzleStore market place, where consumers can purchase PuzzlePhone devices and PuzzlePhone Compatible modules.
On March 2nd, Alejandro Santacreu, CEO of the company, took to the stage at the Mobile World Congress’ startup conference 4YFN (4 Years From Now) to reveal their progress. Santacreu announced a collaborations between Circular Devices and leading companies like Grant4Com (Finland), AT&S (Austria), Fraunhofer IZM (Germany) and ImasD (Spain).
“The partnership agreements we have reached with leading market partners strengthen the viability of the project and give us a strong impulse to ensure the PuzzlePhone arrival to market on schedule (in the second half of 2015).” said Santacreu.
ImasD, a Spanish engineering firm specialized in electronics devices, is one of the partners contributing prominently to the advancement of PuzzlePhone platform. Circular Devices and ImasD have joined forces to develop an innovative approach in building reliable and sustainable modular devices by merging PuzzlePhone and Click ARM (Advanced Removable Modules) platforms and co-developing the first modular products designed, engineered and assembled in Europe.
Click ARM is a modular hardware platform developed in cooperation with Samsung Electronics. Click ARM is a multi-architecture system that scales from basic Cortex M3 processors to high performance SoCs like Samsung Exynos or Intel BayTrail, all on the same Socket.
This platform is totally modular. The motherboard can easily connect to the Click ARM Core module (Processor, Ram), to the modules developed by ImasD (memory storage, WiFi, Bt, 3g/4g etc) and to Mini Pci Express modules. In addition to its own modules, Click ARM makes it possible, through Mini Pci Express connectors, to include any technology existing in the market that is compatible with this standard. Click ARM allows you to have modules with different operating systems (Android, Ubuntu, Tizen) in a memory chip and be able to remove and add a chip to start up with one OS or another.
ARM is an open architecture. Using Pci ports, you can develop your own module and you can, also, assemble your own devices and commercialize them.
At the MWC, ImasD just announced the first modular tablet in the world, called Click ARM One. It’s a 10 inch tablet with removable modules for the Cpu, storage, connectivity, battery, and more. The Click ARM One is up for pre-order now. It sells for 289€ ($313 US). Delivery will be made between June and September 2015.
In the future, ImasD’s technology will allow PuzzlePhone and Click ARM One owners to swap smartphone and tablet modules and even use the same parts in other products, for example, in the Puzzlecluster, the first Pc made with recycled modules.