Where to study the device and architecture of single-board PCs / microprocessor technology?

Question

Electronics

I want to study the design of single-board computers and, ideally, get the necessary skills to create my own microprocessor devices. How realistic is all this for one person? The next Wishlist is the creation of a controller board for a robot with video signal processing / video signal transmission over the air with hd / fhd resolution. I met articles where stm's worked with the simplest cameras. It seems to me that it is worthwhile to figure out for a start with the device and the operation of some kind of raspberry and a project based on a greatly simplified version of it. What set of skills and knowledge do you need to have to create such a wunderwaffle? As far as I know, the first machine was created by one person. I also see the purchase of the necessary elements as some sort of broodcom or 1/2/4GB RAM chips for physical storage as a much more pressing problem. persons in single quantities.

Answer 1

Mars36 , The problem is that it is very difficult to obtain such a volume of knowledge "at a glance". Here one knowledge is based on the basis of others.
Initially, there is a good understanding of physics, because this is the basis for electronics. Well, at least the sections related to electricity.
If you do not go from the basics, then for a start I would tighten up my knowledge in the field of electronics and digital circuitry. Literature of various kinds is huge and you need to start from the basics, gradually moving on to more serious literature. I remember once I liked how the basics were laid out in Gershunsky's book "Fundamentals of Electronics and Microelectronics". And there are many more different authors who set out in different ways and to whom what suits better is individual here.
For the basics of PCB layout, go through the issues of Chip News magazine for different years, interesting articles about this periodically slipped through. But you must understand that the layout of the board alone requires a good understanding of the circuitry, the physics of the processes occurring in the boards (you must be able to correctly evaluate currents, voltages, frequencies in each specific place on the board), the basics of materials science are very desirable (if we are not talking about ordinary double-sided boards), because this is important when designing complex boards (and what you want is the level of complex boards).
Yes, now there is software that "takes on" a lot (Altium Designer, Mentor Graphics, ...), but in order to "explain" to it what we want from it, we also need to have a good understanding of all of the above.
As for the controllers-processors - as far as I understand, you have a desire not just to "create something", but to do it meaningfully, go through the development path. You were rightly told to start with an arduino.
Do not assume that arduino is for children, this is not entirely true. In fact, arduino is a handy thing on which you can quickly mold a breadboard from pieces and test this or that idea.
And believe that you were correctly told that first a layout is made from ready-made pieces, blocks, and only when they are convinced that everything turned out as you want, only then they proceed to the development of the first ready-made samples, and only then they think about reducing the cost, and not at the moment when everything is still on idea level.
After arduino, I would feel FreeRTOS or other embedded OS, this will give an understanding of the basics of operating systems at a low level, multitasking, etc.
After that, I would still start with raspberry. By this time, you will already have quite extensive knowledge and will look at your task differently, not the way you look at it now. Believe it so.
But keep in mind that with processors such as those found in single-board computers (Alwinner, etc.) there are nuances associated with the fact that it is quite likely that you will not be able to buy a batch of these processors at a good price in the first place, because. Chinese factories prefer to deal with those who take thousands of products and have plans for interesting processors months in advance. And secondly, I'm not sure that you can get really complete documentation with applications (circuitry examples, wiring recommendations, etc.), errata (collections of found and described bugs with proposed solutions). And without this documentation, a very long and gloomy path awaits you.
In fact, you immediately take on a completely non-trivial task, which many experienced developers will not undertake.
Better go for it gradually.
Good luck to you!

Answer 2

I want to study the design of single-board computers and, ideally, get the necessary skills to create my own microprocessor devices. How realistic is all this for one person?

More than real.
Judging by your question (level of preparation), the "Wishlist" will have to be postponed very far.
STM is also possible, but it will be easier with raspberry
You can do that, but my forty years of experience suggests that you should start with something simpler, for example, Arduino.
You need to know the basics of automation, electronics, programming, data processing algorithms
First, find an Arduino kit with a lot of sensors. Later, the same set can be used in conjunction with Raspberry

Answer 3

It is very difficult to make projects of this level from scratch. You will have to understand the chipset, do the wiring for about an 8-layer board, then write software for it. Maybe port Linux.
Each individual task requires expert-level knowledge with extensive experience, and in the aggregate is almost unrealistic as a pet project.
I would advise you to take a raspberry pi zero w and connect a camera to it. Somehow prepare the image for sending and transfer it either via WiFi or through something more long-range.
So you will focus on your main task - to transfer the image. And not "how to properly breed lvds tracks."

Answer 4

Start with a transistor, assemble its switching circuit in all modes. Assemble a multivibrator, and then finish the multivibrator to a trigger. Well, then you will get involved, you will grow a beard with a sweater