Mobile handsets continue to be one of the fastest evolving technologies in current times. In parallel with all the popular features that accompany today's mobile handset, mobile handset design has also been continuously changing. Design cycles that once took more than 2 years have now shortened to 6 months or less. This continuous demand for new designs and features delivered quickly has led to many changes in the mobile handset design practices.

One of the most popular design practices for staying abreast with these accelerated design cycles is the use of hardware modules. Instead of designing various different blocks in a handset, today's handset designer receives a specification for a particular handset and put together a mosaic of various modules to create a complete handset solution.

Modular hardware design has become a popular design practice today because of the improved time to market that it provides. Previously, handset design required the architecture to be planned, followed by schematics and the manufacture of an evaluation board that simulated the end product. This practice took significant pre-study time before an evaluation board could be made because a mistake or change in the specification would require a full re-manufacture of the board, thus increasing design time and cost.

In contrast, the modular hardware approach decreases the need for long planning cycles as expansion slots can be built on evaluation boards to accommodate changes in spec and feature sets. Designers can now connect various modules to the core evaluation platform to achieve different desired results. With modular hardware design gaining traction, it has become essential that designers provide mechanisms for easily connecting various modules to existing evaluation boards.