Embedded Security for the Internet of Things

Transcription

The magazine of record for the embedded computing industry
February 2014
www.rtcmagazine.com
Embedded Security for the
Internet of Things
Provide Flexible I/O Expansion
for Stackable Modules
Making Mobile Systems
Aware of Their World
An RTC Group Publication
The Ups and Downs of
Android for Embedded
Engineered Solutions
Deliver Flexibility
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Embedded
Security for
the Internet
of Things
40
RAID-Capable Box PC Offers Flexible Storage Capacity
44
8 Gbit LPDDR4 DRAM Ultra-Fast Mobile Memory
TABLEOF CONTENTS
46
Rugged, 14-Port Gigabit Managed Ethernet Switch with
2 SFP Sockets
VOLUME 23, ISSUE 2
DEPARTMENTS
The Internet of Things: Feeling Our
5Editorial
Way to the Future
6
Industry Insider
Latest Developments in the Embedded
Marketplace
Form Factor Forum
8Small
Tiny COMs Bite Off Big Blades
& Technology
40Products
Newest Embedded Technology
Used by Industry Leaders
EDITOR’S REPORT
Mobile Graphics CPU
Graphics CPU Promises
High Performance Embedded for
10 Mobile
Both Graphical and ComputeIntensive Applications
TECHNOLOGY CORE
TECHNOLOGY IN SYSTEMS
Moving Android into Embedded
Intelligent Sensors in Intelligent
Applications
14
Android for Embedded:
The Good, the Bad and the
[insert adjective here]
Bill Weinberg, Black Duck Consulting
Power-Efficient,
Context-Aware Mobile Systems
28Building
Joy Wrigley, Lattice Semiconductor
TECHNOLOGY IN CONTEXT
TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
Flexible I/O for Stackable Modules
Optical Interfaces
Stackable I/O Modules
Revamp the World of
18 New
Embedded SBCs
Robert A. Burckle, WinSystems
TECHNOLOGY CONNECTED
Embedded Security for the Internet
of Things
22
Providing a Built-In Foundation
for Internet Security
Optocouplers in
32High-Speed
Industrial Communication
Networks
Chwan Jye Foo, Avago Technologies
INDUSTRY WATCH
Harnessing FPGA Performance for HPEC
Front-End
Processing with VPX
36FPGA-Based
Ken Grob, Elma Electronic
Michael Mehlberg, Microsemi
Tom Williams
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RTC MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 2014
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FEBRUARY 2014
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FEBRUARY 2014 RTC MAGAZINE
Published by The RTC Group
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EDITORIAL
FEBRUARY 2014
The Internet of Things:
Feeling Our Way to the Future
T
hey were wrong about my flying car. But I’ve gotten over that after seeing it as a kid in all those “Wonderful World of Tomorrow”
clips that flew around so many years ago. It is, of course, natural
to try to project where further developments of today’s technology are
going to take us, and it’s certainly no crime to be optimistic. Then
again, back in 1958 there was a terrible Boris Karloff film titled, Frankenstein 1970. We won’t go there but needless to say, I’m not holding
my breath for a jet pack.
Now as we all know, the “Wonderful World of Tomorrow” we
are all talking about these days is the Internet of Things. The Internet
of Things (IoT) is very real with predictions that there will be upward
of 50 billion devices, all with their own IP addresses, connected to the
Internet, generating Big Data up to the Cloud and allowing detailed
access and control of all kinds of functions from building management
to vending machines, environmental monitoring, energy conservation
and more. The interesting thing about the IoT as opposed to some earlier projections is that it is really happening. Well, the proliferation of
connected devices is actually happening. The question is, what will
this really mean in our daily lives and even more importantly, when?
Take one example, which involves the Smart Grid. We can consider the Smart Grid as either a part of the IoT or a parallel development to it. In either case, it connects with the IoT at certain points. One
of those is the idea that we will have “time of day” pricing to help even
out power distribution and lower overall costs. Thus power consumed
at off-peak hours will cost less than that at peak hours. Major household appliances will have built-in intelligence to receive signals from
the grid when rates drop so they can turn on and run. Sounds great
and I’m sure we’re all for it. But there may be some bumps in the road.
A while back I checked and our local power company does not yet
support time of day pricing, which I took to mean they are not quite up
to date. Harrumph. Now I see in the paper that they are getting ready
to implement time of day pricing and the article warns that is will raise
customers’ monthly bills. What? Ah Grasshopper, in order for this to
work, you also have to have the smart appliances. How many of us
have those?
When time of day pricing starts, there will be a different rate
structure. For example, if electricity now costs 11 cents per kilowatt
hour, it may go to 8 cents at night and 14 cents during the day. In order
to get the lower rate, how many people are going to get up at midnight
to start the washing machine and then again at 2 am to switch the load
Tom Williams
Editor-in-Chief
to the dryer? But otherwise, the monthly bill will definitely go up.
Also, people are not going to immediately scrap their washers and dryers to go out and buy an intelligent washer/dryer to take advantage of
the power savings. This will definitely take time. And this is just one
of the many potential caveats we may have to recognize as we all await
the wonderful world of the IoT.
On the other hand, there are many areas where the IoT is showing
definite signs of taking shape. Many of these involve situations where
devices are already connected in a local area network and can then
be easily incorporated into the IoT by connecting their local server
to the Internet. To do that effectively, however, requires implementing the proper management software on both the local server and the
remote—often Cloud-based—servers and systems. Such software provides browser access to the connected devices and their applications
both individually and collectively and facilitates the gathering and interpretation of data generated by them.
There are already very promising and useful systems emerging
from this model in such areas as building and home management and
security, industrial automation, transportation, digital signage, vending
operations and many more. These are characterized by the Internetconnected LAN, and the more connected devices there are in a given
operation, the more data is available to do more creative things. Buildings have long had locally networked HVAC and security systems, and
when multiple buildings in a hotel chain, for example, are connected
via the Web, the more efficiently the company can manage its overall
assets. Home climate and security systems can take direct advantage
of such experience to optimize such control and make it available via
a smartphone app.
One of the biggest potential boosts to the IoT may come when
companies realize what they can actually do with their Big Data. Data
that comes in from seemingly disparate sources from systems that may
have originally been designed to do different things may suggest uses
that were never originally conceived of. But this will take time. The
advantage we have over the flying car is that we can realize immediate
gains from the IoT and then build on those without even being certain
of where it will all lead. In fact, disappointments or frustration mainly
arise in the cases where expectations were specific (like ToD pricing).
Those are offset by innovative discoveries that justify the initial effort
and investment. So strap on your jet pack.
5
INDUSTRY
INSIDER
FEBRUARY 2014
ETSI Delivers Report on Cloud
Computing Standards
The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has made
public its final report from ETSI’s Cloud Standards Coordination initiative.
The report was delivered at an event jointly organized between ETSI and
the European Commission attended by over 100 experts from the cloud
community. The overall objective of the Cloud Standards Coordination
initiative led by ETSI was to identify a detailed map of the standards
required to support a series of policy objectives defined by the European
Commission. The initiative attracted Cloud industry players, public
authorities, user associations and more than 20 standards-setting
organizations to work collectively on this objective.
The report provides:
• a definition of roles in Cloud computing;
•
the collection and classification of over 100 Cloud computing
use cases;
•
a list of around 20 relevant organizations in Cloud computing
standardization and a selection of around 150 associated documents,
standards and specifications as well as reports and white papers
produced by these organizations;
• a classification of activities that need to be undertaken by Cloud
service customers or Cloud service providers over the whole Cloud
service life-cycle; and
• a mapping of the selected Cloud computing documents (in particular
standards and specifications) on these activities.
Finally, the report offers a set of recommendations on the way forward.
The analysis shows that Cloud standardization is much more focused than
anticipated and that standards are maturing in some areas.
Cellular M2M Devices in
Industrial Automation
Reached 0.76 Million in 2013
According to a new research report, the shipments of
cellular M2M devices in industrial automation reached 760,000
worldwide in 2013. Growing at
a compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) of 22.5 percent, shipments are expected to reach 2.1
million in 2018. The market is
served by a multitude of players
with varying backgrounds. Eaton,
Phoenix Contact, Advantech and
6
SEPTEMBER2014
FEBRUARY
2014 RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
Kontron are major providers of
industrial automation equipment
and are also important vendors
of products and solutions featuring embedded cellular connectivity. Industrial network equipment specialists such as Moxa,
Westermo and B&B Electronics
are also major vendors of cellular solutions. Other significant
vendors include M2M specialists such as Digi International,
Calamp, Maestro Wireless and
Viola Systems. Netmodule and
eWon are examples of companies
with highly specialized offerings
targeting the industrial automation industry.
In the report by the analyst firm Berg Insight, backbone
network communication and
remote monitoring are the two
largest applications for cellular
M2M connectivity within industrial automation. Remote service
maintenance and diagnostics of
machinery and industrial robots
is a major application within factory automation, and real-time
monitoring of remote facilities
and equipment is one of the most
common applications within
process automation. High-capacity LTE networks will further increase cellular adoption in industrial automation, even in control
applications. However, connectivity requirements vary depending
on the application, and cellular is
part of a mix together with other
technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, WirelessHART
and ISA100.
Green Hills Software and
HP Agree to Offer Secure
Android Smartphones and
Tablets
Green Hills Software has
announced that it is teaming
with HP to offer trusted mobile
devices built with Green Hills
Software’s Integrity Multivisor
virtualization technology for Android and enabled by HP’s secure
mobility service, to the UK public
sector. As part of a new teaming
agreement with Hewlett-Packard
Enterprise Services (UK) Ltd,
Green Hills Software is piloting
a secure mobile device initiative
combining HP’s secure mobility end-to-end service and Green
Hills Software’s Integrity Multivisor security technology. The
separation kernel-based Type-1
hypervisor delivers security that
cannot be achieved with mobile
OS-level mechanisms through
application wrapping, containers, access control and encrypted
workspaces.
These trusted mobile devices demonstrate form factor flexibility, near-zero impact to OEMs,
and the ability to deploy highassurance isolation technology at
the speed of consumer electronics
innovation.
Green Hills Software has
initiated an independent test assessment in order to achieve
Commercial Product Assurance
(CPA) Certification for its trusted
mobile solution. CPA Certification is awarded to security products that have been successfully
tested against security standards
defined by CESG, the UK Government Communications-Electronics Security Group. Mobile
devices running Integrity Multivisor are available today for
trials with carriers, enterprises
and governments. The solution
includes device acquisition and
delivery, front-line integration
and technical support to both users and enterprise administrators.
MoCA 2.0 Certification
Program Now Available
The Multimedia over Coax
Alliance (MoCA) Certification
Program for products implementing the MoCA 2.0 specification
is now available to all members.
MoCA technology is a worldwide
standard for home entertainment
networking. It is the only such
standard in use by all three pay
TV segments—cable, satellite
and IPTV/telco. MoCA technology is also used as an in-home
backbone to extend Wi-Fi connectivity. The Alliance has certified 148 products and has 53
members worldwide.
MoCA 2.0 offers two performance modes of 400 Mbit/s
and 800 Mbit/s net throughputs
(MAC rate), respectively. Per-
formance alone, however, is not
enough in an HD video environment. Reliability of packet
delivery is also critical. MoCA
2.0 supports packet error rates
(PER) as low as one in 100 million with a nominal latency of 3.6
ms. In addition, standby and sleep
modes are included in the specification to help with overall power
management in the network.
Upon passage of certification, companies receive a certificate documenting and officially
acknowledging that the capabilities and features of the submitted
product have passed the required
interoperability testing authorized by the Alliance.
“The MoCA certification
program for MoCA 2.0 products
will enable manufacturers to verify their next generation of connected home technology products,” said Stephen Palm, senior
technical director, Broadcom and
MoCA Certification Board Chair.
“The MoCA 2.0 golden nodes enable a fast path to product certification with high performance
throughout the home for cable,
satellite, xDSL, xPON and IP settop box products.”
videantis Joins Khronos
Group, Targets OpenVX
Computer Vision API
videantis has joined the
Khronos Group to bring support
for the OpenVX computer vision
acceleration API to its low-power,
licensable v-MP4000HDX processor architecture. Computer
vision is the key technology that,
among other things, drives new
applications like always-on smart
mobile cameras, gesture-based
interfaces, 3D-sensing games and
automotive driver assistance systems. Having a consistent, standardized, royalty-free and open
API such as OpenVX enables
rapid adoption of computer vision acceleration by application
developers, just like OpenGL did
some years ago for 3D graphics.
OpenVX can be used directly
by applications or to accelerate
higher-level middleware, such as
the popular OpenCV open source
vision library.
videantis has a history in
high-performance,
low-power
video processing, and joining
Khronos as a contributing member enables videantis to be closely involved while the OpenVX
standard is being finalized. The
videantis v-MP4000HDX processor architecture is ideally suited
to accelerate computer vision algorithms, typically achieving a
100x speedup compared to running on the host CPU, and power
consumption that’s 1000x lower.
The videantis v-MP4000HDX
scalable processor architecture is
specifically designed to efficiently
accelerate video processing algorithms. Due to its low power consumption and high performance,
the v-MP4000HDX supports full
HD vision processing, allowing
for more accurate algorithms and
an overall higher-quality user
experience, even on always-on,
battery-operated devices. The 10core v-MP4280HDX subsystem
performs 192 16-bit pixel operations per cycle, 24 on each of its
eight VLIW media processors.
The video processing subsystem
is also silicon area efficient, occupying well under 2 mm2 of silicon
in 28 nm technology, including
all required on-chip memories.
Thanks to its unified video/vision
architecture, the subsystem can
run a variety of computer vision
APIs such as OpenCV, OpenVX,
or proprietary standards, as well
as simultaneously run multi-format video and still-image codecs.
The v-MP4000HDX processor IP
is available for licensing today.
LDRA Takes Major Role in
Verifying Russian Avionics
Software
LDRA has announced that it
has secured contracts with Russia’s five major avionics suppliers.
LDRA’s contracts assist with the
verification of EASA and FAA
regulations that suppliers must
comply with for both fixed and
rotary-wing aircraft to be used in
domestic and international markets. The LDRA tool suite automates and streamlines the certification process, helping these
avionics suppliers to achieve DO178C/ED-12C and DO-254/ED80 most cost-effectively.
LDRA’s efforts have led to
the development of the broadest
range of software testing and verification capabilities that enforce
and streamline avionics certification compliance throughout the
world. In Russia, the LDRA tool
suite has been used to verify systems for onboard computers, integrated air data, integrated flight
and navigation, data display and
lighting, in addition to various instruments and sensors for aircraft
such as the Sukhoi Superjet 100
(SSJ-100), Tupolev Tu-204 (TU204), and the upcoming Irkut
MC21 (also known as the MS21).
The LDRA tool suite offers
a broad range of software test and
verification capabilities geared to
meet the most rigorous of avionics standards. As the only company able to provide object code
verification, LDRA gives developers a direct way to relate code
coverage of source code to object
code and to prove code coverage
at the assembler level, fulfilling
one of the most time-consuming
verification requirements for DO178. The LDRA tool suite provides reports that identify where
further analysis is needed and
tool qualification support packs
that guide developers through the
certification process.
VIA Partners with Mozilla to
Support and Develop Firefox
OS for New Devices
VIA has announced an official partnership with Mozilla
for support and development of
Firefox OS for new device form
factors. Firefox OS running on
APC Paper and Rock has been
released with complete, buildable source codes available to
developers on GitHub. In order
to continue to encourage community support, free APCs will be
rewarded to developers that fix a
known issue.
“Firefox OS puts the power
of the Web to the people. This
partnership with APC presents an
exciting opportunity to help redefine user experiences on desktops around the world,” said Dr.
Li Gong, senior vice president of
mobile devices and president of
Asia Operations. “Mozilla will
keep working on new features
and enhancements of Firefox
OS, and also provide knowledge
sharing and technical support for
Firefox OS and Marketplace.”
“We are excited to announce
this partnership with Mozilla
and their enthusiastic support to
speed development of Firefox OS
on APC,” said Richard Brown,
VP of International Marketing,
VIA Technologies Inc. “Mozilla’s
mission to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the
Web, aligns with our vision for
APC, creating the perfect combination to deliver the best of the
Web to desktops everywhere. We
couldn’t be more excited about
the future.”
RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER
FEBRUARY 2014
7
SMALL FORM FACTOR
FORUM
Colin McCracken
Tiny COMs Bite Off Big Blades
W
hen we think about Big Data, Cloud computing and rackmount systems in general, our thoughts immediately go to
disk/flash arrays and server-class processors with gigantic thermal solutions installed on either server-wide motherboards
or tall “blades” such as Advanced TCA (ATCA) processor cards
that plug into a vertical backplane in a 13U chassis.
While high performance and low latency are undeniable requirements for pushing around all that data, in some cases the
problem can be broken down into many small processors, each
handling a small part of the workload. Potential benefits include
improving overall throughput, providing more granular redundancy, customizing co-processors and front ends, flexible packaging, lowering total power or de-centralizing heat by balancing
the workload across a wider area. Communication applications
such as data plane must be “wire speed,” processing packets
without delay. It’s worth looking at these from the standpoint of
parallel processing of threads.
A typical segmentation of x86 processors, from top to bottom, is: server class, desktop, mobile/laptop, ultra-mobile/thin/
light (i.e., tablet class) and basic control. A typical dual server
board might be replaced by four or more mobile processors. This
gets interesting for network applications that need some custom
hardware and not just vanilla servers or network-attached storage. In-line filtering, packet processing or other computation can
be dispatched to more processors for either symmetric or asymmetric multi-processing (SMP or AMP).
As long as the application doesn’t require huge cache RAM
or local SDRAM or very tight coupling between processors,
this is feasible; otherwise server processors can’t be so easily
replaced. Custom peripheral hardware such as special RAID
controllers, LAN switches, custom co-processors or front-end
logic in FPGAs can go on a carrier board with multiple sites for
commercial-off-the-shelf COM Express modules. Each COM
Express module contains a dual-core or quad-core processor
from 15W to 50W with up to 16 Gbyte RAM and a low-profile
passive or active cooling solution (heat sink/fan sink). The modules also have Gigabit Ethernet controllers so that they can talk
to each other and share data. This architecture is in many ways
more scalable and power efficient than server processor farms.
8
Taking this a step further, there may be a few applications
where breaking down a mobile processor into many multiplecore ultra-mobile processors can be advantageous. This opens
the door for ARM module-based solutions, as was first demonstrated last year with 8 quad-core Qseven modules on a single
carrier board for a 1U rackmount Linux server. In the near future,
ARM processors with hundreds of processing cores will be on
the market. This is not just the talk of aliens and crop circles.
To be fair to x86, most ARM processors do not have the
many high-performance pipelines, complex instruction sets (instructions, addressing modes, etc.) and large local cache RAM
that x86 CPUs do. A 2 GHz quad core ARM processor may have
lower power consumption than a 2 GHz quad core x86 processor, but the performance isn’t apples-to-apples. Graphics performance can be quite different too. Many embedded applications
aren’t streaming video or are completely headless. OpenCL can
be used for very parallel tasks to really make the most of CPU
resources in non-video applications. ARM versus x86 is a very
individual decision that comes down to the very nature of the
workload.
Trying to exploit parallelism doesn’t need to be relegated to
just the usual storage, server, firewall, search engine, security or
other pattern-matching applications. Scientific and research sectors could benefit from customized hardware. Medical fields such
as the booming area of genetics ought to investigate how complex
calculations can be broken down into “byte-size” chunks to feed
processor arrays.
There are many places this approach will take us over time.
For now, COM Express is already making inroads into traditional blade and server motherboard applications where the relative ease of customization and dense processor packing is beneficial. Smaller ARM modules have already been demonstrated
in clusters on a common carrier. It would help many embedded
projects to let the software architects define the optimum hardware they need, instead of throwing yet another hardware box
over the wall to them.
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EDITOR’S REPORT
Mobile Graphics CPU
Mobile Graphics CPU
Promises High
Performance Embedded
for Both Graphical and
Compute-Intensive
Applications
The demand for graphics performance is resulting not only
in processors that deliver increasingly realistic and interactive
graphics, but also capabilities for ever higher-performance
numeric computing. Now these capabilities are going
mobile—with big implications for the embedded world.
by Tom Williams, Editor-in-Chief
change in awareness. Something new is
happening. And now we are also hearing
the term, “high-performance embedded
computing.” Does this mean that what
is generally considered to be high-performance computing (i.e., the perceived
performance capabilities) is now finding
its way into embedded systems? There are
strong indications that this is exactly what
is happening.
The answer to the question, “How
much performance can we actually put
into an embedded system?” is, “Just as
much as you can get without exceeding
the size, weight and power restrictions.”
And the answer to the question, “What
can you do with all that performance?”
is, “Not quite everything you might want
to.” In other words, there are no conceivable limits. There are, however, moments
where we can take stock and appreciate
how far we have come. And it appears that
with the introduction of its new Tegra K1
processor, NVIDIA has just driven such a
stake in the ground.
Actually, “stake in the ground” may
be the wrong metaphor. A better one
might be, “a crop circle in a field.” A
couple of weeks prior to the introduction
of the Tegra K1, reports started emerging
about a crop circle that had appeared in
a barley field near Salinas, California. The
M
any years ago in the late 1970s, I
attended one of the early personal
computing shows where the new
system from a major vendor (who shall
remain nameless) was being introduced.
This particular system was able to display patterns put together from blocks of
x by y white pixels to form rather crude
images. But it was new; nobody else had
it at the time and the person manning the
booth was overheard to say, “Yes Ma’am,
full graphics capability.” Today, of course,
we know better and even then I shook my
head. However, today we can rightly say
that we have “truly amazing graphics”
and very high-performance computing.
In fact, these days, the term “highperformance computing” is increasingly
popping up in things like marketing and
conference programs. While it might be
possible to dismiss this as somehow vague
and self-serving, it nonetheless indicates a
10
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FEBRUARY
2014 RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
FIGURE 1
Crop circle, which “mysteriously” appeared in a barley field near
Salinas, California.
EDITOR’S REPORT
1600
Tegra K1
Tegra 4
1400
1.4x
Performance
at Same Power
1200
SPECInt2K Performance
pattern appeared to depict the diagram of a
highly integrated IC and contained Braille
code for the number 192. After weeks of
speculation and learned-sounding analysis by numerous UFO “experts,” NVIDIA
revealed at the introduction that it was behind the crop circle as a way of emphasizing its claim as to the advanced nature of
the processor (Figure 1).
It turns out that the number 192 (which
some pointed out is the atomic number for
a radioactive isotope of Iridium) referred to
the number of cores in the Kepler GPU architecture graphics engine on the chip. The
Tegra K1 is specifically targeted for mobile
systems—at this point primarily mobile
gaming systems. That makes perfect sense,
since the gaming market is large enough
and has sufficient demand for performance
to justify the investment and design effort
involved. But as we shall see, the ability of
the GPU to also handle extremely intense
mathematical applications from seismology to astrophysics makes it attractive in a
much wider range of applications, many of
them also mobile and embedded, such as
robotic vision.
NVIDIA has actually developed
two pin-compatible versions of the Tegra
K1—a 32-bit and a 64-bit version, both
based on the ARM instruction set. The
64-bit version appears to be scheduled for
later release and is a dual Super Core CPU
based on the ARMv8 architecture. The 32bit version uses a 4-Plus-1 quad-core ARM
Cortex A15 CPU first used in the Tegra 4.
This arrangement enables power saving by
using variable symmetric multiprocessing
(vSMP) for performance-intensive tasks on
the quad-core complex and can also switch
to the (plus-1) “battery saver” A15 core for
lower-performance tasks. NVIDIA states
that it has optimized the 4-Plus-1 architecture to use half the power for the same CPU
performance as the earlier Tegra 4, and to
deliver almost 40% more performance at
the same power consumption (Figure 2).
In addition to the Kepler GPU and the
Cortex A15 complex, the Tegra K1 incorporates a dual ISP core that can handle up
to 1.2 Gigapixels to support cameras up to
100 Megapixels. In addition, there is a display engine that can simultaneously drive
a 4k local display as well as an external 4k
monitor via HDMI (Figure 3).
1000
.45x
800
of the Power
for the Same
Performance
600
400
200
0
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
CPU Power [mW]
FIGURE 2
Tegra K1 Delivers higher CPU performance and power efficiency.
High Mobile Performance:
Graphics and Otherwise
The driving force in the gaming industry, which has significant implications
for all other aspects of computer systems,
is the demand for an ever richer, realistic and interactive graphical experience.
Kepler-based GPUs from NVIDIA have
found their way into a number of advanced
gaming systems and also into high-end
workstations used for 3D visualization,
medical imaging and a host of scientific
applications. The demands of handling
textures, tessellation shading and providing anti-aliasing for smooth motion visuals have called for ever greater graphics
performance. In addition to that, there is
a growing need for computational power
to calculate the physics involved with motion and collisions (e.g., parts, rocks, etc.,
flying everywhere). All these and more
must be addressed by a GPU like that in
the Tegra K1.
Kepler GPUs range in size with the
largest, used in desktops and supercomputers, including up to 2880 single-precision floating-point cores and consume
power in the hundreds of watts. The Tegra
K1 GPU has 192 cores and consumes an
average of under two watts—that is for the
GPU, not the processor as a whole. The
Tegra K1 GPU has one graphics processing cluster (GPC) with the 192 cores, a
streaming multiprocessor (SMX) unit,
a memory interface and a 128 Kbyte L2
cache. The unified cache is important in
reducing off-chip memory accesses and
keeping power consumption down.
In many mobile and embedded systems, high-end interactive graphics is becoming increasingly important for such
things as gesture recognition, facial recognition and a host of automotive applications that affect safety. But at the same
time—as noted with physics calculations
for gaming—the ability to handle numerically complex and intensive computational tasks is equally important for such
things as visualizing plaque in arteries,
analyzing traffic flow or visualizing molecules to name a few.
The Tegra K1 is designed to support the latest graphics protocols such
as OpenGL 4.x and DirectX 11.x. But
the inherent floating-point performance
can also be harnessed for a vast number
of other tasks. NVIDIA has developed a
parallel computing platform called the
Compute Unified Device Architecture
(CUDA), a set of libraries, compiler direcRTC
RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE FEBRUARY
OCTOBER 2013
2014
11
EDITOR’S REPORT
4-Plus-1
Cortex A15
“r3”
Kepler GPU
2x ISP
2160p30
Video
Encoder
ARM7
USB
3.0
tives and extensions that allow programmers to use C and C++
to execute code in parallel on the GPU cores. Thus the GPU was
dubbed a general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU).
While CUDA was developed and is supported by NVIDIA, there
is another framework called OpenCL, which like the graphicsoriented OpenGL was developed by the non-profit Khronos
Group. NVIDIA has stated that it is willing to support OpenCL
1.2 for the Tegra K1 “based on customer needs.”
The availability of a processor such as the Tegra K1 in the
mobile space opens up possibilities for speech recognition, gesture recognition, computer vision and live video processing in
small, even handheld, devices. It will certainly not be the last.
The availability of compatible language platforms that can move
applications among different models, even different vendors, of
graphics and GPGPU engines seems destined to accelerate the
development of such devices and the expansion of high-performance embedded computing as well. And disguise it as the work
of space aliens if you will, the implications for human ingenuity
are immense.
Security
Engine
MIPI
DSI/CSI/ E, MMC
4.5
HSI
2160p30
Video
Decoder
HDMI
Dual
Display
UART
DDR3L
LPDDR2
LPDDR3
SPI
SDIO
I2S
I2C
Audio
NVIDIA
Santa Clara, CA
(408) 486-2000
www.nvidia.com
FIGURE 3
NVIDIA Tegra K1 Mobile Processor (32-bit version).
CMYK
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TECHNOLOGY
CORE
Moving Android into Embedded
Android for Embedded: The Good, the
Bad and the [insert adjective here]
As with embedded Linux before it, the complexity inherent in building and shipping and
monetizing Android-based designs is not stopping or even slowing adoption.
by Bill Weinberg, Black Duck Consulting
A
ndroid, Google’s mobile phone
platform, has now climbed to the
top of the embedded OS heap,
where it reigns together with other versions of Linux and FreeRTOS. The ascendency of this mobile operating system
may surprise embedded industry veterans—Google’s mobile OS boasts a large
resource footprint, it’s not particularly
well suited to serve real-time response
requirements, and its functions are very
display-centric.
Objections notwithstanding, Android’s popularity is large and still growing for applications as diverse as automotive (OEM and aftermarket IVI), wearable computing (wristwatches, head-up
helmet displays and smart glasses), robotics (for domestic and telepresence applications), multimedia (TVs and media
players), special-purpose tablets (most
notably, the Amazon Kindle) and even
near-earth satellites.
Device manufacturers are designing
in Android not because doing so is (merely)
stylish, but because the OS reflects the confluence of technology and market trends
building over the last five years:
• Increasing deployment of free and
open source software (FOSS) in intelligent devices
• U biquitous device connectivity, especially over TCP/IP networks
• Cost-effective availability of multi-
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RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
core silicon for most or all types of
intelligent devices
• Ever-declining costs from DRAM
and flash memory, with higher integrations of both in existing form
factors
• Similar (if less precipitous) downward trends in display and touchscreen prices
• Differentiation through total user
experience (UX) vs. core device
functionality (even previously
headless devices now often sport
attractive UIs)
To evaluate it as an embedded operating system is to examine if and how
Android really supports these trends, and
to call out a few other areas where the OS
may or may not fit the embedded applications bill including cost and licensing,
differentiation, the applications marketplace and security.
Cost and Licensing
Android, like other FOSS, is free in
the sense of free speech—the vast majority of the Android platform is released
under FOSS licenses that promote and
OEMs and engineers are highly motivated to
“make it work” and so will continue to develop
with and deploy Android.
• A burgeoning Android applications
marketplace that drives developer
fluency in Java and the Android
programming framework
• OEMs’ desire to leverage Google
Play, both for the million+ apps
offered there and as a distribution mechanism for OEMs’ own
device-specific applications
• “Business-friendly” Apache 2.0
licensing of the Android software
stack
preserve the free circulation of underlying
source code (see below). Acquiring that
code is also free as in free beer—Google
provides versions of the majority of the
platform in repositories.
Costs for Android come in the form of
multicore CPU, GPU, DRAM, Flash and
other resources required for an acceptable
user experience (UX). And, while costs
for these and other components continue
to fall, it’s still very possible to underspec
devices. Insufficient hardware provision-
TECHNOLOGY CORE
ing and accompanying UX degradation
is a key cause of staggeringly high return
rates for Android handsets, watches and
other gadgets—reportedly 30% or more
for some devices. The moral is that it’s
worth not skimping on a solid BoM for
your Android-based design. Other costs
are not a mystery to OEMs—integration,
customization, QA, etc., which are no different with Android than with Linux or
other embedded platforms.
The Android project presents developers and OEMs with a tempting and liberal licensing regime. The project licensing states,
The preferred license for the Android Open Source Project is the Apache
Software License: Version 2.0 (“Apache
2.0”), and the majority of the Android
software is licensed with Apache 2.0.
The Apache 2.0 license is indeed
OEM-friendly, in that many or most device manufacturers still consider low-level
hardware interfaces to be proprietary. Indeed, the Apache 2.0 license section “4.
Redistribution” states,
You may reproduce and distribute
copies of the Work or Derivative Works
thereof in any medium: with or without
modifications, and in Source or Object
form, provided that You meet the following conditions:
Which are redistribution of the license itself; notification of modification
in source files if/when redistributed; retention of copyright, patent, trademark
and attribution notices in source files and
a human-readable NOTICE of the above.
Yes, redistribution of (modified) source
code is completely optional.
However, Apache 2.0 is not the whole
licensing story. The Android Licensing
page goes on to say:
While the project will strive to adhere
to the preferred license, there may be exceptions that will be handled on a caseby-case basis. For example, the Linux
kernel patches are under the GPLv2 license with system exceptions.
In fact, the Android sources include
code distributed under at least 19 different
open source licenses, including those with
reciprocal and liberal requirements—from
GPL to LGPL to BSD to Public Domain,
and points between.
This diversity is not a bad thing per
se—it reflects the multiplicity of projects
upon which Android is built, including
the Linux kernel (GPLv2), Webkit (BSD/
LGPL), SQLite (Public Domain with
other licenses for tools/scripts) and others. However, the panoply of licenses does
defy the perception that Android platform
is “all Apache” with minimal compliance
requirements.
Given that OEMs frequently customize Android “from the bottom up,” adding modifications to the underlying Linux
kernel—starting with device drivers—Android is no more (or less) business friendly
than any other Linux-based platform with
comparable compliance requirements.
Differentiation
Adding an attractive UI to a hitherto
headless device or one with a ho-hum interface provides an alluring upgrade and
an opportunity to differentiate a product
in crowded markets. Android can certainly provide a path to differentiation, not
only with splashier visuals but by turning
a mono-function device into an “applications platform.” This re-invention is evident in devices that already boast attractive UIs—DTV and IVI in particular.
But Android is not the only “path
eye-candy,” and it’s certainly not the least
costly to implement—numerous proprietary and open source UI graphical and UI
frameworks (Qt, e17, PEG, FancyPants,
etc.) can deliver the same (or better) visual
oomph with lower-end graphics and application processors, usually without GPU.
The application platform aspect of
Android—the ability to run apps from
OEMs, channel partners and diverse third
parties—is quite attractive, but only if
those third parties are actually likely to
offer apps for your device or device-type.
Moreover, it’s important to ask if a device
use case truly accommodates third-party
apps. For example, would you want to play
games or risk malware on Android-based
medical or industrial devices?
Finally, while it is an advantage to
be the first OEM “on the block” to offer
an Android-based device in a given vertical market, competitors and copycats
will soon follow, at which point your device will be “just another Android.” Un-
less, of course, you can further customize and brand the Android look-and-feel.
Fortunately, Android is quite amenable
to reskinning (much more than Microsoft
Windows Embedded, Windows Phone
and family). Unfortunately, many OEMs
and app developers strive to customize
Android in ways that require use of Android native APIs (via Android NDK),
forking the platform and/or creating apps
that only run on select devices, thus limiting interoperability.
Application Marketplaces
Given that Android-based devices
have the potential to run third-party apps,
it behooves OEMs and developers to
consider exactly how they will leverage
Google Play and other Android apps markets, and/or will instance their own device
or brand-specific app stores as Amazon
has done. Some device types will benefit
greatly from a broad selection of existing
third-party apps—especially tablets and
DTVs, and of course mobile phones. Other
types will only benefit from app stores as
streamlined distribution channels, with
limited need or capability to run most of
the million+ apps on Google Play.
The real benefit of building your next
device with Android comes not from existing apps but instead from the global
community of Android apps and platform
developers. The lure of a hit app has created a worldwide gold rush, with hundreds
of thousands of developers being trained to
code for the platform, and ISVs and development houses building practices to deliver
ready-to-deploy and custom apps to OEMs
and enterprise alike.
But two bits of caution should temper
OEM enthusiasm over leveraging what is
truly a vibrant market. The first is that apps
developers are usually not platform developers—they can create software for your
device only once it is stable and marketready. Embedded systems programmers,
for Android as for Linux as for RTOSs, are
still in high demand and low supply. The
second is that just because you release an
Android-based device, developers will not
spontaneously craft apps tailored for it. You
still have to create and nurture a developer
community that reflects the particulars of
your device and vertical marketplace.
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RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE FEBRUARY
OCTOBER 2013
2014
15
TECHNOLOGY CORE
Would you want to play games or risk malware
on Android-based medical or industrial devices?
Security
Android suffers from a less-thanstellar reputation when it comes to security. In particular, the bazaar-like nature
of Google Play and other app stores has
resulted in wholesale distribution of malware itself and new vectors for it. Some
estimates for infected or spoofed Android
applications run as high as 90+%, with the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
attributing 79% of all mobile malware to
the Android platform.
Putting aside applications for the
moment, Android itself enjoys a fairly
robust security architecture. Android networking, network security, file systems
and user security model are shared with
Linux, whose architecture and development community boast highly effective
technical and procedural mechanisms to
prevent and respond to a range of exploits.
Moreover, Dalvik (Google’s cleanroom
Java VM for Android) has not suffered
from the same security woes as Oracle’s
original implementation.
For both the underlying Linux kernel
and for Dalvik, it is key to enable timely
updates to system software for Internetfacing Android-based systems, which is
to say, practically all of them.
The application’s front requires a
rather more draconian approach to secure the platform. While you may have
chosen Android for its openness, you
are best served security-wise by locking
down applications on your device, sourcing them through known secure channels, and/or using secondary solutions,
third-party containers and other isolation
mechanisms to wall off apps of uncertain
provenance.
In weighing the aspects of Android’s
suitability for today’s embedded designs,
there is clearly the good—cost, mostly
CUBE
The
™
liberal licensing, high functionality, ample applications and multiple apps channels, and a global and energetic developer
community. But there’s also the bad—the
need for heftier BoMs, Android fragmentation and the malware morass. But more
than good or bad, designing and deploying
with Android, like most things in life, is
complicated—the double-edged nature of
differentiation with the platform, finding
the right strategy for leveraging app stores
and developer communities, and the need
for comprehensive license compliance in
spite of the “Apache Inside” label on the
cute green box.
Black Duck Consulting
Burlington, VT
(781) 891-5100.
www.blackducksoftware.com
expansion
enclosures
Choose from a variety of options:
ExpressCard, PCIe,
or Thunderbolt
connectivity package
1, 2, 3, 5,
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Flexible and Versatile: Supports any combination of Flash drives, video, lm editing, GPU’s, and other PCIe I/O cards.
The CUBE, The mCUBE, and The nanoCUBE are trademarks of One Stop Systems, Inc. Maxexpansion.com and the Maxexpansion.com logo are trademarks of One Stop Systems, Inc.
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16
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17
TECHNOLOGY IN
CONTEXT
Flexible I/O for Stackable Modules
New Stackable I/O Modules Revamp the
World of Embedded SBCs
Expanding I/O for small form factor systems had produced a number of solutions. Introduced
here is a specification that is small, modular and processor/CPU board-independent.
by Robert A. Burckle, WinSystems
E
mbedded computers are ubiquitous,
finding their way into a never ending array of industrial, mil/aero,
communication and transportation applications. Originally single board computers (SBCs) were mainly available
with x86 processors, but now a wave of
ARM-based, single board computers has
become available. This is due in part to
the migration and influence of ARM technology from mobile and portable consumer applications plus the popularity of
the Linux and Android operating systems.
Furthermore, I/O expansion is now on
high-speed, processor-independent serial
buses rather than on older generation parallel bus technology associated with the
desktop PC.
Yet with highly integrated power and
I/O functions on an embedded SBC, additional I/O expansion is still often necessary. A designer may need more I/O options and flexibility either because an SBC
does not exactly meet the specification or
there is a need for more options later in a
project’s life due to engineering or marketing uncertainties. A planned solution
strategy is needed to prevent engineers
from painting themselves into a corner.
Although USB and Ethernet ports work
well for I/O expansion in commercial applications, often this is overkill or not an
appropriate interface solution for industrial, medical, security and other rugged
environments.
18
OCTOBER 2013
FEBRUARY
2014 RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
FIGURE 1
A 50 x 72 mm IO60 card is smaller than a standard business card.
With an SBC, I/O is brought off the
board through a set of connectors, and
cables that are attached directly to them.
In some cases these connectors are “PCstyle” allowing a LAN cable, printer,
keyboard and USB device(s) to connect
directly to the board. In other cases these
connectors are pin-headers, requiring a
transition cable with another connector
at the end that mounts to an enclosure
bulkhead, or a pin-header that connects
to another PCB. Sometimes there is a
single card consumer mezzanine con-
nector such as PCI Express MiniCard
(or Mini PCIe card) for Wi-Fi. If an SBC
needs I/O expansion beyond what is supported on board, then expansion using offthe-shelf or custom designed I/O boards
is required. Otherwise the selection of a
different SBC is required, which is timeconsuming coupled with the possibility
that the desired combination of features
and functions are not even available from
a different standard product.
Since small form factor SBCs are not
mounted in card racks, I/O modules are
TECHNOLOGY CORE
Expansion Bus Considerations
So, what is the solution? Both SBCs
and COM products coexist peacefully in a
growing off-the-shelf board market where
OEM design expertise, design time frames
and design and product costs drive solutions either to the COM side or the SBC
side. Yet, for either approach, a designer
needs small, reliable, proven, easy-to-use,
cost-effective, stackable and processor-independent I/O modules to support a variety of specialty application interfaces that
are not on the SBC or COM carrier board.
Over the years, an ecosystem of I/O board
companies has emerged with expertise in
PCIe x1
IO60 Interface Connector
stacked on the main board (baseboard)
to provide expansion. They can be a onecard mezzanine or multiple cards stacked
“piggy back” on top of each other. MiniPCIe is an example of a popular mezzanine
expansion for I/O cards using PCIe and/or
USB. PC/104 and its subsequent updated
technology configurations are popular for
multiple board stacking configurations;
however traditionally, it is tied to the x86
signals. What is lacking is a more universal, stacking I/O module that is processor
independent.
Another solution similar to an SBC
is to use a Computer-on-Module (COM).
A COM is a system module processor
“component” that must be plugged into
a baseboard or “carrier card” to make a
two-board system equivalent in power and
functionality to an SBC. With a COM approach, I/O is brought to a baseboard that
is developed by the OEM or by a thirdparty design house commissioned by the
OEM. This custom baseboard is a size
that best fits the application and its enclosure or packaging requirements. Using a
COM card is great for applications where
the creation of a custom carrier card is not
considered a handicap due to cost or time
constraints. However, for many low- and
medium-volume applications, SBCs are
the better choice since they mitigate NRE
costs and/or design resources, risk and
time-to-market. Regardless of whether
a designer uses an SBC or a COM/carrier board approach, both still need I/O
expansion flexibility to deal with project changes, feature-creep and other unknown issues during the life cycle of a
product.
4
SPI/µ Wire
SMBus/I2C
UART
PWM and Timer
8
GPIO
+5, +3.3V
FIGURE 2
IO60 Signals.
certain I/O and device drivers that can
save time-to-market compared to OEMs
re-inventing the wheel themselves.
However, as design engineers survey
the realm of real-world expansion boards
for single board computers, they quickly
discover that there is no uniform standard
in the ARM market. Individual manufacturers may offer company-specific I/O, but
nothing that is designed to be an industry
standard. The most mature market in the
x86-centric universe is PC/104 technology, but a design goal would be to find I/O
expansion modules that would support
both processor architectures as well as be
chipset independent.
Introduction to IO60
IO60 is a small, self-stacking I/O
module using a 60-pin connector for use
in industrial embedded applications. Similar in concept to PC/104 or Pico-I/O, its
goal is to provide a processor-independent, compact, stackable, I/O expansion
solution independent of the CPU board’s
form factor. Unifying expansion interfaces across many single board computer
and COM carrier form factors has the
potential to consolidate I/O ecosystems,
which could improve economies of scale
for off-the-shelf I/O Also, it would offer
simplicity for users to design and build
their own boards unique to their application requirements. Its flexible and compact
size is small enough to meet a very broad
range of deeply embedded application requirements. This smaller I/O form factor
can enable a host of new space-conscious
mobile OEM equipment for future new
and growing remote computer monitoring
and control markets.
The size of an IO60 module is defined as 50 x 72 mm. Two holes are defined for threaded spacers that are used
to provide accurate board separation and
rigidity. The size is small enough to work
with a 72 x 100 mm Pico-ITX board and
larger standard formats such as EPIC, 3.5in and EBX boards or even custom sizes
as well. An engineer can therefore take
advantage of the denser electronics available for the ever-shrinking size of processor modules in the embedded-computer
marketplace. This reduces cost and bulk
while increasing mounting and packaging
options for small form factor embedded
systems. With all of these features, IO60expandable systems enable small, rugged
and reliable computer systems that are
powerful, easy to use, cost-effective and
scalable (Figure 1).
One of the design criteria of IO60 is
to keep it relatively simple to target midrange monitoring and control applications. Another reason focuses on specialty
interfaces not supported by USB, Ethernet and other standard ports that are commonly implemented on SBCs and COM
baseboards. Note that PWM and Timer
inputs, general purpose I/O (GPIO) and
UART signals were added to interface to
direct control circuits without the complexity of bus bridges or FPGAs hanging
off of PC-focused buses. Currently IO60
supports the following I/O connectivity
technologies:
• One PCI Express x1 channel
• Four SPI/uWire channels
• SMbus/I²C bus
• PWM and Timer Inputs
• Eight GPIO
• One 4-wire UART channel
IO60 modules each use one or more
of the buses in Figure 2 and pass unused
resources further up the I/O stack. Also,
there is +5V and +3.3V power plus six undefined pins on the connector for future
expansion.
Connector Technology
A unique feature of IO60 is a 60-pin,
hermaphroditic, self-mating, low-cost
RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
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19
TECHNOLOGY CORE
FIGURE 3
Both the 3.5-in ARM SBC and 3.5inch COMe Type 6 carrier board
with Intel Atom with IO60 expansion.
stacking connector suitable for rugged
conditions. The interconnect system is polarized and fully shrouded when mated.
The Samtec LSEM Series board-to-board
connector has a double row of thirty goldplated contacts per row set on a 0.8 mm
pitch. The connector is 6 mm high and capable of supporting PCIe speeds up to 9.5
Gbyte/s to allow high-speed and medium
to low-speed serial buses to be mixed on
the same connector.
Compact Devices for IoT Applications
Integrated security, connectivity and manageability
Advantech’s wide product portfolio varies from COM Express
modules, SBC to complete systems in order to meet customers’
needs to build an intelligent system in the IoT (Internet of Things)
market. Our products have increased connectivity and
manageability as well as provide device security and rich network
options. With our solid product revision control and longevity
commitment, customers can now focus on their smart IoT
applications with minimal system integration effort.
Advantech’s UTX-3115 is integrated with Intel’s Intelligent
Systems Framework (ISF) and Wind River’s Intelligent Device
Platform (IDP) while the UBC-200 with Freescale i.mx6 offers a
different option from the PC architecture.
Fanless Compact Box PC
3.5” MI/O-Compact SBC
UTX-3115
MIO-5251
• The IoT Gateway
• Intel ISF and IDP bundled
• -20~60C rugged design
• Intel® Atom™ E3800 Family/Celeron® SoC
• MIO Extension Bus for more I/Os
• 5.75" x 4"; 0 to 60°C (operation)
RISC Compact Box PC
COM Express® Mini Module
UBC-200
• Freescale i.mx6 IoT solution
• Support WIFI or 3G module
• -20~70C rugged design
20
SOM-7567
®
• Intel Atom™ E3800 Family/Celeron® SoC
• Onboard 4GB memory; flash up to 64GB(MLC)
• 3.3” x 2.17”; 0 to 60°C (operation)
13 Whatney
Irvine, CA 92618
Toll Free: 800-866-6008
Fax: 949-420-2501
If more than one IO60 board is required, then a stack is assembled in one direction only. The most common direction
is “up” (above) from the processor board
(SBC), which is defined here as the bottom board. If a processor board requires
IO60 module(s) to stack opposite from the
major components, placement of the IO60
connector must be reoriented respective
to the “bottom” side of the board. This ensures that standard IO60 expansion modules stack as normal, just opposite to that
of the major components on the processor
board. An example of this requirement is
a COM Express Type 6 carrier with its
Intel processor mounted on the bottom to
use conductive cooling for the module.
To show a real-world example, WinSystems offers both a high-performance
ARM-based SBC and COM Express Type
6 carrier board with IO60 expansion. The
ARM board hosts a single, dual or quad
core processor plus a combination of PCtype and box headers for I/O. The COM
carrier board supports the latest Intel
Atom “Bay Trail” system-on-chip (SoC)
and similar processors with a similar
I/O complement. Both support IO60 expansion with modules for digital, serial
and GPS expansion to meet applicationspecific requirements. These boards are
rugged and capable of withstanding shock
and vibration plus extended temperature
operation (Figure 3).
IO60 is processor agnostic. It is similar in concept to PC/104 but updated in its
technology of a new, stackable, I/O expansion standard that supports the serial bus
technology and newer popular operating
systems like Linux and Android. The advantage of IO60 is the simplicity of design
and interface options that allow OEMs to
quickly design with relatively low technology interfaces up to high-speed PCIe.
Plus, IO60 is smaller in size yet rugged
for harsh and demanding environments.
More details plus a specification is available free of charge from WinSystems for
any company wanting more information.
WinSystems
Arlington, TX
(817) 274-7553
www.winsystems.com
Industrial ARM® Single Board Computers
High-Performance Graphics
with Industrial I/O and Expansion
-40° to +85°C Operating Temperature
Designed for demanding applications and longterm availability, WinSystems’ SBC35-C398
single board computers feature Freescale i.MX 6
industrial application processors with
options for expansion and customization.
Features
• ARM Cortex™-A9 Processors;
Quad, Dual, or Single Core
• Multiple Graphics Interfaces
• Wide Range DC or PoE Power Input
• Gigabit Ethernet with IEEE-1588™
• USB 2.0 Ports and USB On-The-Go
• Dual FlexCAN Ports
• Multiple Storage Options
• Mini-PCIe and IO60 Expansion
• Linux and Android™ Supported
Call 817-274-7553
Ask about our product evaluation program.
Learn more at
www.WinSystems.com/ARMR
715 Stadium Drive • Arlington, Texas 76011
Phone 817-274-7553 • FAX 817-548-1358
E-mail [email protected]
WinSystems® is a registered trademark of WinSystems, Inc.
Freescale and the Freescale logo are trademarks of Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.,
Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Oﬀ.
Android is a trademark of Google Inc. The Android robot is reproduced from work
created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the
Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.
Scan this tag to
read more about
our ARM SBCs.
TECHNOLOGY
CONNECTED
Embedded Security for the Internet of Things
Providing a Built-In Foundation for
Internet Security
Protecting the Internet of Things from attacks on critical data and designs requires that
modern embedded systems be effortlessly and inexpensively secured with a combination
of flexible, intelligent and reactive countermeasures all built on a hardware root-of-trust.
by Michael Mehlberg, Microsemi
T
he economic growth of the Internet
of Things is unlike any other in recorded history. With estimates of
over 200 billion connected devices by
2020, Internet-connected devices are influencing nearly every facet of modern
life. The Internet of Things is impacting
a multitude of markets from robotics to
point of sale systems to mobile computing
devices to 3D printing. Embedded systems
produced in these markets are helping to
inform us, make autonomous decisions on
our behalf, communicate with business
associates and even manage our finances.
These embedded systems have been
growing in complexity to support the features and interconnectedness end-users
are demanding. Unfortunately, if not addressed during design, this complexity
can lead to severe security vulnerabilities. Compromise of one or more of these
devices has led to devastating effects for
governments, corporations and consumers. As a case in point, the recent attack
on a point of sale (POS) terminal used by
Target shoppers during the busy holiday
shopping season has led to the compromise of over 40 million personal credit
cards and associated personal information. It is important to note that these
attacks were not performed on servers
in some remote centralized data center.
22
FIGURE 1
Design example of a smart energy meter and control system.
Rather, the attack vector was the POS terminals in stores—embedded system endpoints in the network.
In the past, most embedded systems
were “walled off” from remote cyber attacks and protected within organizations
against physical attacks. In the Internet of
Things, these embedded systems are distributed to consumers and connected to
networks making both remote and physical attacks much more likely. Many of
these systems will not stand against either
form of attack; they are simply not secure.
Increased Complexity, Stagnant
Security
Unlike a general purpose computing
platform such as a PC, laptop, or tablet,
an embedded system is typically built for
a single purpose and serves a dedicated
function within a larger system. Smart
meters, watches and commercial flight
systems are all examples of modern embedded systems. In the past, embedded
systems have been stand-alone, walled
off from the Internet and without the capabilities for intra-device communication.
Over the years, these embedded systems
have increased in sophistication with
built-in network connections becoming
more prevalent. Many embedded development boards such as the popular Arduino
Uno can be purchased for less than $100
and come standard with a microprocessor,
memory, flash storage and Ethernet. Unfortunately, though the connectedness and
sophistication of these systems is increasing, their security is not.
Recently, security discussions have
revolved largely around Internet-based
“cyber attacks.” While the scale of such attacks makes for great publicity, the Internet of Things is changing the landscape of
embedded systems attacks, making physical attacks on endpoints in order to compromise other systems and critical data or
designs not only possible, but cheaper and
more effective. No longer does an attacker
need to penetrate a heavily fortified server
buried in a data center. The data and designs they are after are now in their hands.
In May 2010, the FBI distributed an
intelligence alert regarding widespread
power theft discovered by an electric utility company in Puerto Rico. Its findings
were eye-opening, though not surprising.
According to the report, consumers and
corporations were paying former utility
company employees between $300 and
$3000 to reprogram smart meters, saving
up to 75% on their utility bills.
Smart meters, unlike traditional mechanical electric meters, are embedded
systems with communication capabilities
aimed at allowing utility companies to
configure the meters and administer immediate price changes remotely (Figure
1). With physical proximity (direct physical access is not necessary) to the smart
meter, publicly available tools and less
than $500 in equipment, smart meters
were being programmed to distribute free
power, potentially causing up to $400 million in losses annually.
Security vs. Time-to-Market
Despite these examples and the widespread distribution of insecure systems in
FIGURE 2
Design example of a smart energy meter and control system implementation
with added security features.
the market, embedded system vulnerabilities do not originate from a lack of understanding on how to secure such systems. If
desired, a deep reserve of security knowledge and resources could be called upon
to mitigate many security weaknesses.
Rather, embedded system vulnerabilities
can often be traced to product competitiveness, specifically with regard to cost
and time-to-market.
Consumers are demanding lower
power products with ever increasing feature sets at a faster pace than ever before.
Mobile computing devices such as Apple’s
iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy phones
have seen significant enhancements every
12 and 6 months respectively. Arguably,
these devices are leading the market in
terms of the security they have implemented within. However, companies with
fewer resources cannot move at a slower
pace and hope to remain competitive.
Skimping on features, extending development schedules, or increasing resources
is simply not an option. As such, security
tends to be the forgotten or ignored area
when deciding which features to produce
and on what timeline. The “can’t happen
to me” or “we’ll fix it if it becomes a problem” mindset takes hold. After all, it’s always easier to justify buying pain medication over health insurance.
It is with this in mind that we get
to the heart of the matter. Embedded
systems, especially those vulnerable to
physical attacks or those connected to the
Internet, must contain built-in security,
preferably designed in from conception
(Figure 2). This security must be based
on a set of reasonable, implementable
and cost-effective requirements. Embedded systems security is no easy task, but
it must become so, lest it be forgotten
alongside the valuable features consumers are demanding. Not only must the
security of embedded systems require
countermeasures against modern attacks,
but it must also be implemented quickly
and effortlessly with minimal cost. To accomplish the objectives of modern attack
countermeasures implemented quickly
and cost effectively requires two major requirements: 1) Embedded system security
must be based on a root-of-trust built-in
hardware and 2) Embedded systems must
be easily and cost-effectively configured
to meet their own unique security needs
with what must be a layered, flexible security design.
Hardware Root-of-trust
Secure embedded systems must start
with a hardware root-of-trust. A hardware root-of-trust can force an attacker
to use expensive and inaccessible reverse
engineering tools. More so—unlike software that can be copied, modified, lost
and brought back to life—hardware can
destroy critical portions of itself causing
a would-be attacker permanent setbacks.
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Hardware Root-of-Trust
e.g., SmartFusion2
Secure SoC FPGA
JTAG
Configuration
and Test
Slave
Challenge(s)
Master
OSC
Main MPU
Response(s)
Cortex-M3
SPI
SPI Flash
Target Processor
Phase 0 Code
Phase 1-4 Code
TRNG
SPI
PCIe
Slave
eSRAM
Main MPU Phase 0 Boot Code
0. Trusted Boot Code
Main MPU NVM
1. BIOS
2. OS Loader
3. OS
4. Application Code
eNVM
Master
CPU
PUF
FPGA
USB
Possible
Low-Cost
PCB Tamper
Detection
Mesh
Power Enables
SRAM
Etc.
RESET
JTAG
POL
DDR
POL
Power to Board
Tight integration with other
board functions such as
power management make
bypassing the HW root-oftrust more difficult
Code loaded into
on-chip SRAM is
validated before
branching to it
JTAG or other interfaces
may provide alternate paths
to validate Phase 0 code
wasn’t tampered with
FIGURE 3
Microsemi SmartFusion2 FPGA root-of-trust.
Without trust rooted in hardware, bending
a device to an attacker’s will is simply an
exercise in patience, skills and time—all
easily surmountable challenges.
One example of a hardware root-oftrust is Microsemi Corporation’s SmartFusion2 field programmable gate array
(FPGA) shown in Figure 3. Many of the
security features necessary to establish
trust in an embedded system are built directly into the silicon of this FPGA. These
include public and private-key cryptography for encrypting critical data and authenticating other parts of the system, resilience
against side channel attacks such as differential power analysis (DPA), physically unclonable functions (PUF) for uniquely fingerprinting the part to prevent counterfeiting, and anti-tamper meshes protecting the
device against physical attacks. It is with
these security measures that a root-of-trust
can be established within an embedded
system allowing the user to extend security
throughout their design.
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Programmable Security Layers
Having the most secure hardware is
not the only piece of the system security
puzzle. One key disadvantage of hardware is that, once deployed, it cannot be
modified. Furthermore, it is neither schedule- nor cost-effective to change. Finally,
though a hardware-only security solution
for one particular system may be highly
effective, it is unlikely to be utilized the
same way in a different system. Since
each embedded system will have unique
vulnerabilities and threats, the security of
that system must be configured uniquely
to it. Therefore, flexibility in design is
paramount to ensuring the security needs
of a particular embedded system is met.
Flexing this design without incurring the
enormous cost of a hardware modification
is ideal. In short, the balance of a secure
system must lie in the interaction between
appropriate hardware security penalties
and unique programmable security configurations.
As an extension to the hardware security provided in the Microsemi SmartFusion2 FPGA, a user-configurable, programmable security IP core called EnforcIT Security Monitor can be installed
at design time to add the flexibility required (Figure 4). The EnforcIT Security
Monitor is a single, low-resource soft IP
block capable of monitoring and responding to an assortment of internal security
flags and system conditions. Taking full
advantage of the tamper detectors and responses built into the FPGA silicon, it can
be configured to report threats, act autonomously or some combination of the two
allowing the user to find the right balance
between security, performance and safety.
These configurable security features,
once established in hardware, can be customized quickly and easily by the designer
into a secure solution that both defends
and reacts to attacks. The importance of
reactions in the context of a secure system cannot be understated. Defensive
JTAG Monitor
EnforcIT
Security
Monitor
Clock Monitor
Heartbeat
(IP Block)
Watchdog
Hardware Alarms
User Logic
Hardware Alarms
ALARM_PRESENCE
Hardware Actions
ALARM_ACTION
User Logic
SmartFusion2/IGLOO2 Flash Fabric
protect their own business logic from reverse engineering while protecting their
consumers from losing sensitive and valuable data. The advanced hardware security found in Microsemi FPGAs such as
the SmartFusion2, combined with the
simple configuration, flexibility and reactive response capabilities found in countermeasure logic such as EnforcIT Security Monitor, allow embedded system
designers to build security into their next
generation designs and provide for a safer,
more secure Internet of Things.
Microsemi
Aliso Viejo, CA
(800) 713-4113
www.microsemi.com
FIGURE 4
Microsemi EnforcIT Security Monitor programmable security IP block.
measures act only as a speed bump to an
attacker, making it more difficult than it
would normally be to exercise an attack.
Reactions are important to setting an attacker back in their endeavors.
As an example, preventing against
differential power analysis attacks on
key material stored in the SmartFusion2
FPGA will delay an attacker from recovering the keys. Turning that same SmartFusion2 FPGA into a brick through its
zeroization feature upon detection of such
an attack spells game over.
With the massive growth in interconnected embedded systems, a hardware
root-of-trust with flexible layers of security logic and active countermeasures like
zeroization is required to protect critical
data and design from compromise. The
ability to quickly and inexpensively configure a hardware root-of-trust, uniquely
locking critical designs and data to address system-specific security requirements offers advantages. Embedded system designers are more likely to secure
their embedded systems against malicious
attackers, prevent the creation of unauthorized cloned devices, and ultimately
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25
Rugged Boards & Solutions
We know PCIe/104.
And we do it best.
At RTD, designing and manufacturing
rugged, top-quality boards and system
solutions is our passion. As a founder of
the PC/104 Consortium back in 1992, we
moved desktop computing to the embedded world.
Over the years, we've provided the leadership and support that brought the latest signaling and I/O technologies to
the PC/104 form factor. Most recently,
we've championed the latest specifications based on stackable PCI Express:
PCIe/104 and PCI/104-Express.
With our focused vision, we have developed an entire suite of compatible boards
and systems that serve the defense, aerospace, maritime, ground, industrial and
research arenas. But don't just think about
boards and systems. Think solutions.
That is what we provide: high-quality,
cutting-edge, concept-to-deployment, rugged, embedded solutions.
Whether you need a single board, a stack
of modules, or a fully enclosed system,
RTD has a solution for you. Keep in mind
that as an RTD customer, you're not just
working with a selection of proven, quality
electronics; you're benefitting from an entire team of dedicated engineers and manufacturing personnel driven by excellence
and bolstered by a 28-year track record of
success in the embedded industry.
If you need proven COTS-Plus solutions,
give us a call. Or leverage RTD's innovative product line to design your own embedded system that is reliable, flexible, expandable, and serviceable in the field for
the long run. Contact us and let us show
you what we do best.
Copyright © 2014 RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective companies. RTD is AS9100 and ISO9001 Certified, and a GSA Contract Holder.
www.rtd.com • [email protected]
AS9
CE
01
90
0 - ISO
10
R TIFIE D
RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc.
TECHNOLOGY IN
SYSTEMS
Intelligent Sensors in Intelligent Applications
Building Power-Efficient, ContextAware Mobile Systems
The availability of a wide-range of low-cost, small-footprint sensors promises to bring a rich
variety of exciting new context-aware applications to mobile systems across a wide range
of medical, industrial, scientific and commercial applications.
28
OCTOBER 2013
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oc
pl
on
ica
tro
tio
cr
Mi
FIGURE 1
Relative power consumption
of three different sensor hub
implementations.
Don’t be surprised if smartphones in the
very near future feature heart monitors
and perspiration detectors to track user
health, excitement level and mood.
Fast and Power Efficient
To make effective use of all this sensor data and optimize decision-making,
however, today’s mobile systems must
integrate and analyze multiple streams
of data as quickly as possible. The faster
data is collected from the sensors and
processed into usable information, the
more accurate the system’s response will
be to current environmental conditions.
Moreover, since these “context-aware”
sensor-based subsystems are always on,
M
lle
r
ns
0.1
0L
1
E4
10
they present a potentially
significant drain on system
power. Accordingly, these
tasks must be performed as
efficiently as possible from
a system power perspective.
Mobile system architects can employ any of
three design strategies to
address this problem. They
can use their system’s core
applications processor to
manage sensor data. They
can offload the task to a discrete microcontroller (MCU) to manage the task. Or
they can build an integrated sensor hub
using an ultra-low-density (ULD) field
programmable gate array (FPGA) to support the application processor in the same
way.
Each approach offers its own benefits
and liabilities. Designers interfacing each
sensor directly to the application processor can take advantage of a proven architecture that leverages existing system
resources. But as the number of sensors
continues to escalate, designers will inevitably run into limited GPIO resources.
Over the long run that restriction may
threaten the designer’s ability to implement important new functions. At the
same time the interface limitations inherent in any fixed-silicon MCU restrict
design flexibility. Each sensor brings specific interface requirements. Some feature
iC
100
Ap
T
ake a quick look at the latest generation of smartphones from leading
manufacturers and one conclusion
quickly becomes apparent. Designers are
continuing to add new levels of intelligence in highly creative ways.
Two factors are driving current innovation. One is the rising proliferation of
low-cost sensors. Significant advances by
MEMS manufacturers are helping drive
down sensor cost and footprint. The second is the smartphone designers’ ability to
develop new “context-aware” subsystems
that allow mobile devices to make advanced, task-enhancing decisions without
prompting the user. This revolution arguably began when leading cell phone makers began embedding proximity sensors
to extend battery life and accelerometers,
gyros and magnetometers to support location-based services. But today’s sensorbased context-aware subsystems go well
beyond those capabilities and mimic in
many aspects how humans analyze situational context.
For example, precision image sensors
and ambient light sensors boost image resolution and display readability as environmental conditions change. Chemical analyzers simulate human smell awareness.
Pressure, temperature, chemical and infrared sensors can measure a smartphone
user’s health and help evaluate safety
risks. And more sensor-based, “contextaware” applications are clearly coming.
Always On Power Adder (mW)
by Joy Wrigley, Lattice Semiconductor
TECH IN SYSTEMS
Processor versus ULD FPGA
Power Comparison: The
Pedometer Test Case
IR Remote
2mm x 2mm
RGB LED Driver
2.5mm x 2.5mm
ICE40LP
1.48mm
1.40mm
IR Remote, Barcode Emulator,
LED Driver, Custom Algorithms
Total Area 10.25mm2
Total Area 2mm2
FIGURE 2
Comparing the footprint requirements of a discrete vs. a programmable IR
subsystem.
industry standard interfaces; others employ proprietary solutions. Meeting future
sensor interface needs in a single application processor or MCU can increase design complexity and sometimes extend the
product development cycle.
Perhaps most importantly, the effects
of a multi-sensor architecture on a typical interrupt-driven application processor
pose severe new power demands, particularly given the always-on nature of today’s
context-aware sensor subsystems. The
continuous collection of time-sensitive
data from a growing number of sensors
forces the application processor to remain
operational longer and places additional
demands on a mobile system’s already
tight power budget.
In many of these emerging, alwayson, context-aware applications, a better
option lies in using an ultra-low-density
(ULD) FPGA specifically optimized for
mobile applications. Unlike traditional
large, expensive FPGAs, this new class
of device comes in low gate-count densities housed in highly compact CSP-class
packaging. Yet they offer the logic resources needed to support sensor management and pre-processing functions and
can be manufactured in high volume to
take advantage of economies of scale.
This design approach is particularly
attractive in context-aware applications,
which by definition must be always on,
because it allows system designers to
limit the runtime of the relatively powerhungry interrupt-driven applications processor. With a ULD FPGA, designers can
collect information from multiple sensors
in parallel and in real time at a significantly lower clock rate than a traditional
application processor or MCU. Consuming less than 1 mW, these ICs dramatically
reduce power consumption compared to
traditional approaches while collecting
data from each sensor at near-zero latency
for more accurate system response to
changing environmental conditions. This
further allows the application processor
to stay in sleep mode longer or, if necessary, be periodically active in the lower
power states. This approach of offloading
time-critical sensor functions to the ULD
FPGA improves both the overall power
consumption as well as sensor system accuracy (Figure 1).
Moreover, as the number of sensors
in mobile systems continues to grow, the
footprint advantages of a ULD, FPGAbased solution prove increasingly attractive. The IR subsystem in Figure 2 offers
an excellent case in point. The discrete
solution on the left combines a 2 mm x 2
mm IR remote IC with a RGB LED driver
that measures 2.5 mm x 2.5 mm. The total
area of the solution occupies 10.25 mm2.
As an alternative, designers can implement the same subsystem in an ultra-lowdensity iCE40LP FPGA that measures
1.40 mm x 1.48 mm or about 2 mm2. The
programmable solution reduces the board
footprint by approximately 80 percent,
while offering more functionality by combining an IR remote block, barcode emulator, LED driver and custom algorithms.
To measure and quantify these differences, engineers at Lattice Semiconductor recently constructed a pedometer
sensor management demo system using
an iCE40LM 4K ULD FPGA. The demo
brought together Qualcomm’s Snapdragon evaluation board and SDK with a
smartphone display. To represent a multisensor, battery-powered mobile application, the demo added a sensor daughtercard developed by Lattice Semiconductor.
Figure 3 shows the compact, highly
integrated daughter card. Near the center
of the board lies the iCE40LM 4K ULD
FPGA housed in a small 25WLCSP package. The FPGA combines 4K gates of
logic with a wide variety of embedded IP
in the form of hard silicon blocks including two SPI master/slaves, two I2C master/
slaves, a PLL, a low-power strobe generator that operates in the kHz range and a
high-frequency strobe generator that runs
in the MHz range. It also features RGB/
LED drivers. As the photo shows, the
compact daughtercard features a wide
range of sensors including humidity,
temperature, Hall Effect, ambient light,
proximity, barometer, accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and IR transmitter and
receiver.
To simplify the demonstration of the
iCE40LM’s sensor management capabilities, Lattice engineers chose a pedometer
application that uses a single sensor, an
LSM330 DLC accelerometer, to measure
movement. As Figure 4 indicates, the hard
IP blocks embedded in the FPGA dramatically simplified system design. The
LSM330 DLC accelerometer interfaced to
the iCE40LM through one of the FPGA’s
embedded I2C master blocks. The FPGA
also housed sensor-specific configuration
logic and the step detect function logic as
well the application processor’s interrupt
logic. In this application these circuits dictate how often or in how many steps the
FPGA wakes up the application processor
and loads information. The FPGA interfaced to the application processor through
one of its two embedded, fixed-silicon SPI
master/slave interfaces.
Figure 5 shows the system set up. The
green meter on the left, measuring amps,
RTC
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2014
29
TECH IN SYSTEMS
Humidity & Temperature
Hall Effect
Ambient Light
IR Rx
Proximity
IR Tx
Barometer
Accelerometer
Gyroscope
iCE40LM4K-25WLCSP
FIGURE 3
As part of the demo system, this highly integrated daughter card combines up
to ten sensors with an iCE40LM 4K ULD FPGA
Of course context-aware sensor applications are, by their nature, always on.
So with 0 steps on the pedometer, the red
meter measured the iCE40LM sensor
manager at 732 µA while the applications
processor was in sleep mode.
To mimic walking with the pedometer,
engineers swung the sensor daughtercard
back and forth. Data was collected by the
iCE40LM FPGA from the accelerometer
through its I2C port where it was processed
in the FPGA’s sensor-specific control. As
part of this process, sensor management
and pre-processing functions analyzed the
bitstream to evaluate how to parse the data
and translate the acquired sensor data into
steps. Finally the information was loaded
into the accelerometer’s FIFO in preparation for the reawakening of the application
processor and display. During this process
the highest reading recorded on the red me-
30
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2014 RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
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ULD FPGA versus Microcontroller
Next, the engineering team compared
the performance and power characteristics
of a discrete MCU sensor management
system with the ULD FPGA-based alternative. The team began by implementing
a 16-bit RISC-based MCU architecture
widely used in mobile applications in
the iCE40LM 4K FPGA. As a common
benchmark, both the 16-bit MCU and the
iCE40LM 4K FPGA were tested during
I2C polling—a common function for an
“always-on” sensor hub. Both devices were
tested using the minimum logic necessary
PWR
SPI
1.8V
SPI Slave
(Hard IP)
Sensor
Configure
SPI Master
IAPQ8060 = 720 mA – 520 mA = 200 mA
PAPQ8060 = 200 mA * 0.8V = 0.160 W
ter measuring the FPGA power draw was
737 µA.
At this point engineers powered the
system up and initiated the application processor and system screen by pressing the
wake-up interrupt. As system current increased, the applications processor turned
on and queried the FIFO in the iCE40LM
to ask for the number of steps recorded
by the accelerometer. The data was transferred and the application processor calculated distance traveled, calories consumed
and displayed the results on the system
screen (Figure 6).
A quick review of the pedometer demo
results illustrates the significant power
savings a ULD FPGA-based sensor management subsystem can offer. During the
walking demo the iCE40LM consumed
APQ 8060A
tracked current drain for the entire system.
With the display on and the applications
processor awake, the meter measured 720
mA. Next, engineers put the applications
processor to sleep with the system display
showing 0 steps on the pedometer. System
current dropped to 520 mA while system
power was measured at 160 mW.
at its peak 0.737 mA * 1.2V or 0.88 mW
total. That represents approximately 180
times less power than the application processor would have consumed (160 mW) to
perform the same task. Given the alwayson nature of context-aware sensor applications, the use of a ULD FPGA-based
sensor management system that consumes
less than 1 mW, particularly when spread
across multiple sensor applications, would
clearly extend mobile system battery life.
Moreover, the iCE40LM-based sensor
management system, occupying a meager
1.7 mm x 1.7 mm footprint, offers designers highly attractive board space savings
compared to alternative design options. In
addition, its ability to collect sensor data
in real time at near-zero latency, unlike an
interrupt-driven application or microprocessor, improves data integrity and system
fidelity. Finally, the use of a programmable solution that allows the designer to
reconfigure I/Os and protocols, as well as
optimize the size, configuration and capabilities of each sensor’s FIFO, register and
arbiter, offers a level of design flexibility
that other design approaches cannot match.
12C Master
(Hard IP)
Intr
CLK
AP Interrupt
Logic
Step
Detect
iCE40LM 4K
FIGURE 4
Pedometer application using an iCE40LM ULD FPGA.
12C
LSM330 DLC
(Accelerometer)
TECH IN SYSTEMS
FIGURE 5
System setup for pedometer
demonstration.
to configure and read the accelerometer at
20 Hz. During the I2C polling function, the
iCE40LM 4K consumed 0.538 mW. Power
dropped even further to just 418 µW while
performing the pedometer application.
Toggling between active and low power
mode during I2C polling, the MCU solution dissipated approximately 3X as much
power as the iCE40LM.
The test also produced some insight
into the ability of each solution to detect
changes in sensor data. The iCE40LM4K-
based solution running at a slow 6 MHz
with the I2C interface running at 400 kHz
was able to collect 50 samples/s from the
accelerometer. The 16-bit MCU running
at a faster 8 MHz with the I2C interface
running at 110 kHz could only collect 25
samples/s or half the data. The ability of
the iCE40KM4K solution to operate with
far less latency gives the system a better
ability to detect changes in the sensor and
react to them more quickly. Ultimately that
near real-time response translates into a
better user experience.
As mobile system designers implement these new capabilities, one of the primary challenges they will face is how to
most efficiently process the data collected
by these sensors. Leveraging a low-power
silicon architecture and innovative packaging technologies, Lattice Semiconductor’s
ULD FPGAs offer mobile system designers the opportunity to cost-effectively
bring an exciting new class of contextaware functions to next generation mobile
systems while minimizing system power
and footprint.
Lattice Semiconductor
Hillsboro, OR
(503) 268-8000
www.latticesemi.com
A TQMa6x module with
a Freescale i.MX6 can
save you design time
and money
TQ embedded modules:
■
Are the smallest in the industry,
without compromising quality
and reliability
■
Bring out all the processor signals
to the Tyco connectors
■
Can reduce development time by
as much as 12 months
The TQMa6x module comes with a
Freescale i.MX6 (ARM® Cortex™-A9),
and supports Linux operating
systems.
The full-function STKa6Q-AA
Starter Kit is an easy and inexpensive way to evaluate and test the
TQMa6x module.
iCE40LM
Sensor Specific
Control
PWR
Sensor Specific
Control
Registers and Arbiter
SPI Slave
SPI Master
DRAGON BOARD
12C
I2C Master
FIFO
SPI
12C
I2C Master
FIFO
Sensor Specific
Control
12C
I2C Master
FIFO
Sensor Specific
Control
SPI
SPI Master
FIFO
BMP085
Pressure
LSM303DLHC
Compass
MPU3050
(Gyroscope)
KXUD9
(Accelerometer)
INT
Sensor Specific
Control
FIFO
12C
I2C Master
IS29003
(ALS)
CLK
CFG_SPI
Technology in Quality
FIGURE 6
Once data is collected from the accelerometer, it is passed through the I2C port,
processed through the accelerometer’s sensor-specific control, and loaded into a
FIFO in preparation for the applications processor to turn on and display results.
ConvergencePromotions.com/TQ-USA
TQ-USA is the brand for a module product line represented in
N. America by Convergence Promotions, LLC
TQMa6x V2 1-3 Page Ad.indd 1
31
2/3/14 3:55 PM
Optical Interfaces
High-Speed
Optocouplers
in Industrial
Communication
Networks
Today’s industrial networks require accurate data rates
for communication in real time and resistance to electrical
noise. A new dual-channel, bi-directional 25 Mbit/s
optocoupler meets the requirements of today’s industrial
networks while providing a high level of isolation in a small
form factor.
by Chwan Jye Foo, Avago Technologies
I
ndustrial communication networks
present unique challenges and require
optimized solutions to operate effectively. In today’s factories, many different programmable elements must be precisely controlled so that they will operate
in harmony. The communication channel
between industrial equipment, controllers,
sensors, actuators and other components
operates in real time, and must be immune
to electrical noise as well as providing
safe electrical isolation. Also, industrial
communication networks need to provide
increasing throughput or production output as industrial control systems become
more complex.
Fieldbus refers to a family of industrial computer network protocols used for
real-time distributed control of instruments. As shown in Figure 1, an automated industrial system such as a manu-
32
facturing assembly line usually uses an
organized hierarchy of controller systems
to function. The top hierarchy is a human
machine interface (HMI) where an operator can operate and program the industrial
system. This is typically linked to a middle layer of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) or Input/Ouput (I/O) boxes by
a non-time-critical communications system such as Ethernet, which by its nature
can tolerate dropped packets of data.
At the bottom of the control hierarchy is the fieldbus that links the PLCs
to the “assembly line” components, such
as sensors, actuators, electric motors,
switches and valves. These communication links need to be fast so that latency
to the sensors and actuators is minimized
and system response time is fast, plus they
must be real-time links that cannot tolerate interference. In such an industrial environment, high voltages, magnetic fields
and noise are commonly present and are
caused by motors, power switching and
other sources, presenting a challenge to
deliver both high speed and resistance
to excessive electrical noise so that the
real-time nature of the PLC system is preserved. Overall reliability and protection
are critical to avoid production downtime.
Internet
Industrial
Ethernet
Fieldbus
Isolation Locations
FIGURE 1
Typical industrial control network hierarchy.
Fieldbus
FIGURE 2
Low-profile optocouplers can be
mounted on the back of a PCB to
save space and reduce form factor.
Trends and Challenges
Industrial Ethernet networks (e.g.,
Profinet, EtherCAT) were introduced in
the early 2000s and they gained acceptance at the supervisory control and basic
control levels in the automated industrial
system hierarchy. According to IHS, the
number of industrial Ethernet processautomation nodes is forecast to double in
size with 14% compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) through 2016. Along with
this growth in industrial Ethernet, fieldbus networks such as Profibus, DeviceNet
and Interbus, are still dominant at the bottom hierarchy of the instrumentation and
remote I/O level communicating in realtime deterministic protocols.
This trend presents several challenges
for industrial automation and machinery
communications. One is to integrate the
industrial devices communicating among
different fieldbus platform technologies
with the new industrial Ethernet networks.
Another challenge is to create an efficient
data collection process with more reliable
data transfer. A third challenge is to enhance the security of industrial networks
to resist external attacks. These challenges
place more demands on equipment functionality and better network performance.
To meet the challenge of different
needs of integration and make industrial
devices compatible with different existing
and new networks, the automation industry is looking for different form factors
in embedded communication solutions
to suit their own configurations. There
are requests for off-the-shelf communication modules, a communication mounting
“brick” that can attach to network connectors, or even a communication chip
that is mounted on a printed-circuit board
with other hardware to be designed by the
user. A semiconductor chip of small slim
and low profile, and which can be mounted
easily and suit the different form factors of
embedded network equipment, is needed
to address these challenges.
With the use of industrial Ethernet and
fieldbus networks, there are many different
network protocols or “languages” to translate and communicate between devices.
Higher speed reliable data transfer is essential in creating efficient data collection
and processing between industrial devices
communicating through these networks.
Good electrical isolation immunity is important to minimize electrical noise propagating across network buses and to ensure
signal integrity. As highlighted earlier, increased safety through electrical insulation
capability between factory devices helps
ensure protection.
The industrial Ethernet networks provide more functionality and easier access
to industrial applications, but one area of
concern is the security of a network with
links to external communication or the Internet. It is important to prevent any unauVDD1
C4
100n
Isolation
VDD2
U1
1 VDD1 VDD2 8
2 VOA
VIA 7
3
6
VOB
VIB
4
5
GND1 GND2
Rx
Tx
thorized access to the industrial devices or
to the control level of the entire automation
system. Also, an upcoming functional requirement for new industrial Ethernet network devices is to provide the new Internet
Protocol version 6 (IPv6) support in view
of the current Internet Protocol version 4
(IPv4) public address pool depletion.
New devices still need to support
legacy protocols as many of the machinery and “assembly line” components have
been in production for many years and
still use legacy networks. These place
more demands on the new modules to
house more advanced chips with secure
safety and backward-compatibility communications features. There is a desire to
produce modules that can support both
legacy fieldbus protocols as well as newer
industrial Ethernet protocols. This makes
it necessary to pack more functionality
into a given size module. Another direction the equipment makers are taking is
to offer very thin form factor modules that
support a subset of protocols, but which
take up less space in the rack. In these
multi-protocol modules, isolation components are needed to address the legacy
fieldbus protocols.
To address these two differing design
requirements, it is advantageous to have a
slim design module where the back side of
Rx
Tx
ACSL-7210
VDD1
Isolation
R1
510
R2
Tx Enable
VDD2
VDD2
U3
U2
1 AN
3 CA
VDD 6
VO 5
GND 4
Tx Enable
1
RO
2
RE_
3
DE
4
DI
8
VCC
7
B
6
A
5
GND
Fieldbus
Network
(Twisted Cable)
RS485
ACPL-M61L
FIGURE 3
Providing isolation for Profibus fieldbus communication
RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE FEBRUARY
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2014
33
VDD1 1
Data Out
Data In
8 VDD2
VOA
2
7 VIA
VAB
3
6 VOB
GND1 4
Data In
Data Out
5 GND2
Shield
FIGURE 4
ACSL-7210 block diagram.
To LED driver buffer IC
light-transmissive
polyimide
transparent
connecting
layer
LED
SiO2
passivation
insulation
Photodiode IC
Output
Leadframe
LED
Dielectric
Input
Leadframe
Photodetector LED driver buffer
IC
IC
FIGURE 5
Cross-sectional view of optical channel with two transparent layers.
34
OCTOBER 2013
FEBRUARY
2014 RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
the PCB can mount low profile semiconductor components. This allows layout design
flexibility with more chips able to mount
on the same area size of the PCB, and saves
floor space while offering compact embedded communication solutions. Such trends
can be seen as leading equipment makers
market their communication or I/O modules
as being compact and having mounting rail
width of 12 mm, 24 mm or 48 mm. Figure
2 shows the back side of a PCB in an I/O
module. The components such as isolation
products mounted on the PCB back side
should not be taller than the housing of the
back plane connector (<2 mm).
Using high-speed optocouplers such
as the ACSL-7210 addresses the demanding isolation and protection needs of today’s
industrial systems. This solution offers 67%
faster data rates than competing solutions
while providing 50% higher isolation capability and the thinnest packaging available.
Figure 3 shows the typical application diagram for the 25MBaud dual-channel bi-directional ACSL-7210 and the
10MBaud ultra-low-power single-channel
ACPL-M61L providing isolation in Profibus (RS485) fieldbus communication. The
ACSL-7210 isolates the transmitting and receiving data channels, for example between
a microcontroller or digital signal processor
(DSP) of a factory “assembly-line” device
and a fieldbus transceiver. Another optocoupler, the ACPL-M61L, isolates the transmit
enable signal (Figure 3).
Meeting Industrial
Communication Requirements
The ACSL-7210 is a dual-channel bidirectional 25 MBaud high-speed digital
optocoupler optimized for full duplex industrial communication applications such
as Profibus fieldbus and Serial Peripheral
Interface (SPI). The ACSL-7210 utilizes
Avago proprietary and patented IC and
packaging technologies to achieve 3,750
VRMS signal isolation in a low-profile
small-outline (SO-8) package while supporting high-speed full-duplex data communications with data rates of maximum
40ns propagation delay (25 MBaud).
Because it has buffered input data
channels, the ACSL-7210 does not have a
direct LED-driven configuration as seen
Standard LED
Passivation
Back Emission LED
P metal pad
Passivation
P metal pad
Active Layer
Epi & Substrate
A TQMa28 module
with a Freescale i.MX28
can save you design
time and money
N metal pad
Active Layer
N metal pad
Epi & Substrate
FIGURE 6
Standard vs. back emission LED construction.
TQ embedded modules:
in a typical optocoupler. The user need
not consider the calculation of LED forward current and forward voltage to turn
on/off the LED. The ACSL-7210 only
requires an isolated power supply at the
input side to transmit isolated digital signals, so it can retrofit existing isolated network modules with minimal software and
schematic changes (Figure 4). The main
design consideration will be the layout to
fully utilize the low-profile height of the
ACSL-7210. It can be placed on the back
side of the PCB layout and free up the existing front side area for more chips and
passive components to enable better network performance.
The packaging process of stacking
the LED die directly on a silicon IC substrate enables higher integration in monolithic IC packaging and a very low profile.
Figure 5 shows a cross-sectional view of
one of the two channels in the ACSL7210. The Input logic signal controls the
CMOS LED driver buffer IC, which supplies current to the LED. The photodetector IC comes with two transparent layers:
SiO2 passivation or insulation, and lighttransmissive polyimide on top. The LED
attaches to the photodetector IC with a
transparent connecting layer. Standard
die attach process is used to make all the
placements.
Unlike the conventional standard
LED that emits light on the same side as
the metal contacts, Avago developed a back
emission LED that emits light from the reverse side of the LED. This allows LED to
stack on top of the detector IC (Figure 6).
This packaging technology provides
the advantage of high integration, with
ACSL-7210 being a dual-channel bi-directional optocoupler suitable for Profibus
isolated data communication applications. Another advantage is the low profile
package at ~1.6 mm tall. This allows the
ACSL-7210 to be mounted on the back
side of the PCB board where the height
is usually specified at less than 2.0 mm
to maximize the use of board space. This
leads to slim, compact housing designs in
the digital PLCs or I/O boxes.
Avago Technologies
San Jose, CA
(408) 435-7400
www.avagotech.com
■
Are the smallest in the industry,
without compromising quality
and reliability
■
Bring out all the processor signals
to the Tyco connectors
■
Can reduce development time by
as much as 12 months
The TQMa28 module comes with
a Freescale i.MX28x (ARM926™)
and supports Linux, WinCE 6.0
and QNX operating systems.
The full-function STKa28-AA Starter
Kit is an easy and inexpensive
platform to test and evaluate the
TQMa28 module.
Technology in Quality
ConvergencePromotions.com/TQ-USA
TQ-USA is the brand for a module product line represented in
N. America by Convergence Promotions, LLC
TQMa28 V2 1-3 Page Ad.indd 1
35
2/3/14 3:56 PM
INDUSTRY
WATCH
Harnessing FPGA Performance for HPEC
FPGA-Based Front-End Processing
with VPX
As the world moves toward high-performance embedded computing
(HPEC), faster and more distributed computing power is being put into
ever smaller spaces. The use of FPGAs can help by applying both of
these advantages to pre-processing data for specific applications while
retaining flexibility.
by Ken Grob, Elma Electronic
C
36
OCTOBER 2013
FEBRUARY
2014 RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
12Ca, b
mini-USB
Front
Synth. Fr
RJ45
Front
Backplane
Local
μ Controller
Bx
On
Temp
Elapse Time
Counter
Bx
RS232
PCIe x1
2x1000BX
RS485/232
Supply Seq &
Monitoring
Vsi, 2, 3 &
Local VDC
EEPROM
Vadj
Monitoring
Off
GPIO
GE
PHY
12C
omplex systems—such as realtime image processing, electronic
warfare systems and software defined radio platforms—require real-time
execution of complex math functions. In
processing data streams generated from
high-speed sensors, the system hardware
must be able to handle high-bandwidth
data streams processing data flows that
can exceed 1 Gbyte per second.
To adequately handle, and subsequently process, data in these compute-intensive applications, a suitable form factor
and system architecture are integral to the
design. For example, connectors that operate at 6.25 GHz and above are typically
required in these high-bandwidth data applications, mandating hardware components such as high-speed backplanes and
board interconnects.
The VITA OpenVPX standard, or
VITA 65, defines fabric-based architectures useful in building high-performance
embedded computing (HPEC) systems.
The standard outlines form factors and
allows mezzanine standards that enable
front-end sensor interfaces to be connected to high-performance processing
devices, like FPGAs
In order to implement this front-end
RTC
Supercap
VBAT
GE
PHY
GE
PHY
DDR3ECC
P2020
4x PCI x4
NOR Flash
2 Chips
Flash
SPI 16MB
Flash A
SPI 16MB
PC x4
Flash B
SPI 16MB
FPGA - LX45T
CTRL Node
PCIx x1
Flash
Bitstreams
CTRL N 2 V6
PCIx x4
PCIx x4
GPIO
GPIO
eUSB
Slot
DDR3
x40
DDR3
x40
SRAM DDR
x18
20LVDS + 16SE
FPGA USER A
Virtex XC6V
SX315T/475T/
LX550T
(FF1759)
FPGA USER B
Virtex XC6V
SX315T/475T/
LX550T
(FF1759)
GTX x4
GTX x8
16 LVDS
GTX x8
GTX x4
GTX x4
16 LVDS
LVDS 80P
GTX x8
LVDS 80p
GTX x8
GTX x8
HUB
USB0
(FP)
USB1, 2
(BP)
Backplane VPX
XIO. 16pDif
XIO. 16pDif
FMC Slot 0
FMC Slot 1
FIGURE 1
6U VPX Front End Processor Block Diagram
DDR3
x40
DDR3
x40
SRAM DDR
x18
INDUSTRY WATCH
FIGURE 2
Xilinx Virtex 6 Front-End Processor.
processing, dense, high-speed logic is
necessary, and FPGAs provide a means
to effectively implement the high-speed
logic, memory and DSP functions required to process the sensor data streams.
Another specification developed by
VITA addresses I/O interconnects to
FPGAs. This specification, called FPGA
Mezzanine Card or FMC (VITA 57), defines an I/O mezzanine card for FPGA
carriers. With VITA 57.1, devices like
A/D and D/A can be added in front of
high-performance FPGAs.
Considering the data flow and the
standards, VITA 57 enables I/O mezzanine connections to FPGAs. VITA 57,
therefore, provides the I/O interfaces into
the system. Open VPX provides a stan-
FIGURE 3A
dard referencing VITA 46 that defines
both 3U and 6U VPX modules. The
modules, or boards, provide a platform
for FPGA processors, and subsequent
interconnects.
Further, system design includes
assessing the number of processing elements necessary to handle the data
streams. When implementing HPEC
systems based on VPX, a multistage
processing pipeline is usually required.
FPGAs offer a rich combination of hardware resources well suited for these applications.
FPGAs provide large pools of configurable logic allowing processing circuits
to be implemented. To properly design a
system, the size and type of FPGA must
be considered. FPGA capacity is described
in slices, and includes configurable logic
blocks, or CLBs, each of which includes
two slices. A logic slice includes look-up
tables or LUTs, arithmetic chains, flipflops, RAM and shift registers. FPGAs can
be tuned to the task, to selectable devices
with specific capabilities, including the
number and to types of slices, and RAM.
Other specific FPGA resources include DSP functions, or DSP slices consisting of multipliers and accumulators,
used to implement DSP functions. Block
RAM is another type of resource allowing
on-chip storage blocks. These resources
can be used to implement many circuit designs, including processors, memory systems and I/O interfaces, and are particularly useful in signal processing systems.
Inherent System Flexibility
The extensive hardware resources of
FPGAs allow flexibility in system architecture. In designing a system, if the processing pipeline must be extended or needs
to become wider, high-speed interconnect
ports can be used to share data between
FPGAs to increase the data width or the
number of stages in the pipeline. When
using FPGAs to process the data, several
stages of calculations can be done within
the FPGA core itself. Newer FPGAs incorporate a logic footprint big enough to
implement complete processing blocks,
including hardcore ARM processors such
as the Cortex A9, as well as other peripheral interconnects, like PCIe cores. I/O
is also a consideration with MAC blocks
that enable Ethernet implementation, and
high-speed serial I/O on the chips now exceeds an impressive 12.5 Gbit/s.
Figure 1 shows a block diagram of a
VPX-based Xilinx Dual Virtex 6 FPGA
carrier. In this design, two large scale
FPGA parts are interfaced to two VITA
57 FMC sites. The FPGAs are cross-connected with GTX x4 data paths allowing
them to directly exchange data. The board
FIGURE 3B
Comparison of GOPS/watt performance between configurable-logic devices such as FPGAs (a) and fixed-logic devices, i.e.
processors (b). Source: A study financed by the National Science Foundation (Alan George, Herman Lam, and Greg Stitt - IEEE
magazine Computing in Science and Engineering - Jan/Feb 2011)
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INDUSTRY WATCH
Aurora Channel
Partners
Aurora
Lane 1
User
Application
User
Interface
Aurora
Channel
Aurora
Core
Aurora
Core
User
Interface
User
Application
Aurora
Lane n
User Data
8B/10B
Encoded Data
User Data
FIGURE 4
Aurora for low latency efficient FPGA data exchange.
■
■
■
■
■
Safe computers for rail, road
and air, up to SIL 4/DAL-A
Modular box and panel PCs
for industry & transportation
Powerful system solutions on
CompactPCI®/PlusIO/Serial
Rugged, standard
Computer-On-Modules
(ESMexpress®, ESMini™)
EN 50155- and e1-certified
Ethernet switches and
fieldbus interfaces
enables multiple groups of data lanes or
data paths to be connected to the VPX
backplane via a PCIe switch using PCIe
Gen 2. To support control plane functions
and general processing, a P2020 SoC Freescale Power PC processor is also part of
this particular design.
Such a design can be used to build
digital filters and execute Fast Fourier
transforms in hardware. GTX I/O ports
provide data paths that can support data
rates of 6.25 Gtransfer/s per lane. Four
data lanes can transfer more than 2
Gbytes/s between FPGAs. Remarkably, a
6U by 160 mm PCB can contain all of this
hardware, as shown in Figure 2.
Why Use FPGAs?
FPGAs typically provide more processing per watt than conventional processors. They achieve more computing speed
per unit of power compared to CPUs,
DSPs and GPUs—typically ten times on
16 integers 50 GOPS/watt, as noted in
Figure 3. Given this processing efficiency
and that the processing configuration is
programmable, FPGAs can easily and
cost-effectively be tuned to applicationspecific compute requirements.
Connecting and Moving Data
www.menmicro.com
38
VPX uses pairs of differential signals
to transmit and receive serial data between devices. A single differential pair is
called a lane. Groups of lanes can be used
to form ports, with scalable bandwidths.
In VPX, a group of lanes is called a pipe,
and can be configured from one to 16
lanes. Pipes can be grouped into planes,
where VPX defines data, control, expansion, management and utility planes.
Data paths are implemented using
specific protocols on interconnecting
planes. The data plane is used to move
primary data, the control plane for control
communication, and the expansion plane
for local communication of high-speed
data. The physical interface and protocol
will vary depending on the function.
In moving data, the data rate is of interest. Data planes using a PCIe Fat Pipe
can move data at 2.5, 5.0 or 8.125 Gbaud
depending on the generation of PCIe, Gen
1, Gen 2, or Gen 3. A PCIe Gen 2 Fat
Pipe can move 2 Gbyte/s point to point.
The control plane typically uses Ethernet
based on serial interconnect, and can be
1000 Base-Bx or 10GBASE-Kx
The expansion plane can be PCIe,
10Gb Ethernet, Rapid I/O or Aurora. Both
PCIe and Aurora use 8b/10b encoding.
Aurora is a useful protocol for FPGA to
FPGA interconnect because it is lightweight and low latency. It can operate at
1.25, 2.5, 3.125, 5.0 and 6.25 Gbaud. The
Aurora cores are standard interfaces supported by FPGA tool chains (Figure 4).
A VPX backplane can be used to
connect the VPX front-end processor
cards (FEPs). The OpenVPX specification
allows the data plane and control plane
interfaces to be connected through the
INDUSTRY WATCH
Data
Plane
Data
Plane
Data
Plane
Data
Plane
Contrl
Plane
Contrl
Plane
Contrl
Plane
Contrl
Switch
FP
IPMC
IPMC
IPMC
IPMC
Utility Plane
Includes Power
SE
IPMC
SE
Management
Plane (IPMB)
SE
TP
} 5 TP
SE
Control Plane
(TP)
Contrl
Plane
SE
TP
Contrl
Plane
SE
} 5 TP
SL T6-SWH-4F24T-10.4.4
Data
Plane
VPX
6
SL T6-PAY-4F2T-10.2.2
VPX
5
SE
VPX
4
SE
VPX
3
SE
VPX
2
SE
VPX
1
SE
P0/J0
SE
P0/J0
SE
Data Plane
(FP)
Switch/
Management
SE
Slot numbers
are logical,
physical slot
numbers may
be different
Payload
Slots
ChMC
BKP6-DIS06-11.2.15-n
FIGURE 5
Six-slot Open VPX backplane.
backplane where high-speed serial pointto-point interconnects are made.
Profiles are used to define and organize the connections made in the backplane. Figure 5 shows a mesh connection
on the Data plane. Open VPX makes use
of backplane and slot profiles to define
interconnect topologies. Various topologies, including star and mesh, can be implemented. The sample view of a six-slot
OpenVPX Backplane Profile in Figure 5
allows up to five FPGA-based cards to be
connected together. The profiles on the
FIGURE 6
QSFP+ interface.
right define the I/O paths associated with
the slots in the backplane.
Getting In and Out of the System
Moving data in and out of the system
can be done with various interfaces, either
taken from the front of the board or via
the backplane out the rear of the system.
First, a suitable interface must be chosen.
If the data is coming from a sensor, it
may be analog or digital. If it’s analog, the
data could be interfaced via CoAx to an
A/D converter. If it’s digital, from a camera for example, it could run via Ethernet
using Gb or 10 Gb Ethernet. For external
network interfacing, good old 1000BT
Ethernet can be used, directly from the
front end processor, a switch card or from
a control processor.
In applications that require off-load
and high-rate external transfers, interfaces
like 10 Gb Ethernet can be used, either
with a copper or fiber physical medium.
PCIe or Aurora interfaces can be implemented using the quad small form factor
pluggable (QSFP)+ standard.
Figure 6 is an example of a QSFP+
XMC mezzanine that shows the QSFP+
connector. QSFP+ can also be implemented on an FMC allowing external
high-speed data to be directly connected
to the FPGA resources. Using QSFP+
links, external data paths supporting up to
40 Gbit/s can be achieved.
Since system designs can be customized and tailored to fit the required
hardware architecture, FPGAs become a
highly flexible compute resource. Highperformance embedded computers using FPGAs implemented on VPX can be
used in a variety of compute-intensive applications that require a stable platform.
Because FPGA compute operations per
second per watt exceed traditional processor architectures, these systems are not
only a reality, but can be developed costeffectively.
Coupling FPGAs to the FMC sites
allows sensors to be connected to the FPGAs. This concept, combined with VPX
backplanes that interconnect larger format
cards, enables more capable systems to be
built. External interfaces, such as Ethernet, can be included on VPX cards and
switches to allow system elements to be
connected within networks.
Such designs implemented on VPX
provide an open architecture solution specifically suited for high-performance digital signal processing. Since FPGAs can be
reprogrammed, designs can be embedded
and quickly modified. Initial investments
can be preserved by updating system firmware and software, thereby improving
overall system performance and life cycle.
Elma Electronic
Freemont, CA
(510) 656-3400
www.elma.com
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PRODUCTS &
TECHNOLOGY
RAID-Capable Box PC Offers
Flexible Storage Capacity
A low-profile, maintenance-free box PC with five integrated Ethernet interfaces is designed for reliable storage in harsh environments. The BL50S from
MEN Micro boasts two hot-plug-capable
HDD/SSD shuttles in a slim 2.4” housing. It
can support RAID 0 for applications requiring fast data transfer, such as audio and video
in a video recorder, as well as RAID 1 for
more data safety if used as a compact content
server.
Of the five available Gigabit Ethernet
interfaces, one is a Gigabit Ethernet uplink
and the other four operate as a 4-port Ether-
net switch with Power over Ethernet (PoE)
functionality. The BL50S combines two devices into one without any additional components. The front panel includes one DisplayPort with 2560 x 1600 resolution, two
USB 2.0 ports and other configurable slots
for RS-232, CAN bus or other I/O requirements.
One PCI Express Mini Card slot with
two SIM card slots enables the implementation of a wide range of functionality, including mobile service standards such as GSM
(2G), UMTS (3G) and LTE (4G), wireless
communication standards WLAN/Wi-Fi
IEEE 802.11 and related standards as well as
GPS or GLONASS positioning systems.
The BL50S is based on the AMD
T48N Embedded G-Series APU running at
1.4 GHz, which provides high scalability in
CPU (single/dual core) and graphics performance. Additionally, the new box PC offers 2
Gbyte DDR3 SDRAM, one SD card and one
USB Multi-Sensor Module Measures Any Type of
Sensor at Any of 8 Inputs
A new data acquisition module can measure any type of sensor.
The DT9829 from Data Translation supports a broad array of sensor
types including: thermocouples, RTDS and thermistors for measuring
temperature; bridge-based and strain gage sensors for measuring strain
and load cell data such as torque and pressure; and voltage, current and
resistance for measuring electrical parameters.
Any sensor can merely be connected at an input, and all selections,
including any necessary for excitation, cold junction compensation or
bridge completion, are included and supported by QuickDAQ. No other
circuitry or external components are necessary. This very accurate module can measure up to 8 different sensors on any of the 8 channels with
no interaction from one to another. The USB module is galvanically
isolated from PC ground to preserve measurement integrity and runs off
USB power for easy, portable use in the field.
The module samples at 960 Hz, utilizes 24-bit sigma-delta ADC
to eliminate aliasing, and provides 4 isolated digital inputs and 4 opencollector digital outputs for notifications or control. Additional full
software support includes comprehensive drivers and interface tools for
LabVIEW and MATLAB programmers. The DT9829 is available with
2, 4, or 8 analog inputs with prices starting at $895.
Data Translation, Marlboro, MA. (800) 525-8528. www.datatranslation.com.
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mSATA slot. The class S2 wide-range power
supply features a 24 VDC and 36 VDC
nominal input voltage and a power consumption of 30W. The new unit provides easy and
cost-effective I/O adaptations, regardless of
the processor board in use. The BL50S also
accommodates other APUs from the Embedded G-Series for even more flexible configurations. It is compliant with EN 50155 and
prepared for E1 certification.
Designed for fanless operation at temperatures from -40° to +70°C (+85°C for up
to 10 minutes), the unit features a special aluminum housing with cooling fins that serve
as a heatsink for the internal electronics,
providing conduction cooling. The housing
is also coated against dust and humidity for
additional protection in harsh environments.
Pricing for the BL50S is $2,202
MEN Micro. Blue Bell. PA. (215) 542-9575.
www.menmicro.com.
PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
Scalable IoT Solutions for Smart
LED Lighting and Home and
Building Automation
from on/off and dimming to color temperature adjustment via PLC or ZigBee.
The GV-LED module can be deployed
inside LED driver and power supply of
LED lamp, streetlight and down light, or
be placed outside as a retrofit solution.
• GV-Sensor (Sensor Module) powered
by GV7011 chip or GV7013 chip, is an
all-in-one sensor module for motion,
light and temperature. It can be deployed
inside thermostats, HVAC and light fixtures.
Greenvity Smart Lighting Software suite
and mobile apps (supporting iOS and Android)
are provided with the modules without a licensing fee and enable monitoring, controllability
and intelligence of up to 255 lighting devices
and communications with mobile phones and
tablets. API is provided so that OEM/ODM customers can add their own application software
to differentiate and enhance their products.
Greenvity Communications, Milpitas, CA.
(408) 935-9434. www.greenvity.com.
A set of turn-key solutions comprising
system-on-chips (SoC), modules, software and
mobile apps enable any home device or Internet
of Things (IoT) device to be smart and controllable for energy-saving and home and building
automation purposes. At the core of these solutions are Hybrii SoCs from Greenvity Communications that integrate HomePlug Green PHY
powerline communication (PLC) and ZigBee
wireless for robust and extended-range communication for smart LED lighting, home and
building automation, industrial M2M and energy management.
The Greenvity system solutions provide
all the functions that customers need for rapid
prototype and even pre-production design.
Ready-to-go boards and software enable significantly reduced time-to-market and cost of
development. OEMs and ODMs have the flexibility to customize and scale up or down the
modules and the baseline software to fit specific
applications. Customers only need to add their
own software layer to quickly develop innovative and differentiating IoT devices.
Three modules are being introduced including the GV-Controller, GV-LED and GVSensor, powered by Greenvity’s Hybrii SoCs,
GV7011 and GV7013 chips. Each GV-LED
module and GV-Sensor module can communicate with and be controlled by the GV-Controller via either PLC or wireless to form an IoT
network that mobile devices can access and
control wirelessly and remotely.
• GV-Controller (Home Gateway & Lighting Controller Module) powered by either GV7011 chip or GV7013 chip, consists of an ARM9 processor with Linux
OS and also includes Wi-Fi, Ethernet
10/100, USB, SPI and Bluetooth low energy (BLE). GV-Controller can be integrated inside any home device such as a
router or thermostat.
• GV-LED (LED Driver Module) powered
by either GV7011 chip or GV7013 chip,
can interface to most existing LED drivers and power supplies in the industry.
It enables controllability to LED lights
Untitled-18 1
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Single-Chip Bridge Controller Eases Development for USB Connectivity Applications
A turnkey solution for bridging a universal serial bus (USB) host
and a serial peripheral interface (SPI) bus includes driver support for
Windows, OS X and Linux. The CP2130 USB-to-SPI bridge controller
from Silicon Labs provides data throughput, exceptional configurability and a high level of mixed-signal integration in a space-saving 4 mm
x 4 mm package. The CP2130 bridge controller is suitable for new designs or upgrading legacy designs to include USB for a wide range of
embedded applications.
The CP2130 bridge controller enables developers to add USB
functionality to their applications without requiring USB software,
firmware or hardware domain expertise typically required with more
complex alternatives. The CP2130 bridge controller rounds out Silicon Labs’ CP21xx smart interface portfolio, adding SPI to the roster of
USB-to-UART, I2C/SMBus and I2S interface solutions.
The highly integrated CP2130 controller features on-chip functions and peripherals that eliminate the need for external components, which
reduces bill of materials (BOM) cost and board space. The CP2130 device includes a USB 2.0 full-speed controller and transceiver, a serial peripheral
interface controller that enables communication with a wide range of SPI slave devices down to 1.8V, 348-byte programmable memory, crystal-less
USB operation and an integrated 5V voltage regulator rated at 100 mA.
Designed to give developers the utmost design flexibility, the CP2130 device’s highly configurable SPI controller can communicate with up to
11 SPI slave devices using any of its 11 GPIO pins as chip-selects or be configured for alternate functions that can be used to eliminate external circuitry and components. The CP2130 device is the fastest full-speed USB bridge controller on the market, providing up to 6.6 Mbit/s read throughput and 5.8 Mbit/s write throughput. The CP2130 controller is priced at $1.23 in 10,000-unit quantities. The CP2130EK USB-to-SPI evaluation kit,
priced at $20 (MSRP), allows complete evaluation and customization of the CP2130 controller.
Silicon Laboratories, Austin, TX. (512) 416-8500. www.silabs.com.
High-Speed 40 Gbit/s Gen3 OpenVPX Backplane
A new 40 Gbit/s Gen3 OpenVPX backplane is designed for the
end-to-end transmission of the high-speed data required for the most
demanding ground and airborne C4ISR and EW deployed applications.
The new Hybricon Gen3 OpenVPX 6U 6-slot Backplane from CurtissWright Controls Defense Solutions supports full-speed, bottleneck-free
distribution of data over 40 Gbit/s Ethernet or InfiniBand fabrics. It
enables the design of a new class of embedded subsystems capable of
delivering previously unobtainable levels of performance to support
numerous demanding defense and aerospace applications, such as the
real-time detection and identification of signals of interest.
The Fabric40 Gen3 OpenVPX backplane is designed for use in
both development and rugged deployed applications. In air-cooled or
conduction-cooled development chassis, the new backplane speeds and
eases the integration of compute-intensive radar, signal and image processing for ground or airborne platforms. Curtiss-Wright can also design application-specific configurations to meet a customer’s individual
requirements.
Designed to stringent Curtiss-Wright Gen3 Signal Integrity (SI)
design rules, Hybricon Fabric40 backplanes exceed VITA 68 VPX compliance channel draft standard guidelines. Curtiss-Wright’s proprietary SI methods minimize signal impairments, such as high return
loss, crosstalk and mode conversion to deliver reliable SI performance
at speeds up to 10.3 Gbaud, resulting in the best performance and lowest risk backplane platform in the industry.
Curtiss-Wright’s Fabric40 initiative ensures that all aspects of
40 Gbit/s data fabric technology are optimally configured to work together, which greatly enhances interoperability and reduces customer
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integration risks and development time. Curtiss-Wright is developing
all of the subsystem elements required by system designers to integrate
complete, end-to-end 40 Gbit/s embedded systems. OpenVPX systems
built using the new Hybricon Fabric40 Gen3 OpenVPX backplane and
complementary Fabric40 system products, such as the CHAMP-AV9
DSP engine, VPX6-6802 Switch card, and VPX6-1958 single board
computer (SBC), will deliver over 2x the performance of previous generation SRIO Gen-2-based systems and 4x the performance of 10 GbEbased systems.
Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions, Ashburn, VA
(613) 254-5112. www.cwcdefense.com.
Why Should Researching SBCs Be
More Difficult Than Car Shopping?
INTELLIGENTSYSTEMSSOURCE.COM
IS A PURCHASING TOOL FOR DESIGN ENGINEERS LOOKING FOR
CUSTOM AND OFF-THE- SHELF SBCs AND SYSTEM MODULES.
Today’s systems combine an array of very complex elements from multiple manufactures. To assist
in these complex architectures, ISS has built a simple tool that will source products from an array of
companies for a side by side comparison and provide purchase support.
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Low-Mass MEMS VC Accelerometers for
Aerospace, Automotive and Industrial
As series of highly rugged,
industrial-grade MEMS variable capacitive (MEMS VC) accelerometer chips, modules and
supporting data acquisition has
been announced by Silicon Designs. The compact, low-mass
Model 2220 Series is a higherperformance version of the company's Model 2210, combining
an integrated low-noise, nitrogen-damped,
fully-calibrated
MEMS VC accelerometer chip with high-drive, low-impedance buffering, each contained in an epoxy-sealed rugged anodized aluminum
housing that mounts via two M3 screws.
This design is suitable for measuring acceleration within industrial
and commercial environments, where low mass (10g) and small size (1"
by 0.5" by 0.44") help to minimize mass loading effects. Available in
seven unique models, with measurement ranges from ±2g to ±200 and
a wide frequency response, the SDI Model 2220 series responds to both
DC and AC acceleration, with either two analog ±4V (differential); or
0.5 to 4.5V (single-ended) outputs that vary with acceleration. At zero
acceleration, output differential voltage is nominally 0 VDC (DC response). Differential sensitivity ranges are from 2000 mV/g for the ±2 g
module to 20 mV/g for the ±2000 g module, with typical 1% cross-axis
sensitivity. Onboard voltage regulation also minimizes supply voltage
variation effects. SDI Model 2220 series modules can withstand shock
inputs of up to 2000g and can reliably operate over a temperature range
of -55° to +125°C. Each module is serialized for traceability and is fully
calibrated.
The combined low mass, small size and low-impedance outputs of
SDI Model 2220 make the series particularly suitable for flight test, aircraft flutter testing, vibration monitoring and analysis, robotics, biomechanics, automotive RLDA, machinery and equipment control, modal
analysis, crash testing, and general in-laboratory applications.
8 Gbit LPDDR4 DRAM Ultra-Fast Mobile
Memory
What is being billed as the industry’s first
8 Gbit, low-power, double data rate 4
(LPDDR4), mobile DRAM
has been announced
by Samsung. Samsung’s new highspeed 8 Gbit LPDDR4
mobile DRAM will
provide the highest level
of density, performance and energy efficiency for mobile memory
applications, enabling end users to have faster, more responsive applications, more advanced features and higher resolution displays
while maximizing battery life. This next-generation LPDDR4
DRAM is expected to contribute significantly to faster growth of
the global mobile DRAM market, which will soon comprise the
largest share of the entire DRAM market.
In addition, Samsung’s new 8 Gbit LPDDR4 uses a Low
Voltage Swing Terminated Logic (LVSTL) I/O interface, which
was originally proposed by Samsung to JEDEC and has become
a standard specification for LPDDR4 DRAM. Based on this new
interface, the LPDDR4 chip will enable a data transfer rate per
pin of 3,200 megabits per second (Mbit/s), which is twice that of
the 20nm-class LPDDR3 DRAM now in mass production. Overall, the new LPDDR4 interface will provide 50 percent higher
performance than the fastest LPDDR3 or DDR3 memory. Also, it
consumes approximately 40 percent less energy at 1.1 volts. With
the new chip, Samsung will focus on the premium mobile market
including large screen UHD smartphones, tablets and ultra-slim
notebooks that offer four times the resolution of full-HD imaging,
and also on high-performance network systems.
Samsung Semiconductor
www.samsung.com.
Silicon Designs, Kirkland, WA. (425) 391-8329. www.silicondesigns.com.
3U CompactPCI Serial Carrier Card Integrates M-Module Functionality
A 3U CompactPCI Serial carrier card with an M-Module slot offers an easy way to integrate
flexible I/O. The M-Module slot provides users with the ability to interchange more than 30 I/O
functions within a system. The M-Module, which needs only one CompactPCI Serial slot, is
screwed tightly onto the G204 from MEN Micro and requires no separately mounted transition
panel. This Flexible I/O combines with fast serial technology for enhanced system performance
Designed to combine fast CompactPCI Serial technology with flexible I/O options, the new
board serves as the basis for 19”-based system solutions for transportation and industrial applications, such as data acquisition, process control, automation and vehicle control, robotics or
instrumentation.
The new modular mezzanine card operates in the extended temperature range of -40° to
+85°C for harsh environments. Developed in 1988 by MEN and later standardized by VITA,
M-Modules are modular I/O extensions for all types of industrial computers, from embedded
systems up to high-end workstations. Single unit pricing for the G204 is $483.
MEN Micro, Blue Bell, PA. (215) 542-9575. www.menmicro.com.
FIND the products featured
in this section and more at
www.intelligentsystemssource.com
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3U VPX Module Houses HighDensity Industry Standard 2.5”
SATA Drives
High-Speed, Rugged Rackmount and
Portable Recorders for Ground, Ship and
Airborne Applications
A low-cost, flexible solution for embedding rugged, high-density SATA SSD
drives into deployed compute platforms can
be configured with SSD storage capacities
ranging from 128 Gbyte to 1 Tbyte (2 Tbyte
capacity SSDs are expected to be available
in 2014.) The FSM Carrier (FSM-C) from
Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions
is a 3U VPX (VITA 48.2) module that uses
industry-standard direct-attached SATA SSDs
to ease technology refresh, reduce the risk of
obsolescence and make the board essentially
“plug-and-play.” It also eliminates the need
for system integrators to deal with software
drivers, operating systems or processor types,
which speeds and simplifies the deployment
of removable industry-standard high-density
SATA SSDs into embedded systems for defense and aerospace applications. The FSMC is ideal for use in systems that require data
transport, such as mission computers, sensor
processors, mission recorders, instrumentation recorders and embedded ISR applications.
The Vortex FSM-C is designed for system integrators seeking the most cost-effective, rugged solution for adding removable
high-density storage to their embedded system. To ensure data security, the FSM-C’s internal SSD can be provided with Secure Erase
or MIL Secure Erase features. When provisioned, these features can be initiated by an
ATA command over the SATA lane. A variety
of optional MIL Secure Erase algorithms can
also be provided to meet the specific program
or application security requirements. For those
applications that require removable storage
with very high level data protection, we offer our Vortex FSM, a rugged 3U VPX FIPS
140-2 certified 1 Tbyte memory module with
on-module support for AES256-bit encryption.
Pentek, Upper Saddle River, NJ. (201) 818-5900. www.pentek.com.
Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions,
Ashburn, VA. (613) 254-5112.
www.cwcdefense.com.
Two new high-speed, rugged rackmount recording systems use state-of-the-art SSD (solid state drive)
storage technology to achieve aggregate recording and
playback rates up to 4 Gbytes per second. As complete recording systems, the Model RTR 2728
rugged portable and the Model RTR 2748 rugged rackmount recorders from Pentek are suitable
for recording and reproducing wideband IF signals at
sample rates up to 1 GSamples/sec. Systems are built on
a Windows 7 Professional workstation with an Intel Core I7 processor and provide both a GUI
(graphical user interface) and API (application programmer’s interface) to control the system. Signal analysis tools are also provided to allow the user to monitor and analyze signals prior to, during
and after a recording.
The advanced SSDs used in the ruggedized recorders not only add capacity, but they also keep
up with the very high data rates. For example, the rackmount system can record up to 5.3 hours of
contiguous data without interruption. And, both recorders operate flawlessly under shock and vibration, making them ideal for severe environments.
Data files include time stamping as well as recording parameters and optional GPS information. Files are stored in the native Windows NTFS (new technology file system) format, eliminating
the need for file conversion. Files can also be transferred from the system through gigabit Ethernet,
USB ports or written to optical disks using the built-in 8X double layer DVD±R/RW drive. The
recorder’s SSDs are configured to support numerous RAID levels giving the user many options to
balance performance versus failsafe trade-offs. They are hot-swappable and can be easily removed
or exchanged during or after a mission to retrieve recorded data.
Both recording systems use Pentek’s high-powered Virtex-6-based Cobalt boards that provide
the data streaming engine for the high-speed A/D and D/A converters. A built-in synchronization
module is provided to allow for multi-channel phase-coherent operation. The rackmount system is
scalable to accommodate multiple chassis for more channels and higher aggregate data rates. Pentek
SystemFlow recording software features a Windows-based GUI that provides a simple and intuitive
means to configure and control the system. Pricing starts at $49,995.
Liquid Crystal Thermography System Reveals PCB and Component
Temperatures
A new liquid crystal thermographic analysis system provides optical temperature measurements of active PCBs and components. The ethermVIEW system uses the color response of thermochromic liquid crystals (TLC) for non-invasive thermal studies. Developed by Advanced Thermal
Solutions, the ethermVIEW system includes a high-performance, solid-state color camera for macroscopic inspection of boards and components coated with heat-sensitive liquid crystals.
The camera features a flicker-free white light source for clear viewing of dark surfaces and
partially concealed features. It links to a PC by Firewire, the standard connection for high-definition
video devices. For image processing and management, the system includes the proprietary thermSOFT software used in other ATS thermal analysis devices. A transformer is provided for international use.
Liquid crystals used with ethermVIEW reflect incident light at visible wavelengths based on the
surface temperatures where they’re applied. The camera captures the reactive TLC colors to reveal
hot spots and defects for more effective thermal management.
In contrast to infrared thermography systems, the ethermVIEW TLC method is not affected by
ambient temperatures. It provides more precise temperature measurements—within +/- 0.1°C accuracy. The ethermVIEW system can also be purchased for less than one third the cost of a typical IR
thermography system. Starting price for the ethermVIEW thermographic analysis system is $15,000
depending on configuration and volume of liquid crystals provided.
Advanced Thermal Solutions, Norwood, MA. (781) 769-2800. www.qats.com
RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE FEBRUARY
OCTOBER 2013
2014
45
High-Sensitivity Latching Digital
Hall-Effect Sensor ICs Simplify
Installation
A set of high-sensitivity latching halleffect sensor ICs include built-in pull-up resistors for high-performance yet economical
sensor ICs suited for demanding, cost-sensitive, high-volume applications. Applications
include commuting brushless DC motors used
for medical equipment and appliances as well
as for flow-rate sensing, speed and RPM sensing, tachometers, counter pickups, motor and
fan controls.
The SS360PT/SS460P Hall-Effect sensors from Honeywell provide reliable switching points with a high magnetic sensitivity of
30 Gauss typical, at 25°C [77°F], and 55 Gauss
maximum over the full -40° to 125°C [-40F to
257°F] temperature range, allowing for the use
of smaller magnets or a wider air gap. These
sensor ICs do not use chopper stabilization on
the Hall element, providing a cleaner output
signal and a faster latch response time when
compared to competitive, chopper-stabilized,
high-sensitivity Hall-effect bipolar latching
sensor ICs. Latching magnetics make these
sensors well-suited for accurate speed sensing
and RPM (revolutions per minute) measurement.
The sub-miniature, SOT-23 surface
mount package (SS360PT) allows for compact
design with automated component placement.
The small, leaded, flat TO-92-style package
(SS460P) allows for a compact PC board layout design. Wide operating voltage range of 3
VDC to 24 VDC provides for potential use in
a wide range of applications. Built-in reverse
voltage capability enhances the protection of
the sensor and the circuits, and the robust design allows operation up to 125°C [257°F].
Honeywell Sensing and Control, Minneapolis, MN.
(815) 235-6847. www.sensing.honeywell.com.
46
OCTOBER 2013
SEPTEMBER
FEBRUARY
2014
2013RTC
RTC
RTC
MAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
Rugged, 14-Port Gigabit Managed Ethernet Switch with 2 SFP
Sockets
A new rugged, managed Layer 2+ Ethernet switch
module offers twelve 10/100/1000 Mbit/s copper twisted
pair ports and two small form factor pluggable (SFP)
sockets in a compact COM Express form factor.
The Epsilon-12G2 from Diamond Systems
does not require any host computer interface.
A 480 MHz MIPS processor embedded directly into the switch manages all switch functions. The processor is accessed via an in-band
Web interface over one of the Ethernet ports or via
an out-of-band command-line interface over an RS232 serial port. The integrated Web interface provides an intuitive GUI for configuring and
managing all switch functionality. Onboard memory holds dual application images, boot
code, MAC addresses and other parameters, and can also be used for program execution.
Designed for use in rugged applications including industrial, on-vehicle and military
environments, Epsilon-12G2 operates over an extended temperature range of -40° to +85°C.
All I/O connectors are latching, providing enhanced reliability over the RJ- connectors used
in commercial Ethernet switches. A 50% thicker PCB provides better protection against
vibration in vehicle environments. The +5V to +40V wide range DC/DC power supply is
compatible with all common vehicle and industrial power sources.
The switch’s dual SFP socket interfaces to 1G fiber Ethernet networks. One port can
operate at an enhanced 2.5G to support efficient stacking of two switches together for a combined total of 26 ports. Epsilon-12G2 comes with all the required firmware preconfigured,
enabling immediate operation without any development effort. Single unit pricing starts at
$800. A separate cable kit is available: CK-EPS12G2.
Diamond Systems, Mountain View, CA. (650) 810-2500. www.diamondsystems.com.
Embedded Video Engine
Combines Display, Audio and
Touch
A high-quality graphics chip offers 3-in-1
functionality for graphical user interface (GUI)
development. The FT800 Embedded Video Engine (EVE) from Future Technology Devices
International combines display, audio and touch
operations into a single chip, providing an optimized solution that reduces power, board area,
bill of material (BOM) costs and much more.
Engineers now have a complete solution to easily create state-of-the-art interactive displays.
Targeting intelligent QVGA and WQVGA TFT
display panels, EVE's object-oriented approach
renders display images in a line-by-line manner
with resolution of 1/16th of a pixel, eliminating
the expense of traditional frame buffer memory.
The FT800 interfaces to the system microcontroller via a low-bandwidth serial interface,
allowing for lower cost microcontrollers to be
used in the design. The controller's functionality supports 4-wire resistive touch sensing with
built-in intelligent touch detection and an embedded audio processor that allows midi-like
sounds, combined with pulse code modulation
(PCM) for audio playback. The combination of
display, audio and touch on a single-chip solution enables engineers to produce GUIs that deliver compelling user experiences.
To further support and enhance FTDI's
Embedded Video Engine, a range of complementary development boards is available for use
with the FT800, including the credit-card sized
VM800C board series that comes in a 3.5", 4.3",
or 5" LCD display with a 4-wire resistive touch
screen. The VM800B series is similar and is
designed for easy mounting inside a bezel. Both
boast a USB micro-B port that can also power
the board.
Future Technology Devices International,
Tigard, OR. (503) 547-0988.
www.ftdichip.com.
Primary Radar
is Our Passion
Simulation, Display, Tracking,
Recording, Open Standards
Network Distribution
Whether you’re a radar manufacturer or systems
integrator, Cambridge Pixel’s hardware-agnostic
open-systems approach puts you in control offering
freedom, flexibility, reduced through life costs and
ease of technology refresh.
Simulation with ASTERIX tracks and video
Our newly announced SPx Simulator with optional HPx-300 Radar
Output hardware supports the development of complex multi-radar,
multi-target scenarios to generate representative primary radar, AIS,
NMEA, navigation, ASTERIX CAT-48, CAT-34 and CAT-240 messages.
New HPx-300 Radar Output
Radar Toolkit
The Cambridge Pixel family of radar components covers scan
conversion, network streaming, target tracking and recording. We offer
modular toolkits for developers and we provide cost-effective ready-torun applications for PC-based radar display and tracking under
Windows and Linux.
The Cambridge Pixel Approach
Our approach is to provide flexible, easy-to-use modules of software.
We can supply complete turn-key solutions or individual software
modules for inclusion in a customer’s existing application. And it is all
backed by Cambridge Pixel’s do-what-it-takes technical support to
help you when you need it.
Cambridge Pixel Ltd
New Cambridge House
Litlington Royston
Herts SG8 0SS UK
T: +44 1763 852749
[email protected]
www.cambridgepixel.com
The new HPx-300 Radar Output Card generates radar
video signals for system testing, simulation, training and
video streaming
• Highly configurable output signals
• Output timing synchronised to
input data
• Video (x2), Trigger, ACP/ARP, SHM,
parallel azimuth
• Configurable scan rates, PRFs
• Compact half length PCle card
• Available with SPx Simulator and
Development software
Tech Source
442 Northlake Blvd,
Altamonte Springs,
FL 32701, USA
T: 407-262-7100
[email protected]
www.techsource.com
Learn more about our products here
XMC Modules Interface 10 Gigabit
Ethernet to PCI Express
Two new XMC mezzanine modules provide a 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) interface
solution for data-intensive, real-time embedded computing systems. TheXMC-6260
and XMC-6280 from Acromag achieve high
performance using a TCP/IP offload engine
(TOE) ASIC connected to a PCI Express Gen2
x8 interface. The XMC-6260 has dual XAUI
10GBASE-KX4 ports and supports conduction-cooling or -40° to 85°C operation. The
XMC-6280 features four SFP+ ports for fiber
or copper cables. Applications include highspeed data storage, image collection/transfer,
distributed control networks and board-toboard interfaces.
To meet the needs of data-intensive, realtime applications, these fully integrated network interface cards (NIC) employ the Chelsio
T4 processor. This ASIC has four XGMAC
(10GbE) interfaces and supports up to 1M
connections. Five gigabits of DDR3 memory
enhances the number of virtual connections.
The T4 chip provides full offload support for
TCP, UDP, iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). Other functions include highperformance packet switching, traffic filtering
and management. By relieving the host CPU of
these network processing tasks, very low Ethernet latency and high-level determinism are
reliably achievable. Software drivers are available for Linux and Windows.
An 8-lane PCIe host interface provides a
high-speed connection to the system processor.
With support for 5 Gbit/s data rates, the PCIe
Standard “Off the Shelf” Flat Cable Assemblies
Target Three Application Groups
A line of standard flat cable
assemblies is designed to provide
reliable performance, long service
life and quick-delivery, plug & play
solutions. Joining a broad line of
already in-stock highly flexible flat
cables from Cicoil, the fully terminated “off the shelf” assemblies
are available in 3-foot, 6-foot and
12-foot lengths. Made in the USA, the cable assemblies are organized
in three groups for easy application selection: Motion Control, Data &
Video and Unshielded, including IDC Ribbon, Thermocouple, Festoon
and High Voltage configurations.
All of the cables utilized on the assemblies are encapsulated with
Cicoil’s exclusive, crystal-clear Flexx-Sil jacketing compound, which
clearly shows the purity and cleanliness of the material, as well as the
precise placement of each individual cable component. All of Cicoil’s
cables have a Durometer of 65 (Shore A) and can be provided in an impact-resistant SuperTuff version with a Durometer of 85 (Shore A). For
applications that require resistance to friction and abrasion, Cicoil offers
its proprietary GlideRite and SlideRite anti-friction coatings by request.
The compact, flame retardant cable designs are free of halogens
and contaminants and also have very low outgassing characteristics. In
addition, the Flexx-Sil jacket is self-healing from small punctures and
will not wear, crack or deform due to long-term exposure to motion, tight
routing, vibration, water, ice, steam, sunlight, humidity, ozone, UV light,
autoclave, expanded temperatures (-65° to +260°C) or many chemicals.
Cicoil’s Flexx-Sil Jacketed Cables are UL and CSA recognized, CE
conforming, RoHS 2 & REACH compliant, Class 1 clean room rated and
are cured continuously, with no debris or material contamination in an
automated, climate controlled environment.
Cicoil, Valencia, CA. (661) 295-1295. www.cicoil.com.
48
OCTOBER 2013
FEBRUARY
2014 RTC
RTCMAGAZINE
MAGAZINE
interface delivers up to 32 Gbit/s of bandwidth
to the server. This connection enables stateless
offloads, packet filtering (firewall offload) and
traffic shaping (media streaming).
The XMC-6260 and XMC-6280 modules
provide a complete and flexible TCP offload
solution. The TOE ASIC has hundreds of programmable registers for protocol configuration
and offload control. As a result, these modules
can offload TCP processing per connection,
per server, per interface. They can also globally and simultaneously tunnel traffic from
non-offloaded connections to the host processor for the native TCP/IP stack to process.
Additionally, the modules provides a flexible
zero-copy capability for regular TCP connections, requiring no changes to the sender, to deliver line rate performance with minimal CPU
usage. All versions are available with lead or
lead-free solder starting at $2,750.
Acromag, Wixom, MI. (248) 295-0310.
www.acromag.com.
SMARC Module for Small Form Factor ARM-Based
Embedded and Mobile Systems
A new ARM-based Smart Mobility Architecture (SMARC) form
factor computer-on-module (COM) is built on a TI AM3517 System on
Chip (SoC), using an ARM Cortex-A8 processor at 600 MHz and with
a power envelope of less than 2 watts. With such a favorable performance-to-power ratio, the LEC-3517 from Adlink Technology enables
system architects to use a fully passively cooled system design, suitable
for portable and stationary embedded devices, such as industrial handhelds, control terminals, Human Machine Interfaces, medical devices
and industrial tablets.
Adlink’s LEC-3517 utilizes the short version of the SMARC module definition (82 mm x 50 mm) and offers 256 Mbyte DRAM, 512
Mbyte NAND flash on board. The module supports 18/24-bit Parallel LCD displays and 8-bit camera input. The LEC-3517 also features
a USB 2.0 host port and a USB client port, four Serial ports, a CAN
bus port, and one 10/100 Ethernet port, as well as 12 GPIO signals.
Off-module storage can be implemented through either SDIO or eMMC
on the carrier. Standard operating systems include Linux, Android and
Windows CE, with corresponding board support package (BSP).
Along with the release of the SMARC module, Adlink is also introducing its SMARC carrier board, LEC-BASE. The LEC-BASE functions as a reference design for the LEC product line, and also as a setup
for software development and hardware testing. The LEC-BASE offers
myriad I/O in addition to the basic I/O function of the CPU modules.
It provides combined HDMI/DP output, RGB 18/24-bit, LVDS 18/24bit, a touchscreen controller, GPS and G sensors, 1x GbE, HD Audio,
SPDIF, CSI-2 camera input, RGB camera input, SD/SDIO, eMMC/SD/
SDIO, GPIO, 4x UART, 4x USB, 1x USB OTG, 2x CAN, 1x PCI Express 1x (PCIe) and one SATA interface. Two mini PCIe sockets enable
use of Wi-Fi / Bluetooth and 3G modules for connectivity. The BSP for
each CPU module is configured to support the entire onboard functionality to minimize delays in testing and maximize time for application
development.
ADLINK Technology, San Jose, CA. (408) 360-0200. www.adlinktech.com.
rformance Computing Conference
The Event for
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RTECC brings intelligent and embedded
systems to your doorstep.
17 Locations in 2014
Register today at www.rtecc.com
• Learn how embedded systems are evolving to become more
connected, pervasive, distributed, and intelligent
• Meet key industry experts face-to-face to discuss needs
and get solutions
• RTECC–More than a conference, it’s a road-map to your
success and the future of embedded computing
2014 Real-Time & Embedded Computing Conferences
Santa Clara, CA
January 23
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June 24-26
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November 13
Chicago, IL
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High-Performance Computing Conference
June 25-26
Rosemont, IL
HPCConference.com
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CompanyPage Website
Acces I/O.......................................................................................................................... 41.............................................................................................................www.accesio.com
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc............................................................................................. 52................................................................................................ www.amd.com/embedded
Advantech......................................................................................................................... 20.........................................................................................................www.advantech.com
Cambridge Pixel................................................................................................................ 47................................................................................................. www.cambridgepixel.com
Congatec, Inc..................................................................................................................... 4.............................................................................................................. www.congatec.us
Dolphin Interconnect Solutions........................................................................................... 51......................................................................................................... www.dolphinics.com
DVCon.............................................................................................................................. 12.................................................................................................................www.dvcon.org
Intellegent Systems Source................................................................................................ 43.....................................................................................www.intelligentsystemsource.com
Lauterbach........................................................................................................................ 50........................................................................................................ www.lauterbach.com
Men Micro......................................................................................................................... 38......................................................................................................... www.menmicro.com
MSC Embedded, Inc........................................................................................................... 4...................................................................................................www.mscembedded.com
One Stop Systems, Inc................................................................................................... 13, 16.............................................................................................www.onestopsystems.com
Pentair/Schroff.................................................................................................................. 25................................................................................................ www.NEEDADDRESS.com
Pentek............................................................................................................................... 9...............................................................................................................www.pentek.com
Real Time Embedded Computing Conference..................................................................... 49................................................................................................................ www.rtecc.com
RTD............................................................................................................................... 26-27.................................................................................................................www.rtd.com
Sensoray........................................................................................................................... 17...........................................................................................................www.sensoray.com
Trenton Systems................................................................................................................. 2.................................................................................................. www.trentonsystems.com
TQ Systems GmbH......................................................................................................... 31, 35................................................................... www.convergencepromotions.com/TQ-USA
WinSystems...................................................................................................................... 21....................................................................................................... wwwwinsystems.com
Product Showcase............................................................................................................. 17........................................................................................................................................
RTC (Issn#1092-1524) magazine is published monthly at 905 Calle Amanecer, Ste. 250, San Clemente, CA 92673. Periodical postage paid at San Clemente and at additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RTC, 905 Calle Amanecer, Ste. 250, San Clemente, CA 92673.
50
advertisement_multicore_7,375x3,375.indd 1
30.01.2012 13:34:54
Remote Device
to Device
Transfers
Fast Data Transfers
Need to access FPGA, GPU, or CPU resources
between systems? Dolphin’s PCI Express
Network provides a low latency, high throughput
method to transfer data. Use peer to peer
communication over PCI Express to access
devices and share data with the lowest latency.
Learn how PCI Express™ improves your application’s performance
www.dolphinics.com