Industrial fanless Panel PC, Human Machine Interface (HMI) and Industrial touch monitor/display range include Intel ATOM, Celeron, Core 2 Duo, Core i. NEMA 4, IP65 enclosure with size of 5.7”, 8”, 10.4”, 12.1”, 15”, 17” and 21” with touch screen. These panel PCs are designed specifically for industrial panel PC application such as industrial automation HMI, in vehicle, kiosk, digital signage, beverage and medical.
Again this year, we asked respondents to tell us if they were currently seeking new job opportunities. Those who are actively seeking new opportunities made up 8.0% of respondents and had an average annual salary of $98,166—about $8,000 less than the average. Passive job seekers made up 36.9% of respondents, whose average salary was slightly less than average at $104,103. Those not seeking new opportunities (55.1%) were making an above average salary of $109,809.
There is a message here for employers. If you are paying less than the industry average, you could very likely lose your engineers. Based on data from industrial auto machines, a recruiting and contract staffing company based in Minnesota, there is a high demand for automation professionals, and high-quality candidates are hard to find. When companies do find good candidates, the candidates typically have multiple offers on the table. If your company employs high-quality professionals, pay them well, or you may lose them.
When we asked survey respondents if they were happy working in the automation profession, nearly 80% said “yes.” Only 2.2% said “no,” and 18.0% said “sometimes.” Those who said “yes” are making just slightly higher salaries than the average—$107,772. However, those who said “no” are making significantly less than the average—$90,875. Those who are happy “sometimes” came in just under the average at $104,356.
refer to: http://www.automation.com/factors-that-affect-your-salary-what-you-need-to-know
The automotive industry is changing rapidly to address the stringent requirements for safety and security of vehicular systems. Requirements are not only coming from customers, but regulatory authorities are also pressuring for greater safety and security in vehicles. The requirements include high bandwidth networks, improved data security, enhanced functional safety, and reduced energy consumption. The ISO 26262 standard defines functional safety for automotive equipment applicable throughout the lifecycle of all automotive electronic and electrical safety-related systems. The standard is an adaptation of the Functional Safety standard IEC 61508 for in-vehicle computers. Embedded systems need to be protected against any real-time defects to make it safe for use. Real-time defects can include internal and external errors (e.g., the vehicular communication network). Automotive data security ranges from in-vehicle computer protection to enabling secure communication with external devices such as smart phones, MP3 players, or navigation devices. Security also means protection against hackers. After gaining access, a hacker could control everything from the entertainment system to braking.
refer to: http://www.edn.com/design/automotive/4421704/Safety---security-architecture-for-automotive-ICs
With the modern demands of industrial controls networking aplliance, it is imperative that we keep our clocks in synch across all of the devices in the network. Between the PLC, the SCADA system (PC or otherwise) and even the remote devices, many of these devices maintain real-time clocks (RTCs) on an Ethernet network for protocol support purposes. Therefore, we need to make certain that each of these devices synchs to one another lest the RTCs conflict, leading to packet losses and clashing time stamps. An extremely useful, and often implemented but forgotten, feature of modern intelligent devices is a protocol called Simple Network Time Protocol, or SNTP.
Prior to SNTP networking aplliance on modern industrial devices, engineers were forced to utilize some form of messaging to pass integers relating to the appropriate pieces of the time and date across their respective industrial protocols. Although this worked, it was tedious and very prone to errors, operator or otherwise. Furthermore, the precision was insufficient due to the nature of the messaging protocol, since milliseconds, or sometimes even seconds, could pass between the time the message was sent and when it was received. However, without another way, this was the only method left to controls engineers.
The 4th generation Intel Core processor family is bringing the Internet of Things to the factory floor. With 2x faster signal processing, the processors support analytics applications like machine vision and equipment monitoring. Newly solutions secure communications tie together the factory floor, control room, and supply chain. And the up to 60 percent faster graphics and flexible I/O permit industrial equipment manufacturers to combine previously separate hardware, reducing cost and complexity.
Throughout history, new fanless embedded systems have transformed the manufacturing industry. From the invention of steam engines to the introduction of computerized controls, these technologies have led to enormous leaps in productivity and quality. Today we are at another turning point. The introduction of embedded systems and Internet of Things technology are enabling unprecedented data sharing and analysis, turning previously disconnected manufacturing systems into an efficient, highly responsive whole.
They work in harsh environments, and they get little or no recognition. But their impact on power plant efficiency can be significant. Valves and actuators are critical in almost every aspect of single board computer. They are used in a wide range of applications, including pollution control, feed water, cooling water, chemical treatment, bottom ash and steam turbine control embedded systems. They are exposed to a variety of chemicals, abrasive materials and very high temperatures. They are critical in optimizing efficiency, and they are often the final control element in the operation of a power plant.
Although the basic technology for most valves and actuators has remained unchanged, innovative applications and design modifications for problem solving have led to notable improvements in actuator technology. These improvements can reduce costs by supporting the control valve's ability to throttle accurately, thereby providing better performance for high-pressure steam bypass, turbine bypass and other critical power plant operations. Actuators regulate mass and energy flows by adjusting valves, flaps and cocks.
Let's see what our customer say about the product:
“It might sound curious, but maybe the most important part of a embedded computer. It is a good software support,” Budelmann continues. “The best hardware is useless if there is no BSP, or if the supported software is outdated. Writing the BSP on your own is normally too expensive and time consuming, so users should regard this important point when identifying and evaluating new COMs.”
“If it is a mobile application with low to medium computing performance requirements, then Qseven is the right choice,” says Christian Eder, Marketing Manager at congatec AG headquartered in Deggendorf, Germany (www.congatec.com). “Medical systems typically require special functionalities such as ultrasonic control or high levels of isolation in order to protect patients in case of a malfunction. Standard SBCs typically do not feature that. The embedded computer logical consequence is to create a custom carrier board that takes all specific functionalities and complete it with a standard COM. Once this combination is certified, it is quite easy to upgrade or scale to other CPUs while the certification remains or just needs to be updated. This provides a lot of freedom to choose the best-fitting CPU and graphics for a given application.”
VITA Technologies reached out to the
supplier community to ask “What is your vision of the embedded board/systems
business five years from now? What does it look like to you, from an
application, technology, and business perspective?”
The responses I got back were very
interesting to me. They reinforce my embedded system observations on a trend to mass
customization in the industry that I have commented on for several years. While
many suppliers have not quite acknowledged the inevitable movement to mass
customization, others have embraced the trend. They have adjusted their product
strategies to better address the changing needs of customers who desire
products that can be effectively and efficiently modified for their most
specific needs. They have adjusted their embedded system strategy to develop products
that lend themselves well to customization, and can be implemented quickly and
cost effectively.
Department of Defense (DoD) officials trying to keep the lights on in today’s budget constrained environment love how cloud embedded computer can reduce data center operational costs, bricks and mortar expenses, and staff overhead. Virtually storing data instead of physically in a hard drive is very appealing – especially to younger military personnel who have grown up with virtual technology such as the iPhone and the iCloud. However, military cloud services – just like military smartphones and tablets – will need to be much more secure.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defines embedded computer as “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”
A change in market dynamics is causing a fundamental paradigm shift in industry's thinking: Instead of continuing to invest precious Research and embedded Development (R&D) resources and dollars to build expensive, special-purpose proprietary systems with the hope that they will never fail, industry leaders are now assuming that there will be hardware and software failures and thus designing systems and applications that continue to provide end-user service in the presence of such failures. State-of-the-art software and related standards have made significant advances in recent years to support sophisticated schemes and quick embedded implementation of highly available applications and services that can run on relatively inexpensive COTS hardware systems. Some significant industry standardization efforts can be found lately.... refer to: http://xtca-systems.com/articles/engineered-cots-network-systems/
Fortunately, the members of gaming platform recognized the need for mezzanine standards early in the emerging board industry. By the late 1980s, discussions started to standardize a few different mezzanine form factors. First to emerge were S-bus and PCI Mezzanine Cards (PMCs). S-bus was driven by Sun Microsystems while the gaming platform form factor evolved out of an IEEE effort. While neither was a VITA standard, PMC went on to become a widely used mezzanine for 6U cards for VME, gaming platform, Compact PCI, and other form factors.
Software architects designing critical embedded systems have tough choices to make when selecting an operating system. Decisions can be both simplified and complicated with new framework and platform initiatives coming into being.
Operating systems that control critical embedded systems have many stringent requirements that they must be able to address in order for them to be considered for deployment. There will always be debate about the best operating systems to deploy in critical applications. However, improvements in real-time operating capabilities in Windows and Linux have opened up the door to options in addition to traditional Real-Time Operating Systems(RTOSs).
The speed of innovation in automotive IVI is making a lot of heads turn. No question, Linux OS and Android are the engines for change.
The open source software movement has forever transformed the mobiledevicelandscape. Consumers are able to do things today that 10 years ago were unimaginable. Just when smartphone and tablet users are comfortable using their devices in their daily lives, another industry is about to be transformed. The technology enabled by open source in this industry might be even more impressive than what we’ve just experienced in the smartphone industry.
The industry isautomotive, and already open source software has made significant inroads in how both driver and passenger interact within theautomobile. Open source stalwartsLinuxand Google are making significant contributions not only in the user/driver experience, but also insafety-criticaloperations,vehicle-to-vehicle communications, and automobile-to-cloudinteractions.
IT managers are under increasing pressure to boost network capacity and performance to cope with the data deluge. Networking systems are under a similar form of stress with their performance degrading as new capabilities are added in software. The solution to both needs is next-generation System-on-Chip (SoC) communications processors that combine multiple cores with multiple hardware acceleration engines.
The data deluge, with its massive growth in both mobile and enterprise network traffic, is driving substantial changes in the architectures of base stations, routers, gateways, and other networking systems. To maintainhigh performanceas traffic volume and velocity continue to grow, next-generation communications processors combinemulticoreprocessors with specialized hardware acceleration engines inSoCICs.
The following discussion examines the role of the SoC in today’s network infrastructures, as well as how the SoC will evolve in coming years. Before doing so, it is instructive to consider some of the trends driving this need.
1.Networks under increasing stress 2. Moore’s Law not keeping pace 3. Hardware acceleration necessary, but …
4.Next-generation multicore SoCs
The expectations for video quality continue to rise as more applications take advantage of video sources. Transmitting more video data at higher rates requires attention to a range of signal integrity issues summarized here.
Industrial video systems such as machine vision, surveillance equipment, and medical displays face a myriad of challenges transporting high-resolution video data from source to processor or display.
Current solutions such as Camera Link, GigE Vision, and other LVDS interfaces have served the industrial market quite well, but are now encountering obstacles associated with reliably transmitting higher-speed data over long cable lengths. Increased EMI often accompanies higher switching data rates. Also, there is the constant desire to minimize both system cost and design complexity.
The following discussion will examine the design challenges associated with moving to higher data rate embedded video interfaces and present several solutions.
CHALLENGES IN COMMON INDUSTRIAL VIDEO APPLICATIONS
Let’s start by looking at a few common applications. Machine vision systems require the transfer of captured image data from a digital camera to a remote frame grabber. The rate of data transfer is influenced by the resolution, bit depth, and frame rate of the image capture. Higher-resolution and bit-depth images are designed to provide the detail required for complex analysis. This is critical for uses such as electronics inspection equipment, where the geometries are shrinking and necessitating more detailed examination. Faster frame rates are desirable to improve overall inspection throughput.
Today’s machine vision systems typically employ the communication interface specified by the Camera Link standard. Published in October 2000, this standard has successfully supported the vision industry for years. The interface consists of parallel differential pairs of serialized data (7:1 ratio), as well as a parallel differential clock. Figure 1 illustrates a common Camera Link interface.
fanless computers, Panel PC, single board computer
The 7:1 serialization scheme over LVDS provides efficient, robust communication for many applications. However, there are some limitations and challenges when scaling the technology to higher throughput and longer distances. The parallel nature of the differential clock and data pairs (diagrammed in Figure 2) is susceptible to excessive pair-to-pair cable skew when the clock rate and distance increase. Because a separate clock channel is used to sample data at the Camera Link receiver, it is important to maintain the proper setup and hold relationship between the two. As the interconnect length increases, the inter-pair skew increases, possibly exceeding the margin. High-grade and more expensive cable and connector solutions might be required to minimize the skew.
fanless computers, Panel PC, single board computer
Similar challenges face industrial display systems, where the link is between an image source (an imager or graphic controller) and a digital display. As with vision systems, there is a drive to increase data rates and support higher color depth up to true color at 24 bits per pixel. More significant is the move to HD resolution and beyond, providing useful detail for surveillance and medical applications. Parallel LVDS solutions similar to those used by Camera Link experience the same type of cable skew limitations. As the data rates increase, skew margin is further reduced and maximum cable length decreases.
Using an embedded clock interface eliminates this inter-pair skew limitation. All data and clock are encoded and serialized for transmission over a single differential pair such as shown in Figure 3. The deserializer receives the serial stream and uses a clock and data recovery circuit to extract the clock and data signals.
fanless computers, Panel PC, single board computer
In addition to removing skew concerns, a serialized solution provides several other advantages. Driving only one differential pair reduces the overall size of the interconnect media. This means smaller cables and connectors can be used, minimizing connector footprint area on the PCB and allowing a narrower and more flexible interface. Reducing the number of pairs in the cable assembly and removing the restriction for tight skew tolerance enables the use of lower-cost cables.
Moving to a serialized interface can have a positive impact on system design. However, some considerations must be addressed when designing with an embedded clock scheme. First, designers must consider the fact that the data rate on the differential pair is now much higher. Data that was once transmitted over four pairs is now sent on only one pair – approximately a 4x increase in data rate.
TECHNIQUES THAT EASE DESIGN
Other design considerations are associated with higher interface speeds, along with the array of features and techniques available to ease design and enable robust and cost-effective solutions.
At these higher data rates, signal integrity becomes more critical. Designers are no longer concerned with the alignment of clock and data, but rather with the eye opening of each bit within the serialized data stream. As data traverses the cable, the signal is degraded due to the effects of attenuation, jitter, and Inter-Symbol Interference (ISI). To be received correctly, it is important that the data eye be open at the end of the cable – the input to the deserializer.
Cable equalization and de-emphasis are two features targeted at combating signal degradation. The effect of equalization is to reopen the differential signal’s data eye at the far end of a cable, as illustrated in Figure 4. An equalizer applies a high-pass filter and gain curve that is inversely proportional to the cable’s attenuation curve. The ability to program the equalizer’s gain allows for tuning to optimize performance with different cables and lengths. This circuit can be discrete or built in to the deserializer’s input.
fanless computers, Panel PC, single board computer
The second technique, signal de-emphasis, combats the effects of ISI. Depending on the data pattern being transmitted, a charge might build up on the cable. This impedes the ability to quickly switch to the opposite state. ISI results in the loss of signal amplitude and is especially apparent when sending a single bit, for example, a single one in the midst of a long string of zeros. The energy of this single-bit transition is not enough to offset the charge stored in the cable, thus a closed eye appears at the deserializer’s input.
De-emphasis (with effects shown in Figure 5) reduces the output voltage driven on the line after the initial transition is complete. This minimizes charge buildup on the cable and the associated DC offset and allows the signal to easily transition to a new state. The level of de-emphasis should be adjustable such that the effect can be optimized for interconnect characteristics.
Figure 5: The eye opening at the end of a 10 m cable is shown without de-emphasis (left) and with de-emphasis (right).
EMI: A UNIVERSAL ISSUE
A challenge common to all systems, whether using a traditional or serialized interface, is EMI reduction. As resolutions and color depths increase, the edge rate and number of channels switching increases, resulting in increased emissions. This can be attacked on several fronts, starting with LVDS and its widespread use. LVDS has a common parallel video interface (four data pairs and one clock pair) and is used in serialized embedded clock solutions.
However, the connection to the source and sink devices (frame grabber or display) might use an LVCMOS interface. Wide parallel LVCMOS output buses are notorious as emissions hot spots. It is important to try to minimize the energy related to these outputs switching and to spread the spectrum of this energy where possible. As parallel outputs switch faster, the edge rates need to increase. Output transitions should be as slow as practical to support the required switching frequency and output loading. Deserializers with programmable output drive provide this flexibility.
Spreading the spectrum of energy is a common practice to reduce peak emissions. In some cases, a source might provide a spread-spectrum clock. The selected serializer and deserializer should be capable of tracking this clock modulation to gain the most benefit. Spreading at the source might not always be supported, so it is desirable to use a deserializer that can generate its own spread-spectrum output, targeting emission reduction at the output hot spot.
Even when using chipsets with EMI reduction features, it is critical to follow sound PCB design practices.
A SOLUTION FOR SERIALIZED VIDEO
National Semiconductor’s Channel Link II family of SERDES chipsets is designed to simplify the implementation of serialized video interfaces. A maximum clock frequency of 75 MHz enables HD 720-pixel video. Up to 24 bits of data, accompanying video synchronization signals, and video pixel clock are serialized to a single low-voltage differential output.
The chipsets provide adjustable de-emphasis and equalization for signal conditioning. A proprietary DC balanced encoding scheme, along with data randomization and scrambling, minimizes ISI and reduces emissions on the link, spreading the spectral content that would otherwise be present with a repetitive pattern. Both serializer and deserializer are designed to take advantage of spread-spectrum clocking from an upstream device, as well as provide a self-generated spread-spectrum clock. Additional EMI reduction features include reduced drive strength and staggered switching of parallel output drivers. All parts offer an auto-sleep power-reduction feature, shifting into a low-power mode when input interfaces are inactive.
Parallel bus connections with LVCMOS or LVDS (four data plus one clock) are available. This LVDS interface is equivalent to National’s 28-bit Channel Link product and provides an easy-to-use upgrade path where image source, frame grabber, or display controller include integrated LVDS.
For systems that require higher bandwidth and longer cable drive (compared in Figure 6), National’s FPGA Link solution is an ideal fit. Coupled with cost-effective FPGAs at the sink and source, data rates up to 3.125 Gbps can be achieved over 30 m of cable. The deserializer features a re-timed serial output to drive daisy-chained sinks, which is especially useful in tiled display applications.
Figure 6: Different serialized video interfaces meet varying needs for bandwidth and cable length.
Embedded video systems can realize advantages in both performance and cost through the use of a serialized interface. Solid design practices and techniques are important for successful implementation. National’s Channel Link II and FPGA-Link chipsets provide a serialized interface with signal conditioning to minimize skew concerns and allow the use of longer and narrower cables. EMI-reduction features and compatibility with various source and sink devices offer easy-to-use and robust solutions.
refer: http://industrial-embedded.com/articles/simplifying-embedded-video-interface/
Understanding and selecting analog IP can be risky, but engineers today have more choices and more control than they think. Knowing how to manage the IP selection process can help engineers effectively meet objectives and reduce risk.
As digital design has proliferated the electronics world, making designs faster, easier to test, and more robust, the analog portion of embedded designs is becoming a bottleneck. To meet requirements and timetables in the analog portion, engineers generally have three weapons at their disposal: utilize peripheral analog IC, build the functionality internally (make), or purchase the IP block from an external vendor (buy). Each option has its own merits and drawbacks, but none can launch a competitive advantage better or cause more frustrating confusion than analog IP.
Traditionally, these options only apply to ASIC builds, as FPGAs are not compatible with analog IP. However, this is changing quickly. Some IP companies now provide all Register Transfer Language (RTL)-based Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC), Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC), DC-DC converter controller, and clocking functions with robust performance.
With advances in wireless technologies, defining a strategy for building wireless M2M-enabled devices is not the dauntingly complex task it was once thought to be. Instead of devoting precious R&D resources to the integration of fragmented, ad hoc technologies, today’s developers can take advantage of increasingly sophisticated Embedded ApplicationFrameworks (Linux, Android, and others), some of which are highly optimized for M2M application development.
AMB-N280S1, which carries Intel dual- core 1.8 GHz Atom Processor N2800. Acrosser takes advantage of Atom Cedar Trail N2000 series processor in design, such as low power consumption and small footprint as former Atom series.
Intel Atom Processor N2800 provides more powerful graphic performance by less power consumption. AMB-N280S1 can support both two displays to maximum resolution 1920 x 1200. It also offers the 18-bit LVDS interface for small size LCD panel.
The AMB-QM77T1 is the newest Mini-ITX industrial mainboard from Acrosser Technology that supports both of the 3rd and 2nd generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 mobile processor by Intel QM77 chipset and FCPGA 988 socket.
AMB-QM77T1 is the perfect solution to deliver high computing power for a wide range of applications such as medical, industrial automation, kiosk, digital signage, and ATM machines.
The key features of the AMB-QM77T1 include:
‧ Intel QM77 chipset
‧ FCPGA socket supports 3rd Generation Intel® Core(TM) i7/i5/i3 processors and Celeron
‧ 2* DDR3-1600/1333/1066 SO-DIMM up to 16GB
‧ Supports VGA/DVI-D/HDMI/LVDS displays
‧ Support 3 independent display
‧ Dual Intel PCI-E Gigabit LAN
‧ 8* USB 2.0, 4* USB 3.0, 3* COM, 3* SATA II, 2* SATA III
‧ 1* PCI-E x16, 1* Mini PCI-E, 1* CFast socket
‧ iAMT 8.0, TPM 1.2, Watchdog timer, Digital I/O Support VGA and DVI output
The gaming computer designer and manufacturer Acrosser launches his latest All-in-One gaming computer ACE-S7400 to provide gaming industry a higher cost-performance ratio platform for slot machine and video lottery terminal(VLT) and AWP gaming machines. This model utilizes the latest computer technology from AMD platform and integrates Acrosser’s cutting edge gaming control technology.
Acrosser ACE-S7400 is powered by AMD low power G-Series dual core platform which integrates AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphic controller. The DirectX® 11 support lets you enjoy awesome graphics performance, stunning 3D visual effects and dynamic interactivity. Its advanced discrete-level GPU with OpenGL 4.0 and OpenCL™ 1.1 support in an integrated device provides support to build the designs of tomorrow, today. The ACE-S7400 is designed to meet most of the international gaming regulations such as GLI-11 standard. Its micro-fit connectors provide complete digital I/O, ccTalk and intrusion logger requirements in the gaming machines. The ACE-S7400 gaming controller also embeds pulse generators which unload the complexity of handling meters in a slot machine.
