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RTOS provider, TenAsys has teamed up with Intel co-development partner and hypervisor technology specialist, Real-Time Systems to develop PC-based software for a secure, consolidated system of disparate workloads for deterministic applications.

The RTS Hypervisor for x86 architecture enables TenAsys’ INtime RTOS applications to run alongside different operating systems and varying workloads in hard real-time at minimum jitter, avoiding any overhead from virtualisation. Designers can make use of the latest protocols and CPU technologies like time-sensitive networking (TSN) or Intel Time Coordinated Computing (TCC). According to RealTime Systems, the consolidated system enhances system performance, reduces system power consumption, increases flexibility in communication and enables shared use of USB, NVMe, and advanced host controller interface (AHCI) devices.

INtime distributed RTOS has been para-virtualised to operate within the RTS Hypervisor. The hardware-assisted virtualisation technology securely shields real-time applications from other operating systems. This improves security, says TenAsys and also allows a reboot of the general purpose OS while real-time applications on INtime keep running during the process.

“INtime for Windows has been one of the most popular Windows real-time environments for many years. With INtime Distributed RTOS support in our solution, even more designers around the globe can now benefit from the RTS Hypervisor, which is developing more and more into the de facto standard for industrial automation and medical applications,” said Gerd Lammers, founder of Real-Time Systems.

For qualified applicants, Real-Time Systems and TenAsys provide a pre-integrated evaluation version free of charge.

TenAsys was founded in 2000 and provides real-time software and services based on the Intel x86 architecture and Microsoft Windows for mission-critical systems.

Real-Time Systems provides hypervisor technology specialising in real-time virtualisation. The Intel co-development partner was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Ravensburg, Germany.

Since 2018, Real-Time Systems is a company of congatec AG with partners in Europe, USA, and Asia.

http://www.real-time-systems.com

Expanding its range of industrial ATX motherboards, Portwell has introduced the RUBY-D811-Q370, which features Intel 8th/9th generation Core processors and the Intel Q370 chipset, formerly known as Coffee Lake S.

According to Brian Lai, Portwell’s product manager, RUBY-D811-Q370 provides a stable balance of energy efficiency and optimised performance of computing power, accelerated graphic processing and overall power consumption. “The new industrial ATX computer board supports control of factory automation, multiple peripherals, and network connectivity,” he added. The industrial ATX motherboard can be used for industry 4.0, semiconductor test equipment, factory process robot control, automated guide vehicles, GPU computing engines, medical imaging, smart retail, casino gaming machines, smart transportation and military applications.

The RUBY-D811-Q370 industrial ATX form factor motherboard uses Intel 8th/9th Generation Core i3/i5/i7/i9 processors (formerly Coffee Lake S platform) with as many as eight cores in the LGA 1151 socket as well as the latest Intel Gen 9 graphic engine. The motherboard also offers support for Dual Channel DDR4 Non-ECC Long-DIMM 2400/2666 MHz up to 128Gbyte, six USB 3.1 ports (four on the rear I/O), six USB 2.0 ports and six SATA III, three configurable PCIe 3.0 slots (configured as one PCIe x16 or two PCIe x8 signal or one PCIe x8 and two PCIe x4 slots). There are also three PCIe 3.0 x4, two PCIe 3.0 x1 and a mini-PCIe slot with one M.2 key E 2230 for wireless and one M.2 key M 2242/2260/2280 for SSD. Other features are dual Gigabit Ethernet, 10 COM ports, triple independent displays – dual DP (4K resolution), one HDMI (4k resolution) and one VGA (resolution up to 1920×1200) are available in both clone and extended modes. There is also an ATX power input.

In addition to the flexibility and functionality of multiple I/Os and PCIe expansion slots, the RUBY-D811-Q370 is covered by Portwell’s 10+ years long product life span support.

http://www.portwell.eu

The latest open specification for high performance compute modules will be under review by members of the PICMG, a consortium for the development of open embedded computing specifications.

COM-HPC is the soon-to-be-released PICMG standard for high-performance computer-on-modules (COMs). COM-HPC defines five module sizes to deliver edge server performance for small, rugged data centres. The new specification will complement COM Express, which is expected to play a crucial role in the COM marketplace “for many years”.

PICMG developed the COM-HPC specification to address emerging requirements in the embedded and edge computing market. These have seen trends, including the substantial data growth and processing requirements of broadband and 5G as well as edge analytic including AI and situational awareness applications come to the fore. IoT devices, sensors, and actuators produce large amounts of data that require pre-processing at the edge for improved data processing efficiency and end to end security. Autonomous vehicles, smart factories, smart retail, medical robotics are among many applications that will benefit from increased edge server and edge client class processors processor modules or COMs available in standard modules that existing standards cannot meet.

The COM-HPC specification is based on two 400-pin, BGA mount, high-performance connectors and a system management interface. It is not limited to x86 processors and can be used with RISC processors, FPGAs and general purpose GPUs.

The COM-HPC client modules have up to 48 + 1 PCI Express Gen4/5 lanes, up to four USB4 ports and up to four video interfaces and one or two 25Gbit Ethernet interfaces.

Module sizes are 95 x 120mm (Size A), 120 x 120mm (Size B) and 160 x 120mm (Size C).

The COM-HPC server modules are characterised by up to 64 + 1 PCI Express Gen4/5 lanes, one or two USB4 ports, up to four graphic interfaces or are headless. There are up to eight 25Gbit Ethernet interfaces.

Module sizes are 160 x 160mm and 200 x 160mm (Sizes D and E respectively).

Founded in 1994, PICMG is a not-for-profit 501(c) consortium of companies and organisations that collaboratively develop open standards for high performance industrial, Industrial IoT, military and aerospace, telecommunications, test and measurement, medical, and general-purpose embedded computing applications. There are over 130 member companies that specialise in a wide range of technical disciplines, including mechanical and thermal design, single board computer design, high-speed signalling design and analysis, networking expertise, backplane, and packaging design, power management, high availability software and comprehensive system management.

Key standards families developed by PICMG include COM Express, CompactPCI, CompactPCI Serial, AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, AdvancedMC, COM Express, SHB Express, MicroSAM, and HPM (Hardware Platform Management).

https://www.picmg.org

Credit card sized embedded computer modules have a new footprint that reduces the size of a computer on module (COM) to a postage stamp. Technical consortium, SGET, has announced release 1.0 of the Open Standard Module (OSM) COM standard. OSM defines one of the first standards for directly solderable and scalable embedded computer modules.

The new specification aims to standardise the footprint and interface set of low-power application processors based on MCU32, Arm and x86 architectures across different sockets, manufacturers and architectures. Target applications of the new module standard include IoT-connected embedded, IoT, and edge systems that run open-source operating systems and are used in harsh industrial environments.

“OSM modules give ODMs and OEMs a miniature form factor with high scalability” explained Martin Unverdorben, chairman of the SGET STD.05 Standard Development Team. The modules are application-ready and supplied with all necessary software drivers and board support packages. The specification is open source, both in terms of the hardware and software, he added.

Like all CoM standards, OSMs simplify and accelerate the design-in of processors. At the same time, applications become processor-agnostic, which makes them scalable and future-proof, says SGET. They also protect NRE investments and extend the long-term availability, to increase RoI and sustainability of embedded systems. The OSM specification offers an extra level of ruggedness due to the BGA design and automated surface mount technology (SMT), which can further reduce production costs in series production, advises SGET.

OSMs are also published and licensed under Creative Commons Plus (CC+) dual license. This allows an open licensing model, such as the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC B-SA 4.0) for a defined set of materials, components and software, and a commercial license for everything not included in this set. This ensures that development data, such as block diagrams, libraries and BOMs resulting from the development of OSMs, will be publicly available. It is also possible to license the IP of a carrier board design commercially without violating the open source idea.

The new OSM specification expands the portfolio of SGET module specifications with solderable BGA mini modules that are “significantly smaller” than previously available modules. The largest OSM measures 45 x 45mm, making it 28 per cent smaller than the µQseven module (40 x 70mm) and 51 per cent smaller than SMARC (82 x 50mm).

Other sizes are OSM Size-0 (30 x 15mm) with 188 BGA pins, OSM Size-S (30 x 30mm) with 332 pins, OSM Size-M (30 x 45mm) and 476 pins and Size-L (45 x 45mm) with 662 BGA pins. SMARC, by comparison, specifies 314 pins and Qseven 230. The BGA design makes it possible to implement significantly more interfaces on a smaller footprint, points out SGET, both in terms of miniaturisation and the increasing complexity of requirements.

The interfaces vary in type and design depending on the size of the OSM modules. Modules from Size-S upwards offer video interfaces for up to one RGB and four-channel DSI. Size-M modules can additionally support two eDP/eDP++, and Size-L adds an LVDS interface for graphics.

The OSM specification provisions up to five Ethernet for system-to-system communication. In addition, all modules have what is called a communication area, providing 18 pins for antenna signals for wireless communication or the integration of field buses. There are four USB 2.0 or two USB 3.0 (only in Size-L), up to two CAN, and four UART. Flash storage media can be connected via UFS. Up to 19 pins are available for manufacturer-specific signals. There are 39 general purpose I/Os, SPI, I2C, I2S, SDIO and two analogue inputs. Up to 58 pins are reserved for future purposes.

https://sget.org