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COM Express modules from X-ES

RUGGED, POWERFUL

Our family of fully ruggedized COM Express modules support the latest high-performance Freescale QorIQ and Intel® Core™ i7 processors and include soldered down memory with ECC, additional mounting holes, and Class III PCB fabrication and assembly. When you choose X-ES COM Express modules, you are supported with excellent development platforms and innovative rapid-deployment systems. Contact us today to learn more.

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Extreme Engineering Solutions608.833.1155 www.xes-inc.com

6 | Embedded Intel® Solutions — Summer 2013 | www.embeddedintel.com

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Product News

ADLINK Introduces High Quality Visual Solutions Across Form Factors with 4th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor

Enhanced media performance and power improvements ben-efit applications in medical, defense, transportation and industrial automation

ADLINK Technology, Inc. has announced availability of its initial offerings on the 4th gen-

eration Intel® Core™ processor family (formerly codenamed “Haswell”) with Intel® 8-series chipsets. The first products featuring the new generation processor are the Express-HL and Express-HL2 (COM Express®), NuPRO-E42 (PICMG 1.3), cPCI-3510 (CompactPCI®), and Matrix MXE-5400, enabling enhanced embedded applications in medical, defense, transpor-tation, and industrial automation.

congatec presents its fastest COM Express module based on 4th Generation Intel® Core™ processors

conga-TS87 COM Express Type 6 basic module: Unprec-edented vector processing, floating point and graphics performance with no increase in power draw

congatec, Inc. announces the availability of the conga-TS87, a

Type 6 COM Express module featuring 4th Generation Intel® CoreT processors. The COM Express module offers outstanding performance, featuring improved vector processing, more effi-cient floating point calculation and amazing graphics without an increase in power consumption.

Supermicro® Announces Support for New Intel® Xeon Phi™ x100 Product FamilyFull Range of SuperServer® Solutions Including FatTwin™ Provide Widest Selection of High-Density Compute Plat-forms for High-Performance Computing

Super Micro Computer, Inc. announced the industry’s widest range of server solutions supporting Intel’s new Xeon Phi coprocessors in Leipzig, Germany at the 2013 International Supercomputing Conference (ISC). Supermicro’s HPC solu-

tions unify the latest Intel® Xeon® processors with Intel’s Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture based Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors to dramatically accelerate development and per-formance of engineering, scientific and research applications. Supermicro solutions are available in 0.7U SuperBlade®, 1U, 2U, 3U SuperServer® and high-density 7U 20x MIC SuperBlade® or 4U 12x MIC FatTwin designed to support the highest perfor-mance 300W Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. FatTwin clusters have been successfully deployed in the field supporting thousands of nodes at recent HPC projects. With new Supermicro solutions based on Intel Xeon Phi 3100, 5100 and 7100 coprocessor series, the HPC community will have access to more options for massive parallel processing power with double-precision performance.

X-ES Announces 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processor-based VPX, VME, cPCI, XMC, and COM Express SBCs

Extreme Engineering Solutions, Inc. (X-ES) has introduced its 3U VPX, 6U VPX, XMC, 3U Com-pactPCI, 6U CompactPCI, 6U VME, and COM Express Single Board Computers (SBCs) based on the 4th generation Intel® Core™

i7-4700EQ processor (formerly codenamed “Haswell”). Rob Scid-more, CEO of X-ES, emphasizes X-ES’s commitment to being first to market with a wide selection of 4th generation Intel Core i7 processor-based products, “We are proud to continue our leader-ship in the industry by providing a full line-up of embedded form factors based on Intel’s latest processor architecture.”

Axiomtek Introduces Fanless Slim-type Network Appliance with Intel® Atom™ N2600 and 4 Giga-bit LANs for SOHO Users – NA341

The NA341 from Axiomtek is a fanless slim-type network appli-ance platform for small office and home office applications. The NA341 supports low-power Intel® Atom™ processor N2600 dual core 1.6 GHz with the Intel® NM10 chipset. Four Gigabit Ethernet ports are integrated into this unit with one pair LAN

bypass function. It comes with a high bandwidth DDR3 SO-DIMM slot with memory maximum up to 2 GB and features

By Jennifer Burkhardt

www.embeddedintel.com | Embedded Intel® Solutions — Summer 2013 | 7

news

processing tasks, MS-9A68 is designed with high-performance CPU power and brilliant display capability that well-satisfy those applications, such as digital signage, gaming, surveillance, Kiosk, and public transportation. In addition to its outstanding performance, the slim, light-weighted mechanical design makes the MS-9A68 especially ideal for space-limited sites or cabinet installation.

ATX Motherboard Based on Intel® C226 Chipset Supports Multiple PCIe Configurations for High Computing Workstation

DFI brings the Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3 series to the DL631-C226 ATX embedded motherboard. It is DFI’s first ATX board that supports the new Intel® C226 Express Chipset. This ATX motherboard comes with LGA 1150 socket for the Intel® Xeon® processor E3-1200 v3 series built on 22-nanometer pro-cess technology that delivers up to 5~15% CPU performance increase over the previous generations. These processors offer higher computing performance at more cost-effective and energy-efficient power consumption.

Highly Integrated EBX Single Board Computer features Intel Atom E680T CPU and on-board Data Acquisition

Hercules III Extends Life of Popular Embedded SBC Family

Diamond Systems recently unveiled Hercules III, a rugged EBX single board computer

(SBC) based on the Intel Atom E680T CPU running at 1.6GHz, and featuring 2 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 6 serial ports, and 5 USB 2.0 ports. Hercules III is the newest member of Diamond’s 2-in-1 SBC products, combining a standard CPU board’s features with industry leading data acquisition on a single board. This combination offers a highly integrated SBC in a more compact size with higher reliability, and at a lower cost.

AAEON Products Receive Recognition for their Compliance with Intel® Intelligent Systems Framework

AAEON is pleased to announce that it has been recognized for its products’ compliance with Intel’s® Intelligent Systems Framework (ISF). ISF is a standard for computing components

introduced to create a set of inter-operable solutions designed to address connecting, managing, and securing devices and data in a consistent and scalable manner. It is able to reduce fragmentation by scaling across applications and bring together operating systems, tools and hardware in one ecosystem.

one CompactFlash™ socket for storing event log; one Mini PCIe slot and two rotational WLAN antennas are available for wireless/3G/LTE network connection. This fanless embedded platform is very slim and light can be easily to fit any space-limited environment. The NA341 is an excellent choice for VPN, content filtering, UTM, network security gateway, and firewall.

PC/104-Plus SBC with Intel® Atom™ offers High-Performance and Proven I/O Expansion with -40° to +85°C Temperature Operation1.66 GHz Atom™ module powers new and legacy systems

WinSystems announced their PPM-C393-S, a PC/104-Plus com-patible single board computer (SBC) powered by an Intel® 1.66 GHz Atom™ processor. The PPM-C393-S blends high-integration I/O with PC/104-Plus expansion for a flexible yet cost-effective solution for demanding embedded applications. This combina-tion provides designers’ access to the low power performance of Intel Atom processors and to the thousands of PC/104, PC/104-Plus, and PCI-104 modules currently available worldwide.

Kontron StarVX HPEC system brings supercom-puting datacenter bandwidth and performance directly to the batt

Offering 10x the bandwidth, the application-ready Kon-tron StarVX ruggedizes mainstream technology to speed deployment of 3D recon-struction-based applications

Kontron’s StarVX High Performance Embedded Computer (HPEC) system brings supercomputing I/O bandwidth and performance, previously only achieved in IT datacenters, to the battlefield. Based only on mainstream IT technology (TCP/IP, PCIe, Intel® processors) for greater platform support and assured longevity, the 3U VPX-based Kontron StarVX enables military systems developers to drastically reduce the process from design to field deployment of radar, sonar, autonomous vehicles and other 3D reconstruction-based systems. Co-developed with PLX Technology, the Kontron StarVX integrates 3rd generation Intel® Core™ processors that provide sustained 16 gigabytes per second (GB/s) speeds to/from the memory subsystem, while the Kontron 3U VPX platform architecture provides up to 6GB/s sustained bandwidth on the data plane through TCP/IP and 4GB/s on the PCIe backplane thanks to Kontron VXFabric™. The result is an application-ready platform that delivers up to ten times more I/O data bandwidth that can even enhance existing TCP/IP-based unmodified applications.

MS-9A68 satisfies your display-critical tasks in diversified industrial fields

MSI’s IPC division proudly announced a new embedded system, MS-9A68, for display-critical applications in diversified indus-trial fields. Aiming at the monitoring, video-interactive, or demanding applications with both intensive displaying and


congatec Inc. | 6262 Ferris Square San Diego | CA 92121 USA | Phone: 858-457-2600 | [email protected] | www.congatec.us

Formfactor Formfactor COM Express™ Basic, (95 x 125 mm), Type 6 Connector Layout

CPU Intel® Core™ i7-4700EQ processor (4x 2.4 GHz, TDP 47W)Intel® Core™ i5 processor plannedIntel® Core™ i3 processor planned Intel® Celeron® processor planned

Intel® Turbo Boost Technology, Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology), Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions 2.0 (Intel® AVX2), Intel® Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI), Integrated dual channel memory controller, up to 25.6 GByte/sec. memory bandwidth, Intel® HD graphics with dynamic frequency up to 1GHz, Intel ® Clear Video HD Technology Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel® VT), Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT), Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions 4.2 (Intel® SSE4.2), PCLMULQDQ Instruction, Intel® Secure Key, Intel® Transactional Synchronization Extensions (Intel® TSX)

DRAM 2 Sockets, SO-DIMM [email protected] up to 1600MT/s and 16GByte

Chipset Mobile Intel® 8 Series Chipset: Intel® QM87 / HM86 chipset @ planned Intel® Celeron® processor variants

Ethernet Intel® Ethernet Connection I217-LM GbE LAN Controller with Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) 9.0 support

I/O Interfaces 7x PCI Express™ GEN. 2.0 lanes, 1x PEG GEN 3.0 (8GT/s), 4x Serial ATA® with 6 Gb/s, 4x Serial ATA® with 3 Gb/s (AHCI) RAID 0/1/5/10 support, 2x ExpressCard®, 4x USB 3.0 (XHCI), 8x USB 2.0 (EHCI), LPC bus, I²C bus (fast mode, 400 kHz, multi-master)

Sound Digital High Definition Audio Interface with support for multiple audio codecs

Graphics Next Generation Intel® HD Graphics with OpenCL 1.2, OpenGL 4.0 and DirectX11.1 support; up to three independent displays: HDMI 1.4, DVI, DP, VGA; High performance hardware MPEG-2 decoding, WMV9 (VC-1) and H.264 (AVC) support Blu-ray support @ 40 MBit/s

LVDS Dual channel LVDS transmitter, Supports flat panels 2x24 Bit interface, VESA mappings, resolutions up to 1920x1200, Automatic Panel Detection via EDID/EPI

Digital Display Interface (DDI) 3x DisplayPort 1.2a / TMDS (DVI, HDMI)

CRT Interface 350 MHz RAMDAC, resolutions up to QXGA (2048x1536 @75Hz)

congatec Board Controller Multi Stage Watchdog, non-volatile User Data Storage, Manufacturing and Board Information, Board Statistics, BIOS Setup Data Backup, I²C bus (fast mode, 400 kHz, multi-master), Power Loss Control

Embedded BIOS Features AMI Aptio® UEFI 2.x firmware, 8 MByte serial SPI firmware flash

Security The conga-TS87 can be optionally equipped with a discrete ”Trusted Platform Module” (TPM). It is capable of calculating efficient hash and RSA algorithms with key lengths up to 2,048 bits and includes a real random number generator. Security sensitive applications such as gaming and e commerce will benefit also with improved authentication, integrity and confidence levels.

Power Management ACPI 4.0 with battery support

Operating Systems Microsoft® Windows 8, Microsoft® Windows 7, Linux, Microsoft® Windows® embedded Standard

Power Consumption Typ. application: tbd., see manual for full details, CMOS Battery Backup

Temperature: Operating: 0 .. +60°C Storage: -20 .. +80°C

Humidity Operating: Operating: 10 - 90% r. H. non cond. Storage: 5 - 95% r. H. non cond.

Size 95 x 125 mm (3.74” x 4.92”)

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conga-TS87▪ 4th Generation Intel® Core™ processor-based platform

▪ 3x DisplayPort 1.2, up to 4k resolution (QFHD=3840x2160@60Hz)

▪ Intel® Advanced Vector Extension (Intel® AVX) 2.0 for improved floating point computing

▪ Up to 13% higher computing performance*

▪ Up to 32% higher 3D graphics performance** SPECint_base2006, 3DMARK Vantage


congatec Inc. | 6262 Ferris Square San Diego | CA 92121 USA | Phone: 858-457-2600 | [email protected] | www.congatec.us

Mobile Intel® 8 Series Chipset QM87Display Interface

High Definition AudioASRC

VGA DDC

SATA USB 2.0

LPC BusPCIe

I/O Interfaces

GPIOs

USB 3.0

4th Generation Intel® Core™ Processor

Integrated Intel HD Graphics

Vector Graphics3D

Turbo Boost 2.0 Technology

HT Technology

AVX2

AES-NI

SSE4.2 TSX

VT

AMT 9.0

TXT

2D DXVA

MPEG-2Video Codecs APIs

Hardware Graphics Accelerators

DisplayPort 1.2 HDMI 1.4 (3D, 4k)DVI

Digital Display Interfaces

CPU Platform

WMV9

H.264

OpenCL 1.2

DirectX 11.1

OpenGL 4.0

GPIOs

SPI

Dual Channel DDR3L

eDPeDP to LVDSBridge

PECI

X

2x SO-DIMM (X1/X2)

SPIFlash

0

SPIFlash

1

Monitoring

Congatec BoardController

LVDS/eDP

Intel I218LM

Ethernet 10/100/1000

TPM

LPC

I2C

SATA0 - SATA3

USB 2.0HDA

CRT

FDI DMI x4

PCIe0 - PCIe5 x1PCIe6 x1PCIe7 x1

PEG x16 (x16/x8/x4)

Ethernet

LVDS/eDP

COM Express Type 6

A-B Connector

LPC Bus

HDA I/F

USB Port 0..7

SATA Port 0SATA Port 1SATA Port 2SATA Port 3

GPIOsI2C Bus

SPI

LID#/SLEEP#FAN control

CRT

PCIe Port 0PCIe Port 1PCIe Port 2PCIe Port 3PCIe Port 4PCIe Port 5

USB 3.0 Port 0USB 3.0 Port 1USB 3.0 Port 2USB 3.0 Port 3

(TX BC)congatec custom

PCIe Port 6PCIe Port 7

COM Express Type 6

A-B Connector

PEG x16

DP/HDMI Port BDP/HDMI Port CDP/HDMI Port D

congatec Inc. 6262 Ferris Square San Diego, CA 92121 USA +1 858-457-2600 Phone +1 858-457-2602 Fax www.congatec.us

Contact Information

Article PN Description

conga-TS87/i7-4700EQ 046804 COM Express Type 6 Basic module with quad-core Intel® Core™ i7-4700EQ processor with 2.4GHz, 6MB L2 cache and 1600MT/s dual channel DDR3 memory interface

DDR3-SODIMM-1600 (2GB) 068767 DDR3 SODIMM memory module with 1600 MT/s (PC3-12800) and 2GB RAM



Engineering Tools / Accessories

conga-TEVAL 065800 Evaluation carrier board for Type 6 COM-Express-modules

conga-LDVI/EPI 011115 LVDS to DVI converter board for digital flat panels with onboard EEPROM

COM-Express-carrierboard-Socket-5 400007 Connector for COM-Express carrier boards, height 5mm, packing unit 4 pieces

COM-Express-carrierboard-Socket-8 400004 Connector for COM-Express carrier boards, height 8mm, packing unit 4 pieces


FOCUS ON INTEL

Can We “Tock”? Haswell Targets Embedded, Big Time

On June 3, 2013 Intel announced the 4th Generation Intel® Core ™ processor family, formerly codename Haswell. As this announcement follows on the heels of the 2nd generation microarchitecture, codename Sandy Bridge, and 3rd generation microar-chitecture, codename Ivy Bridge, the general public could be forgiven for seeing this as another “ho-hum” march forward of annual technology. Most consumers, if they even notice the name at all, will find these 4th generation Intel Core processors in the latest Ultrabooks, laptops and convertibles available starting in summer 2013.

But for Intel and the embedded market, the Haswell microarchi-tecture represents “significant upgrades in graphics capabilities and improvements in compute performance and power con-sumption,” said the official press release. The up-to-quad-core family, in Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processor versions, has more permutations and flavors than a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop when you include the platform controller hub (PCH) and Intel® Xeon® processor E3 server versions.

Remember, Intel has historically made the most hay in desk-tops, laptops and servers and until the rollout of Haswell, the product line going back to x86s treated embedded as an oppor-tunistic afterthought. But there are now eight Haswell CPU SKUs and four chipset SKUs focused primarily on embedded (Figure 1), or what Intel calls the Intelligent Systems market. Of course, all SKUs are on the embedded roadmap and have extended lifecycle support.

Like Ivy Bridge before it, Haswell is fabbed on Intel’s 22nm tri-gate technology. But Haswell is a “Tock” product whereas Ivy Bridge was a “Tick” (Figure 2). In Intel’s development model, this means Ivy Bridge introduced core concepts, while Haswell improves upon them and rolls out major product variants. As the desktop market wanes, the portable market—especially in

tablets, POS terminals, convertibles (like the Microsoft Surface), and other as-yet-undefined devices—looms large. Portable means all-day low power, and it also means rich HD graphics on multiple screens. So Haswell boasts improvements in graphics and power consumption, features that benefit Intel’s traditional segments but really matter on embedded platforms like COM Express, ITX, MicroTCA and myriad proprietary form factors.

Haswell has two other significant improvement categories: 1) signal pro-cessing and computing with new Intel®

Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel® AVX 2.0); and 2) security and manageability. In the latter, Intel extends Intel® vPRO, Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT) and Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT) plus a whole realm of security features such as Intel® Advanced Encryp-tion Standard New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI) crypto to embedded SKUs. The company now openly discusses how Haswell’s hardware integrates with the software of Intel’s McAfee subsidiary.

On-Board GPU GraphicsIntel® HD graphics used to be what you’d get with a low-end system that couldn’t justify a separate GPU from ATI (now AMD) or nVidia. In embedded, a separate GPU didn’t make sense so Intel® processor-based systems were “stuck” with only fair graphics performance and features. Haswell brings a 50-60 percent improvement over Ivy Bridge in what Intel now calls “best in class.” 3D rendering is built-in, along with HD playback to three separate screens. We had thought AMD would beat Intel to the punch on this latter feature as their APUs with ATI GPU EyeFinity have supported multi-screens for a while, but apparently not in embedded versions. Intel’s graphics engine offers multi-CODEC support and can decode simultaneously while transcoding video streams using Intel® Clear Video HD

By Chris A. Ciufo, Editor-in-Chief

Intel’s 4th generation core (codenamed Haswell) was introduced in desktop, mobile versions and embedded versions. The architecture’s feature set is a boon

to embedded designers.

The 4th generation Intel® Core™ pro-cessor, codename Haswell, includes variants of the Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processor.

Call 817-274-7553 or Visit WinSystems.com/AtomEIS

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Ask about our 30-day product evaluation

Intel® Atom™ ProcessorSmall, Fanless Embedded PCs

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For your next design considerWinSystems’ single board computers powered with a single- or dual-coreIntel® Atom™ processor. Our IndustryStandards-based SBCs have a wealth of onboard I/O, plus PC/104, SUMIT, and MiniPCI(e) expansion connectors.

Industry Standard Platforms • EPIC – 4.5 x 6.5 inches • EBX – 5.75 x 8.00 inches • PC/104 – 3.6 x 3.8 inches • SUMIT-ISM™ – 3.6 x 3.8 inches Software Support • Windows® CE, XPe, and WES7 • Linux • x86-compatible RTOS • Quick Start Development Kits Stackable Input/Output Modules • A/D and D/A • Digital and Serial Accessories Include • Cables and Adapters • Power Supplies and Memory Communication Expansion • 802.11 a/b/g Wireless • 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet • Supports MiniPCI and MiniPCI(e) Long-life Product Availability Extended Temperature Operation

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FOCUS ON INTEL

and Intel® Quick Sync Video 2.0 features. Haswell now supports future 4K x 2K screens right now. There’s also output options for 3840x2160 @ 60Hz on DisplayPort 1.2, and 4096x2304 @ 24Hz on HDMI 2.

The Intel® HD 4600, Intel® HD 5000, Intel® Iris™ and Intel® Iris™ Pro graphics subsystems in Haswell chips support APIs for Microsoft DirectX 11.1, OpenGL 4.0 and OpenCL 1.2. The SKU will determine which exact graphics subsystem is avail-able (number of execution units, EU) in Intel’s “building block” arrangement. This allows Haswell graphics to only get better in

the future, though they’re impressive today. A simpli-fied logical diagram of the graphics architecture is shown in Figure 3.

CODEC improvements in graphics over the 3rd generation Sandy Bridge microarchitecture include: native MVC short format, MPEG2 decode, hardware decode acceleration of scal-able video coding (SVC), AVC and VC1. By placing these decode options in hardware EUs, the Has-well ICs perform faster, consume lower power and in embedded applications bring actual GPU functions to a single-chip design. In effect, COM Express boards can now run better than XBox360 graphics. Intel

might argue that Haswell is substantially better. As well, for video encoding—perhaps for surveillance systems or remote M2M high-res sensors—Haswell has a hybrid hardware/GPU approach that “provides balance between performance, power and flexibility.” With a separate discrete GPU, the embedded designer would be constrained in all these areas...plus board real estate. Haswell does it all in only one IC.

Power and PerformanceWe admit to being a bit confused on the power consumption specs for Haswell. As shown in Figure 1 above, the embedded versions of Haswell chips consume 35-65W TDP, with Intel

Figure 2: The 4th generation Intel® Core™ processor, formerly codename Haswell, represents a “Tock” product with substantial new features and variants. (Courtesy: Intel)

Figure 3: Intel’s Chief Media Architect Dr. Hong Jiang showed this sim-plified diagram of the graphics architecture at IDF2012. (Courtesy: Intel)

Figure 1: Haswell microarchitecture has eight CPU and four chipset (Southbridge) SKUs just for the embedded market. Notice the absence of an Intel® Core™ i3 processor version for now. Perhaps the new Intel Silverton micro-architecture will move up to cover the low end. (Courtesy: Intel)


FOCUS ON INtel

Xeon processor-based server versions typically higher. Yet Intel is claiming all-day battery life in Ultrabooks and embedded intelligent systems devices. Apple’s new Macbook Air 2013, launched as we went to press, uses a Haswell ULT with a bat-tery life increase from 7 hours to 12 hours on the newest 2013 13-incher running “wireless web.” How is Apple doing this with a 35W Haswell?

Moreover, in thermal-sensitive designs, Intel is talking about 15W SDP (system design power: the power consumed when the system is doing typical work, not worst-case TDP). Even more confusing is that this 15W is the processor plus the PCH southbridge such as the Mobile Intel® QM87 Express chipset used on embedded boards from companies like Congatec, Con-current, Mercury Computer and others. Then there’s the Ultra Low Power (U-Series) versions of Haswell that we were told will be launched “later this year,” said Ken Caviasca, GM of Intel’s Platform Enabling and Development Team in the Intelligent Systems Group (ISG). The U-Series takes embedded integration one step further by combining the PCH monolithically onto the die, creating the “first time the Intel Core processor family includes the CPU+PCH in one package at 15W,” says an Intel press document given to us. Perhaps these are the processors found in the Macbook Air.

Regardless of the SKU power permutations which may soon be revealed, Haswell’s building-block architecture is designed for substantially lower power with “all day use” and “>10 days of connected standby” as stated by Intel’s Paul Otellini during IDF2011. Intel’s marketing terms are:

• IntelligentPowerTechnology: automatedenergyefficiencyto reduce power

• Automatedlow-powerstates:adjustssystempowerbasedonreal-time processor loads

• RapidStartTechnology:improvesOSboottimeandwakesfrom deep sleep more quickly

• Fully integratedvoltage regulator: integrates legacypowerdelivery onto processor package/die. (This Intel wording leads me to believe that future versions will be monolithic and some current SKUs may be MCMs.)

Starting with a new extreme low-power idle state, Intel’s secret for power reduction is a combination of: 1) silicon architecture enhancements at the logic and process level; 2) IP block modu-larity and variable cache and graphics subsystems (Figure 4); and 3) holistic system-level power management which increas-ingly includes software. (Refer to “Careful System Hygiene is


FOCUS ON INTEL

the Next Step in Power Reduction” http://embeddedintel.com/search_results.php?article=2611.) In short: the company looked at everything possible to reduce power, lessons they picked up from the smartphone and tablet markets.

Active power was reduced by improvements in Turbo Boost, which is now variable (“Dynamic”) instead of at fixed frequencies, allowing the cores to over-clock as needed to get more work done in a shorter time. Finer grain voltage/frequency islands were incorporated and clocks were decoupled from logic when possible. Subsystems that were not performance-driven were turned off. And the communications link between the CPU and the PCH was optimized to reduce power.

In idle mode, a finer-grained power gating was used (similar to Active mode). Intel added new C-States and improved the entry and exit latencies so power wasn’t need-lessly burned doing no work. For example, in mode C7 all the clocks are stopped, the voltage is removed from the majority of the CPU, and this state is now engaged even when the system’s display is active. And of course, process improvements and transistor design—perhaps Intel’s biggest secret differentiating weapon—were realized to reduce active and leakage current consumption. State transition times were improved by about 25 percent, which allows the system more time to do work and then shut down.

Additionally, major subsystems like graphics also received a going-over to reduce power. For example, Haswell has higher graphics throughput than processors designed with the Ivy Bridge microarchitecture, which is partially due to parallelism, thus higher application performance per watt. This leads to a lower overall duty cycle, which in turn reduces platform power. Graphics “slices” (GT3 over the former GT1/GT2) now include power gating: turning off more clocks and logic blocks when not in use. There’s better and more granular drop-of-point clock gating to power-down EUs, and an improved memory controller that saves power. Finally, there’s a radically improved software stack to accompany the new graphics and EU subsystems, which includes the ability to move processor graphics (PG) to sleep much faster.

In short, everything was examined with a philosophy of either improve it or “turn it off if it’s not needed.” Intel reports a “20x reduction in idle power” due to these design and software tweaks.

The power enhancements go hand-in-hand with Haswell’s performance increases. One major improvement is Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 2.0 which accelerates integer/floating point matrix operations for signal and image processing applica-tions like medical imaging, sensor fusion or facial recognition. Haswell performs 32 single-precision FLOPs/cycle compared to 16 in Sandy Bridge (Gen 2) and 8 in

Nehalem (Gen 1) generations. Similarly, for double-precision, the numbers are 16 FLOPs/cycle vs 8 and 4, respectively. In embedded applications, this means that a single Haswell device can perform most algorithmic or DSP functions on-chip, alleviating the need for co-processors like standalone DSPs or FPGAs which add size,

weight and power (SWaP).

Simultaneous multi-threading via Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology boosts performance in parallel, multi-threaded applications and it’s granular to two threads for each of the four cores. There’s also reduced latency in the pipeline,

Figure 5: With on-board hardware for Intel® Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (Intel® AES-NI), Haswell SKUs bring cyrptography to embedded M2M designs which are increas-ingly targeted on the Internet of Things. (Courtesy: Intel)

Figure 4: The Haswell micro architecture is modular and scalable, allowing Intel to create SKUs which target power/per-formance points for specific markets and applications. We recommend choosing devices by major market (Desktop, Mobile, Embedded, Server), then visiting www.ark.intel.com for details. (Courtesy: Intel)


FOCUS ON INtel

cause of virtual machine exits. Additional instructions and tweaks make running code in a VM faster and better, increasing the likelihood that embedded designers will use these kinds of security features to protect their systems.

As mentioned earlier, Intel is now actively promoting the relationship between processor security features like these coupled with higher-order software such as McAfee’s Deep Defender (Figure 6). We believe this strategy is based upon a paradigm shift in combating malware, attacks and cyber crime. As articulated by the US DoD and NSA, despite the best preparation, attacks are going to happen. The proper response is to rapidly become aware of them, mitigate the damage and heal from them, and change tactics to stay ahead of the crimi-nals. Intel’s and McAfee’s teaming up (Figure 6) exemplifies this methodology.

Chris A. Ciufo is editor-in-chief for embedded content at Extension Media, which includes the EE-Catalog print and digital publications and website, Embedded Intel® Solutions, and other related blogs and embedded channels. He has 29 years of em-bedded technology experience, and has degrees in electrical engineering, and in materials science, emphasizing solid state physics. He can be reached at [email protected].

leading to more work per clock cycle and overall lower power over absolute time.

Security and Man-ageabilityThere are also new Endian conversion instruc-tions for interfacing to non-x86 systems such as accelerators or peripherals, and integer instructions for secu-rity: indexing, hashing and cryptography. Intel® AES-NI—talked about for a while now—are implemented on-chip in Haswell processors. This means that encryption and decryption are done in hardware and not via software algorithm, which burns cycles and power. For vulnerable embedded M2M nodes on the Internet of Things that are increasingly tar-geted by cyber crooks, now collected, stored and transmitted data can be encrypted/decrypted on the fly. Figure 5 shows Haswell’s cryptography performance improvements for select algorithms relative to previous Intel microarchitectures.

When the CPU is paired with a PCH such as the Mobile Intel QM87 Express, Intel vPro technology brings in Intel Active Management Technology (Intel® VT), Intel® Virtualization Technology, and Intel Trusted Execution Technology. This is a comprehensive set of hardware, firmware, software and oper-ating system tools that provides what Intel calls “behind the glass” security. For example, there is down-the-wire security even when the system is off, non-responsive or if higher level software agents are disabled by malware or an attack. The pro-cessor can be shut down remotely or queried, and code can be remotely managed and even updated.

Intel® VT-d, Intel® VT-x and Intel TXT—the abbreviations for a number of virtualization and management initiatives Intel has been unveiling across its processors since Nehalem—have been rolled under Intel vPro technology and greatly expanded. Has-well adds unique hardware features and instructions designed to make embedded security a reality. Virtualization, for instance, is an ideal way to protect the environment from rogue code by partitioned isolation. Intel VT on Haswell substantially improves guest/host transition times and adds “Accessed” and “Dirty” bits for extended page tables to eliminate the major

Figure 6: Hardware features with processor instructions, coupled with software from McAfee, is designed to protect future embedded systems while mitigating damage if security breaches occur. (Courtesy: Intel)


FOCUS ON INTEL

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming not only busi-nesses, but also our lives. The ability of intelligent devices to perceive and respond to the environment around them makes them incredibly valuable for complex decision-making in a broad range of industries. The growth potential is explo-sive: billions of units are generating more than $1 trillion in revenue today, and according to market analyst IDC, the market for intelligent systems will reach nearly four billion units by 2015, representing more than $2 trillion in revenue. And many experts predict that there will be anywhere from 20 to 50 billion connected devices by 2020. In addition, the evolution of machine-to-machine (M2M) concepts into IoT concepts is greatly increasing and growing the market oppor-tunity into billions of connected devices at work in a myriad of applications.

It is important to define some terms. M2M is a key technology for intelligent distributed systems using network resources to communicate with remote application infrastructure for the purposes of monitoring and control, either of the “machine” itself, or the surrounding environment.

IoT is where the physical world merges with the digital world and enables the new experience of interacting with this environ-ment. IoT could be considered a more horizontal and meaningful approach where some vertical domains such as cars, smart-phones, traffic control systems, as well as payment systems are pulled together to address larger business to business (B2B) needs as well as business to consumer (B2C) needs.

IoT concepts and architectures are driving significant innovations in network connectivity, mobile and wireless technologies, multicore processing, M2M communication, sensor technologies, cloud computing and data analytics. This has resulted in a convergence of a new form of intelligence with astonishing new capabilities to optimize the productivity of processes and efficiency of decision-making. For example, smart-metering hubs can automatically report on usage via networks, saving the time and money to check meters manually and allowing companies

to optimize consumption in response to supply conditions. Intelligent devices can provide heartbeat monitoring that gives doctors the data they need to determine diagnosis and treatment. Or they can send real-time traffic data to naviga-tion equipment, helping to optimize traffic flow and reduce consumption and emissions.

Driving FactorsThe momentum behind IoT architectures derives from mac-roeconomic trends and other developments that impact specific industries or groups of adopters. These driving factors include high labor costs, as it typically costs at least three times as much for a human to perform a task—such as utility meter reading or smart building monitoring—as it does for a machine to do it.

Another is the real-time demand for “Big Data.” As data becomes the new currency of business,

IoT architectures can supply both the raw material and sophisticated real-time analytics that shape and guide more intelligent business decisions. IoT architectures can also be both a ramp to the cloud and a means of exploiting the cloud’s potential, enabling businesses to develop new B2B and B2C services that create new efficiencies and economies.

A further factor is the ecological perspective: machines can perform power-management tasks with finer precision and

Smarter Ways to Embrace the Internet of Things

By Jens Wiegand, Wind River

According to market

analyst IDC, the market for

intelligent systems will reach

nearly four billion units by

2015, representing more than

$2 trillion in revenue.


FOCUS ON INtel

faster response times than manual human-dependent sys-tems, thereby saving energy, prioritizing usage and setting policies for response to outages, for example.

ChallengesIoT architectures can enable and accelerate many new ser-vice opportunities and also accelerate revenue generation, but there are significant challenges that impede scalability across vertical markets, including differing requirements of those involved in the industry.

The companies that are building the market for IoT plays have to address a series of questions. What is the best way to allow the wealth of new applications, systems and devices to connect to complex and often fragile net-works? How can Big Data inform and guide the design of systems and devices for a better connec-tivity experience? How to deal with the data exchange between still stovepiped vertical markets, systems and applications? How can the operational efficiencies of IoT-enabled systems be scaled and create higher profit poten-tial? And how can successes and lessons learned be leveraged more broadly across multiple vertical markets to compound the benefits?

Two of the key groups of solution providers for IoT concepts today are operators and device or system manufacturers. They have very different perspectives on the opportunities, but all of them are looking to develop solutions that will scale efficiently, increase average revenue per device and create competitive differentiation, while responding to the needs of specific vertical industries.

A major challenge is market fragmen-tation. The market is composed of many different vertical industries and their applications tend to have little overlap, making it difficult to scale solutions. There are also complexity and customization requirements, as the technologies involved in creating intel-ligent systems are extremely broad and complex, and most solutions do not pro-vide a seamless end-to-end experience between the business backbone and the system or device domain, and thus must be customized to some degree. There is also a lack of specialized skills and expertise, as the skills required to

build intelligent devices—in addition to the requisite market strategies—typically reside outside the core competency of operators and device manufacturers.

Slowly evolving standards in technology or application deployment is another challenge as the core components of IoT architectures have often been implemented in an ad-hoc fashion, using multiple competing standards in development and deployment. And finally, few operators or device manu-

facturers can create IoT-based solutions without significant assistance from partners; and typically these partners are not part of their current ecosystem.

EcosystemIoT will change well established eco-systems. Although it is still yet to be seen how the new ecosystem will build up over the next few years, we do know that IoT enables a wealth of new applications or services, i.e., Security-aaS, Platform-aaS, Infrastructure-asS, Tools-aaS, etc. This will shift former device-centric monetization towards service-or software-centric mon-etization with significant new

business opportunities. Former OEMs and even distributors will need to rethink their business strategies.

The power of IoT comes though with the shift from former well-established but isolated, vertical ecosystems into a seamless horizontal approach, enabling seamless data exchange. Independent software vendors (ISVs) will need to become horizontal cross-domain innovators and enable IoT service owners with highly reliable services enabling IoT architectures, allowing for service-level agreements by span-ning or aggregating multiple verticals. Seamless end-to-end

As data becomes the new

currency of business, IoT

architectures can supply

both the raw material and

sophisticated real-time

analytics that shape and

guide more intelligent

business decisions.

Figure 1: The value equation for operators and device manufacturers sometimes does not match investment strategy


FOCUS ON INTEL

and deployment of IoT gateways or M2M end devices, with a focus on delivering capabilities in four core categories:

1. Connectivity: Simplifying device connectivity for wireless and wired networks, speeding time-to-market and reducing expense for device manufacturers

2. Manageability: Delivering pre-integrated and supported management software—and collaborating with best-in-class hardware and software and system integration partners—making it much easier to manage remote con-nected devices and reduce total cost of ownership

3. Security: Providing tightly integrated, state-of-the-art security capabilities for protecting devices and their data, while at the same time allowing for an end-to-end protection strategy in close cooperation with open standard partners and Intel family members such as McAfee.

4. Intelligence: Enabling a seamless concept for data acqui-sition, aggregation and normalization of data allows for innovation on IoT architectures and enables IoT service owners to offer key differentiation in terms of new services and applications.

ConclusionThe market potential enabled through the Internet of Things is huge, but actual benefits achieved by businesses have been constrained by the complexity of producing real-world applications. This will change—rapidly—once operators and device manufacturers are freed to focus on their true value add: innovative new services and applications.

Jens Wiegand is vice president and general man-ager of strategic marketing at Wind River. A veteran in the industry, he brings over two decades of high-tech industry expertise in defense, auto-mation and embedded computing sectors.

data flow and data exchange across vertical boundaries will become a key topic.

OutsourcingIn dealing with these challenges, operators and device manufacturers sometimes take a do-it-yourself approach and try to build internal competence rather than outsource key aspects of creating new devices and services for the intelligent systems market. Operators and device manufacturers usually perceive the highest value is in the application and the device-specific middleware. But in many cases, their R&D investments are being made much lower down in their run-time or embedded stack (see Figure 1).

The net result, in many cases, is an excessive investment in R&D that actually detracts from the creation of the differen-tiating applications and services valued by customers, along with delays due to complexity, lack of experience and other previously mentioned factors. Businesses end up driving operating expenditures higher, missing market windows and failing to exploit opportunities.

Many operators and device/system manufacturers, however, have decided that it makes sense to move investment up to the application and service area and let a qualified partner focus on the non-differentiating, foundational, application-ready technology; i.e., to build a service-centric selling model rather than technical competence in an area that delivers little competitive advantage. Many operators have already taken the first step by offering connectivity services for M2M and intelligent distributed systems applications. This market is an immediate opportunity but it is also very lim-ited. Analysts have shown that for mobile operators, M2M traffic represents approximately 0.7% to 2.7% of total mobile revenue today and it is not growing rapidly.

Forward-looking operators and device manufacturers are now searching for opportunities to provide service revenue enablement—delivering innovation platforms and developer environments that smooth the integration of enterprise apps with networked remote devices—in order to capture enter-prise customers and application developers. Beyond that, they are looking to serve the market as service providers, with bundled offerings for B2B and B2C customers, along with IT services and service management offerings, in order to establish new service-centric revenue streams.

A Smarter Approach to the Internet of Things DevelopmentTechnology providers like Wind River are facilitating these efforts by reducing complexity, aggregating supply chains through higher integrated software solutions and enabling rapid innovation and time-to-market for IoT-based solutions at lowered cost. Solutions like Wind River Intelligent Device Platform (see Figure 2) simplify development, integration

Figure 2: Key components of the Wind River Intelligent Device Platform

BSP: Intel® Atom™ Wind River


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Smart Software Monetization for Smart Devices

Embedded software may come in a different package than traditional applications hosted on servers and installed on PCs, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t susceptible to many of the same challenges. The software that powers intelligent hardware found everywhere—even if it’s not as visible—still constitutes valuable intellectual property (IP). That means embedded devel-opers shouldn’t shy away from deploying the same software protection and monetization techniques used for more tradi-tional software. The goals are the same: preventing IP theft, and using advanced licensing systems to better monetize the hard work of the developer.

Intelligent device manufacturers are witnessing a change in where the value of their IP truly lives. The hardware they make is valuable increasingly because of the software embedded within it. So as hardware vendors become de-facto software vendors, cutting costs and maximizing profitability will involve some changes to the way they operate.

The four aspects of an effective software monetization strategy are: packaging, control, tracking, and ongoing management. Each aspect directly affects profitability by either helping reduce costs or increase revenue.

Protecting embedded software against product tampering and reverse engineering is just the beginning. Software mon-etization strategies for intelligent device manufacturers must take into account how these core elements are connected. Considerations such as profitability, user experience and usage control directly impact each other and should be approached comprehensively. When software monetization strategies are implemented successfully, the intelligent device manufacturer is able to offer both a more efficient experience for the user and a more profitable solution. It all begins with controlling IP.

Taking Control of IP Access and UsageControlling IP is the foundation of software monetization. Intelligent device manufacturers face problems with deliberate

and unintentional misuse of their software, as well as product and feature overuse, competitive IP theft, product reverse engi-neering and code tampering—all problems that have plagued traditional software organizations for years. The key to con-trolling access and use of a device involves controlling who is granted access to the software running the device, when they’re granted access and to what extent.

Stolen code can end up in the hands of competitors or be used to reproduce knockoff versions of a similar product. That’s a big part of the reason why embedded software is a vendor’s most valuable asset. It not only holds all the development secrets hackers or competitors would love to gain access to, it also determines how the product functions as well. A good use case illustrating the importance of IP protection is a software publisher who provides a compression algorithm that is nearly lossless. It is imperative that the algorithm not be deciphered because it is critical IP and unique in this company’s industry. The software publisher can leverage code-wrapping functionality of a software licensing solution to protect against reverse engineering and therefore protect their competitive IP from getting into the hands of pirates or the competition.

Aside from the possible theft of trade secrets, another major threat facing intelligent device manufacturers is tampering—manipulating the software embedded within a device to change how the device functions. This can provide users with access to features they have not paid for, or even worse, result in regulatory compliance problems. Without proper protection, intelligent device vendors are unknowingly leaving their code vulnerable to this risk. An example here is a company in the manufacturing industry that develops machines that create end-to-end packaging of consumer food products such as milk and orange juice. The software that runs these machines is programmed to comply with the dozens of public health and safety regulations. The company’s IP protection concerns center around controlling access to the software running the

By Michelle Nerlinger, SafeNet

Equipment manufacturers are evolving into software companies. The right software monetization tactics offer greater market share while reducing manufacturing and

inventory costs.


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machines and the ability to tamper with key parameters that control processes such as pasteurization. This company used a software monetization solution to protect the software from being accessed and control who can change the parameters that control the machines.

Both stolen code and tampering have great potential to damage overall market share and therefore decrease revenue poten-tial. By effectively controlling access to software source code, intelligent device vendors can protect revenue and safeguard the integrity of their brands and their products by preventing product tampering, reverse engineering and IP theft.

Usage control is the next piece of the monetization puzzle. Vendors must be able to control the use of their software at the product and feature level to prevent overuse of their offer-ings—deliberate or unintentional—and ensure that they are being fairly compensated. As the intelligent device market continues to mature, it will be critical for vendors to minimize manufacturing costs while achieving greater flexibility in their product packaging. This is accomplished through feature-based

licensing. By providing customers the flexibility to license software features of intelligent devices already on premise, and by controlling access to that software, vendors can create new revenue opportunities.

Improving the Customer ExperienceVendors need more than just the means to control how their software is accessed and by whom. An effective monetization strategy will also provide them with a tool to help develop sophisticated packaging and pricing models. Along with preventing unauthorized access, these tools can also lay the groundwork to change how the intelligent device industry does business. Control over software at the feature level enables ven-dors to consolidate hardware stock-keeping units and provide remote upgrade and support services, in addition to opening the door to a whole new world of marketing and sales tools.

Historically, if a software vendor wanted to offer a premium and a standard version of a piece of equipment, they would build two applications for installation on two different hardware plat-forms. If a standard customer wanted to upgrade to a premium

Figure 1: A comprehensive software monetization strategy hinges on four key factors – how effectively software publishers can package, control, track, and manage their offerings.


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Marketing and sales teams can utilize customized reports to better determine what, when and how products are being used and leverage this invaluable data to plan, launch and execute more effective sales and marketing activities. End-user registra-tion data can also help vendors who sell via multiple channels to identify and gain direct access to every individual who uses one of their products.

Get Smart with a Software Monetization StrategyEquipment manufacturers are evolving into software companies. Intelligent device manufacturers who embrace this transition and employ the right software monetization tactics will be poised to seize greater market share while reducing manu-

facturing and inventory costs. They will also be able to expand their product lines and bring innovative devices to market, all with the confidence that they are protected from any threats to their IP. The ongoing proliferation of intelligent devices means there are new embedded software development opportunities everywhere. For savvy hardware vendors, it’s a new frontier for them to conquer.

Michelle Nerlinger is vice president of marketing for SafeNet’s software monetization solutions.

device, they would have to return their old device and wait for the vendor to ship them a new one. That is no longer the case.

By taking a feature-based approach to licensing and entitlement management, device manufacturers can develop and maintain a single, feature-rich application installed on a single device. The functionality of the device is then controlled through licensing. This enables software vendors to ship the same product with different functionality to dif-ferent customers at varying price points and upgrade products remotely with lower support and fulfillment costs, thus delivering a better cus-tomer experience. A good example of this approach is a large networking company that used a sophisticated software licensing and entitlement management solution to protect its code and create smart, feature-based licensing packages for their enterprise customers that they could activate once physical equipment was already with the customer, cutting costs and enabling them to maxi-mize the revenue generated by their IP.

Usage TrackingThe next critical element of software licensing is usage tracking. A sophisticated licensing and entitlement management system provides a means to start tracking product activation and usage right down to the feature level. Intelligent device vendors can use this information to drive decision-making around product packaging, roadmap investment, sales and marketing strategies. Product management and engineering teams can discontinue feature combinations that are unpopular and create software packages containing the most valued features that customers and prospects want.

Figure 2: Usage tracking enables the strategic deployment of different versions.

Stolen code can end up in the hands of competitors or be used to reproduce knockoff versions

of a similar product.


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Similar to many tech buzzwords before it, M2M is catchy, has a loyal following, and portends “great things”. Just like Y2K, B2B, SEO, CRM and so on. It also has three letters, which I suppose is the right amount in order to not be cumbersome. And like many buzzwords before it, there’s a real possibility that M2M may fade from existence in a few years. Not because machine-to-machine communication is going to go out of favor like B2B, or be a non-starter like Y2K. It’s because M2M will be as common as networking via Wi-Fi. Or air. That is: machines talking to machines will be everywhere and we won’t even think about it. That is, unless we’re designing systems and software that com-municate with other, often remote, machines.

According to the forecast by Cisco VNI Mobile, 2012, M2M module data traffic will grow 86 percent CAGR from 2011 - 2016 and represent 266 MB/month per device. This is roughly 10 percent of the total per-smartphone data by 2016; not bad con-sidering every survey says the entire world is consuming content on their phones, not at their desks. So when we decided to make M2M the latest coverage topic for EECatalog, we approached a set of M2M vendors focused on connecting M2M notes via wire-less technologies and low overhead protocols.

We learned that M2M devices are just as likely to be bolted to an enterprise network as they are to be lonely, autonomous sites stuck at the edge of a lonely highway reading truckers’ RFID tags as they whiz by. So low power is important since changing batteries or relying on solar energy is a require-

ment. And of course, there’s no Ethernet way out there on that highway, or out at the back gate motion sensor, or wired to the soda machine in the dreary lobby of the local tire store. So wireless connectivity via ZigBee, Wi-Fi, cellular, or M-bus is essential.

And all of these nodes are going to be talking some lightweight protocol that doesn’t require too much in the way of CPU resources (IPv6 is unlikely). C, Java, MQTT, Python and some scripting languages are the probable choices jabbered over M2M links (Figure 1). If there is any heavy lifting to be done by an M2M node, whether in protocol conversion, database storage, or decision making, a separate M2M gateway is going to be added to supplement the often low-intelligence node.

Another M2M trend our vendors cued us in on is how iPhone-connectedness is perfect for M2M. Smart meters are just one example where consumers can use a smartphone (an M2M device) to query a utility meter (another M2M device). Con-nections to all kinds of M2M sensors—from security cameras to an automobile’s keyless entry—will give rise to a collec-tion of new M2M apps that not only do what the consumer orders, but will stream and aggregate sensor data in new and unique ways. Kind of like the first-gen web mash-ups from a few years ago.

Before I reveal the answers to our M2M roundtable Q&A, it’s noteworthy to comment on what our vendors did not com-ment on. You see, we provide a list of questions and allow each vendor to choose what to answer. No one wanted to comment on the microcontrollers or feature sets required for an M2M node, nor did they weigh in with an opinion on Intel’s own Intelligent Systems Framework for M2M. I find this interesting.

As well, security was also a question no one dared answer. And the use of open hardware standards for M2M? Nada; no response. My take on these non-answers is that M2M is so variable in implementation and so new, that anything that has a “pulse” is a candidate for M2M connectivity, so

M2M Promises Growth for Embedded, Wireless, Sensors,

and MoreThe machine-to-machine (M2M) phenomenon is accelerating and is coming to just

about any connected technology near you.


(L) N.Venkatesh, senior vice President of advanced technologies at Redpine Signals, (C) Mike Ueland, senior vice-president & general manager, Telit Wireless Solutions, North America, (R) Robert Andres, Eurotech chief marketing officer


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hardware standards or processor features just don’t yet matter. Similarly, I guess we’ll worry about that whole security thing when the first system gets hacked and fingers get pointed.

EE Catalog: How will companies design systems to pro-vide year-long service without changing batteries?

Redpine Signals: designing a system for long battery life requires a focus on low energy, as opposed to low power. Energy being power over time, the focus is as much on reducing the time for which devices are operational to accomplish their task as it is on the power they consume while accomplishing the task. In wireless systems, reduction of transmission time is accomplished primarily by enabling high receiver performance—the ability to recover data from weak or impaired signals—and in fine-grained control on the turning on or off subsystems or blocks based on the operational data transfer profile.

Mike Ueland, Telit Wireless Solutions, North America: On the M2M hardware side, the latest generation of high-quality cel-lular modules has very low standby currents. Couple this with solid wake-sleep application software and it is possible to extend battery life for a vast number of applications, particularly field sensors that are the most common users of battery-powered M2M devices.

EECatalog: Now that every machine can be connected, what language are they going to use?

Robert Andres, Eurotech: we are especially excited about Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) as a low-bandwidth, publish/subscribe protocol to use between devices in the field in an M2M application and the communication platform. MQTT is proven, in that it has been adopted by many companies, including Facebook and Twitter. It also is open, in that it has clients written in Java, C and other programming languages; and is standard, in that is has been submitted for approval as a standard within the OASIS organization.

Venkatesh, Redpine Signals: They will continue to use a language chosen from a set of available ones. Variations will continue to exist even after every machine is connected.

Ueland, Telit Wireless: It depends on the application. Many M2M applications only require a minimal level of processing power, therefore scripting languages like Java or Python can be used for very simple applications, for example to report the location of a cargo container. More complicated applications, such as an in-vehicle infotainment system (IVI), requires more processing power and is more likely to use Windows, Android or Linux.

EECatalog: What are some of the ways M2M systems will inter-connect to each other and the cloud?

Andres, Eurotech: M2M systems will most effectively and efficiently interconnect through an M2M integration plat-form, which can be thought of as an enterprise service bus for machines that takes M2M from siloed applications to inte-grated data flows. Through the M2M integration platform, data producers (sensors, actuators, gateways) from any source can flexibly connect to data consumers (back-office systems, data-bases, consoles, mobile devices, people) anywhere.

Telit Wireless: A range of topologies and architectures will find niches in the developing M2M landscape. Cellular con-nectivity will systematically remain the backhaul to single devices or clusters of interconnected machines. These clusters may need to use different wireless technology because of a number of factors such as cost of the cellular connection, or availability of cellular service, among others. With the issue of RF spectrum scarcity remaining, we should expect to see a rise in use of white space [unused frequency spectrum] and other under-used spectrum bands.

EECatalog: Can existing embedded systems become M2M nodes? Why or why not? What changes are or are not required?

Andres, Eurotech: With enough space for M2M client software coupled with connectivity capabilities—from Wi-Fi, cellular, Ethernet, and other wireless and wired options—existing embedded systems can indeed become M2M nodes. As long as they can connect to the network to share data and transmit it in a usable form, existing devices can become M2M nodes. Required changes would depend on the capabilities of the device.

Venkatesh, Redpine Signals: Existing embedded systems can and will become M2M nodes. Intermediate subsystems, mod-ules, and equipment—such as serial to Wi-Fi adaptors and M2M gateways —would carry out the translation and be the bridge.

Figure 1: Eurotech’s M2M Everywhere Cloud relies on the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport publish/subscribe protocol. (Courtesy: Eurotech.)


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EECatalog: From a software perspective, how are M2M nodes and far-flung systems remotely managed?

Andres, Eurotech: M2M nodes require remote device manage-ment for initial configuration and recovery operation, and to stay up to date with software capabilities as the application and business logic evolves over time. A modern M2M solu-tion must perform not only sophisticated data management but also device lifecycle management, whether scheduled, in response to events or alarms, in batches by region or type of device, or individually. This capability can only be provided in solutions that highly integrate the edge device (M2M service gateway) with a management or M2M integration platform.

EECatalog: What are the design issues and trends in connecting sen-sors either to an M2M node, or adding them onto an M2M network?

Andres, Eurotech: Some sensors have a cloud client installed, assuming there is space for the software on the sensor, for direct access to the M2M network, while multi-service gateways offer aggre-gation, on-board processing, and transmission capabilities for sensor data collected in an M2M applica-tion. Multi-service gateways allow the expansion of an M2M application to include many different sensors, actuators, devices and things, acting as the on-ramp to the M2M network for all data. This is most effectively done by implementing sup-port for different sensors and field bus protocols as software building blocks of a Java / OSGi application framework.

Ueland, Telit Wireless: Sensors and sensor technology will see an explosion in innovation as M2M evolves. Wireless will remain the only acceptable strategy to connect them to their control systems. Technologies like ZigBee and wireless M-Bus, which operate in short-range license free spectrum, will be used to connect these sensors to nearby controllers. However, there are also new technologies to wirelessly interconnect sensors directly to the cloud.

EECatalog: Let’s discuss some of the architectures of the Smart Home or the Smart Office.

Ueland, Telit Wireless: On the smart home side, the proliferation of smartphones has provided a very easy way for consumers to control remote devices such as home security systems, thermo-stats, or digital television receivers (DVRs), and has been a key factor in driving interest in home automation. On the energy metering side of the smart home, electric utilities are beginning to implement systems designed to bring into the home utility

consumption data from outside the home where consumers can see how much [energy] they are consuming. This provides the opportunity to monitor the effects of a change in consumption behavior towards more sustainable levels.

In this scenario, the electric meter outside the home is con-nected to the cellular network sending your consumption data to the utilities for billing purposes but also communi-cating with short-range license-free M2M radios, devices and displays inside the home. With this infrastructure in place, the App industry can develop applications for remote home security like locking doors and setting alarms, setting ther-mostats, and so on.

EE Catalog: Tell us about some of your favorite SoCs or ICs that are ideally suited for M2M nodes, networks and sensors.

Venkatesh, Redpine Signals: Redpine’s Connect-io-n family of Wi-Fi modules are ideal for providing connectivity to embedded systems making them M2M nodes. These modules are self-contained in both hardware and software and provide IP based wire-less connectivity, putting the

node directly on the M2M network. Redpine’s M2MCombo chipset, the RS9113, is an ideal building block of M2M gate-ways that serve devices communicating one of many wireless connectivity methods: Wi-Fi in 2.4 and 5 GHz, BT EDR, BT LE, and ZigBee. The chipset also offers an interface to a host processor via SDIO, USB, UART or SPI.

EECatalog: What role might M2M play in high-rel or mili-tary/aerospace applications?

Venkatesh, Redpine Signals: Military/aerospace applications are particularly heavy in the use of electronics. Systems have evolved fairly independently of each other, making central-ized intelligence gathering, analysis, and control even more complex. M2M concepts would help a lot here.

Chris A. Ciufo is editor-in-chief for embedded content at Extension Media, which includes the EE-Catalog print and digital publications and website, Embedded Intel® Solutions, and other related blogs and embedded channels. He has 29 years of em-bedded technology experience, and has degrees in electrical engineering, and in materials science, emphasizing solid state physics. He can be reached at [email protected].

“ Wireless will remain the

only acceptable strategy to

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systems. Telit Wireless”


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LTE to LTE-Advanced: What You Need to Know Right Now

By Dr. Stamatis Georgoulis, Aeroflex limited

As LTE evolves to LTE-Advanced it promises benefits both to operators—in terms of reduced OPEX/CAPEX and spectrum utilization—and to subscribers in improved data

speed and capacity.

LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) promises to provide true 4G connec-tivity, and to meet all the requirements of IMT-Advanced. But what are the problems in LTE that need to be solved by the evolution to LTE-A? How can you take the earliest pos-sible advantages of the solutions it offers?

This article describes the main drivers behind the rapid evolution to LTE-A, the benefits that it promises in terms of meeting the growing demand for smartphones, and the challenges they impose on the network. Furthermore it will explain how LTE-A helps to reduce OPEX and CAPEX for the operator, and how it enables operators to make the best use of expensive but fragmented spectrum and to improve cov-erage and capacity.

LTE-A also helps operators respond to the pressure for technology to be more energy-efficient, and this article will describe how this can be achieved. The article also outlines all the new technology components associated with LTE-A that can make all this possible—carrier aggregation, MIMO, self-organizing networks, and interference management.

LTE-A TimescaleLTE-A is here already and now is the time to start taking advantage of it. The main reason for this is not just the higher data rates promised, but also the massive demand for data that is generated by end users. This comes as a result of the proliferation of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, with applications such as social networking that require always-on connectivity. Once users acquire a smartphone, their usage pattern also tends to increase as they discover its capabilities. This in turn leads to demand for ubiquitous cellular coverage, including in-building cov-erage and services on public transport. According to a recent report by Cisco1, during the past year mobile connections have reached the milestone of actually exceeding the number

of people on the planet (currently just above seven billion), as shown in Figure 1.

LTE-A BenefitsSo how will LTE-A help meet this demand? First, it will improve coverage and capacity, to enable operators to meet user demands. Just as important, it will offer significant reductions in OPEX and CAPEX to let operators meet those demands profitably. The advances in technology that LTE-A brings to the market will enable faster deployment and prompt troubleshooting. This will get users connected more quickly and keep those connections operational and gener-ating revenue.

1 Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update,

2012–2017”, http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/

ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html

Figure 1: Growth in mobile subscriptions by technology up to 2013 (actual) and to 2017 (forecast).


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Operators are currently the holders of expensive but fragmented spectrum, and they need to make a return on this investment, which cannot be achieved without aggregating spectrum fragments and using them together. The technique of carrier aggregation, described later, forms a key component of LTE-A and allows this spectrum to be efficiently utilized.

Finally there are demands from consumers and society in general for cellular and broadband technology to be “greener.” Conserving energy also makes good economic sense. The use of interference compensation techniques in LTE-A to improve signal integrity at the cell edges, along with the use of SON and a greater number of small cells as part of a heterogeneous network, both contribute to improving the energy efficiency of the network compared with 3G and LTE. Alongside these features, more efficient technologies such as the increasing use of Envelope Tracking or Doherty techniques in base sta-tion power amplifier design are also bringing energy savings.

LTE-A relays provide a fur-ther specific way in which HetNets can promote energy saving, by setting the relay node (RN) into a sleep mode when it is not required.

What is 4G?Although operators are selling LTE as “4G”—the reality actually lags the hype by a generation. Just as the “Mobile Internet” promised by E-GPRS in the 1990s was

actually only delivered by 3G WCDMA, mobile broadband arrived with “3.5G” HSPA, not with 3G. The high-capacity and ubiquitous connectivity expected to result from HSPA is only truly being realized with LTE. Therefore, true 4G perfor-mance will only really be available from LTE-A. LTE can be said to be effectively the prototype of LTE-A.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) pro-posed a set of recommendations that have become the target for IMT Advanced 4G. The intention is to provide flexible, global, ubiquitous mobile access based on an all-IP network with scalable bandwidth and high spectral efficiency, while providing low latency combined with fast mobility. The target data rates are 100 Mbps when mobile, and up to 1 Gbps peak. The 3GPP has turned this into LTE-A, which is represented by Release 10 onwards of the 3GPP LTE specification. Table 2 compares the ITU recommendations with the performance parameters available from LTE Release 9 and those expected from LTE-A.

LTE-A builds upon LTE by the introduction of a new set of advanced technology features or enablers, which are described in detail in the next section.

LTE-A technology enablersLTE-A will be made possible by a set of technology enablers, each of which focuses on extracting better performance from LTE. The main enablers are as follows:

Carrier Aggregation (CA)By combining blocks of spectrum known as component car-riers (CC) as shown in Figure 2, carrier aggregation enables

Table 2: 3GPP LTE-Advanced specification compared with LTE Release 8 and IMT-Advanced targets

Figure 2: Increasing usable bandwidth by aggregation of individual component carriers (CC)

Table 1: Benefits of LTE-A compared with LTE


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the use of fragmented spectrum and allows LTE-A to meet its IMT-Advanced headline data rate of 1 Gbps.

Carrier aggregation is achievable by a hardware upgrade, and is backward compatible with 3GPP Release 8. Carrier aggregation enables spectrum flexibility, but it is not just about multiple 20 MHz component carriers—there is also the ability to aggregate smaller non-contiguous bandwidths. In this way, the bandwidth can even be changed dynamically to accommodate the needs of individual users. However, achieving carrier aggregation in devices in the real world presents a real challenge.

Figure 3 shows three of the many possible LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation application scenarios. In Figure 3(a), the lower frequency f1 is used to increase coverage while f2 is used to boost the data rate. Figure 3(b) demonstrates the use of both frequencies to increase cell throughput; and in Figure 3(c) f1 provides macro coverage and the higher frequency f2 is used to boost throughput in hotspots.

Higher Order MIMO (HOM)Higher order MIMO (shown in Figure 4) allows increased spectral efficiency, in terms of bps per Hz, to be achieved, and is again a hardware upgrade. It promises LTE-A performance, with up to 8 stream transmissions enabling uplink and downlink peak spectrum efficiency in excess of the IMT-A targets. Several clever schemes in uplink and downlink are possible, for both single- and multi-user.

MIMO requires multiple antennas to be used on both base stations and user devices—eight streams will require eight separate antennas on the device. In combination with the multiple radios that are also proposed for LTE-A, this means that mobile devices could end up looking rather like hedge-hogs. The practicality of higher order MIMO remains to be seen, and in practice other LTE-A enablers are likely to deliver initial efficiency improvements at lower cost.

RelaysRelays are a cost-effective means of extending coverage in areas where wired backhaul is uneconomical, by connecting a repeater unit that amplifies and forwards the mobile signal between the base station and the mobile unit, as shown in Figure 5. The relay backhaul appears just the same as normal user equipment (UE) to the donor macrocell. Relays permit fast rollout, with lower cost equipment than using traditional backhaul and a second macrocell. The use of relays is effec-tively a trade-off of macrocell capacity in favor of achieving greater coverage.

Self-Organizing/Self-Optimizing Networks (SON)SON enables the efficient use of heterogeneous networks (HetNets), a mixed network that includes small cells to improve the coverage and capacity provided by traditional macro base stations. Several small cells can be distributed

within the area covered by a macrocell, sharing the same frequency bands, to fill in the gaps in coverage and to pro-vide extra capacity.

The efficient use of SON can both reduce OPEX and increase capacity. However if they evolve in an unplanned manner then problems may arise. Adequate coordination is essential in order to avoid capacity reduction. Dynamic adaptation is needed to maximize the gains that can be obtained.

Some elements of SON, such as CGI reporting and Automatic Neighbor Recognition (ANR), were introduced as early as Release 8, with RLF enhancements added in Rel-9. But while LTE provided the basics, it is LTE-A that makes it work by introducing X2 interface exchange of information; improved interference coordination between cells; load balancing; Minimization of Drive Test (MDT); self-healing; and energy saving. Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP) is further introduced at Release 11.

Figure 3: Three of the many possible LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation application scenarios, where in each case frequency f1 is shown in grey and f2 is shown in blue: (a) f1 is used to increase coverage and f2 is used to boost the data rate (f2 > f1); (b) Both frequencies are used to increase cell throughput; and (c) f1 provides macro coverage and f2 is used to boost throughput in hotspots.


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Interference Management (IM)Interference Management is another software-upgradeable LTE-A feature, which enables increased area spectral effi-ciency (measured in bps per Hz/km2) to be achieved. This provides the benefit of more efficient sharing of bandwidth over an area. The feature is dynamic and able to adapt within 100 ms.

Enhanced Inter Cell Interference Cancellation (eICIC) represents an extension of the interference management techniques that were used in LTE Release 8 and 9, and it differs from these techniques in that it is not transparent to the UE and therefore needs to be verified with a test UE such as the Aero-flex TM500 Test Mobile.

eICIC requires coordination between each of the network nodes that communicate with each other through the X2 inter-face. In a typical application, a macrocell whose coverage area overlaps with that of one or more small cells can coordinate its transmissions with these nodes. This allows it to reduce the interference caused to the UEs belonging to these cells in certain subframes, by limiting the macrocell transmissions to DL Common Reference Signal (CRS) alone, with no data, during certain subframes – these are called Almost Blank Subframes (ABS). This results in the UEs seeing lower inter-ference at the cell edge of the microcell or picocells, and gives the microcell or picocells the opportunity to perform a “cell range expansion” to increase the coverage area during these subframes.

SummaryAll the LTE-A enhancements—SON, IM, small cells, and HetNets—bring huge benefits to operators and subscribers

alike. All these components deployed together increase area spectral efficiency, increase in capacity and coverage, and allow the network to support a larger number of devices more efficiently.

These improvements are achieved by a mix of software upgrades and cost-effective hardware additions. The com-bined effect is a factor of 2.2 improvement in area capacity for a Release 10 HetNet compared with a network using only macrocells.

In conclusion, the benefits of LTE-A for all stakeholders are considerable, and are already beginning to be felt. For users it promises an overall improvement in quality of experience and lower data usage costs. Operators will benefit from reductions in OPEX and CAPEX through the use of smart HetNets which

are currently being deployed, and from further efficiencies as the hardware develops. Network and device manufacturers are already able to offer improve-ments for smart HetNets, which are being closely followed by upgrades for carrier aggregation and higher order MIMO. Finally, test equipment manufacturers such as Aeroflex are seeing their market expanded by the need for increasing test complexity, and are taking advantage of the huge potential for innovation that is offered by LTE-A.

Dr. Stamatis Georgoulis is a senior product man-ager at Aeroflex Limited, Stevenage, UK. He has worked with Aeroflex since 2007 defining product strategy for LTE, LTE-A, GSM, and WCDMA. Prior to joining Aeroflex, Dr. Georgoulis worked as an engineer for Analog Devices and UbiNetics (now an Aeroflex company). He received his bachelor’s and mas-ter’s degrees in engineering from Ethniko Metsovio Polytechnico, and his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh.

Figure 4: Higher order MIMO

Although operators are

selling LTE as “4G”—the

reality actually lags the

hype by a generation…. LTE

can be said to be effectively

the prototype of LTE-A.

Figure 5: Relays for LTE-A, showing main eNodeB with relay node (RN)


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2013 could be the year when machine-to-machine (M2M) com-munications exceed human-to-human communications for the first time in history, with even more machines connected to the Internet than people. Mobile resource management sys-tems, meters, robots, vending machines, security systems, asset trackers, vehicles and emergency call systems all belong to this growing population of chatting machines.

Considering the ease of wirelessly connecting to the Internet, the decreasing price of connection, and the increasing speed and data gathering capabilities of even the most modest, mass-produced computing devices, it is no surprise that conversations between machines will soon exceed conversations between humans.

There are many considerations to think about when designing inter-connected M2M products. Many new standards, both wire-less and positioning, are in transition. It is important to consider the long term anticipated lifetime of products, and in which mar-kets those products will serve. As well, designers must consider whether it is important to include support for next-generation performance and network coverage, or instead to design for easy product upgradeability.

This article examples many of these criteria in a quick-read “how to” M2M check list.

Increasingly Inter-connected MachinesThis is occurring at the same time that we are running out of IP addresses. IP version 4 addresses, all 4+ billion of them, have now been allocated. Does this mean machines have missed the party? No, because the future of the Internet relies on IP version 6, which supports 2 to the power of 128 addresses, more than enough for every grain of sand on Earth to have its very own address. It is thus no surprise that LTE, the fourth generation of mobile networks (4G), is designed to deliver services such as data, voice, and video all over IP version 6.

The motivation for this networking revolution is simple—all devices and applications that can profit from being connected to the Internet eventually will be connected. It is the reason that our phones, notebooks, tablets, cars and gaming devices have all acquired networking capabilities. Although these are the most visible applications of mobile connectivity, humans aren’t the only

ones using the internet. It is the invisible applications that are growing the fastest…the silent conversations between millions of machines exchanging data 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no human intervention.

All that’s needed to join the network is to embed any device with a small, low-cost (wireless) modem. Applications reporting on loca-tion, speed or navigation information also require a GPS or Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. Both components, with an antenna, can fit easily in a device much smaller than a mobile phone.

This is happening across all sectors of the electronics industry at this very moment.

Equipping devices with M2M communications capability, how-ever, has special requirements, depending on the application. It is important to consider these requirements when thinking not only of the initial design, but also about product longevity (how long the device should operate before needing replacement), geo-graphical coverage (it was initially designed to work in only one region, but now needs to work in another one), or compatibility with unavoidable wireless network upgrades, 2G to 3G to 4G.

Technical ConsiderationsBelow are some important technical features to consider when designing M2M applications, and how they can affect the design of specific types of devices.

1) Power consumption For portable tracking, security or personal safety devices, time between battery charging is one of the most important features. For example, a container-mounted tracking device that has to recharge once a day is too frequent, as a typical trip could take sev-eral days by air or road, and up to several weeks if shipped by sea.

For consumer devices such as personal tracking or health monitoring devices, mobile phones have set the standard for expectations—battery life should last a minimum of 3 days. When comparing modem and GNSS receiver specifications of such appli-cations, not only operating and standby current consumption are relevant, but also power saving modes. These include auto-wakeup features and intelligent power-saving modes such as the ability to

The Rise and Challenges of M2M Applications

A “how to” list of practical considerations for adding wireless capablities to machines.

By Herbert Blaser, u-blox and Carl Fenger, u-blox


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log data autonomously without waking up the host processor. Ide-ally these components should be in a minimum-power mode most of the time, waking up only when absolutely necessary.

2) Cellular network complianceIn which regions should the device work? With global mobility increasing for both people and goods, it is important to consider that a modem that works in one region, may not work in another (GSM is supported by two main frequency bands worldwide, UMTS by six and LTE over 30). For these types of applications it is important to identify where the device should work geographi-cally, and to anticipate that this area could expand in the future. When you have identified this requirement, choose the wireless modem best suited to the task.

For example, a resource management system that must monitor shipments in all regions of the world should have either a quad-band GSM modem, or 6-band UMTS modem. For a device that you don’t expect to move, for example a residential electricity meter, only a single frequency band is necessary. Other applications may need some additional consideration. For example, a vending machine whose location is often forgotten, can always “phone- home,” but it must then be equipped with a modem that operates in regions where it is, or could be located.

3) Operator approval Any wireless device that communicates via GSM, UMTS or LTE will require operator certification before it is allowed to access their network. To significantly ease the certification process, the modem embedded in the device should also be operator certi-fied. Check the list of modem certifications against the regions where the tracking device should operate, and select your modem accordingly. Most modem venders provide a list of operator-certifications on their websites.

4) Wireless modem upgradeabilityAlthough it is tempting to rely on GSM/GPRS for remote metering applications where only small amounts of data are communicated, the frequency bands for GSM are already being considered for re-allocation to 3G and 4G services. In the case of automatic meter reading systems, retro-fitting hundreds of thousands of remote utility meters is expensive. It may therefore be wise to design with the technology of the future in mind. This means either already designing with UMTS/HSPA or LTE modems, or at least future-proof your hardware design such that modem upgrade is as cost-effective as possible. This leads to the next point…

5) Nested modem designYour M2M device today may need to adapt to a new mobile or GNSS standard tomorrow, or address a new customer demand coming from a region that uses a different frequency band or satellite receiver standard. Ideally, you can react to this market requirement by simply making variants of the firmware, antenna and modem or GNSS receiver of your existing design. In reality, this is a nightmare unless nested design is an inherent property of your vendor’s products. In particular, PCB layout issues can generate a long list of expensive design and logistics problems.

The best way to avoid this issue is simply to use components that have layout compatibility across the entire range of wire-less modem (GSM, UMTS, CDMA and LTE) modules or GNSS receiver (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou) modules. With this solution, a single PCB layout can be designed for use by all end-product variations. This issue can be addressed with these questions: Does your component vendor support a nested design philosophy? Does their next generation modem fit comfortably on the same PCB footprint of their current modem product? Do they provide documented technical support to help you make a successful nested design?

6) Bandwidth requirements For many of today’s tracking applications, only a low bandwidth connection is required to support tracking and text messaging. If only data is needed, then simple GPRS is sufficient. If a voice-channel option is required, then at least GSM/GPRS. If a video stream to support visual surveillance is desired, then UMTS/HSPA is the better choice. For applications requiring high-defi-nition video or low latency such as telehealth terminals, LTE will be the technology of choice. One thing that is certain is that the tracking applications of tomorrow will always require increasing bandwidth. Select your modem based not only on the require-ments of today, but also 3-5 years from now, or make a selection where modem upgradeability comes with minimal costs (refer to nested design above).

Position Requirements

7) Automotive requirements Especially for vehicle-mounted systems where temperature, humidity and vibration conditions can be extreme, look for com-ponents that are automotive-qualified, conforming to AEC-Q100 and manufactured in ISO/TS 16949 -certified sites. Qualification tests for each component should conform to the ISO16750 stan-dard: “Road vehicles – Environmental conditions and testing for electrical and electronic equipment.” This is important not only for vehicle- mounted devices, but also for industrial devices that must operate outside, in ships or in railcars.

8) Support of emergency call systemsThere is a global trend to equip new cars with automated systems that can automatically report an accident, as well as aid recovery in the case of theft. The US, Europe, Russia and Brazil have all established nationwide initiatives supporting these systems and that will increasingly be required by government mandate. For these systems, a specific modem feature, the “In-band modem,” is often required. It enables data to be sent over the modem voice channel, similar to how a fax machine sends data over the tele-phone lines. This is required due to the higher prioritization of the voice channel over data in mobile networks. In an accident scenario, voice channel availability is higher than data channels such as GPRS or HSPA which may not even be available in remote areas. The voice channel is therefore a crucial link for transmit-ting data to an emergency response center.

Questions to ask your modem vendor concerning emergency call support: Do your modems support in-band modem? Is it sup-


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ported on both 2G and 3G modems? Are your modems suitable for automotive applications? Do your satellite receivers support dead reckoning? Do you provide both GPS and GLONASS receivers? (See related points above.)

9) Assisted positioning For M2M applications requiring reliable position information in urban environments, the availability of an assisted positioning system should be considered. Especially in cities where satellite visibility is often blocked by tall buildings, drop-out of positional overview can be overcome by calling up a remote A-GPS server. This is a simple process of downloading a few bytes of satellite orbital data from the Internet using a wireless modem. With this aiding data, visible satellites need only be visible for a few seconds to calculate a position, and not the full 30 seconds it takes to receive an entire 1500 bit satellite frame.

For certain applications, such as low-end navigation systems, a momentary lapse of position can be tolerated. For other applica-tions such as vehicle emergency call or road-pricing systems, even temporary loss of position can have unacceptable consequences, making assisted positioning an attractive feature. What to look for when considering assisted positioning: Does the positioning (GPS) receiver vendor support an online assistance service? How reliable is the service, for example, does it provide guaranteed availability? Which regions of the earth does the service support? Does the vendor include client software that supports the ser-vice transparently? Do the positioning receiver and the wireless modem have an interface to support the service? Is the service available for GPS and GLONASS?

10) Dead reckoning supportFor vehicle-based telematics systems, such as insurance tracking systems, the ability to accurately record position, heading and velocity information is crucial. In tunnels, however, the absence of satellite signals means this information must be temporarily generated by a parallel system. An important technology to sup-plement satellite signals is dead reckoning, which extrapolates location and speed based on input from vehicle sensors.

Questions to ask about your positioning receiver: Does it support dead reckoning? Can it be plugged directly into the vehicle CAN bus to acquire the data? Can it directly interface to vehicle sensors such as gyro and odometer? Does the vendor offer a complete, proven system with evaluation environment? Are the compo-nents automotive grade (see point below)?

11) Indoor positioningUnfortunately, GPS does not work deep indoors, nor do any other satellite-based navigation systems. The extremely weak signals are easily blocked by walls, metal, or even a thin sheet of water. Does this mean that M2M applications that rely on positional overview of assets without a sky-view are doomed to fail? The answer is no. For applications where an approximate position indoors is required, combining a satellite receiver with a wireless modem can overcome this problem via a hybrid solution that exploits the visibility of 2G or 3G cells.

As GSM or UMTS signals easily penetrate walls, if the boundaries of visible mobile cells are known, an approximate position can be calculated based on where the cells overlap. This solution requires wireless connection to an external service, similar to the assisted positioning solution mentioned above. Questions to ask about your source of positioning receiver and wireless modems: Do they support such a solution? Is it proven or only in theory? Do they provide an online service, and is it in operation? Can your chosen satellite receiver and wireless modem support the service? How accurate is it?

12) Positioning system compatibility Until recently, GPS was the only system you needed to consider. Now, with Russia’s GLONASS and Japan’s QZSS systems online, plus China’s BeiDou and Europe’s Galileo on the horizon, compat-ibility with GPS plus at least one other satellite system will be required available to increase system reliability and accuracy as well as to fulfill regional government mandates for compatibility with their own systems.

Often, parallel operation that uses two systems simultaneously will be part of the specification. An example is Russia’s new ERA-GLONASS vehicle emergency call system that requires GLONASS compatibility. Questions to ask about your GPS/GNSS receiver: Does it provide multi-GNSS support? Does it provide parallel GPS/GLONASS or GPS/BeiDou?

Wiring It All TogetherThese are just some of the considerations you may want to think about when designing your M2M products. Remember that many new standards, both wireless and positioning, are in transition. It is important to consider the long term anticipated lifetime of your product on the market, and which markets your products will serve. Also consider whether it is important to include in the design support for next-generation performance and network coverage, or instead to design for easy upgradeability of your products in the field.

Carl has 25 years experience working in the semi-conductor, software, and telecoms industries based in the USA and Switzerland. Carl is a published author of numerous technical articles in the areas of embedded computing, telecom services, and multimedia distribution. He is currently product communications manager at u-blox. Carl holds a bachelors of sci-ence in electrical engineering from the University of California.

Herbert has 20 years international experience in the semiconductor industry. Before joing u-blox, he spent 14 years at Philips Semiconductors/NXP working in several areas of embedded cellular tech-nologies. He is currently VP of business marketing at u-blox specializing in strategy, business planning and leading the communications team. Herbert holds masters de-grees in electrical engineering and industrial management from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.


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The “Internet of Things” (IoT) is an influential force that is transforming the telecom and cloud infrastructure indus-tries. A huge portion of the force of IoT is the amount of content continually added to online servers. Adding to the content explosion, video is becoming the dominant com-munication vehicle on the Internet. Supporting this claim is Intel who predicts mobile video content will double every year, and that two thirds of all mobile data traffic will be video by 2015. Furthermore, at a recent confer-ence Intel presented the following facts: Each minute, another 30 hours of video is posted on YouTube; Twitter handles 100,000 tweets; Facebook handles 6 million page views; iTunes App Store processes 47,000 app downloads. The number of devices on the Internet already equals the population of the world (i.e., approximately 7 billion). And, that number is expected to double in two to three years with mobile Internet traffic predicted to make a staggering 11-fold increase.

The sheer volume of the data generated by all forms of communication has been appropriately referred to as the “gigantic data” problem. Without question, this reality calls into question whether today’s server computing platforms or cloud infrastructure are up to the task of future IoT requirements (Figure 1). But cloud computing really is different; it’s not just marketing-speak for the same old client/server model. To adequately address cloud computing requirements means new hardware, new infra-structure, new software and sometimes even new business models are needed. Starting with a clear understanding of the data expansion trends affecting IoT requirements for the cloud puts infrastructure solutions into better focus.

Trends Causing Gigantic DataThere are several significant existing and future fore-casted market trends contributing to the “gigantic data” phenomenon. While blogs, social networking and media streaming are definitely affecting Web 2.0 applications, much of the growth in Internet usage is coming from gadgets or devices, not people. Unattended “embedded” devices are

popping up everywhere that include everything from Internet-enabled soft drink machines to utility meters, traffic lights or a whole group of electricity-driven applica-tions (Figure 2).

Today, mobile, IPTV and content delivery providers are pushing more and more content from their networks, which, in turn, are spawning ever greater demand from end-users. Compounding the issue is the increase in 4G LTE service availability along with associated mobile tariffs that also put a strain on these providers. Higher bandwidth service is leading to elevated quality content expecta-tions from consumers that include HD with the ability to access OTT (over the top) and TV Every-where services such as Netflix, iPlayer and Hulu. Content delivery providers use the latest technology advancements to encode video. They are finding, however, that this is a processor-intensive job especially when outputting multiple videos into multiple formats, and is often used by broadcasters, cable companies, and large production companies who need to encode large amounts of media into multiple formats, all at the same time. This is why it is so crucial to select a computing platform that offers a highly scalable and distributed processor approach that will allow providers to share application workloads.

Multicore Media Platforms Support Cloud Infrastructure

To adequately address cloud computing requirements means new hardware, new infrastructure, new software... and sometimes even new business models are needed.

It’s a “gigantic data” dilemma best solved using Intel’s latest solutions.

By Sven Freudenfeld, Kontron

Figure 1: The IoT has the potential to further propel the “gigantic data” growth curve sharply upward. Due to the transition to a world with billions of connected, intelligent devices, there is the reality that the massive amount of machine-to-machine (M2M) real-time data will outpace what humans can produce by mul-tiple factors of 10, or a number so large it is hard to fathom.


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Each minute, another 30 hours of video is posted on YouTube;

Twitter handles 100,000 tweets; Facebook handles 6 million

page views; iTunes® App Store processes 47,000 app downloads.

Moving Mobile Devices to the CloudSeveral challenges confront content providers in sup-porting mobile devices in the cloud, and these issues are the motivating factors suppliers are using to build pow-erful cloud computing platforms. Providers must contend with services monetization, increased bandwidth require-ments, power constraints, accommodating multiple content delivery standards, expandability, and reducing costly OPEX (operating expenditure).

Another reality is that even with the increase in data handled in the network, the profile of data packets passing through the network will be in sizes different from the traditional mobile device connected to the net-work. Therefore, what is called for is a more distributed computing approach in the cloud that can enable highly efficient management of the cloud infrastructure. The new structure of IoT introduces Web 3.0 with a simplified and structured interaction for M2M communication without any human interaction.

Part of the solution is efficient transcoding in the cloud, which is seen as the answer to accommodate both power consumption and bandwidth-hungry video content requirements. Tackling energy efficiency, new server platforms need to provide extensive and smarter power management that adapts power consumption to the actual workload as well as dynamically powering up or down pro-cessors independently for significant energy savings.

For expandability, cloud infrastructure needs to scale, meaning that it needs to grow without changing its nature. It is important to note that not everything scales—small servers do not necessarily scale into larger server net-works. The reality is that scalability that performs in both small and large scale deployments can be difficult to design into microprocessors, systems and networks.

From a cloud infrastructure perspective, scalability is by no means assured with most hardware technology, so it is crucial to check the system specs to make sure scalability is an integral part of the platform. And, every part of the cloud infrastructure needs to scale at once—the network, the memory, the performance, the cooling—or the overall system doesn’t work. Upgrading one component without the others doesn’t make sense.

Accessibility and user privileges, authentication, encryp-tion, malware and OS vulnerabilities through managing OS patches are the top security threats on mobile devices connected to the network (Figure 3). Disaggregation of com-pute resources in the cloud platform allows a more secure, network infrastructure compared to traditional massive multicore platforms. For example, traditional platforms that use dual socket server architectures and a massive memory plus a software layer for virtualization actually become an additional weak point to securing the network.

A number of hardware companies are touting a new gener-ation of cloud servers that scale down the traditional web/cloud server with reduced power consumption, lower cost, smaller footprint, and less heat dissipation. But beware,

Figure 2: M2M-connected devices like this intelligent Coke machine can predict and respond to a customer’s behavior. This machine was demonstrated onstage by an Intel executive at the company’s IDF 2012. (Photo courtesy: Chris A. Ciufo.)

Figure 3: Security is becoming a top priority, as shown here at IDF 2012.


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some suppliers are offering old technology that they are masquerading under new labels. Mobile providers must be weary and realistic about what modern “cloud-ready” sys-tems can really do, and plan accordingly. Lane Patterson, CTO of US-based Equinix cautions about naive expecta-tions: “The cloud does not automatically back [itself] up, nor provide a tool to automatically mirror the solution or application to another location. Hence, if there is a failure or fiber cut within or to the data center, the user will expe-rience a service outage.”

Multicore Media Platform SolutionsTranscoding requires intensive compute cycles, and is a funda-mental necessity in the network, as numerous devices require a multitude of different bitrates, resolutions and codecs. Multicore Intel® processor architectures, such as the Intel® Core™ i7 processor and Intel® Xeon® pro-cessor E3-1200 product families are well-suited to support these types of processor-intensive video encoding. Specifically, the Intel® Core i7-3615QE processor is designed for media optimization applications and fea-tures Intel Clear Video HD technology and Intel® Quick Sync Video 2.0 for improved visual quality, HD media playback, and the ability to decode and transcode simul-taneous video streams while freeing up the CPU for other tasks. In addition, low power, high performance Intel processors help developers create platforms that easily scale and share the workloads of web, M2M and mobile applications deployed in cloud infrastructure. And, Intel processors contribute to platforms with an enhanced and comprehensive power management suite that permits dynamic powering up and down when workloads change.

Intel ’s latest processor architectures supply the optimal feature set with low power and high performance for new computing platforms that deliver the right combination of energy consumption, size and scalability to enable reli-able cloud-based media content delivery and transcoding applications. The company’s processors provide the key foundation allowing media platform developers to design computing resources that are more than traditional servers, but true versatile building blocks that make it easier to create cloud-based networks. Now, network equipment providers (NEPs) who offer hosted services and IPTV, Cable, Cloud and Mobile Cloud service providers can use new media cloud platforms as a framework for opti-mized streaming content to mobile devices. In addition, the modular design of these media platforms can be the building blocks for new applications used for mobile and

fixed video, unified communications and Video Surveil-lance as a Service (VSaaS).

For example, the Kontron SYMKLOUD MS2900 Media platform is based on Intel’s highly scalable and distrib-uted quad-core Intel Core i7-3615QE processors (Figure 4). Supporting shared application workloads, it integrates switching, load balancing and processing in a 3-in-1, 2U rackmount platform design that gives cloud service

providers the ability to configure clusters of highly dense 42U cabinets that require four to eight times fewer fiber and copper cables. This type of design approach enables improved power efficiency and scalability, and a much lower CAPEX (capital expen-diture) for new deployments in the network, without any limitation on Carrier Grade High-Availability and switching capabilities.

Making Mobile Cloud Infrastruc-ture a RealityTo fully support cloud service pro-viders and hosted services with highly reliable server computing platforms and cloud infrastructure

design resources requires a shift from legacy, purely processor-driven hardware to more scalable and versatile cloud-enabled Web 3.0 infrastructure equipment. Next-generation data centers requirements will continue to evolve so it is crucial that providers look for new hardware and software solutions that are fully integrated and appli-cation ready. These solutions must also provide improved power and cluster management, and deliver cost-effective 5-nines high-availability. The good news is that a series of new Intel processor-based media platforms are now available. These platforms are truly cloud-worthy solu-tions service providers can use to prepare for video growth predictions as well as drive the growth for OTT and TV Everywhere, HD formats and devices, mobile video and video surveillance.

Sven Freudenfeld manages business develop-ment for the Communications Product Business Unit at Kontron focusing on the telecom vertical market, including the AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, AdvancedMC, Communication Rackmount and Cloud Computing product lines. Sven possesses more than 15 years experience in voice, data, and wireless com-munications, having worked extensively with Nortel Networks in systems engineering, Sanmina-SCI in test engineering, and Deutsche Telekom in network engineering.

Figure 4: The modular design of the Kontron SYMKLOUD Media platform supports running multiple applications, including transcoding, across multiple independent low-power, high-performance processors. It offers a scalable, future –proof solution and features up to 18 quad-core Intel® Core™ i7-3615QE processors with integrated Intel® HD Graphics 4000.


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According to Intel, there are currently one billion embedded intelligent systems in existence. As this statistic relates to the transportation industry, the worldwide market for intel-ligent transportation systems (ITS) devices is expected to increase at a 22.2% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and reach a value of $65 billion in 2015 (Source: BCC Research’s 2010 Intelligent Transportation Systems Review).

Intelligent transportation systems enable users to be better informed and make safer and smarter use of transport net-works. They also allow transport providers to better track and manage their critical assets. However, designing an embedded solution with intelligence adds complexity to an already challenging development environment. Ruggediza-tion, regulatory requirements and/or certification, size, and cost constraints mean that embedded ITS systems will by definition be a mix of all of these starting from an existing small form factor (SFF) such as COM, COM Express, EBX, or a variation.

ITS Design Requirements: Rugged, Small, CertifiedTransportation solutions are most often housed outdoors or in moving vehicles, where exposure to a variety of climates dictates the need to operate in extended temperatures and to support the extremes of shock, vibration and humidity. In addition, space restrictions require putting expanding functionality on ever-smaller board form factors. Because of cost and the complex nature of intelligent embedded computing solutions for transportation, system qualifica-tion can take a very long time and require designers to look for products with a long lifecycle. Finally, transportation infrastructure is highly regulated around the world, so extra certification requirements are almost always part of a rugged ITS specification.

There is no panacea for the challenges that are inherent in the variety of rugged, horizontal applications for ITS, but rather there are optimal solutions that can provide the highest level of success based on the specific application requirements.

We’ll examine some systems and uncover the tradeoffs reached to achieve optimal results using COTS SFFs.

Locomotive DVR and Data GatewayA leading global supplier of technology solutions for rail-roads wanted to develop an onboard locomotive video/audio capture system to aid in accident investigations and provide safety training to crews. In addition to video and audio recording, requirements for the system included remote monitoring and control, real-time health monitoring and wireless video download.

To address vibration issues with data storage, the system incorporated solid-state media in a sealed, tamper-resistant housing. General options for storage include rotating hard disk drives (HDDs) for economy or solid-state drives (SSDs), which are more rugged, but also come at a higher price point. HDDs contain spinning disks and movable read/write heads, whereas SSDs use microchips that retain data in non-volatile memory chips and contain no moving parts, making them less susceptible to physical shock, altitude, and vibration issues. SSDs have faster access time and lower latency than do HDDs, and the flash memory and circuit board materials of SSDs make them lighter than higher performing HDDs. With the weight and vibration resistant requirements of mobile applications, solid-state media is a better choice for most ITS solutions.

For the onboard locomotive video/audio capture system, designers created a rugged solution around the embedded Intel® architecture and Embedded Board eXpandable (EBX) Single Board Computer (SBC) form factor. EBX is a good format options for designs that can handle a slightly larger (than, say, a computer-on-module) single-board computer (SBC) form factor. Still small with just 46 square inches of surface area (8” x 5.75”), EBX balances size and functionality with a bolt-down SBC format supporting rugged embedded designs with higher-performance CPUs such as those using multicore technology for networking, digital signal processing (DSP)

Overcome the Challenges of Intelligent Transportation

Systems DesignWith so many constraints in creating and certifying ITS systems, the secret to success is targeting an optimal solution based upon one of the many small form

factor standards.

By Jeff Munch, ADlINK technology


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and graphics-heavy applications, and generous on-board Input/Output (I/O) functions to support everything from large data exchange to video. The design accommodated both functionality and rugged requirements for the train system with dual Ethernet, CRT and flat panel video, multiple serial and USB ports, SATA and IDE interfaces, high-definition audio, and General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) support.

A critical by product of on-site video/audio capture is reduced litigation and settlement costs due to accurate incident reporting. System reliability is critical to users in terms of return on investment, so designers used products that pro-vided documented uptime in their specifications and met the electromagnetic interface/compatibility (EMI/EMC) EN50155 industry standard.

Intelligent Bus NetworkA leading designer of innovative technology solutions for all modes of public transportation implemented an on-board smart system enabling transit agencies to communicate with customers and dispatch, maintain its fleet and collect and analyze operating data (Figure 1). The numerous control inputs included vehicle run switch, front and rear door, wheelchair ramp, stop request, odometer and emergency alarm. The solution also required GPS with driving recorder and support for both wireless and cellular transmis-sion. Finally, the company required a Class A device for testing against SAE International standards.

Figure 2: A design using the COM Express form factor provides off-the-shelf functionality and an easy upgrade path by putting the customization on the baseboard, thereby creating more flexibility with the module without sacrificing performance.

Due to both space constraints within transit vehicles and the highly special-ized application requirements, the COM Express form factor was selected for this particular embedded solution.

Computer-on-modules (COMs) are com-plete embedded computers built on a single circuit board for use in small or specialized applications requiring low power consumption or small physical size. Though they are compact (ETX/XTX at 114 x 95 mm and COM Express at 125 x 95 mm to 84x55 mm) and highly integrated, COMs can accommodate complex CPUs.

With the COM approach, all generic PC functions are readily available in an off-the-shelf foundation module, allowing system developers to focus on their core

competencies and the unique functions of their systems. A custom designed carrier board complements the COM with additional functionality that is required for specific applica-tions. The carrier board provides all the interface connectors for peripherals, such as storage, Ethernet, keyboard/mouse and display. This modularity allows the designer to upgrade the COM on the carrier board without changing any other board design features, and also allows more customization of peripherals as dictated by a specific application (Figure 2).

The COM Express form factor offers flexibility in the development and advancement of ultra-rugged embedded transportation applications. By using the modular processing block, the designer creates a price and value advantage; he/she isn’t locked into a single vendor for board creation and can customize based on pricing and performance require-ments. Because it is easily swapped from a carrier board and comes in one of the smallest form factors, COM Express is ideal for long-life embedded applications with a critical development cycle, as well as more progressive applications that require frequent processor upgrades without affecting other application design elements.

Figure 1: The hardware for the intelligent bus network solution was housed in a fixed space near the floor of each fleet vehicle, making the use of a rugged, small form factor design a must to compensate for space restrictions and potential shock, vibration and temperature extremes. (Image courtesy of U.S. Department of Transportation.)


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The complete solution to create the intelligent bus network consisted of a rugged COM Express module plus custom baseboard with an Intel® Atom™ processor. Mini PCI Express slots support 802.11 a/b/g/n and cellular modems for con-nectivity and specified operating and storage temperature, shock and operating and non-operating vibration require-ments were all designed into and extensively tested to create the custom solution.

Train Operator DisplayA leading provider of technology solutions in transportation, aerospace, defense and security was creating an in-vehicle operator display system that could be installed in rail net-works across the globe. The purpose of the display system was to provide an interface for conductors to monitor and manage train activity. Because the display system was being designed for subway and rail systems in multiple countries, the solution needed to account for variation: multiple sizes for display installation areas; multiple power requirements; multiple certification requirements.

The end solution started with two customized panel sizes, 10” and 6.5”, with Texas Instruments ARM-based processors (Figure 3). The “system on display” style rugged panels offered low power consumption, which allowed a slim, fanless design and the ability to fit into tighter spaces. Two power supplies were included to meet international standards (input voltage 24VDC/36VDC or 72VDC/110VDC), and the solution was built in accordance with transportation specifications from Cenelec, the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization, and Arema, the American Railway Engineering and Mainte-nance-of-Way Association.

This display system was also designed to meet a stringent mean time between failure (MTBF) requirement of over 100,000 hours (~ 2x normal MTBF requirement). To accomplish this, the design had to be rugged, The initial step was to select a rugged board that was designed for harsh environments from the ground up. With rugged—as opposed to ruggedized—solu-tions that support the extremes of shock, vibration, humidity and temperature, care is given to component selection, circuit

design, Printed Circuit Board (PCB) layout and materials, thermal solutions, enclosure design and manufacturing process.

Robust test methods ensure optimal product design phases in order to meet a product’s stringent requirements, such as -40 °C to +85 °C operating temperature range, MIL-STD, shock and vibration and long-term reliability. In the end, the designers selected hardware certified to meet military standard MIL-HDBK-217F for temperature range and EN61373 Class 1B / Arema Class for shock and vibration, as well as EMI/EMC: EN 610000-6-4 / EN 61000-6-2 / EN50121.

Meeting the ITS Design ChallengeAs exemplified in the previous ITS designs, consistent requirements included the need for extreme environmental standards, space restrictions and specialized certifica-tions to meet both technical and regulatory standards. To overcome these challenges, developers utilized already proven rugged hardware to provide a solid foundation for their designs. In addition, a familiarity with the pros and cons of small form factor options helped them to create a baseboard design that could best accommodate size and performance requirements. And to ensure certification success and system longevity, designers created solutions around standards-based hardware and products that follow the roadmap of an established architecture.

As ADLINK CTO, Jeff Munch heads all R&D opera-tions in North America and Asia and is responsible for building ADLINK’s presence throughout the world. Munch has over 20 years of experience in hardware design, software development, and en-gineering resource management. Munch has also served as Chair of the COM Express R2.1 Subcommittee, Chair of the AdvancedTCA Subcommittee, and Chairman of the PICMG COM Express Plug-and-Play Subcommittee.

Figure 3: The customized panel is a System on Display combining an LCD panel, CPU board and touch-screen in a compact package that can be used in both industrial and consumer-based applications, such as point-of-sale kiosks and digital advertising signage.


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Case Study: Location-Aware Public Transit Drives Custom I/O

Controller Card DevelopmentChallenges included J1708 serial protocol, multi-vendor subsystems, balancing

current and future requirements.

By Bill Brown, Avail and Patrick Dietrich, Connect tech

The modern public transport bus is more than what you might remember. There’s still a driver, money box, seats and a couple of doors. But there are also digital signs on the outside that change depending upon the daily route, electronic audible location annunciators calling out the stops, digital passive passenger counters, and security systems designed to protect passengers and the driver.

Plus, in an ever-connected and cloud-based M2M world, the modern location-aware bus interacts with passengers using GPS input and reports telemetry and data stats back to a computer-aided bus dispatch or depot location. This electronic wizardry requires multiple subsystems and vendors, several RF connection pipes (including analog voice), and myriad soft-ware and protocols—all interconnected on industrial vehicle LANs such as CAN 2.0b running J1939 and the mature serial 2-wire SAE J1708 standard.

In this article we’ll describe the technical rationale for how intelligent transportation systems (ITS) integrator Avail Technologies spec’d out two unique I/O cards from rugged supplier Connect Tech.

Sub-System ArchitectureOne card (PCI Card) uses a PCI bus to plug onto a rugged but standard fanless PC located in the in-vehicle unit (IVU). The I/O and protocols on the card are anything but standard. The other card (RCU Card), located in the aptly named radio controller unit box, has more specialized digital I/O but interfaces with analog radio and PA equipment. At their sim-plest, both Connect Tech cards have to deal with inherently “dirty” vehicle power and industrial temperatures, plus the non-trivial nuances of already-deployed legacy hardware and software such as the J1708 vehicle network.

As shown in Figure 1, the transport bus consists of multiple subsystems, all interconnected via backbone networks joined by the serial J1708 and/or CAN 2.0b with J1939 protocol. The vehicle contains two separate J1708 networks: one for the drive train functions (engine, transmission, etc.) and one for

the ITS subsystems shown here. From the upper left of the diagram in Figure 1 and moving counter-clockwise:

Automated Next Stop Annunciation: GPS-based location input triggers audible announcements for next stop and other announcements such as sporting events, festivals or public safety. The on-board internal signage is changed to reflect location.

GPS-Triggered Headsign Change: Front-of-bus signage (and other exterior signs) change to reflect bus route. Detours and route changes are automatically reflected based upon GPS input but under computerized dispatch control. Special event information can be remotely transmitted and updated.

Security Camera System: Standalone system locally records and may transmit audio/video, depending upon RF WAN such as cel-lular or access to Wi-Fi hotspots at fuel depot or other location.

ControlPoint Automatic Passenger Counter (APC): Collects and broadcasts real-time statistics about passengers boarding/leaving the bus in compliance with local transit authority and Federal Transit Administration regulations.

Single Point of Login: This sub-system eases the driver’s login workload by avoiding having to log into each sub-system indi-vidually. Upon start of day, driver enters employee and route information into the onboard mobile data computer (MDC), which authenticates all systems resident on the J1708 and/or CAN network(s). Information in regards to the driver’s daily work assignment, vehicle location and passenger load is also relayed to operations personnel.

Vector 9000: Installed near the driver to provide HMI GUI for control and monitoring of all onboard systems. Includes cel-lular communications for WAN dispatch and emergency data transmission, this is also where the driver logs onto the sys-tems through interface to the single-point-of-login subsystem using a single workload ID. All the subsystems configure and sync up to the bus’s route remotely via the driver’s action.


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Inputs/Vehicle Health: Discrete inputs from various on-board sensors or mechanical attributes, analog and digital inputs, and voltages mux together onto the J1708 and/or J1939 CAN. These inputs directly feed the IVU. Drive train information from engine controller, transmission, automatic brakes and so on is available via CAN/J1939 to the PCI Card on the IVU. Discrete inputs such as vehicle doors status, wheelchair lift/deploy, stop request, lift request are fed to the IVU via the integrated digital I/O (DIO) module. Vehicle voltages, battery back-up and ignition status are monitored and reported from the RCU.

In Vehicle Unit (IVU): This is the main controller for the Vector 9000 driver HMI. The Connect Tech PCI Card resides here, installed into a rugged, fanless PC motherboard running Windows Embedded Standard 7. The IVU interfaces with all onboard systems at least via serial J1708 LAN for status and/or health monitoring. Wi-Fi bulk connectivity added to moth-erboard for video, location and other large data transfers.

Communications and Radio Controller Unit: Two-way radios, audio files and bulk communications are transmitted wire-lessly to the vehicle. RCU box is mounted near the driver and contains Connect Tech RCU Card with interfaces to multiple onboard digital and analog sensors, audio switching for radio channels and PA input/output, and other I/O such as ignition, odometer, and more. RCU also handles graceful bring-up/shut down of several real-time embedded onboard systems.

IVU Dissected: PCI CardThe IVU is the primary controller responsible for overseeing all of the ITS subsystems on the vehicle and also needs to accept chassis I/O inputs from the drive train engine control unit (ECU), transmission, automatic brakes and other body control modules.

The central hub to all the interfaced systems, the IVU houses an industrial, fanless Intel Atom-based PC motherboard with two PCI slots that is capable of operation from -30°C to +80°C. One slot currently houses the vehicle’s bulk data wireless LAN; the other slot is for the PCI Card we’ll describe in a moment. The IVU runs a componentized Windows Embedded Standard 7 with drivers to common UART interfaces, plus a storage function is handled by a flash-based solid-state drive (SSD) for event recording. The IVU monitors chassis voltages such as the ignition position, battery, and brake lights. As well, the IVU is cognizant of the bus’s door position(s), wheel chair lift, and other onboard electro-mechanical functions. The IVU tracks these inputs, plus J1708 LAN messages and wirelessly sends an alert to the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) should levels fall outside certain thresholds. Needless to say, the combina-tion of native sensor voltages, custom I/O, serial J1708, plus CAN 2.0b J1939 protocols made designing the IVU hardware and software challenging.

Connect Tech was chosen by Avail partly because no off-the-shelf PCI card had the requisite I/O functions. In addition to the existing subsystem interfaces described above, Avail is planning for future ITS systems with interfaces such as wire-

Figure 1: The modern public transit bus is loaded with interconnected, intelligent subsystems. The black line represents the SAE J1708 2-wire electrical bus, or the updated CAN 2.0b network running J1939 protocols. (Courtesy: Avail Technologies.)


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less LAN, Bluetooth or cellular. So the PCI Card also needed to allow for fea-tures expansion via three Multi-Tech module sites (Figure 2).

Figure 3 shows the block diagram of the PCI Card. The serial module I/O connector blocks are the Multi-Tech sites: one CAN controller node is for the current implementation during the market’s transition from serial J1708 to CAN J1939, while the other two CAN ports are for future system upgrades.

An Actel ProASIC3 FPGA acts as glue logic, computation and protocol implementation. It was used primarily because there are no off-the-shelf J1708 controllers on the market (only PHY trans-ceivers). More importantly, J1708 bus timing is difficult to get right so Connect Tech had to create FPGA IP to accurately deal with the protocol and bus timing.

The FPGA also implements PCI 2.2 and the J1939 protocol, realized via off-the-shelf CAN 2.0b controllers resident in a Microchip PIC32. The PCI Card mechanically is a standard 4.2 x 6.6 inch size, and uses industrial temperature components that exceed Avail’s operating range (refer back to Figure 2). The J1708 and J1939 interfaces use a shared Micro-D connector, while the other Micro-D houses the remaining two CAN inter-faces mounted on a custom front panel/bracket designed for IVU box mounting.

Because of these unique vehicle inter-faces, Connect Tech was required to write all the firmware and create Windows drivers for the PCI Card. The board can be programmed, debugged and tested via JTAG run-ning across the edge connector.

We mentioned above how vehicle power is inherently dirty in a truly harsh multi-season environment. This is due to alternator voltage variations, reduced battery output at low temperatures, unpredictable electrical loads, and the occasional abrupt ignition off/on cycle. Con-nect Tech designed all the I/O to be galvanically isolated from DC and/or ground loops, and floating grounds. The J1939/CAN and J1708 inter-faces are galvanically isolated on the PCI Card; low speed and higher voltage I/O signals use phototrans-istor optocouplers.

Additionally, Multi-Tech modules—although not today installed—can draw up to 1.75V (peak) from a 5V supply. Accommodating nearly 30W in future expansion, plus existing component cur-rent draw, lead Connect Tech to design for a variety of card input voltages: 3.3/5/12VDC. For 12VDC input, an HDD-style power connector was considered.

The IVU also contains an integrated design that delivers isolated digital I/O channels that assist with health monitoring. 16 channels of isolated input and 16 chan-nels of isolated output are included in this DIO function whose interface is provided

by a 68-pin connector.

Radio Controller Unit; RCU CardThe Radio Control Unit houses the card of the same name and is a separate box from the IVU to allow flexible vehicle mounting locations. In one of Avail’s customer installations, the RCU is located in the Radio Equipment Box behind the driver, but it could just as well be mounted under the dashboard near the driver’s two-way radio. Since transit authorities often use dif-ferent model year busses or even different bus manufacturers, the standalone RCU can be installed wherever it fits best with access to bus signals.

Primarily the RCU card provides the interface to all of the bus’s radios: voice, low-rate data and bulk data. It provides channel

Figure 2: The Connect Tech-designed “PCI Card” provides J1708 and CAN J1939 interfaces, along with three (3) Multi-Tech module sites for future expansion I/O such as Wi-Fi, cellular, Bluetooth, and so on.

PCI Core

Control Logic &Register Set

FPGA

External to FPGA

UART UART UART UART CAN Controller CAN Controller CAN Controller

Serial ModuleI/O Connector

(GPS, other)


(GPS, other)


(GPS, other)

CANTransceiver

CAN & J1939compatible

CANTransceiver


CANTransceiver


QuadUART

J1708Transceiver

PCI Connector

Board Bracket

Hole forSMA

Connector

Hole forSMA

Connector

Hole forSMA

ConnectorI/O Connector I/O Connector

Connect Tech Inc. - Custom PCI Design for Avail Technologies

Figure 3: PCI Card block diagram. Note the PCI interface implemented in an FPGA, where J1708 and J1939 protocols are handled as well. The CAN controllers are based upon a Microchip PIC32.


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steering which provides input to radio(s) to change the channels; automatic gain control for microphone audio input conditioning; digital potentiometers for additional audio conditioning, and switching relays to change audio source or destination (for example: the driver using the mic for onboard PA to passengers versus talking to dispatch).

But for flexibility to install the RCU in as many future vehicles as possible, the RCU also functions as an I/O hub (Figure 4). Avail Technologies wanted Connect Tech to maximize the RCU Card’s I/O handling to standard and proprietary transit industry inter-faces, so the RCU also accepts A/D inputs, CAN, I2C, SPI, RS-232, RS-485, GPIO and more. Not all of these are implemented in the diagram shown in Figure 1 and go unused for now.

Most of these signals are realized and controlled via a Micro-chip PIC32 to assist with smart control capabilities. Like the PCI Card, signals are optoisolated to control against power anomalies. As well, the RCU participates in the vehicle health monitoring shown in Figure 1 and can either switch to a bat-tery back-up, or alert the digital IVU and Vector 9000 Mobile Data Computer to perform graceful OS and processor shut-down if needed to avoid over/under-voltage damage.

For its part, Connect Tech designed the card to meet all of these requirements (Figure 5). CAN and UART controllers are in the PIC32 and control a single CAN 2.0b with J1939 protocol that is also optoisolated. There are two RS-232 interfaces. Changes can easily be made to accommodate RS-422 or RS-485 for alternate vehicle installations. There are 36 GPIO lines (some optoisolated), and six 10-bit A/D channels.

The RCU uses three DPDT relays to handle the analog audio switching described above. There are also analog gain circuits for audio signal conditioning. To make the RCU box as easily installed as possible, the RCU Card requires only a single 12VDC input (nominal), though it can function from a droopy 10.6V to a max of 16V. Connect Tech designed the RCU with DC/DC converters to provide all onboard lower digital voltages.

Intelligent Transportation, RealizedWhat’s most striking about the two custom cards designed for Avail Technologies’ ITS systems is not the sexiness of the technologies used; rather, the cards implement mature and unexciting I/O like RS-232, CAN, SPI and GPIO.

But the design elegance is making these cards work with myriad real-world transit vehicle interfaces. Creating FPGA IP that implements the difficult SAE J1708 protocol and bus timing was non-trivial, as was coding the PIC32 to talk CAN’s J1939. Gal-vanically isolating many of the signals to protect the boards (and

their higher order box-level systems) demonstrates practical knowledge of functioning, legacy systems.

Of course, as public transit buses further evolve with future location-based services, onboard contextual advertising, rider app integration and whatever other technology might become available next year, Avail Technologies’ systems are already capable of future upgrades. This is partly due to the thoughtful expansion capabilities built onto the Connect Tech PCI and RCU Cards.

Bill Brown is the lead project engineer on the Avail next generation in-vehicle system. He received a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from the University of Akron. Mr. Bown has more than 20 years of hardware engineering experience and continues to focus his attentions on Avail’s next generation of in-vehicle solutions.

Patrick Dietrich is the embedded R&D lead at Connect Tech. He received a bachelor of science in engineering from the University of Guelph in Canada, is an IEEE member, a licensed Profes-sional Engineer, and an active member in various embedded consortia technical committees.

RCU EXTERNALMULTI-IO CONNECTOR

32-Bit Low PoweredMicrocontroller

Isolated CAN/J1939

RS-232 SB-9600Isolated

GPIOConditioning, Switching Relays

Programmable Microphone Amplification, Bias & Attenuator

AUDIO

POWER

Switching RegulatorsIsolated DC/DC Convertors

Smart Voltage Monitoring and Telemetry

ADCs

Connect Tech Inc. - Custom RCU Design for Avail Technologies

Figure 4: Radio Controller Unit Card block diagram.

Figure 5: RCU Card. Note the PIC32 with myriad I/O, and the three DPDT relays for audio switch control.


standards watch

The big news from the PCI-SIG is speed. From PCI to PCI Express to Gen3 speeds, the PCI-SIG is an industry consortium that lets no grass grow for long. As the embedded, enterprise and server industries roll out PCIe Gen3 and 40G/100G Ethernet, the PCI-SIG and its key constituents like Cadence, Synopsis, LeCroy and others are readying for another speed doubling to 16 GT/s (giga transfers/second) by 2015.

The PCIe 4.0 next step would likely become known as “Gen4” and it evolves bandwidth to 16Gb/s or a whopping 64 GB/s (big “B”) total lane bandwidth in x16 width. The PCIe 4.0 Rev 0.5 specification will be available Q1 2014 with Rev 0.9 targeted for Q1 2015.

Yet as “SIG-nificant” as this Gen4 announcement is, PCI-SIG president Al Yanes said it’s only one of five major news items.

Five PCI-SIG announcements at Developers’ ConferenceThe other announcements include: a PCIe 3.1 specification that consolidates a series of ECNs in the areas of power, performance and functionality; PCIe Outside the Box which uses a 1 - 3 meter “really cheap” copper cable called PCIe OCuLink with an 8G bit rate; plus two embedded and mobile announcements that I’m particularly enthused about. See Table 1 for a snapshot.

New M.2 SpecificationOne of two announce-ments for the mobile and embedded spaces, the new M.2 speci-fication is a sma l l , embedded form factor designed to replace the previous “Mini PCI” in Mini Card and Half Mini Card sizes (Figure 1). The newer, as-yet-publicly-unreleased M.2 card specification will detail a board

PCI-SIG-nificant Changes Brewing in Mobile and Small

Form Factor DesignsOf five significant PCI Express announcements made at this week’s PCI-SIG Developers Conference, two are aimed at mobile embedded. It’s about time.


Table 1: There were five major announcements made by the PCI-SIG at June’s Developers Conference.

Figure 1: The PCI-SIG’s impending M.2 form factor is designed for mobile embedded ultrabooks, tablets, and possibly smartphones. The card will have a scalable PCIe interface and is designed for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, SSD and more. (Courtesy: PCI-SIG.)

PCI Express 3.1 specification Combines engineering change orders into new 3.1 spec for protocol exten-sions, L1 power substates, lightweight notification, enhanced downstream port containment, precision time measurement, more

PCI Express 4.0 specification Doubles bandwidth to 16 GT/s, 16 Gbps link, and about 64 GB/s total band-width (x16).

PCIe Outside the Box Cheap, 1-3m copper cable starts at 8G bit rate with up to 32 Gbps each direction (x4). Think of it as eSATA for PCIe and used for internal/external storage. Will be “orders of magnitude cheaper” than Thunderbolt, says PCI-SIG spokesman

M.2 specification Replaces PCI Mini cards and designed for I/O modules in ultrabooks, tables, and possibly smartphones. Scalable PCIe I/F.

M-PCIe Mobile PCIe uses MIPI M-PHY in a smartphone to connect host ASSP to modem, WLAN, and possibly onboard mass storage.


standards watch

ultrabook, tablet, and “maybe even smartphone,” said Neshati. At Rev 0.7 now, the Rev 0.9 spec will be released soon and the final (Rev 1.0?) spec will become public by Q4 2013.

Mobile PCIe (M-PCIe)The momentum in mobile and interest in a PCIe on-board interconnect lead the PCI-SIG to work with the MIPI Alliance and create Mobile PCI Express: M-PCIe. The specification is now available to PCI-SIG members and creates an “adapted PCIe architecture” bridge between regular PCIe and MIPI M-PHY (Figure 2).

Using the MIPI M-PHY physical layer allows smartphone and mobile designers to stick with one consistent user interface across multiple platforms, including already-existing OS drivers. PCIe support is “baked into Windows, iOS, Android and others,” says PCI-SIG’s Neshati. PCI Express also has a major advantage when it comes to interoperability testing, which runs from the protocol stack all the way down to the electrical interfaces. Taken collectively, PCIe brings huge functionality and compliance benefits to the mobile space.

M-PCIe supports MIPI’s Gear 1 (1.25-1.45 Gbps), Gear 2 (2.5-2.9 Gbps) and Gear 3 (5.0-5.8 Gbps) speeds. As well, the M-PCIe spec provides power optimization for short channel mobile platforms, primarily aimed at WWAN front end radios, modem IP blocks, and possibly replacing MIPI’s

own universal file storage UFS mass storage interface (administered by JEDEC) as depicted in Figure 3.

PCI Express Ready for MoreMore information on these five announce-ments will be rolling out soon. But it’s clear that the PCI-SIG sees mobile and embedded as the next target areas for PCI Express in the post-PC era. Yet the organization is wisely not abandoning the PCI Express standard’s bread and butter in high-end/high-performance servers and systems.

Chris A. Ciufo is editor-in-chief for embedded content at Exten-sion Media, which includes the EECatalog print and digital publications and website, Embed-ded Intel® Solutions, and other related blogs and embedded channels. He has 29 years of embedded technology experience, and has degrees in electrical engineering, and in materials science, emphasizing solid state physics. He can be reached at [email protected].

that’s smaller in size and volume, but is intended to provide scalable PCIe performance to allow designers to tune SWaP and I/O requirements. PCI-SIG marketing workgroup chair Ramin Neshati told me that M.2 is part of the PCI-SIG’s delib-erate focus on mobile in a fundamentally changing market.

The scalable M.2 card is designed as an I/O plug in for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, WAN/cellular, SSD and other connectivity in platforms including

Figure 2: The Mobile PCI Express (M-PCIe) specification targets mobile embedded devices like smartphones to provide high-speed, on-board PCIe connectivity. (Courtesy: PCI-SIG.)

Figure 3: M-PCIe by the PCI-SIG can be used in multiple high speed paths in a smartphone mobile device. (Courtesy: PCI-SIG and MIPI Alliance.)


market watch

By John Blyler, Vice President and Chief Content officer

RF and mixed-signal intellectual-property (IP) tech-nologies benefit from real growth, rumors of Apple’s WiFi chips, and MEMS.

The wireless chip market will be the leading growth segment for the semiconductor industry in 2013, pre-dicts IHS iSuppli Semiconductor. The report states that original-equipment-manufacturer (OEM) spending on semiconductors for wireless applications will rise by 13.5% this year to reach a value of $69.6 billion – up from $62.3 billion in 2012.

Another sign of the dominance of wireless systems comes from Will Strauss, president & principal analyst of Forward Concepts.

Another rumor is that Apple will employ Intel’s foundry service for its next-generation application processor produc-tion, distancing itself from dependence on Samsung. Since the press is full of rumors of Apple using TSMC for their next apps processor, employing Intel’s fab is not a certainty.”

The design and development of wireless and cellular chips reflects a continuing need for related semiconductor IP. All wireless devices and cell phones rely on RF and analog mixed-signal (AMS) integrated circuits to convert radio

signals into digital data, which can be passed to a baseband processor for data processing. That’s why a “wireless” search on the Chipestimate.com website reveals list after list of IP companies providing MIPI controllers, ADCs, DACs, PHY and MAC cores, LNAs, PAs, mixers, PLLs, VCOs, audio/video codecs, Viterbi encoders/decoders, and more.

Wireless has helped drive the growth of many industries – most notably, microelectromechanical-systems (MEMS) technology. The growth in RF MEMS could be considered “old news,” except that IP in sensors and signal-conditioning sub-systems has been growing rapidly, thanks to smartphones, game interfaces, and tablet sales.

Wireless technology is the focus of several major upcoming conferences. In addition to this week’s Mobile World Confer-ence, next week’s DVCon event has a session dedicated to mixed-signal/power aware design and verification.

There is no escaping the importance of wireless and AMS IP in today’s SoCs. Wireless chips will continue to lead semicon-ductor growth for many years to come..

John Blyler is the vice president & chief content officer of Extension Media, which publishes maga-zines, websites and email newsletters covering the electronics market- including Embedded Intel® Solutions, Chip Design and the EECatalog network- which covers more than 30 embedded electronics market segments.

Semiconductor Growth Turns Wireless

“There is a rumor ‘published’ in Israel that Apple will be designing its own baseband and WiFi chips. When Texas Instruments dropped

out of the cellphone business, within a week about 100 of the

former TI engineers in Israel were hired by Apple.


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The PICO831 extreme-compact Pico-ITX SBC is designed to support the newest ultra low-power dual-core Intel® Atom™ x processor N2800 (1.86 GHz) and N2600 (1.6 GHz) with the Intel® NM10 Express chipset. The PICO831’s compact size, ultra low power consumption, and high performance make it a perfect fit for space-limited and power saving environments. The system memory on PICO831 can support either 2 GB or 4 GB of DDR3, depending on the processor. Its onboard SATA-3Gb/s connector and optional SATA SSD meet storage requirements with ease. Considering to the various demands and networking requests, the tiny embedded board comes with full-size and half-size PCI Express Mini Card slots. It also provides internal connectors for VGA, 18/24-bit single channel LVDS and a Gigabit Ethernet, and a flexible I/O pin-header that integrates audio, four of USB 2.0, two of COM, LED, and power on/off interfaces. This Pico-ITX form factor board offers an excellent solution for in-vehicle PCs, medical imaging, gaming, in-flight entertainment systems, industrial automation systems, and the portable devices.

FEAtuRES

• Intel® Atom™ processor N2800 (1.8 GHz)/ N2600 (1.6 GHz) dual core onboard

• Intel® NM10 Express chipset

• 1 DDR3 SO-DIMM supports up to 4 GB memory capacity

• 4 USB 2.0 ports

• 2 COM ports

The CAPA831 3.5-inch embedded board is designed to support the newest ultra low power dual-core Intel® Atom™ processor D2550 (1.86 GHz), N2800 (1.86 GHz) and N2600 (1.6 GHz) with the Intel® NM10 Express chipset. The small form factor CAPA831 with lower power feature enables fanless designs and smaller footprint system design, and provides customers with a better choice for higher level graphics and system performance. This 3.5” embedded board supports system memory up to either 2 GB or 4 GB of DDR3, depending on the processors. Maximum memory for the Intel® Atom™ processor N2600 is suggested to be 2 GB. It also comes with multiple display outputs: DisplayPort, LVDS, and VGA with dual view supported and has a wide range for storage, I/O and expansion connectivity. This low-power platform is made for in-vehicle infotainment, industrial control, automation, gaming, medical devices, self-serve terminal, digital signage, and fanless devices.

FEAtuRES

• Intel® Atom™ processor D2550 (1.86 GHz)/ N2800 (1.86 GHz)/ N2600 (1.6 GHz)

• Intel® NM10 Express chipset

• 1 DDR3 SO-DIMM supports up to 4 GB memory capacity

• 6 USB 2.0 ports

• 4 COM ports

Axiomtek 3.5” Intel® Atom™ Processor D2550/ N2600/ N2800 - Based Embedded SBC - CAPA831

Axiomtek 18138 Rowland St.City of Industry, CA91748 USATelephone 1.626.581.3232Toll Free 1.888.GO.AXIOMFax [email protected]

Axiomtek 18138 Rowland St.City of Industry, CA91748 USATelephone 1.626.581.3232Toll Free 1.888.GO.AXIOMFax [email protected]

Extreme-Compact Intel® Atom™ Processor N2600/ N2800 - Based Pico-ItX SBC - PICo831


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X-ES’s line up of conduction and air-cooled products based on the 4th generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700EQ processor include the XCalibur4500 6U cPCI, the XCalibur4530 6U VME, and the XCalibur4540 6U VPX modules, which maximize memory capacity and I/O capabilities and add configurability with two PMC/XMC sites. X-ES provides the XPedite7570 3U VPX and the XPedite7530 3U cPCI modules, which are ideal for smaller aerospace and vehicle platforms that require maximum processing performance and I/O capabilities with the flexibility of PMC and XMC support. For applications with severe size, weight, and power (SWaP) challenges, such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), X-ES also offers the small XPedite7501 XMC and XPedite7550 Rugged COM Express modules.

The XPedite7570 is a high-performance, low-power, 3U VPX-REDI, single board computer based on the 4th generation Intel Core i7 processor. With two PCI Express Fat Pipe P1 interconnects and four Gigabit Ethernet ports, the XPedite7570 is ideal for the high-bandwidth data processing demands of today’s military and avionics applications. Floating-point-intensive applications such as radar, image processing, and signals intelligence will benefit from the performance boost provided by the Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions 2.0 (Intel® AVX2).

The XPedite7570 accommodates up to 16 GB of DDR3L-1600 ECC SDRAM in two channels to support memory-intensive applications. The XPedite7570 also hosts numerous I/O ports, including Gigabit Ethernet, USB, SATA, graphics, and RS-232/422/485 through the backplane connectors. The XPedite7570 can be used in either the system slot or peripheral slot of a VPX backplane. Wind River VxWorks and Linux Board Support Packages (BSPs) are available, as well as Microsoft Windows drivers.

4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 Processor-based VPX, VME, cPCI, XMC, and CoM Express SBCs

Extreme Engineering Solutions3225 Deming Way Suite 120Middleton, Wisconsin53562, [email protected]


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Emerson has been supplying integrated, application-ready ATCA® systems under the Centellis™ name for over 10 years. Our unrivalled experience and expertise is why new research reports that Emerson is number 1 in ATCA market share and installed base. Our Centellis systems include 2-slot, 6-slot and 14-slot variants designed to meet the needs of telecom central office environments. As the only major ATCA systems vendor that designs and manufactures its own chassis, Emerson understands how to build systems that are capable of meeting your requirements. We also have the only 2-slot and 6-slot systems available with AC power options and front-to-rear cooling, meeting the needs of both central office and network data center deployments.

FEAtuRES

• 40G systems with 2-, 6- or 14-slots

• Best-in-class cooling, exceeding CP-TA B.4 thermal specification

• AC or DC power input options

• Up to 350 Watts/blade power distribution

• Designed for NEBS/ETSI or network datacenter

APPlICAtIoN AREAS

Wireless infrastructure, mobile data optimization, network policy enforcement and access control, voice core elements, media gateways, session border controllers

Centellis™ Series AtCA® Systems

Emerson Network Power 2900 South Diablo Way, Suite 190Tempe, AZ 85282 USA+1 602 438 5720 Toll Free+1 800 759 1107 Telephone +1 602 438 5825 [email protected] Emerson.com/EmbeddedComputing

Emerson’s ATCA-7470 is a 40G ATCA® packet processing blade that enables the highest packet processing performance and security features. You can consolidate packet, application and control processing functions in a single blade architecture and benefit from lower development costs and the use of common tool suites. This can get you to market faster and enable you to balance workloads efficiently across available hardware resources.

Main memory and mass storage can be flexibly configured to provide a perfect fit to the needs of your application. Multiple available rear transition modules provide a flexible combination of storage and I/O, with options for high capacity redundant storage or up to 6x10G Ethernet interfaces.

FEAtuRES

• Two 8-core Intel® Xeon® processors E5-2648L, 1.8 GHz or E5-2658, 2.1 GHz

• Up to 128GB main memory

• Redundant 40G active/active ATCA Fabric interfaces, backward compatible with previous 10G systems

• Optional hardware off load module for encryption and compression acceleration with two Intel® Communications Chipsets 8920

• Multiple 1 and 10Gbps network and storage I/O connectivity options

AtCA-7470 Dual Intel® Xeon® Processor-based 40G AtCA® packet processing blade

Emerson Network Power 2900 South Diablo Way, Suite 190Tempe, AZ 85282 USA+1 602 438 5720 Toll Free+1 800 759 1107 Telephone +1 602 438 5825 [email protected] Emerson.com/EmbeddedComputing

Extreme Engineering Solutions3225 Deming Way Suite 120Middleton, Wisconsin53562, [email protected]


Last Word

Today we know them as a feature phones but ten years ago a vast majority of mobile phones were used just for voice calling and mes-saging. The gradual roll-out of Internet services, the development of more powerful hardware and the evolution of software platforms coupled with increased network coverage and improved communica-tion standards started a new mobile revolution. This has now grown to include content sharing, social networking or video calling—concepts that were not thought possible for handheld devices a decade ago.

The Evolution of Mobile Computing PlatformsSmartphones and tablets now have the hardware resources and required specifications to make them suitable for video and voice over IP (V.VoIP) applications. But are these video and voice clients just like any other application that you find in most mobile stores? To address this we need to understand the initial purpose of mobile phones: enabling real-time communication, which relies on both the device itself and the network operator to maintain the call link. Consumers have the same expectations with video calling, but as most operating systems enable multitasking, can they browse the Internet, run a HD game in the background and still deliver real-time quality for voice and video calls?

Before iOS and Android became leading mobile operating systems, developers had few resources and tools for designing compelling applications. Most V.VoIP features were embedded into the pro-prietary firmware with third-party software relying on Java ME or BREW. Because the hardware system was designed to deliver a limited set of functionality, any optimization was done at the target platform level and the number of devices that supported voice and video calling over the Internet Protocol was very limited. Soon enough, smartphones became computing powerhouses with mul-ticore processors and extra RAM and operating systems were able to run multiple applications at the same time including real-time software for V.VoIP.

Development Options for Mobile AppsWhen looking at mobile stores across various platforms, applica-tions can be split into two major families: native (this includes any embedded, pre-loaded and downloadable software) and Web-based. There are a number of advantages of relying on native apps, as more and more companies realize that HTML5 may not be suitable to their needs (see http://tinyurl.com/bqcxbn6). Embedded applica-tions can be more deeply integrated in the overall experience, which provides users with a familiar set of characteristics (for example a unified phone dialer for voice and video). Pre-loaded applications are bundled software packages used by most manufacturers as a way to

differentiate and get consumers a quick head start into the whole OS experience when they turn on their device for the first time. Down-loadable apps offer a much wider choice as price points, popularity and user feedback determine different options and features.

Real-time V.VoIP applications have specific requirements such as low audio and video latency and a guaranteed quality of service (QoS) that set them apart from the rest of the crop. Network delays and packet losses were a common thing in the wireless environment but with HelloSoft’s smart concealment algorithm (see http://tinyurl.com/odhsz57), these issues can now be successfully mitigated.

Applications designed for V.VoIP solutions can be optimized for specific platforms and benefit from the various processing resources available which will save precious battery life. The rapid development of APIs and operating systems enables these solutions to run across multiple platforms and devices such as smartphones, tablets, and ultrabooks while offering the same consistent experience across all of them.

The Main Requirements for V.VoIP AppsAn integrated native application should not drain battery quickly and provide low-latency HD voice and video experience even in a lossy wireless environment. This can only be achieved by tightly integrating with the handset platform and operators network, as is the case with embedded applications.

The developer community has now started to work more closely with operators and handset manufacturers to deliver performance opti-mized apps while operators have begun deploying GSMA standards like 4G LTE (see http://tinyurl.com/le6xfow) which enable voice/video over LTE and rich communication services, including social presence, group chat, messaging, video/image and file sharing. These standards provide a low-latency dedicated pipe for real-time voice and video applications to meet the QoS requirements. This means the handset manufacturers are opening up platform APIs for tighter integration, enabling a single integrated experience which would hopefully lead to the development of a V.VoIP super-app.

Alexandru Voica is technical market-ing executive and Saraj Mudigonda is business development manager for Imagination Technologies Group plc (LSE:IMG; www.imgtec.com). Con-tact Mr. Voica at [email protected] and Mr. Mudigonda at [email protected]

Video and Voice Applications for Tomorrow’s Mobile World

By Alexandru Voica and Saraj Mudigonda, Imagination technologies Group

congatec Inc. | 6262 Ferris Square San Diego | CA 92121 USA | Phone: 858-457-2600 | [email protected]

▪4thGenerationIntel®Core™processor-basedplatform▪3xDisplayPort1.2,upto4kresolution(QFHD=3840x2160@60Hz)

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© 2013 congatec AG. All rights reserved.conga and congatec are registered trademarks of congatec AG. Intel, Intel Core are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. COM Express is a registered trademark of PICMG.

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