in PDF Format - Embedded-Control-Europe.com

Dear Readers,
In this combined issue of Boards &
Solution und ECE magazines we
have collected for you the latest innovations
and trends in embedded
computing. There you ll realise an
ongoing trend to common form factors
or computing platforms for various
applications to reduce cost and
increase flexibility. ATCA and µTCA
originally developed for telecommunication
applications are used more
and more as such a common platform.
One example is our cover
story t which hi h ddescribes ib th the combination b of highly sophisticated multi-
core processors and fully user-accessible FPGAs implemented on a
single AMC board, which strengthens the ATCA and MTCA standards
in established markets and addresses others such as aerospace, high
energy markets and industrial automation. In the telecommunications
market the advantages of using one common infrastructure are the
driving factor for unification of services like digital voice, video
streaming and data transfers. To meet the various requirements DSPs,
FPGAs and packet processors are used. In other markets such as automation,
SoCs (System on Chips) and FPGAs are used to reduce the
BOM (bill of material) costs, increase the MTBF (main time between
failures) and reduce board space. To address the different requirements
of all of these applications - high bandwidth and processing requirements
of the telecommunications market and low power consumption
and set of I/O requirements for example in industrial automation -
it s important to use a common processor family. Combining such a
processor family with an FPGA on an AMC board brings applications
even higher flexibility, longevity and scalability benefits to card-based
systems. Advantages everyone in the embedded industry would like
to have.
But powerful embedded processors are just the base for embedded
systems – they have to have low latency communications with peripherals.
For this purpose PCI Express is becoming the best suited
solution. Another article shows that the PCIe interconnect offers a
number of advantages compared to other high performance computing
interconnect options like Ethernet, InfiniBand, and Fibre Channel.
PCIe has already an important role as an interconnect option in
ATCA and µTCA environments. PCIe is a valid backplane interconnect
option, but Ethernet still dominates for backplane connectivity. The
reason is that standard PCIe-based ATCA blades and hubs need significant
engineering effort is required. But by customizing ATCA
backplanes, removing unnecessary ATCA features and designing
specific ATCA-like blades, implementers can create high-performance
cost-effective systems. This leads us back to the common embedded
computing platforms.
You ll find much more useful information in this issue – enjoy!
Yours sincerely
Wolfgang Patelay
Editor
CONTENTS
3 June 2011