AMD G-Series SOC integrates CPU, GPU and I ... - ICC Media GmbH

VIEWPOINTDear Reader,If you look as an expert in theembedded industry at the communicationsindustry and as wellin the industrial automation youmust be quite happy. Because thetrend towards the internet of things(IoT) and to Industry 4.0 will bringa bright future to cyber physicalsystems – formerly known as embeddedsystems. According to thedefinition of Wikipedia “a cyberphysicalsystem (CPS) is a systemfeaturing a tight combination of,and coordination between, thecomputational and physical elements of the system. Today, a precursorgeneration of cyber-physical systems can be found in areas asdiverse as aerospace, automotive, chemical processes, civil infrastructure,energy, healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, entertainment,and consumer appliances. This generation is often referred to asembedded systems. In embedded systems the emphasis tends to bemore on the computational elements, and less on an intense link betweenthe computational and physical elements. Unlike more traditionalembedded systems, a full-fledged CPS is typically designed as anetwork of interacting elements with physical input and outputinstead of as standalone devices. Mobile cyber physical systems, inwhich the physical system in question has inherent mobility, are aprominent subcategory of cyber physical systems. Examples of mobilephysical systems include mobile robotics and electronics transportedby humans or animals. The rise in popularity of smartphones hasincreased interest in the area of mobile cyber physical systems. Smartphoneplatforms make ideal mobile cyber physical systems for anumber of reasons. What means the convergence between consumerapps and industrial applications is still going on.Especially for mobile cyber physical systems the highest possible integrationand performance by lowest power consumption is paramount.An example for one of these early mobile CPS you can take the newAMD G-Series SoCs, described in our cover story starting at page 6.This new device offers a highly scalable single-chip platform for innovativesmall form factor applications based on x86 technology to thedeveloper of embedded systems nowadays and cyber physical systemsin future.Yours sincerelyWolfgang PatelayEditor3 May 2013