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Small Form Factor Boards
CONTENTS
COM Express Compact module features
integrated condition monitoring 4
Intelligence: WHERE You Need It,
WHEN You Need It 6
Replacing discontinued modules forces
ETX module transplantation 10
Mini-ITX boards with AMD processors
hit the ground running 12
Small form factor boards embrace
new generation of the Atom family 15
Embedded Computing
Highlighting the evolution
in embedded design 17
COTS
FMC standard benefits high-speed
FPGAs in aerospace and defense 20
CompactPCI cards for advanced
avionics systems development 22
DO-178C and COTS: challenges
and opportunities for avionics software 24
Communications
10G Ethernet is poised to become
the next true standard in networking 28
Performance gains from multi-core
processors partnered with ATCA 32
Built-in development and debugging
tools in MicroTCA systems 36
Industrial Computing
Will Ethernet be the only train bus
in the trains of the future? 39
Performance to the full -
even under extreme conditions 41
Rugged vehicle computing platforms
– design considerations 45
Modular controllers enable platform
concept for custom applications 48
Cover Photo
Lippert Embedded Computers
3 December 2010
V-10_2010-WOEI-5262
ETX ®
MSC ETE-PV510
ETX Modul with Intel ®
Atom Dual Core Processor ���
Intel’s 2nd generation Atom with dual core
processor on a long-term available ETX module.
The perfect technology refresh for well established
embedded systems.
Lead your ETX based device to new success
by simply changing the module!
■ Intel ® Atom D510 (1.66GHz, Dual Core),
integrated Intel ® GMA3150 graphics core
■ Intel ® ICH8M I/O controller hub
■ Up to 2GB DDR2 SDRAM
■ 2x SATA-300, 2x PATA
■ 10/100 Base-T Ethernet
■ LVDS interface (18 Bit)
■ CRT interface up to 2048 x 1536 pixels
■ Dual Independent Displays supported
■ Flash Disk option (up to 8 GB, bootable)
■ 6x USB 2.0
■ Audio interface
■ Legacy interfaces (LPT, COM1/2, PS/2, ISA Bus)
■ ETX 3.02 compliant
■ Windows ® 7, XP (embedded), CE and Linux supported
MSC Vertriebs GmbH
+49 8165 906-122 · boards@msc-ge.com
www.msc-ge.com

SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
COM Express Compact module features
integrated condition monitoring
by Peter Kannegießer, Lippert Embedded Computers
With the Toucan-TC, LiPPERT
Embedded Computers offers
a Computer-On-Module in the
well-known COM Express
Compact form factor. Its features
CAN bus interface and
condition monitoring are
unique for standard COMs.
n Embedded PCs have increasingly found common
use in recent years. Their applications
now range from simple data acquisition systems
to complex control systems. Together with
this comes a growing complexity of the application,
requiring extensive flexibility of the
hardware. To meet this demand for flexibility,
small form factor Computer-On-Module
(COM) are often used, which reduce the complexity
of modern processors and chipsets the
developer must handle by using standardized
interfaces. These COMs can be easily used as
building blocks, like integrated circuits in an
electronic device.
With the Toucan-TC, LiPPERT Embedded
Computers offers a Computer-On-Module in
the well-known COM Express Compact form
factor, whose low power consumption makes
it ideal for battery-powered, mobile applications.
The other features of the module -CAN
bus interface and condition monitoring- are
unique for standard Computer-On-Modules.
The low power consumption is achieved through
the use of the Intel Atom processor E6xxT; this
newly launched CPU, together with the chipset
has a specified thermal design power (TDP) of
only about 3 watts. Hyper-Threading Technology
provides two logical cores, allowing multithreading
for quasi-parallel processing of applications.
Previous Intel processors required a
North Bridge to access the RAM. In the E6xxT
processor, this is replaced by an integrated
memory controller, which saves an integrated
circuit on the board. Likewise, a separate external
graphics unit no longer required. It is also
already integrated in the CPU. The corresponding
EG20T Platform Controller Hub (PCH)
contains all the embedded-range standard interfaces
such as LAN, USB, Serial, CAN, SATA
and other I/O functions. This compact and efficient
combination of processing unit and IO
controller unit allows the creation of small,
battery-powered, highperformance
X86 systems.
The two-chip solution allows
the integration of
the full functionality on
a small, only 95 mm x 95
mm very small measuring
COM Express Compact
Module. Because the
COM Express specification
defines no connectors
for the CAN bus or
serial interfaces, the Toucan-TC
places these on a
lockable option-connector.
Thus, a mechanically
stable arrangement of
these interfaces can be
achieved.
December 2010 4
LEMT
Embedded computer systems are often used
in stand-alone systems that must operate reliably
for long periods without intervention.
For this they are constantly observed — their
loss can usually not be tolerated. To monitor
their operational state, so-called condition
monitoring can is used. With condition monitoring,
the module’s key parameters can be
proactively observed and, when required,
preventive maintenance can be initiated.
Condition monitoring includes not only the
Toucan-TC COM Express Compact with Intel Atom processor E6xxT

current operating state, but also historical
records of past conditions. The ambient temperature
may serve as an example: whether it
exceeded or fell below the permissible limits
is an essential criterion for the electronics’
expected life time.
It is also desirable to know the actual consumption
data of the system. These include
the current supply voltages and current. With
these values, one can make statements about
the state of the system, which are well above a
simple „Go / No go” statement. When doing
error analysis, not only records of the environmental
conditions are important, but also
details of the up-time, or of any previous
errors that have resulted in the restart of the
system. It is also interesting to know the entire
accumulated run time of the system. Thus, its
remaining service life can be estimated easily.
The Toucan-TC has built in support for all
these functions, the LiPPERT Embedded Technology
Management (LEMT). The LEMT
functions are implemented within the in System
Management Controller (SMC), a microcontroller,
which is necessary anyway. It
communicates via the SM bus with the chipset
of the COM module and thus obtains all relevant
data. The SMC has built-in flash and
RAM areas, which are made available to the
user by LEMT functions. The flash area is divided
in manufacturer and user specific part.
The manufacturer part is used to store pertinent
information about the device, such as
part number, BIOS revision and the like. The
1 kB user flash is available for persistent data
of the application. Additionally, there is a
128 byte one-time-programmable region of
flash memory for critical data like security
keys that may not be changed. All these features
are accessed using the user interface
program provided by LiPPERT. However,
LEMT functionality can also be integrated
into the user’s application. A source code interface
is available, providing easy access to
LEMT’s functions.
One last feature worth mentioning, even
though it is not controllable by the user: the
Fail-Safe-BIOS. If an update fails due to a
power failure during the process, the board
can’t be accessed any longer. In consequence
a technician must repair the unit on-site. The
Fail-Safe-BIOS will help to minimize the system
downtime and save money. The secondary
Rail Computers for Smarter Railways
Enhanced
Efficiency, E ff fff
iciencyy,
, Productivity Productivityy
and
Competitiveness
Competitiven
es
s
SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
BIOS automatically takes over when the first
one is corrupted. A white paper with detailed
description of LEMT functions and implementation
is available on LiPPERT’s website. n
User Interface of the LiPPERT Embedded
Technology Management
www.moxa.com
www.
mox
a a.
com
Embedded Computers
V2426
Cost-efficient Cost-eff
fficient
Modular
Rail
Computers
Computer
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Upgrading
Train Tr ra a ain
IT
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Fax: +49-89-3 + 49-8
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www.moxa.com
www.
mox
a a.
com

SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
Intelligence: WHERE You Need It,
WHEN You Need It
An interview with Steve Sciarappo, General Manager, Intel ® Embedded and Communications Group, Marketing and
Business Operations, on Intel’s latest embedded products and shortening time-to-market through solutions from the Intel ®
Embedded Alliance.
n Smart people built the Internet. Now, intelligent
embedded devices are rapidly populating
it, joining the 1.7 billion people online. 1 Intel
and the Intel ® Embedded Alliance are helping
fuel this proliferation of connectivity. Em -
bedded devices with built-in intelligence for
everything from energy efficiency to active
management and security are communicating
and controlling one another online, signaling
a new era in the young but quickly growing
embedded Internet.
Roughly 5 billion devices are connected to the
Internet and 15 billion are expected online by
2015. 2 Home appliances, electric meters, wind
turbines, medical devices, retail signs, trains,
factory robotics, surveillance systems, grocery
carts, and cars are getting connected, driving
an unstoppable transformation all around us.
With its long history in the embedded industry
and its ecosystem, Intel is in the driver’s seat
and shifting into high gear with new and
better ways to add intelligence to devices. Intel
and the Intel Embedded Alliance provide the
necessary ingredients to instill embedded
devices with all kinds of intelligence, as well as
to make you look smarter by shortening your
time-to-market. This includes a full range of
Intel ® embedded processors and product
technologies, plus a complete choice of boards,
software, programming/development tools,
and integration services.
We discussed how important 2010 will be to
the industry and what the Alliance will bring to
the table, with Steve Sciarappo, General Manager,
Intel ® Embedded and Communications Group,
Marketing and Business Operations.
Q: In recent years, Intel has really expanded
its embedded product line and focused on
the embedded space. Why?
A: The reality is that Intel ® architecture has
fueled innovation in the embedded space
for more than 30 years. The growth you are
seeing today reflects our drive to bring
intelligence and connectivity to every em-
bedded device–and we are well on our way
to meeting that goal. Intel processors are
now found in a lot of amazing places with
products that span nearly every segment of
the embedded industry, including medical,
digital signage, In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI),
and factory automation, among others.
The embedded Internet is the common theme
in these applications. As we seek to connect
the embedded world, it only makes sense to
use an architecture that is already popular for
Internet-connected home and business
computing. By deploying Intel silicon, the embedded
industry can maximize the enormous
software investment already made in Intel
architecture. Not only do Internet- connected
embedded devices run well on Intel architecture,
but organizations can also reuse and
repurpose software across multiple product
lines and future generations of products.
Q: If I were an embedded developer or original
equipment manufacturer (OEM) using a
different architecture, why should I consider
switching?
December 2010 6
A: I’d answer that by asking how hard you
want to work to keep up. As the world grows
increasingly connected, do you really want to
spend resources maintaining multiple code
bases and tools for multiple architectures? Or
would you rather take advantage of development
efficiencies that come from relying on a single
architecture? Intel architecture has an enormous
base of existing software, and the broadest set
of software development tools and open source
software libraries and utilities. This combination
can help organizations speed up software development
cycles and shorten time-to-market.
Another advantage is the sheer number of
Intel architecture-based, off-the-shelf solutions
available from Alliance members. No other
embedded architecture offers this breadth of
products in so many standard and custom
form factors. This means embedded developers
can tap into the full scalability of our product
line, from the power-efficient Intel ® Atom
processors to the all new Intel ® Core i3/i5/i7
processors and the industry-leading performance/watt
of the multi-core Intel ® Xeon ® pro -
cessors. This range of off-the-shelf solutions

Steve Sciarappo: “Intel ® processors are now
found in a lot of amazing places with products
that span nearly every segment of the
embedded industry.”
makes it easy to buy the right board for each
product. Our top-to-bottom range of pro -
cessors and chipsets has fueled an explosion
of offerings in small form factor designs.
Q: Speaking of a full embedded product line,
Intel has announced a reassuring seven-year
lifecycle support for many new embedded
processors released in the first quarter of
this year. What are some other reasons to get
excited about these processors?
A: Intel began the year with a bang by introducing
10 new processors for the embedded market.
Using 32nm process technology, the new 2010
Intel ® Core i7 processors, and Intel ® Core i5
processors and Intel ® Core i3 paired with the
mobile Intel ® QM57 Express chipset, are the
most intelligent processors available from Intel.
What I mean by “intelligent” is these processors
take intelligent, adaptive performance to a new
level, especially when it comes to energy efficiency.
Deploying Intel ® Core processor-based systems,
an IT administrator at a bank could improve
power efficiency and management of system
workloads, for embedded applications like information
kiosks, digital signs, and ATMs.
Four of the Intel Core i7/i5 processors (Core i7-
610E, Core i7-620LE, Core i7-620UE and Core
i5-520E) were designed to include Error Correcting
Code (ECC), which corrects memory without
the need for system reset and is critical for designs
that require high data integrity standards. ECC
in smart retail registers, for instance, helps protect
against register system memory errors that could
result in numerical miscalculations.
Q: We hear there is excitement about the
desktop Intel ® Core processors finding their
way into embedded applications. Can you
explain?
A: You must mean the Intel ® Core i5-660 and
Core i3-540 processors paired with the Intel ®
Q57 Express and the Intel ® 3450 chipsets. This
two-chip solution integrates the graphics engine
in the processor delivering enhanced graphics
support for visually demanding applications
such as retail POS, digital signage, gaming,
medical imaging, and industrial automation
and control. This, combined with simultaneous
multithreading, performance-boosting technologies,
remote manageability, and integrated
memory controller, offers serious performance
improvements while saving valuable board
real estate.
Q: What do the new Intel ® Xeon ® and Intel ®
Atom processors mean to the embedded
market?
A: In February we launched the new Intel ®
Xeon ® processor C5500/C3500 series combined
with the Intel ® 3420 chipset. For the
first time, Intel engineers have integrated
PCI Express * (PCIe * ) and all input/output
(I/O) functions onto a dual-processing Intel
Xeon processor, which greatly facilitates
dense storage and communications solutions
such as IPTV, On-Demand Video
Services, and wireless radio network controllers.
The Intel Xeon processor
C3500/C5500 series maintains the outstanding
performance of our latest Intel architecture
(Nehalem), while lowering system
power consumption by at least 27 watts
when compared to the Intel ® Xeon ® 5500
series processors. 3 For smaller form factor,
low power applications, we introduced the
first dual-core Intel ® Atom processor D510
for embedded. With integrated graphics
media accelerator and memory controller,
this processor offers a smaller footprint,
better efficiency, and enhanced performance
and system responsiveness.
Q: Can you give us some examples of the
innovations you’re seeing from Intel ®
Embedded Alliance members?
A: That could fill a book, but here’s a look at
what some of our Premier Alliance members
are doing.
Kontron plans to deliver several new products
in 2010 based on the Intel Core i7 processor.
Recently they introduced what could be the
market’s most powerful, single-width AdvancedMC
processor module, designed with
the new Intel Core i7 processor. The Kontron
AM4020 offers the ultimate in computing
SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
power and integrated graphics when used in
MicroTCA and AdvancedTCA ® integrated
platforms and it is ideal for use in telecommunications
applications and test systems for
wireline networks.
RadiSys developed a low-power single board
computer (SBC) based on an Intel Atom
processor for the in-home display sector. This
product can be used in equipment that tracks
energy usage and utility pricing. On the upper
end, they announced the Procelerant
CEQM57 COM Express module using the
new Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and mobile
Intel QM57 Express chipset. These modules
raise the bar for medical imaging, communications,
military-aerospace, and test and
measurement applications that require high
levels of performance.
Emerson Network Power released four new
products featuring the embedded Intel Core
i7 and Core i5 processor and the mobile Intel
QM57 Express chipset. Form factors include
MicroATX * , COM Express, 6U VME and 3U
CompactPCI, addressing a wide range of
industrial, medical and military/aerospace
applications, and digital signage and retail and
interactive kiosks. These new platforms feature
high quality digital graphics, advanced management
capabilities and the integrated Intel ®
Trusted Platform Module enhances data
security and encryption.
Advantech announced an All-in-One Digital
Signage Station based on our new Intel Core
i7 processor. The station is a ready-to-go,
touch-screen, public signage kiosk that can be
used to advertise everything from the latest
film, to the latest fashions. They also developed
a 1U rackmount appliance using the latest
Intel ® Xeon ® 3400 series Quad Core processor,
which is aimed at network security OEMs and
uses the processor’s features to help control
energy consumption for optimum performance
and efficiency.
Kontron AMC module with Intel ® Core i7
processor
7 December 2010

SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
Q: What about application software
developments?
A: Great question. Software solutions are a
critical element of the Alliance’s offerings,
and we are excited about the developments
happening in this area. For example, Associate
member Microsoft recently released the newest
version of the Microsoft Windows ® Embedded
Auto software platform. This platform builds
on the Intel Atom processor to deliver engaging
in-vehicle experiences with rich user interfaces.
The Embedded Auto platform is a great example
of a solution that helps developers
deliver market-leading products with remarkably
low time-to-market.
We are also working with Microsoft on an optimized
digital signage platform for retail and
hospitality markets. This high performance,
highly reliable solution is powered by the Intel
Core i7 processor and built with the Microsoft
Windows ® 7-based, Microsoft Windows ® Embedded
Standard 2011 operating system. We
expect this solution to fuel a whole new generation
of digital signage applications–it will
enable some impressive innovation.
Q: What is the story on developments tools?
A: Tools are a key focus area for several Alliance
members, and this is an area where the Alliance
really shines, particularly when it comes to
real-time operating systems. Associate member
Wind River is leading the charge there, providing
a comprehensive set of platforms and
development tools based on the real-time operating
system VxWorks and on Wind River
Linux. These tools include Eclipse-based Wind
1) Number of Internet users worldwide in September 2009 according to www.pingdom.com.
See: http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/01/22/internet-2009-in-numbers.
2) “The Embedded Internet: Methodology and Findings,” John Gantz, IDC, January 2009.
For a veritable who’s who in helping you overcome design challenges
in your intelligent devices for the embedded Internet, look no further
than the Intel ® Embedded Alliance. The Alliance provides real technology
leadership and a reliable supply line of innovation and performance
based on the latest Intel ® embedded products and technologies.
As Intel has expanded and grown its focus on an intelligent, connected
universe of devices, so has the Alliance. Its more than 200 worldwide
members include a diverse group of board manufacturers, operating
system and software companies, BIOS developers, and system integrators
all rallying around the enormous potential of the embedded Internet.
Intel Embedded Alliance Director Troy Smith predicts 2010 will be a
“notable year where Intel and Alliance members deliver significant
smart solutions that will compel yet more engineers and developers to
switch over to Intel architecture.”
River Workbench, which consists of many
productivity-enhancing features, particularly
when it comes to multicore development and
debugging. Wind River’s On-Chip Debugging
solutions are another critical solution for multicore,
offering visibility and system-level control
of the CPU cores, their peripherals, and
OS kernel objects such as threads, tasks, and
processes. Additionally, Wind River Hypervisor
provides embedded virtualization capabilities
for our processors. Virtualization gives developers
incredible flexibility in multicore software
deployment, and it can greatly simplify the
development process.
Q: What advice do you have for today’s
embedded developer?
A: The emergence of the embedded Internet
is introducing a new set of challenges into
embedded system design. One big challenge is
selecting the right solutions–developers have
to think about new technologies and new
components that were never required before.
This is where the Intel Embedded Alliance
comes in. The Alliance takes the guess work
December 2010 8
Wind River ICE JTAG Emulator for Intel ® Xeon ® processors
The Intel ® Embedded Alliance
out of the design process by delivering standards-based,
proven solutions that help developers
reduce development costs and shorten
development cycles. My advice to developers
is to take full advantage of our partners expertise–it’s
a lot better than going through
the pain of learning everything on your own.
And developers can start leveraging the
Alliance today. We’ve built an online
product guide that lets you zero in on
the solutions you need quickly and easily
(www.intel.com/embedded/solutionsdirectory).
We’re focused on putting the resources you
need at your fingertips. With all of these solutions
in one place, developers can get a head
start on creating new generations of embedded
systems for an increasingly connected world.
Learn more about the Intel ® Embedded Alliance.
Visit the community for ideas, solutions and to
collaborate with peers at
www.intel.com/embedded/community.
For more information on the embedded Internet
visit www.intel.com/embedded/intelligence. n
3) Configurations of the systems used in the benchmark: two Intel ® Xeon ® processors LC5528
(“Jasper Forest”) at 2.13GHz, 60-watt thermal design power, with an Intel ® 3420 chipset
versus two Intel ® Xeon ® processors L5528 at 2.13 GHz, 60-watt thermal design power, with
an Intel ® 5520 chipset
Working with Intel Embedded Alliance members gives you access to
the tools and knowledge-base you need to use their solutions to develop
leading-edge products faster. As part of a well-run ecosystem, Alliance
members collaborate closely with Intel to release well-tested and optimized
products based on the latest Intel platforms. Their early access to
Intel roadmaps, test platforms, and design support translates into
better solutions and a faster time-to-market for you.
Through the Alliance’s Solution Directory you can access hundreds of
Intel-based products–from component-level products, such as boards
and software, to fully integrated systems–in virtually every performance
and form factor niche. What’s more, with Intel’s seven-year extended
lifecycle support for embedded processors and chipsets, you’re assured
of meeting customers’ needs until they’re ready to make the next technological
leap.
www.intel.com/go/embeddedalliance

SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
Replacing discontinued modules forces
ETX module transplantation
By Konrad Löckler, MSC
The following article provides
information on points to
consider, such as long-term
availability, in order to ensure
that an ETX module
transplantation is as simple as
possible.
n Over the course of many years, system manufacturers
that relied on the use of ETX modules
had little reason to change anything on
their established devices. Reliable ETX products
were available unchanged over a long period
of time. However, since Intel’s notification of
discontinuance of the widely used Pentium M
and Celeron M generations, development departments
have been feverishly discussing how
to handle this situation: a new design of the
entire platform, or replacement of the ETX
module with a current model?
Manufacturers from various sectors must equip
their successful product lines with a current
processor core as smoothly as possible. Because
the change to another form factor of embedded
COM modules involves a great deal of time
due to the effort required for integration, and
therefore such a step makes more sense when
developing a completely new product generation,
ETX suppliers are receiving an increasing
number of enquiries regarding successor products
that have long-term availability. With industrial
controls, operating panels, robot controllers,
studio mixing consoles, textile machines,
measuring instruments or medical
equipment, the question always arises whether
replacement of the processor module can actually
be made as smoothly as possible, as the
module suppliers always claim. The most current
and thereby longest available ETX modules
are based on Intel Atom technology. Two
performance classes are thus fundamentally
possible: single core solutions with 1.6 GHz,
which include the Intel Atom N270 based
MSC ETE-A945GSE, and dual-core modules
with 1.66 GHz such as the MSC ETE-PV510,
which is based on the Intel Atom D510. Measurements
performed in-house at MSC show
that the computing performance of an N270based
product approximately corresponds with
the computing power of a Celeron M with 1.3
GHz. Therefore, if products with Celeron M
from 600 MHz to 1.3 GHz have so far been
used then an N270 processor should be
considered.
For higher computing power requirements, a
product with the D510 processor with two
cores and multi-threading offers performance
that is practically double, provided that the
software can still be used with these newer
technologies. As experience shows, a dual-core
processor under Windows brings performance
increases of up to 30%, even with applications
which run in only one thread. The reason for
this is that at least the operating system and
driver can run on the second core, and the
application program has a core to itself. Adaptation
of the operating system installation is
unavoidable when replacing the processor technology
in a system. Network drivers, graphics
drivers and some other drivers must be replaced
December 2010 10
Figure 1. In the medium performance
range, the power saving
ETE-A945GSE with Intel
Atom N270 offers a long-term
availability alternative to
existing Celeron M modules.
in order to be able to use the new controllers.
The widespread Atom architecture offers the
significant advantage that the necessary drivers
are often already integrated in the most popular
operating systems, such as Windows and many
Linux distributions. What is lacking is normally
made available by the hardware manufacturers.
MSC also offers broad support with the integration
of Windows CE and other operating
systems. Many important module functions
and internal information, - such as querying
serial number, boot counter or BIOS version,
access on watchdog, temperature values, EEP-
ROM, I²C bus or brightness control of the display
- are provided via a uniform program interface
with the products presented here. The
associated drivers for Windows, Windows CE
or Linux are available from the supplier.
The necessary or available display interfaces
also need to be carefully considered. In the
simplest case, a monitor is driven with a VGA
connection. This always works and with Atom
modules even ranges from 640 x 480 pixels
right up to a resolution beyond full HD of
2048 x 1536 pixels. However, embedded systems
normally contain TFT displays with various
interface technologies. With LVDS, care must
be taken that 18-bit displays can be easily supported,
but not always 24-bit panels. The most
flexible here is the MSC ETE-A945GSE module
that can even drive two LVDS displays; one

SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
Figure 2. Computing power of current Intel Atom processors compared to Pentium M and
Celeron M generations, measured on MSC ETX modules with SiSoftware Sandra 2007
Benchmark
with 24-bit and a further one with 18-bit color
depth. The maximum resolution is 1600 x 1200
pixels. The second LVDS interface is located on
a connector directly on the ETX module and
can be used with a special cable. With the MSC
ETE-PV510, due to the different chipset, an 18bit
interface with up to 1366 x 768 pixels is supported.
The most popular display formats are
offered via selection tables in the BIOS setup
program and can be used immediately. Less
common resolutions can normally also be controlled
via a suitable EDID parameter set, which
is stored in an EEPROM. The manufacturer offers
tools and support for this.
ISA bus based controllers or plug-in cards are
often still used with systems that have already
been on the market for several years. With the
PCI-to-ISA bridge used, the new ETX modules
offer a complete ISA bus, which is fundamentally
compatible to existing ISA environments.
However, one limitation exists when DMA access
via ISA are necessary. Intel no longer supports
the relevant DMA protocol with platforms
after the 855 chipset generation. An
early clarification with the module supplier
regarding possible workarounds is recommended
in cases where DMA operation via ISA still
is required. Since the introduction of the ETX
specification 3.0 several years ago, ETX modules
usually have two SATA connectors in addition
to the two IDE (PATA) channels.
Modern drives can be directly connected to
these SATA connectors. In the event that IDE
drives - which are becoming increasingly difficult
to acquire - are still used in the system,
the chance is offered here also to replace them
with SATA devices. Both the ETX modules
from MSC that are recommended offer - in
addition to four USB 2.0 interfaces routed to
the baseboard - two further interfaces, which
can be tapped on the module via mini-USB
connectors. Transmission problems with USB
high-speed connections, which in the past occasionally
occurred with ETX, can thereby be
ruled out. The optional availability of a trusted
platform module (TPM) was also previously
not common. For safety-critical applications,
the possibility to use such a TPM is now
offered in order to prevent unauthorized manipulations
of the system or to encrypt data.
For a long time now, CompactFlash cards
have been popular in embedded systems as robust
hard disk replacements. Meanwhile, newer
flash formats exist and especially with ETE-
PV510 a version with soldered silicon disk,
from which the operating system can be booted,
is offered. 4 Gbytes is the most popular size;
however, capacities up to 16 Gbytes are also
possible. If a module equipped with silicon
disk is used, it should be noted that the first
IDE channel is thus occupied and only the second
IDE channel (master/slave capable) remains
available for further drives. A final mention
must be made that the D510 processor
on the ETE-PV510 is also 64-bit capable (Intel
64 architecture) and offers four threads on the
two processor cores. The N270 with two threads
also supports Intel hyper-threading.
In addition to software compatibility and
electrical characteristics, heat dissipation
must be considered when changing to a more
powerful module. Because suitable Atom
processors are consistently implemented in
energy-efficient technologies, a power dissipation
of approximately 8 watts can be expected
with MSC ETE-A954GSE and approximately
15 watts with ETE-PV510. If the
older modules that need to be replaced produced
similar or higher heat losses, a good
contact to the already existing cooling measures
must be provided during replacement
for the so-called hotspots. These hotspots
are generally the processor and the chipset.
Where a standard ETX heat spreader has so
far been used, such a heat spreader is also
available for the new modules. Thus, a defined
interface for transferring heat exists which
can be mounted in the same way as before.
Alternatively, passive or active cooling solutions
are also offered which do not require
any further measures, because the heat is
safely extracted by means of cooling fins
and temperature-controlled fans. n
11 December 2010
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SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
Mini-ITX boards with AMD processors
hit the ground running
By Peter Hoser, Fujitsu Technology Solutions
The on-going convergence of
the commercial IT business
and embedded computing
markets demands board-level
technologies that can be sold
in both, such as the ATX-compatible
mini-ITX form factor
offered by Fujitsu on an
AMD-based platform with
high graphics performance.
n Small form factors, big business: mini-ITX
has the strongest growth of any ATX-compatible
motherboard form factor. This is driven by the
change in IT infrastructure towards smaller
fanless SFF systems, (thin) client/(cloud) server
applications, and increasingly decentralized/distributed
appliances. This is true both in the
commercial IT sector and in the field of embedded
computing. In these areas, Fujitsu Technology
Solutions exclusively uses AMD processor
technology. This is with good reason.
With the increasing importance of the embedded
computing segment, the positioning of
the board and system vendor for converging
technologies becomes more important: it is
ideal if the provider can serve both the commercial
IT market as well as the embedded
market. Competitors that produce only embedded
computers will encounter increasing
difficulties as the markets produce more and
more solutions that can be sold in one market
as well as in the other. This is because the
commercial IT segment (for office and personal
computing applications) is still the major market
for x86 processors. Commercial providers,
on the other hand, have little grasp of opportunities
in the embedded segment at all, because
they do not know the embedded or industrial
or rugged computing business, which is why
their organization is not geared to the needs
of these customers. Fujitsu has earned a significant
position worldwide in both the commer-
cial IT sector as well as in the field of embedded
computing and is therefore ideally positioned
for the future. In the embedded area, for example,
reputable companies such as Siemens
and KUKA Robots are long-term customers.
So which solutions will work here? Which
board-level technologies can be sold in both
markets? Generally speaking, with the increasing
convergence of markets and their basic
technologies more and more board-level products
can be applied in both markets. This is
why form factors from the embedded area
may also be found in the commercial area in
the future - for example, the single board pico-
ITX form factor, or even Computer-on-Modules.
On the other hand, the time-tested rule still
holds true: everything that is widespread in
the commercial IT sector is suitable for embedded
computer technology. Why? Because
such technology is mature, well tested, and
usually inexpensive, including the associated
mechanics. Accordingly, it is not surprising
that ATX-compatible form factors, which are
the worldwide de facto standard for desktop
PCs, are also used in embedded applications.
Among these form factors, it is the ATX-compatible
mini-ITX form factor in particular
that increasingly gains importance. In the commercial
segment this is achieved by using lowpower
processors with sufficient performance
which accelerate the trend towards cost-effective,
small, noiseless workstations and clients;
December 2010 12
they are now offering high-performance graphics
that allow fast, lag-free work and do not feel
underpowered to the user. Such a combination
in a small housing was previously not thermally
and acoustically feasible. In most cases, no expansion
cards need to be inserted either, because
all the standard interfaces are supported directly
by the chipset. In addition, workstations are increasingly
operated on a virtualized basis, which
moves the required performance in the direction
of the server. Mini-ITX motherboards with
their range of functions are not ultra-slim thinclient
boards, since the latter would use an
AMD Geode for very thin clients. But whenever
Figure 1. The mini-ITX motherboards
Fujitsu D2963-S1 and S2 are equipped with
the AMD platform ASB1 with AMD M690E
and SB 600 chipset and the power-saving
AMD BGA processors Mobile Sempron 200
U (1 GHz / TDP = 8W) or Mobile Athlon
Neo L325 X2 (1.5 GHz / TDP = 18 W).

it comes to a presentation of multimedia contents
even in such extremely thin environments,
they are also an attractive choice in serverbased
computing applications. Moreover, we
cannot ignore that an SFF trend also exists in
the field of embedded computing, which is evident
in the evolution of numerous form factors,
with some modules as small as a credit card. In
addition, the IT concepts of the commercial
market are transferred to industrial machines
and facilities, which make the maintenance of
distributed systems easier. Also, smaller clients
have increasingly been used as HMIs. Booting
and data storage will increasingly be handled
via networks. Because the processor technology
has also been getting smaller and more energyefficient,
clients do not need as much space as,
for example, ATX motherboards offer. However,
distributed applications such as kiosk systems
or digital signage applications as well as all
other graphics-intensive applications still need
local data processing with mini-ITX suitable
SFF performance. Regardless of the changing
of IT concepts, with reduced development and
material costs, the SFF-processors are helpful
in building smaller housings and designing
passive ventilation concepts. In sum, costs for
already existing applications can also be saved.
Additionally, the MTBF of such new SFF systems
increases. This goes to show that there
are several good reasons for using mini-ITX
motherboards offering simultaneous mechanical
compatibility with ATX, which makes the
accompanying mechanical components, power
supplies, etc cost-effective.
Fujitsu offers precisely this form factor, which
is ideal for SFF devices in the commercial and
embedded segments, with AMD processor technology.
The main reason for this is that AMD
platforms meet all current requirements, with
the range of platforms including the AMD
M690E & ASB1 with SB 600 chipset, or the
power-saving AMD Mobile Sempron BGA
processors 200 U (1 GHz/TDP = 8W) or
Mobile Athlon X2 Neo L325 (1.5 GHz/TDP =
18W), which are used on the Fujitsu mini-ITX
motherboards. Thus, the integrated chipset,
which is crucial for the features of the board
and therefore the OS configuration, is scalable
with a wide CPU range. On the basis of a
single homogeneous platform, the Fujitsu
D2963-S1 and S2 mini-ITX industrial motherboards
reveal performance ranging from lowpower
design and power requirements, for example
Atom performance, to dual-core designs.
For the customer, the motherboards differ only
in terms of the CPU. This significantly minimizes
the cost of system qualification. Users
benefit from the increased efficiency provided
by reduced time-to-market and simplified
management. This also regards the software
adaptation, for example in the BIOS and/or
modular operating systems like Microsoft Win-
Figure 2. Digital signage solution. A separate
box behind the screen is ideal: the panel can
remain mounted during the upgrade of the
system. Dependencies from the display
manufacturer/producer can be omitted.
AMD announced two new complete platforms
for the embedded market, the compact
ASB2 platform (BGA) and the highperformance
AM3 platform, that offer myriad
combinations of power and performance
with up to 74 percent improvement
in performance-per-watt over previous
generations. AMD’s new flexible embedded
platforms consist of chipset and graphics
solutions along with high-performance
CPUs as low as 8W TDP for the
ideal solution based on application requirements.
System designers focusing on
their next-generation products can see
immediate benefits commonly associated
with industry-standard x86 processors,
including streamlined design and development,
a large software ecosystem,
and fast time-to-market.
“The barriers to widespread adoption of
x86 in the broad embedded market have
traditionally been a combination of power,
price and the physical footprint of the silicon,”
said Buddy Broeker, director, Embedded
Solutions Division, AMD. “AMD’s
embedded solutions have been steadily
driving down those barriers while adding
enterprise-class performance and features
that may not have been readily available
to designers in the past. Our commitment
to the embedded market grows
stronger as we look to a future introduction
of AMD Fusion technology products
into the embedded space.”
New Platform Features
n Faster memory with support for 2
channels DDR3
SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
Figure 3. The Fujitsu Box is tailored to mini-
ITX motherboards. Despite its compact
design, it can be supplemented with a 2.5“
SATA HDD, a wireless USB module and a
flat-PCI card.
AMD launches new platforms for embedded systems
n Improved I/O for high-throughput and
real-time applications with available
HyperTransport 3.0 technology
n ECC for high-reliability applications like
SMB/SOHO storage systems
n Multiple CPU options that offer wide
choice of performance and power
(Power envelopes in 8, 12, 15, 25, 45,
and 65 watts TDP; single-, dual- and
quad-core; up to 2.8 GHz)
n AMD 785E chipset with support for PCI
Express® 2.0
n New ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics
with DirectX® 10.1, full 1080p display
resolution support, HDMI, and powersavings
capability with options to support
multiple displays
n Socket AM3 package, compatible with
socket AM2 when using DDR2 memory
for increased design flexibility and
scalability
n Lidless BGA package offers low-cost
to manufacture, high reliability, and low
z-height for small form factors and fanless
designs
The processor variants, each of which is
combined with the AMD785E / SB850M
chipsets and which support the Direct
Connect Architecture for a simplified
board design, are available on the ASB2
platform of the AMD Turion II Neo
single-core processor at 1.0 GHz up to
the AMD Turion II Neo dual-core
processor at 2.2 GHz. The AM3 platform
is scalable from the Athlon II XLT Dual
Core processor with 2.0 GHz up to the
AMD Phenom II XLT Quad-Core
Processor (2.2 GHz).
13 December 2010

SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
dows Embedded OS or Linux, an advantage
which cannot be found amongst AMD’s direct
competitors. As a consequence of the fact that
other companies certify processors with various
chipsets customers are forced to deal with numerous
revisions and versions at the board
level. Moreover, for marketing reasons, the functionality
of some platforms is reduced, even
though the technology of the platforms could
enable these functions without additional effort.
In order to achieve an effectiveness and sustainability
comparable to those achieved with AMD
platforms, a huge effort for version or revision
management is necessary – efforts which eventually
produce additional costs for customers.
However, OEMs who have not changed their
systems for many years try to reduce these sorts
of costs. Configurations of particular machines,
once applied, should remain unchanged in
order to reduce maintenance costs and keep
the variety of necessary spare parts to a minimum
– at least in EMEA and North America.
Furthermore, different performance versions
(also for future generations) should not cause
much effort, as this is the only way to generate
time and cost benefits in the increasingly difficult
competitive environment. In addition to high
and, above all, homogeneous scalability, AMDbased
platforms also offer another advantage:
the graphics performance of the AMD-based
boards is significantly higher than that of com-
Kontron AT8050 ATCA
10GbE Processor Blade
parable Atom solutions. While the CPU performance
and power consumption of a motherboard
equipped with Atom
N270/945GSE/ICH7 competes with that of the
AMD Sempron 200U and M690T/SB600 platform,
the latter still has much better graphics
benchmarks. Its graphics performance even
competes with Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile solutions.
Operators of graphics-intensive applications
such as digital signage, kiosk systems, and
imaging applications in the fields of medicine,
safety engineering, and quality control have
come to enjoy brilliant, high-resolution graphics
with low latency without the need to over-dimension
CPU performance on the basis of a
predetermined GPU/CPU combination. And
all this comes with a superior price/performance
ratio not only in terms of the competitive comparison,
but also in terms of development
efforts over several generations.
This approach is in fact very successful: since
the launch of the AMD platforms, Fujitsu has
sold more than 150,000 mainboards based on
this platform technology. However, the success
of the existing mini-ITX motherboard does
not mean that the manufacturers will rest on
their laurels. Therefore, Fujitsu is already planning
the next mini-ITX generation, to be
launched in spring 2011. The upcoming Fusion
technology already announced by AMD offers
The Kontron processor ATCA blade
AT8050 supports two feature-rich processor
options: Single Intel® Xeon® Six-Core
5600 Series; and, Single Intel® Xeon®
Quad-Core 5500 Series.
It is optimized for Virtualization thanks to the complementary Intel
82599 10 Gigabit Ethernet controller that works to reduce I/O bottlenecks
and boost server performance. The combination of these advanced
features of the Intel 10GbE Ethernet controller with the Intel®
Xeon® 5600 Series Six-Core processor makes for a powerful solution
to scale volume servers with 10GbE capacities.
With an available AdvancedMC slot, wireless/telecom equipment
manufacturers can add an assortment of Kontron AMC storage and
IO modules for added functionality. Also available is the RTM8050, a
rear transition module built with a SAS controller to support a Hot
Swappable SAS/SATA Hard Disk on the RTM and/or a SAS/SATA
AMC module populated in the AT8050’s one AMC slot.
The Intel Xeon processor 5600/5500 series brings together a number
of innovative technologies to deliver a more intelligent level of
December 2010 14
further interesting possibilities. AMD Fusion
represents a new approach to processor design
and software development, delivering powerful
serial, parallel, and visual computing capabilities
for today’s HD video, 3D and data intensive
workloads in a single processor called the accelerated
processing unit (APU). APU combines
high-performance serial and parallel processing
cores with other special-purpose hardware accelerators,
enabling breakthroughs in visual
computing, security, performance-per-watt and
devices shape factor. With these benefits, the
combination of CPU and GPU is ideal for the
development of the next generation of embedded
computer systems. If one wants to use
these benefits efficiently and quickly as soon as
they become available, one should therefore
consider switching to AMD today. Currently,
AMD is constantly extending its support especially
for users in the embedded market. For
example, the distribution channels in Europe
aimed especially at customers in the embedded
sector have been strengthened. At the same
time, marketing efforts have continuously been
intensified in order to put the prominent position
of the AMD solutions, which is not in the
least based on the acquisition of ATI, even
further into the consciousness of embedded
customers. This should finally contribute to
improved brand awareness and acceptance
among industrial customers. n
performance. Three new features include:
n Intel® Turbo Boost Technology increases performance by increasing
processor frequency, enabling faster speeds as conditions allow.
n Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT) lets today’s wellthreaded
applications make the most of every clock cycle.
n Intel® QuickPath Technology and an integrated memory controller
speed traffic between processors and I/O controllers for bandwidthintensive
applications, to deliver as much as 25.6 GB/s, up to 3.5x
the bandwidth of previous-generation processors.
More AT8050 Features
n 8 threads (5500) to 12 threads (5600)
n Support for up to 48 GB on 3-channels, DDR3 1066 MHz, ECC,
registered SDRAM on 6 DIMM sockets total
n 1 X Mid-size AdvancedMC bay
n Dual 10 Gigabit on Fabric (PICMG 3.1, Option 9)
n Hot Swap SAS/SATA HDD available via RTM8050
TO ORDER EVALUATION UNITS OR
UPGRADE AN EXISTING DESIGN CONTACT US AT:
Kontron Modular Computer
Sudetenstrasse 7
87600 Kaufbeuren
Germany
+49 (0) 8341 803 333
+49 (0) 8341 803 339
support-kom@kontron.com

n The features and performance of embedded
systems have been progressing steadily for several
decades. The processors adopted must
meet the demands of higher performance with
more functions and features, while using less
space and lower power consumption. Where
active cooling is suitable, system engineers
may choose from performance levels of very
high such as the Xeon and Quad Core to the
scalable levels of Core 2 Duo. However, in
many embedded applications, a fan is not desirable,
such as in medical, transportation, military
and certain industrial applications. The
reasons for rejecting active cooling vary by industry
but the most common issues are reliability
of moving parts, accumulation of dust
and noise. With the introduction of the Intel
Atom family of processors and companion
chipsets, Intel has enabled embedded hardware
manufacturers such as Aaeon to provide CPU
boards and systems that offer performance
levels previously not available in passive cooling
configurations. In 2009, manufacturers of embedded
CPU boards developed many embedded
CPU boards in a wide variety of form factors
that offered the benefits of outstanding
embedded features: strong performance, lower
power consumption (less than 10W) and better
C/P ratio (cost/performance ratio). The clear
embedded CPU board trends include: greater
connectivity through multiple high speed connections,
miniaturization (in a small form factor
(SFF) and increased USB ports. Therefore,
a CPU/chipset platform with smaller footprint
and increased integration of high speed peripheral
I/Os can simplify CPU board design
and reduce the cost and effort of system design.
Intel Luna Pier Refresh platform consists of
the Intel Atom processor N450 and Intel
82801HM I/O Controller IC, offering the next
giant leap in low power SFF CPU board design.
By integrating the graphics controller and
SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
Small form factor boards embrace
new generation of the Atom family
By Burkhard Specht, AAEON
This article describes the
PC/104 form factor CPU
board and a type 2 COM
Express CPU module based on
the Intel Luna Pier and Luna
Pier Refresh platforms.
• Open Standards & Technologies
• Tools & Software
www.embedded-control-europe.com/bas-magazine
www www.embedded-controol-europe.com/bass-magazine
Figure 1. PC/104 form factor
CPU board PFM-LNP based
on the Luna Pier Refresh
platform
memory controller functions into the CPU,
Intel has once again given embedded hardware
manufacturers the ability to further reduce
design complexity and board size. The twochip
solution replaces the well known and traditional
three-chip solution (i.e. CPU, Northbridge
IC, and Southbridge IC) with a footprint
reduction of 33%. Even with the reduced chip
count, Intel has increased memory performance
to 667MHz while doubling the amount of addressable
memory and more than doubled
the graphics core frequency to 400MHz when
compared to the Navy Pier platform. Meeting
the needs for high bandwidth I/O, the Luna
Pier Refresh platform delivers 6 configurable
PCIe lanes, Gigabit MAC and provides up to
10 USB ports. Increased performance and features
of Luna Pier come with a decrease in
power consumption over the previous generation,
which will result in greater adoption in
industries where passively cooled systems are
FREE SUBSCRIPTION to boards & solutions
the european embedded computing magazine
15 December 2010

SMALL FORM FACTOR BOARDS
Figure 2. Type 2 COM Express CPU COM-LN module based on the
Intel Luna Pier/Luna Pier Refresh platform
required. To further increase the scalability of
the Luna Pier Refresh platform, Intel will offer
the first dual-core processor of the Atom family
to the embedded community. The Intel Atom
processor D510 will deliver the same frequency,
1.6GHz, but with dual cores offering even
greater performance while maintaining a low
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overall kit TDP (Thermal
Design Power) of
12W to 15W. Software
developers will find
support for a complete
line-up of typical embedded
operating systems
such as: Microsoft
Windows XP
and derivatives, Windows
CE and derivatives,
Windows Embedded
POS, Fedora
Linux and Montavista
Linux, and real time
OS such as VxWorks.
Aaeon embraces this
new generation of the
Atom family by developing
CPU boards
based on the Luna Pier
Refresh platform. First
to arrive is the PFM-LNP, a PC/104 form factor
CPU board. This CPU board has the popular
PCI-104 connector and a Mini-card (Mini-
PCIe) socket for the addition of special feature
peripherals. The PFM-LNP provides one gigabit
LAN, four traditional serial ports and four
USB 2.0 ports. Display outputs include an
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VIP VIP access access tto
to
all areas.
FFor or fur further ther details details, , visit
wwww.avionics-event.com/airlinepartner.
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pr programme, ogramme
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ww.avionics-event.com
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December 2010 16
LVDS LCD interface and analog VGA interface.
With support for up to 1GB DDR2 memory,
the PFM-LNP provides for sufficient system
memory to run the most demanding embedded
applications. Immediately following the release
of the PFM-LNP, Aaeon will also unveil the
COM-LN a type 2 COM Express form factor
CPU module (95mm X 95mm) with the Luna
Pier/Luna Pier Refresh platform. Thanks to
the standardization of the COM Express form
factor by PICMG, one COM Express module
can be easily exchanged with another.
This will allow the COM-LN to be used to replace
existing COM Express CPU modules to
get the advantages of this new platform. As
many inside the industry already know, COM
Express carrier board design requires strong
support from the module manufacturers. The
experience in designing both standard and
highly customized carrier boards through customer-oriented
design to delivery (DTD) service
brings customers the benefits of a solid design,
fast time to market and reduced investment.
In other words, while Aaeon is happy to
sell just the module, we are experienced and
equipped to take your design from concept to
mass production and provide industry-leading
support to all our customers. n
Exhibition
and
Conference
Confere
e nce
D DDate
Date
16-17
March Marc
h 2011 2 2011
Venue V e enue
M.O.C. M.
O.
C.
Event E Even
t Centre C e entre
Location Loca
t tion
Munich, M u unich,
Germany G Germ
m an
y
SES & NEXT NEX NEXT GEN TECHNOLOGY
OGY
CHALLENGES CHALLENGES AND AND SOL SOLUTIONS
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Highlighting the evolution
in embedded design
By Wolfgang Patelay, Editor
Advantech held its
European Advantech
Embedded Design-In Forum in
Munich. More than 150
attendees from all over
Europe joined this first
European event to learn
more about the Advantech
Design-in Services and
discuss future trends in
embedded computing.
n The Design-in business is one of Advantech’s
key strategy businesses. It covers all aspects
from embedded Core Services, Network &
Telecom to Applied Computing. The dedicated
focus on developing Design-in business and
the close collaboration with ecosystem partners
will bring the design of embedded computing
in the new era of computing which is characterized
by the new mega trends Cloud Computing
and Internet of Things (IOT) to enable
a smarter planet. The Advantech Embedded
Design-in Forum is the annual flagship event
for the Embedded Design-in services allowing
embedded developers to learn form experienced
technology leaders and top engineers
from all around the world. It comprises a conference
forum complete with keynote sessions
and industry presentations, an exhibition highlighting
design process support for customers
through integrated product and service portfolios
from Advantech and its extensive partner
network, and networking opportunities with
employees and ecosystem partners. At the European
event, key industry players such as AU
Optronics, Enea, 6Wind, Emlix, Freescale, Phison
Electronics, QNX, Solectrix, TI, Tyco Elo
Touch Systems, Wind River, and leading partners
like Intel and Microsoft attended. Together,
they jointly showcased the latest embedded
technology trends, and innovative concepts,
as well as practical development tools for embedded
development engineers and system integrators.
ADF intends to form mutually ben-
eficial relationships with ecosystem partners,
which will help embedded developers achieve
success by advancing business and technology
changes through collaboration with other industry
representatives.
In his keynote speech Howard Lin, Managing
Director of Advantech Europe & Vice President
of Global Sales opened the first European
event and highlighted the actual mega trends
driving embedded computing solutions. He
presented a slide created by former IBM CEO
Lois V. Gerstner, Jr., which says, that there is a
15 year cycle in the computer industry. 1965
started the era of mainframe computers, followed
1980 by the PC era. 1995 started the Internet
to dominate the computer industry and
now in 2010 the future of Cloud Computing,
Internet of Things and the creation of a
Smarter Planet begins. Lin: “Cloud Computing,
Internet of Things and Smart Planet are the
three mega trends of automation industry,
these three mega trends will expand Advantech
business landscape in the next several years.”
The advent of Cloud Computing means that
powerful computers are not longer necessary
for enterprises but a reliable connection to the
cloud. This also means embedded computing,
wireless connectivity, intelligent software including
artificial intelligence, and new connectivity
technologies will be needed to serve
the expected 2 billion mobile users, 2.5 billion
Internet users, and 15 billion connected devices
EMBEDDED COMPUTING
At ADF experts from
Advantech and its ecosystem
presented new solutions for
future trends
in future. Lin: “There are 3 driving forces to
make IoT and Smart Planet happen - Instrumented,
Interconnected and Intelligent. Instrumented
means more than 15 billions of
devices will be embedded with sensors, MCUs
or computers to make the device connected to
internet and become smart. Interconnected
means all devices (man, machine and objects)
may be connected together under Internet
networks through wire or wireless. And all of
this must happen intelligent via cloud computing,
super computers, artificial intelligence
and ongoing innovation. “With the conversion
of the 3 “I” our life will become total different
from nowadays and opens up a new era of
life”, comments Lin.
In view of evolving embedded board technology,
Advantech established Embedded Core
Services, which includes the computing platform,
design-in services, and software solutions.
Miller Chang, Assistant Vice President of Advantech
Embedded Core Group said that Advantech
not only associated with Intel products
to provide embedded boards, but also get an
early start on development of the next generation
of embedded boards. At the same time,
the company is focusing on the core features
of embedded intelligence platforms, such as
low power consumption, compact form factors,
reduced software complexity, and plug & play.
Advantech Embedded Core Services offers design-in
oriented services. These streamlined
17 December 2010

EMBEDDED COMPUTING
Embedded News
Free E-mail Newsletter
for Europe`s Embedded
Engineers
Issued every 2 weeks
• Chips & Components
• Tools & Software
• Boards & Modules
www.embedded-controleurope.com/newsletter
solutions broadly integrate embedded boards,
peripheral modules and software. This dedicated
focus on Embedded Design-in services
fulfills electronic engineering demands at their
design-in phase, and brings benefits that shorten
the design and integration cycle, minimizing
uncertainty and risk. In order to enable customers
to fully understand the advantages of
this new service model, Advantech organized
the Advantech Embedded Design-In Forum
(ADF) which was designed to draw together
embedded systems engineers, software development
engineers, R&D engineers, and industrial
technology leaders to address and discuss
the latest developments in Embedded Design.
Michael Vierheilig, Intels Archietcture Conversion
Manager EMEA, presented in his keynote
speech the common Intel processor architecture
used in most embedded designs from mobile
devices up to high performance servers. He
highlights the scalability of the architecture
which is suited for multi core systems as well as
for small battery powered devices. Beside the
hardware offerings Intel increased its software
activities for optimal use of multi core designs.
This includes not only compilers and libraries
but also Intel Parallel Studio and libraries with
DSP algorithms for all Intel processors. Future
trends for Intel are computers in automobiles,
extended Digital Signage Systems, and mobile
smart meters which allow additional services
like near field communication. The future trend
in the digital factory is the integration of various
subsystems into one high performance multicore
system. Virtualisation will be used to
protect the individual subsystems against interaction.
He closed his speech with the promise
that Intel guaranties “at least” 7 years availability
for its embedded products.
December 2010 18
f
Howard Lin: “Embedded will be the core
technology for Advantech in the future and
an event like ADF is very important for us
because it is an important activity to gather
our worldwide customer base and ecosystem
partners to show our position on the market.
It also shows new product introductions
which prove the future technical trends
which can be discussed at this event.”
The Technology & Innovation session was divided
into tracks A/B/C, talking about Designin
Services & Innovation Technologies, Network
& Communications, and Peripheral Integration
Solutions. The breakout sessions
were presented by Advantech experts and key
industrial leaders covering the following topics:
Embedded design techniques, value-added embedded
BIOS, OS and software API, key components
integration, DSP technology and it’s
During Café Chats ADF attendees had the opportunity to see new product innovations from
Advantech and its ecosystem partners and discuss future trends more in detail with the experts

innovation in voice & video applications, and
the new cutting-edge of blade and system
computing platforms, as well as embedded
software development strategy for new generation
networks and communications markets.
One example of session A is Microsoft s
presentation.
Apart from the embedded hardware platform,
the embedded OS plays an important role in
the embedded application. Enhanced security
and stability, as well as streamlined management
and user friendly interface are major
concerns for users. Utilizing the right embedded
OS enables developers to create a better custom
embedded operating system, and helps developers
create applications and drivers more efficiently.
Pascal Angée and Sylvain Ekel, OEM
Embedded Devices Group, Microsoft, introduced
the new versions of embedded operating
systems Windows Embedded Standard 7 and
Windows CE 6 which offer the needed enhanced
security and stability. The next version
of Windows CE will be called Windows Embedded
Compact 7 and will include enhanced
security to protect devices in the network and
in application, simplifies communication with
Windows 7 and feature an extendable user interface
framework including touch interface
based on Silverlight. The new Microsoft operation
systems are targeting on vertical markets
like Smartphones, medical devices, computers
in vehicles and Point of Sales / Point of Service
terminals.
One example from the networks & communications
track is the Freescale presentation
about a new generation of network processor
platforms. QorIQ platforms enable the next
era of networking by offering new levels of
performance, power-efficiency and programmability.
Whilst aligned with general processing
needs, QorIQ new combination with AltiVec
technology enables DSP-level performance to
both control and data path processing. The
first presentation demonstrated how QorIQ
scales as a coherent multicore migration solution
for networking applications. The second
presentation demonstrated how VortiQa software
is optimized to take full advantage of
QorIQ technology, including pattern matching
engines, security accelerator, datapath acceleration
and other technologies. The combination
of P4080 with VortiQa software enables application-optimal
functionality which boosts
performance in asymmetric and symmetric
multi-processing systems.
In track C it was shown that AU Optronics
has devoted much new product research and
development to the industrial display market.
Its General Display Division provides displays,
mainly used in retail, banking, gaming/amusement,
medical, advertisement and HMI which
require extraordinary specification and reliability.
This presentation discussed trends in
the industrial display market highlighting that
environmentally friendly panels with green
solutions have become mainstream and will
reach 55% market share in 2011. Secondly,
touch panel integration was discussed and
thirdly 3D display technology as applied to
gaming, public information displays and digital
frames was described. Finally the Microcup
technology to replace conventional paper in
ebook and etag applications was explained.
During Café Chats which brought together
leading respected industry representatives and
���������������
EMBEDDED COMPUTING
Advantech experts for in-depth discussions
and knowledge sharing the following topics
were discussed with the experts: embedded
design-in services + SFF boards, embedded
BIOS + embedded OS & API, embedded modules,
maximizing networking performance
with multi-core, video and voice transcoding
with DSP, playing safe with high availability
software. A full range of embedded platforms
with various specialist design-in services was
also showcased. n
For more information see: www.advantech.eu
and www.advantech.eu/adf/Munich
CompactPCI/CompactPCI Serial, VME/VME64x, VPX and VXS
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AdvancedTCA, AdvancedMC and µTCA
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MMechanics
and d electronics
19 December 2010

COTS
FMC standard benefits high-speed
FPGAs in aerospace and defense
By Jeremy Banks, Curtiss-Wright
Choosing the mezzanine
format best suited for rugged
embedded computing solutions
ultimately turns on the
application details, perception
of risk, development timeline
and personal preference.
The baseline is how it compares
with a single PWB with all
functionality onboard.
A monolithic card usually
provides the best
technical solution.
n New generations of FPGAs present developers
with a level of processing performance
and potential I/O bandwidth that cannot easily
be matched by conventional CPU configurations.
While many COTS solutions enable developers
to readily make use of FPGAs for processing,
the real challenge to an application is
often measured in terms of I/O bandwidth, latency
and connectivity. For example, military
electronic counter-measures (ECM) applications
require high bandwidth data input, processing
and data output with minimum latency.
The FPGA mezzanine card (FMC) (ANSI/VITA
57.1) directly addresses the challenges of FPGA
I/O by solving the dual problem of how to
maximize I/O bandwidth while still being able
to change the I/O functionality. FMCs offer
an elegant, simple solution because they only
host I/O devices, such as ADCs, DACs or transceivers.
FMC modules have no on-board processors
or bus interfaces, such as PCI-X. Instead,
FMC modules take advantage of the intrinsic
I/O capability of FPGAs to separate the physical
I/O functionality on the module from the
FPGA board design of the host of the module,
while maintaining direct connectivity between
the FPGA and the I/O interface.
As recently as two or three years ago, leading
off-the-shelf high-end ADCs could only achieve
1.5 to 3 Gbit/s bandwidth performance with
8-bit resolution. Since then, the performance
of commercial ADC devices has increased dramatically.
Today high-end ADCs are approaching
4 Gs/s bandwidth with 12-bit resolution.
Earlier ADC technology was either not fast
enough, or lacked the resolution, or both combined,
to enable direct digital conversion of
analog signals. This resulted in more cost and
reduced performance because a system would
typically require two RF heterodyne receiver
front-ends to handle the down-conversion
stage before the data got to the ADCs attached
to the FPGAs. Today the function of FPGAs is
as true processors that have large blocks of
digital circuitry in which signal processing algorithms
such as FFTs can be stored. FPGAs
are very good at handling signal processing in
the digital domain.
Nowadays faster, higher resolution ADCs have
the ability to take an input signal at a microwave
frequency and convert it at that frequency
rather than requiring the use of a costly intermediary
down converter. Higher end ADCs
can sample at rates in excess of 3 to 4 gigasamples,
which approaches the 1.5GHz L-Band
and beyond. Sampling rates that exceed 1 GHz
and faster now allow bandwidths of up to 500
MHz to be processed. And the higher bit-resolution
of the new ADCs has increased system
dynamic range, the span from the weakest to
the strongest detectable signal that it can
handle. These new high-resolution ADCs can
December 2010 20
Figure 1. A typical FMC I/O
mezzanine module
sample at rates near 200 MS/s, and soon will
reach 250 MS/s with 16-bit resolution. They
can dramatically enhance the capabilities of
wideband receivers by increasing their sensitivity
and selectivity, which affects the system
ability to intercept and characterize captured
signals. The design challenge at these high
data rates is how to interface these newly obtainable
levels of resolution to the digital domain,
a task that traditional processors cannot
handle. The answer is a combination of baseboard
FPGAs and FMC I/O cards.
When combined with larger FPGAs and the
new industry-standard FMCs, the new generation
of ADCs enables system designers to integrate
open standards-based board systems in
which both ADC and DAC capabilities are directly
coupled to the processing element, provided
by the FPGA. The result is an order of
magnitude improvement in latency from input
to output. Even better for space, weight and
power constrained embedded systems, the increased
bandwidth of the new ADC devices
does not come at the cost of a comparable rise
in power consumption. We are seeing these
devices with power dissipations rated near
2W per converter, which means that a quadchannel
FMC will require less than 10W. The
FMC (VITA 57) standard, recently approved
by ANSI, provides a method for directly coupling
FPGAs on the baseboard with I/O devices

Figure 2. The FMC module is significantly smaller than the
popular PMC and XMC module form factor.
on the small mezzanine FMC board. FMCs
enable the board bus structure to be bypassed,
providing direct I/O to the FPGA processing
element on the host card. This drastically improves
data rates and reduces latency compared
to designs where the I/O devices reside on the
main PCB. Another advantage is that FMCs
make it easier to tune a particular I/O need
with a common processing engine, and to upgrade
performance as newer and better I/O
devices become available without a major baseboard
redesign. The most popular mezzanine
format for defense embedded computing is
PMC which uses the PCI, and PCI-X.
The newer XMC replaces PMC parallel PCI
or PCI-X bus with a serial interface, of which
the most common protocol support is PCI Express.
Unfortunately, the throughput available
from FPGAs is beyond the capabilities of PMC
or XMC. FPGAs can be used to implement the
necessary interfaces, so advantage can be made
out of the direct coupling of processing per-
formance and I/O bandwidth.
The purpose of the FMC specification
is to allow one or more
FPGAs on a host card to connect
directly with the I/O devices on
the mezzanine module - just as if
the device were on the host board.
Busses like PCI-X are redundant
and would get in the way of the
FPGA and its I/O devices. This
intimacy means the interface can
be optimal and savings can be
made in real estate, cost and
power - with boosted bandwidth
and reduced latency. An FMC is
similar in height and width to a
PMC, but almost half the length.
The reduced width, compared with PMC or
XMC, enables up to three FMCs to be fitted to
a 6U host. The FMC specification has a default
stacking height of 10 mm, but also permits a
stacking height down to 8.5 for low-profile solutions.
The majority of FMC host/carriers
use VPX (3U and 6U), VXS and AMC formats,
but there are also PCI Express solutions such
as the Xilinx ML605 Virtex-6 evaluation card.
The FMC specification provides for a large
number of differential connections, up to 80
pairs, (or 160 single-ended signals), to support
one or more high speed parallel interfaces between
the FPGA and I/O devices.
There are also a number of serial connections
(up to ten pairs) suitable for multi-gigabit
transceivers (MGTs) operating up to 10
Gbytes/s. FMC modules and hosts support
two connector options; a low-pin-count (LPC)
160-pin connector and a high-pin-count
(HPC) 400-pin connector. The majority of
FMC solutions are likely to use the HPC
Figure 3. This diagram shows FMC-to-FPGA connectivity on a host card.
COTS
variant. Although aimed at I/O, FMCs can be
used for any function that might connect to
an FPGA including DSPs, memory or even another
FPGA. Connectivity for FMC modules
is unusual in that the number of active connections
is not defined, only the upper limit.
This means that host carriers need not provide
the same number of FPGA signals as another
host. To fully populate an HPC solution may
require a large FPGA, so reduced pin-out
offers cost sensitivity. This is something to be
aware of, but the specification defines that the
signals populate the LPC or HPC connector
at a given position and add to the connector
in a given sequence such that if two hosts provide
x signal, they will use the same connector
pins. When it comes to power supply requirements,
the FMC specification has a neat trick:
the host detects what the FMC power should
be and the host provides it. This is achieved
through the host interrogating the FMC
E2PROM and an adjustable power supply. The
benefit to the FMC is a simplified power requirement
thereby freeing up valuable real estate
for more I/O. Although around half the
PWB area of an XMC, the FMC can sometimes
achieve greater I/O functionality, most notably
for rugged applications. If the solution requires
a large FPGA and if the XMC module complies
with the VITA 20 specification, there are restrictions
as to where the FPGA can be located.
In turn, this may limit the available area to fit
the I/O devices.
Let us consider an actual example with a pair
of designs using the same I/O devices for a
rugged application; one using an XMC format
card and one using an FMC format card. Because
the rugged XMC specification requires
an area across the middle of the board to mate
up with a host-stiffening bar (which doubles
as a primary thermal interface conductioncooled
variant), a large FPGA (for example
35mm x 35mm) invariably needs to be fitted
to the area of the circuit board closest to the
front panel, and just where the design would
want to fit the I/O devices.
The useful space in which to fit the I/O devices
is perhaps a quarter of the overall real estate
of the XMC and not very efficient. In comparison,
the FMC even though it is around half
the size of the XMC, has a far greater real
estate area for the I/O devices. In this example,
the FMC is able to support two ADCs for two
3GS/s channels compared to the single channel
of the XMC. Of course an XMC using a
smaller FPGA, or not restricted by the rugged
XMC specification, may not be affected to
such an extent, provided it still has a sufficient
number of I/O connections to the devices. An
FMC may be smaller, but it may still be able to
support greater functionality than its larger
XMC equivalent. n
21 December 2010

COTS
CompactPCI cards for advanced
avionics systems development
By Michael J. Randazzo, DDC
CompactPCI is a first choice
for modernizing legacy test
equipment or developing a
new system. Its modular hardware
design, wide range of
COTS I/O options, good
instrumentation control, and
clear migration path to future
technology make it a smart,
cost-effective and flexible
solution able to support
avionics systems development
for years to come.
n The CompactPCI (cPCI) form factor has
continued to allow avionics system designers
to keep development costs low through the
use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products.
It remains a very popular form factor
choice for systems requiring multiple and
modular I/O capabilities, specifically avionics
protocols, such as MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC
429. In the defense/aerospace sector, some
sample applications are system simulation/integration,
production/automated test (ATP),
portable test equipment, and rapid prototyping
of custom hardware designs.
The cPCI specification was developed by the
PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group
(PICMG) in the mid 1990s to incorporate
PCI-based technology into industrial computers.
It is electrically a superset of desktop PCI
with a different physical form factor. CompactPCI
leverages the Eurocard form factor,
popularized by the VME bus, and supports
both 3U (100mm x 160mm) and 6U (160mm
x 233mm) card sizes. Though mainly used in
lab environments, a conduction-cooled form
factor variant exists to support harsh shock,
vibration, and temperature conditions, while
maintaining the same electrical PCI characteristics
and signaling. Since cPCI uses a chassis
rack-mountable backplane and is physically
similar to VME, it was quickly adopted by the
avionics community, which had been domi-
nated by VME since the early 1980s. The cPCI
form factor maintains core system requirements
such as vertical card orientation, positive card
retention, excellent shock and vibration
characteristics, and front or rear I/O options.
What really added to its appeal was the use of
standard PCI silicon, which was already being
manufactured in large volumes for use in the
desktop computer marketplace. This greatly
reduced the cost of manufacturing cPCI cards
compared with VME cards. As VME designs
become more difficult to manufacture and
support, cPCI offers an ideal alternative to
support the needs formerly handled by VME
cards.
Once the test and measurement community
started to adopt cPCI, it was clear that they
needed more capability to meet timing and
synchronization requirements across multiple
devices. Previously, VME cards addressed this
need with the VXI Bus enhancement. This resulted
in the creation of the PXI (PCI eXtensions
for Instrumentation) platform. The PXI
platform added an additional optional connector
to the already defined cPCI form factor.
This connector enabled integrated timing and
synchronization that is used to route synchronization
clocks and triggers internally through
the chassis backplane. Today, most test applications
that previously would have required
VME cards now rely on lower cost cPCI cards.
December 2010 22
Figure 1. Example of a
CompactPCI chassis
Data Device Corporation (DDC) provides
CompactPCI/PXI cards for MIL-STD-
1553/1760, ARINC 429, and synchro/resolver
with many cards combining different types of
I/O on one board to save even more power,
space, weight, and cost. For example, the latest
generation of Multi-IO CompactPCI/PXI cards
BU-67107T would require only a single 3U
card to support 4 dual-redundant MIL-STD-
1553 channels, 8 ARINC-429 receivers, 4
ARINC-429 transmitters, 6 user-programmable
digital discretes, 2 RS-232 channels, and 2 RS-
422/485 channels. Using only single-IO solutions,
an equivalent system would require 4
separate devices, greatly increasing the cost
and installation time expended by system
designers.
With respect to the MIL-STD-1553 protocol,
DDC gives more control to the system designer,
by offering two levels of functionality. Its latest
1553 generation, AceXtreme, now comes in
single and multi-function configurations. The
single-function configuration offers emulation
of a bus controller (BC) or up to 31 remote
terminals (RTs). Either mode can concurrently
execute the bus monitor (MT), to capture all
data on the bus. The multi-function configuration,
targeted for test and simulation systems,
adds the ability to concurrently run the BC,
up to 31 RTs, and MT, and also includes the
1553 test and simulation toolkit. The toolkit

Figure 2. 6U (Synchro/Resolver) vs. 3U (MIL-STD-1553) CompactPCI cards
Figure 3. DDC Multi-IO MIL-STD-1553/ARINC-429 3U cPCI/PXI card
adds error injection, internal/external triggering,
and the ability to test out-of-bounds 1553
parameters (such as intermessage gap). The
BU-67210T 1553 multi-function series are 3U
CompactPCI/PXI cards with up to 4 dualredundant
1553 channels, 8 digital and 8 avionics-level
discretes, and IRIG-B input/output.
Since it is relatively easy to assemble and procure
a CompactPCI system with COTS hardware,
it is a great choice for prototyping custom
embedded systems. This allows system designers
to configure a system with identical hardware
and software functionality as the final
system, except using the CompactPCI form
factor. It also enables any software development
to begin before initial prototype hardware is
available so that the designer can address any
system level concerns before mass production.
All DDC software development kits (SDKs)
for MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC-429 are hardware
independent and have a common API.
This enables software to be developed and
tested using one form factor (such as cPCI),
and reused in its entirety on a different form
factor (such as PMC or component-level
solution). Designers using this approach have
benefited from shortened development schedules,
less system troubleshooting, and avoiding
costly board re-spins.
To simplify the software development process
even further, DDC offers code generation
capability with its BusTrACEr BU-69066S0
MIL-STD-1553 data bus analyzer. The tool allows
the user to configure a 1553 bus controller,
multiple remote terminals, and a bus monitor
with an easy-to-use point-and-click graphical
interface. Once the 1553 configuration is complete,
a single click will generate ANSI C source
code to duplicate the same configuration using
DDC 1553 SDK. The generated source code
then can be used with any operating system
(Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7, Linux, VxWorks,
etc.) and any DDC board or component, saving
the designer many hours of additional pro-
COTS
gramming time for the embedded system that
would otherwise be required. All CompactP-
CI/PXI systems require a CPU card or system
controller. Following the COTS approach, there
are many CPU vendors in the marketplace offering
standard 3U and 6U controllers. A majority
of these systems are x86-based, but other
processor families, like PowerPC, can be procured.
Since the controllers are based on standard
processor architectures, cPCI systems designers
have a wealth of choices regarding operating
systems and programming environments.
One environment that stands out as a
leader in the cPCI/PXI community is the Lab-
VIEW programming language. Short for laboratory
virtual instrumentation engineering
workbench, LabVIEW was developed by National
Instruments in the 1980s as a visual programming
language. Execution is determined
by the use of a graphical block diagram on
which the programmer connects different functions
by drawing wires.
The inherent parallel execution and multi-processing
makes it a great fit for data acquisition,
instrument control and test automation. Combined
with extensive support for COTS hardware,
a test system can be developed rather easily,
without sacrificing capability. DDC LabVIEW
support package BU-69093S0 enables developers
to use LabVIEW to develop applications using
MIL-STD-1553 and/or ARINC-429 protocols.
To make development even easier, a collection
of “Intermediate Vis” was created, which allow
the user to quickly configure commonly used
1553/429 functionality. Combined with a DDC
cPCI/PXI hardware device, the DDC LabVIEW
package is a good choice for any avionics testing
or development task. The DDC package also
supports LabVIEW Real-Time (RT), which extends
the LabVIEW framework to deliver deterministic,
hard real-time performance by executing
all time-sensitive application code on an
embedded target running the Interval Zero (Phar
Lap) ETS real-time operating system.
With the advent of PCI Express (PCI-E) as the
replacement for the PCI bus in desktop computing,
CompactPCI needed to evolve accordingly.
CompactPCI Express was released by
PICMG in 2005, keeping the Eurocard form
factor, but replacing the parallel PCI Bus with
serial PCI-E links. Due to the wide usage of
CompactPCI systems and peripherals in the
field, PICMG defined the CompactPCI Express
backplane and connectors not only to support
new cPCI Express cards, but also support
existing cPCI cards. A hybrid peripheral slot
can support either a Type 2 cPCI Express
board or a 32-bit cPCI board, thereby enabling
any cPCI designer to have a cost-effective
evolutionary path; cPCI cards can be eventually
replaced with cPCI Express cards without
changing the backplane or cabling. n
23 December 2010

COTS
DO-178C and COTS: challenges
and opportunities for avionics software
By Jakob Gärtner, Esterel
This article describes how the
new DO-178C safety standard
for airborne software will
clarify the framework for
modern software-development
methodologies and the
related tools. A combination
of
model-based design and
verification and formal methods
based on qualified tools is
the state of the art and is fully
supported by the
new standard.
n During the last three decades, the airline industry
has undergone fundamental changes.
The time after the golden ages of jet airplanes,
that started with players like Sud Aviation, De-
Havilland, McDonnell- Douglas, Lockheed
and Boeing and culminated with aircraft like
the Concorde and the jumbo jet, was characterized
by two main developments. On one
hand a consolidation in the US airframes industry
that left only Boeing as player in the
civilian aerospace market, and the advent of
Airbus as global player, which increased its
global market share to more than 50% of aircraft
over 100 seats.
The most recent aerospace programs like the
Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A380
tried to take advantage of heavy outsourcing
even of former core competences and work
packages. They both also faced major technical
obstacles, program delays and cost increases.
Both Boeing and Airbus are confronted with
damage claims from airlines and cancelled orders.
At the same time, emerging aerospace
countries such as Brazil, China, South Korea
and Japan are launching major aerospace programs
not only aimed at the much more fragmented
regional airliners market, but also attacking
the current cash cows such as the Boeing
737 and Airbus 320 families. Subcontractors
see new opportunities with the new players,
while pressure for risk sharing is rising.
While software content creation for large programs
is being created more and more globally
by the established companies, new competition
is arising from new players from the BRIC
(Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries.
Experience from the B787 and A380 programs,
and even more from some military projects,
shows that distributed development, outsourcing
and globalization are more complicated to
implement than imagined. Large financial and
technical efforts have been necessary to recover
some of the consequential problems, but have
not proven to be sufficient for completing the
effort on time. Rising competition at airframe,
systems and software levels, together with a
much more diverse and complex industrial
universe and the requirement for fast time-tomarket,
calls for commercial and technical answers.
At the same time, the well-established
safety standard for airborne software, DO-
178B will be soon replaced by its next increment,
DO-178C.
Since 1992, creation of software development
for safety-critical airborne systems has been
governed by the internationally recognized
standard DO-178B. On just 48 pages, it condenses
the inputs, constraints and requirements
from all the involved stakeholders. It represents
the consensus that has been achieved from
discussions and negotiations between airframe
manufactures, equipment suppliers, tool sup-
December 2010 24
pliers and certification authorities. It has remained
stable during 15 years of being used
on every single civilian aerospace program,
and no major safety issue has been discovered
during its use. DO-178B defines objectives
and principles which shall be followed during
a software development effort. It is, as far as
possible, and much more than any other contemporary
software safety standard, requirements-oriented,
and with very few exceptions,
not prescriptive on the means that must be
used, in order to be less sensitive to technology
evolution and more open to adaptation to
specific requirements.
Created 18 years ago, DO-178B has remained
apparently stable, despite the swift evolution
in software technology. But behind the scenes,
CAST (Certification Authorities Software
Team) papers and CRIs (Certification Review
Items) have been created in order to answer to
specific issues. These papers do not always
represent a consensus of the stakeholders and
are often subject to intense discussions. It is a
challenge in itself in a software development
effort to find a way through all the accumulated
documents and opinions. Organized by workgroups
in order to efficiently handle the various
fields of interest, representatives of more than
150 stakeholders have been working on reaching
a new consensus which answers to the
new techniques such as MBDV (model-based

Figure 1. Model-based development flow: now formally defined in DO-178C
development and verification), formal methods
(FM), automatic code generation and objectoriented
methods while keeping the objectiveoriented
approach of the former version of
the standard.
Marketing buzz created by some tool vendors,
depending on the source, tells: use my tool
and you bridge the gap. Now you can use Java
and C++ and exploit full benefits from dynamic
environments, inheritance and variants. Object-Oriented
has now arrived in aerospace.
Remembering the pain created on some projects
by following the tool providers promises
a bit too willingly, it is well worth the effort to
have a deeper look at the spirit, concepts and
contents of DO-178C. The message is very
simple: compared to DO-178B, the new release
neither raises nor lowers the bar for certification.
It documents the intent of DO-178 more
consistently and provides important clarification
on some aspects.
It provides three technology-specific supplements.
1) Model- based design: MBDV is now
fully recognized by DO-178C, but precise syntax
and semantics on model-level are required.
Demonstration of model test coverage is a
mandatory activity. 2) Formal methods: the
supplement provides a framework for the use
of formal methods. 3) Object-orientation: Basically,
very demanding constraints for the use
of OO methods and requirements for costly
verification of software properties, in particular
for memory management and inheritance, are
provided. One supplement provides explana-
tions and guidelines on when and how to
qualify tools (TQ supplement). The DO-178C
committee intends to complete and approve
the new text by end of 2010.
Most of the well-established creators of embedded
airborne software have, in the context
of the large programs of the civilian aerospace
duopoly era, created their own tool suites to
support software development. Several factors
are fueling a trend to now opt out of these inhouse
tools. The consolidation of Tier1 and
Tier2 equipment providers and airframe makers
has the side-effect that within a large company,
which is the result of a series of mergers,
a plethora of tools may exist that try to tackle
the same problem from slightly different angles.
Tool harmonization is becoming an important
driver for cost reduction. Each boundary between
tools becomes a river to cross, with expensive
bridges required to cross them. The
tools themselves are often highly specialized.
While in the past, it was possible to hide tool
costs within a large project budget, agile methods
and the trend to concentrate on the core
competencies of a company do not really
justify the effort to create such custom tools
anymore, not to mention the pain and cost to
maintain them.
This situation provides the field for COTS
(commercial-of-the-shelf) software tools. Such
tools may span the entire software lifecycle of
a software system: requirements management,
requirements analysis, system design, software
design, verification and testing. What was pre-
COTS
viously said about bridging the gap between
different tool suites applies even more between
the different phases of the lifecycle. Transitions
from one step to the next along a development
flow can be very costly. Seamless software development,
while being one of the most used
buzzwords, has, with a few exceptions, remained
a dream.
While more and more companies are trying
to find COTS replacements for their in-house
tools, the new players in the airplane and
equipment makers market have the advantage
(and the challenge) to start from a white sheet
of paper. They all meet some tool providers
who all claim to have the golden key to software
development. When carefully reading DO-
178C and its supplements it becomes clear
that: 1) tool qualification can have clear advantages,
if the tool has been designed to provide
the benefit from specific certification
credits to the user, such as being able to
shorten, automate or render obsolete certain
expensive design or verification activities; 2)
model-based design and verification is now
recognized and can provide important gains
in efficiency; and 3) formal methods and their
usage now benefit from a clearly described
framework which helps to integrate them in
the development and verification plans. It appears
that the ideal tool and method would
combine the ease of use and efficiency of a
model-based approach with the completeness
and verifiability of a formal method.
Unfortunately, almost all model-based tools
are not formal, and most formal methods are
neither model-based nor easy to use. The industry
standard in model-based design for
DO-178B projects, Esterel Technologie SCADE
(Safety-Critical Development Environment)
is based on a formal notation and has proven
its efficiency and ease of use on most existing
aerospace programs. It is a direct implementation
of all the principles that are the foundation
of DO-178B and has shaped the discussions
on tool qualification, model-based design and
formal methods in the DO-178C committee.
It is the only approach on the market which
merges model-based design and formal methods.
Like DO-178B and DO-178C, it is very
simple yet complete in its approach.
Similar trends towards COTS can be found
on the hardware platform side and the runtime
environments and operating systems.
Custom hardware was, some years ago, the
only way to answer performance, certification
and scaling issues. Available hardened processors
and peripherals did not perform at the
level necessary to allow for standard hardware,
and, as a consequence each LRU (line replaceable
unit) contained a very expensive,
special purpose piece of hardware. Software
25 December 2010

COTS
Figure 2. A base document defining principles and
objectives, with specific supplements handling specific
aspects of software technology: the new structure of DO-178C
was also highly tailored to co-operate as
closely as possible with the custom hardware.
If such hardware reaches the highly feared
end-of-life, software maintenance and upgrades
become impossible. The entire system
becomes obsolete. Standardized operating systems
promise to relieve the user from such
problems. If the software application uses
only a standard API (application programming
interface), it will run on any hardware for
which an OS with that API is available.
OM9140 10GbE 14-Slot ATCA Platform
The Kontron OM9140 series of 10GbE ATCA
platforms offer carrier-grade, high-density solutions
across a common platform capable of
being converted into dedicated or cross-functional
network elements for 3G and 4G wireless,
IMP, IPTV, and core network applications.
With dedicated validation and integration teams, Kontron alleviates
all the heavy-lifting of configuring and testing multiple hardware and
software elements, such as IPMI, OS, HA Middleware, and HPI,
enabling TEMs and NEPs to leverage their dedicated resources more
towards application designs.
Kontron is currently assisting its TEM clients in a multi-phase
migration program that prepares them to develop immediately with
40G-ready AdvancedTCA platforms. As the first phase, TEMs can
fully deploy them as 10G systems and, when ready, initiate the second
phase to field upgrade them with 40G switching and any other
multicore processing capabilities.
Telecom and network equipment vendors who need to speed up their
design of wireless and wireline infrastructure systems seek out commercial-off-the-shelf
open platforms, such as ATCA, as a more efficient
deployment strategy.
Using a model-based methodology
provides another level of abstraction.
When utilized effectively and
done the right way, it makes the
application totally independent
even from a specific API, assuming
automatic code generation is available.
Again, it is important that
this automatic code generation is
done by a qualified tool in order
to make it efficient. If not, all the
expensive testing, reviews and other
verification will make porting and
hence hardware obsolescence very,
very costly.
As airframe makers have shifted
the boundary between themselves
and their suppliers quite far already,
and are often not even providing the highlevel
software requirements as input to the
system providers, they are facing unexpected
issues. The savings are not as large as hoped
for, and they are losing competences and control,
so that they do not only experience quality,
functionality and integration issues, but also a
shift in the balance of power between themselves
and the major suppliers. The bulk of
the value in an aircraft is not input anymore
by the airframe maker, who is being reduced
December 2010 26
to a systems integrator, but by the Tier1 suppliers.
Model-based design and verification
with qualified tools allow the air framers to
regain more control, as they provide a clear
interface to exchange requirements and
standardized verification approaches.
The environment is becoming more and
more challenging, competition more fierce,
and the swing of globalization is swinging
back. The emerging countries do not remain
pools of cheap labour and soaring markets.
They become major players themselves. DO-
178C will clarify the framework for modern
software-development methodologies and
the related tools. A combination of modelbased
design and verification and formal
methods based on qualified tools is the state
of the art, and is fully supported by the new
standard. Any software development team
which combines the best practices of software
engineering with such a tool empowers its
engineers to concentrate on their competence
in analyzing and designing systems, which
answers the needs of the end customer, on
time and on budget. Most importantly, formal
model-based development frees their
minds to create that difference in value that
can only come from human creativity and
imagination. n
Business Benefits of ATCA Open Platforms
n Faster time-to-market
n Development cost savings
n Reduced inventory costs
n Faster upgrades to new technology advances
n Achieve shorter lead times for build-to-order systems
n Kontron global services & maintenance
OM9140 Configuration Options - Customer-Specific
n AT8050 10GbE Processor Board – 5600 and 5500 Intel Xeon
Processor Series
n AT8904 10GbE Switch
n AT8404 10GbE Carrier (4 AMC Slots)
n AT8050 Rear Transition Modules
Storage, Processor and IO Modules
n AM4020 AdvancedMC Core i7 Processor Module
n AM4020 AdvancedMC OCTEON Plus Module
n AM4500 AdvancedMC Storage Module
TO ORDER EVALUATION UNITS OR
UPGRADE AN EXISTING DESIGN CONTACT US AT:
Kontron Modular Computer
Sudetenstrasse 7
87600 Kaufbeuren
Germany
+49 (0) 8341 803 333
+49 (0) 8341 803 339
support-kom@kontron.com

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27 December 2010

COMMUNICATIONS
10G Ethernet is poised to become
the next true standard in networking
By Christoph Neumann and Dr. Stephan Rupp, Kontron
For over 25 years, Ethernet
has proven itself able to adapt
to meet the growing
demands of computer
networks while maintaining
low cost of implementation,
ease of installation and
highest reliability. Now 10G
Ethernet is becoming available
in embedded form factors,
removing performance
bottlenecks.
n High-speed Ethernet technologies allow
simplifying the structure of computer systems
in a significant way. 10G is available in advanced
CPUs and Ethernet MACs for processing and
storage subsystems. One pipe may handle both
the operation of clusters as well as high-speed
communications to the outside world. Resources
may be allocated by virtualization, including
network interfaces. Components and
interfaces are entirely based on worldwide industrial
standards. Developers are now confronted
with the questions which 10G technology
to choose and which embedded systems
provide the ideal environment. Multi-core
CPUs come with 10 Gigabit/sec speed for
inter-process communication. Several standards
are available to provide the required transfer
rates. So there are many good reasons to use
10 Gigabit Ethernet now.
Prices of interfaces have come down. There
are SFP+ transceivers available in the same
small form factor as SFP with passive copper
links for short-range, price-sensitive applications
(such as chassis interconnect, up to
several meters), as well as optical connections
for longer distances. Different traffic classes
can be allocated to one single pipe (with QoS
providing many service levels). With protocols
such as iSCSI, storage can use the same interface
technology as inter-process communication
or exterior services (such as web traffic or
Voice over IP). For aggregation of traffic, 10G
avoids multiple 1G links with complex link aggregation
mechanisms. With multi-core CPUs,
the number of virtual machines per processor
is increasing. 10G Ethernet MACs support virtualization,
i.e. network interfaces can be shared
between VMs in a hardware-independent way.
The same technology is applied in local and
remote communication, resulting in reduced
complexity, reduced cabling and improved reliability.
Carrier Ethernet services allow native
connectivity for remote operation.
On many desktop devices, virtualization has
been used to boot one operating system or the
other. In this case, one virtual machine (VM)
may own the complete hardware, with no
need to share. In IT server infrastructure and
in embedded systems, virtualization is increasingly
used to run multiple VMs in parallel on
the same hardware. With current network interface
cards (NICs), Ethernet ports cannot be
shared easily between parallel VMs. The usual
solution is to allocate Ethernet ports to individual
VMs, as shown in figure 2 (upper part).
While this type of solution works with a
limited number of VMs and a sufficient number
of NICs, it has major drawbacks as the
number of VMs increases. The number of network
interfaces needs to match the number of
VMs, resulting in extra cost, space requirements,
cabling, as well as additional configuration
December 2010 28
Figure 1. The Kontron CP6930
is a performance-optimized
10-Gigabit Ethernet switch.
and maintenance hassles, and the hypervisor
must manage traffic between VMs (thus
becoming a multi-port Ethernet switch), or
alternatively traffic between VMs can be
channeled over exterior network interfaces.
This scenario is not far-fetched: VMs in embedded
computing are increasingly being used
to encapsulate parallel jobs. Today 4-core CPUs
easily support 4 to 8 VMs per core. As shown
in figure 1 (lower part), this results in a number
of network interfaces exceeding 16 ports. In
addition, the traffic capacity of the CPU exceeds
1 Gigabit speed, requiring multiple 1GbE ports
per VM. 10G NICs with support of virtualization
solve many problems including the sharing
of 10G Ethernet ports between VMs without
need of link aggregation. Most importantly,
inter-VM traffic is handled within the NIC
without impact on the hypervisor.
At customer premises, IT infrastructure serves
a variety of applications; whether for enterprise
communication, facility management, process
technology or computer center, the general
structure is similar. Front-end servers handle
exterior connectivity to other sites (locally or
remotely) including security screening and
traffic distribution. On a second tier, application
servers handle the computing tasks. A third
tier handles the storage and safe backup of
persistent data. Figure 3 shows the principle

Figure 2. Allocation of network interfaces to virtual machines
architecture. Today, a diversity of technologies
is used. While local network interconnectivity
to clients and other sites is largely provided by
Ethernet, connections to remote sites are provided
over a choice of telecommunication interfaces
(such as ISDN, leased lines or xDSL).
Communication between servers (inter-process
communication) requires high-speed connections
over Infiniband, aggregated GbE links
or proprietary solutions. Storage networks
(network-attached storage or storage area networks)
connect over fibre channel. While all
COMMUNICATIONS
established solutions have their benefits, the
result is a diverse environment, with complex
configurations, which requires a diversity of
skills for operation.
The arrival of 10GbE technology removes the
performance bottleneck of past Ethernet technology
for server and storage networks and allows
a diversity of applications to be placed
on a single technology platform. For server interconnection,
10 GbE can accommodate the
speed of modern CPUs. Standards like iSCSI
allow for the building of equivalent storage infrastructures
to fibre channel solutions without
the need for specialized fibre channel switches
and software environment. The speed of 10
GbE is also sufficient to support native fibre
channel protocols over Ethernet (FCoE). The
result is a simplified architecture for computer
networks. Reduced complexity also results in
reduced costs because fewer components are
needed, allowing technical skills to be focused
elsewhere, and thus lowering operational costs.
Some server architectures allow multiple processor
blades to be placed in a single server
chassis, which can also contain 10GbE switches.
Such systems considerably reduce space and
cabling by providing Ethernet connectivity
over the backplane. Embedded form factors

COMMUNICATIONS
Figure 3. One pipe fits all - reducing complexity lowers costs.
Figure 4. Long distance connectivity - Carrier Ethernet
for such architectures use low-power processors
and reduce total cost of ownership through
lowered operational expenses. The use of Ethernet
for server and storage interconnection is
supported by worldwide standards: iSCSI represents
an IETF standard published in 2003,
which defines encapsulation of SCSI messages
in Ethernet frames and usage of TCP/IP to
handle traffic flows. In this way, iSCSI builds
on a foundation that has been proven worldwide
on the internet. For storage networks,
iSCSI allows 10GbE NICs to work like SAN
controllers. Without the need for dedicated
hardware, storage devices such as RAID networks
or backup servers can be shared over IP.
While Ethernet is a traditional technology for
local area networks, it is also gaining momentum
in remote communications. Connections
between two sites of an enterprise (customer
premises) or to remote clients need a connec-
tion over public networks, which are provided
by a network operator. Network operators provide
a diversity of interfaces for mobile connectivity
(over GSM, UMTS or WiFi hotspots),
and fixed lines (over ISDN, xDSL or leased
lines). With increasing demand from corporate
customers on high-speed interconnections,
many network operators now offer Carrier
Ethernet services: native Ethernet connectivity
at a variety of speeds including guaranteed
availability of service and quality at different
service levels. While speeds above 100
Megabits/sec need a dedicated optical fibre at
the customer premise and today still represent
the exception, the offer of high-speed links is
increasing. For the corporate customer, Carrier
Ethernet represents native Ethernet links over
long distance networks, which can carry local
Ethernet services to remote sites. Carrier Ethernet
also provides a reliable connection with
respect to downtimes and traffic. Figure 4
December 2010 30
shows the setup between customer premises
and the public wide area networks. Between
customer premises, Ethernet connectivity is
transparent, like a local area network connection.
Behind Carrier Ethernet, considerable standardization
activities of major equipment suppliers
and network operators are at work. One
of the most prominent organizations is the
Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF). Standardization
activities span a wide range of IETF, IEEE and
ITU standards. The MEF ensures that MEFcertified
Carrier Ethernet equipment is interoperable
over public networks and local connections.
At a much lower level of connectivity,
the progress of technology is considerable.
Over just five years, connector sizes and power
consumption of fibre-optic or copper transceiver
modules have been consistently shrinking
from XENPAK to XFP and SFP+. Figure 5
shows the evolution.
As a consequence, the new high-speed transceivers
such as SFP+ 10 GbE can be easily incorporated
into embedded products. The small
form factors allow a high density of interfaces
with low power per port (below 1 watt). The
new form factors also facilitate 10G cabling
considerably. SFP+ transceivers are available
as a directly attached version on pre-configured
copper or optical cables. Passive copper cable
covers distances of up to 7 meters (with no
power consumption). The cables are factory
configured with SFP+ connectors on each end
using parallel shielded two-pair cables (twinaxial
cables). Optical cables cover distances of
up to 300 meters at 850nm according to the
LRM specification for long-range multi-mode
fibre, and up to 10km at 1350nm according to
the LR specification for long-range fibre, respectively.
All 10G form factors are industry standards.
The initial standard for Ethernet at 10 Gbits/sec
was published in 2002 as IEEE standard 802.3ae.
The extensions SR, LR, ER and L4 of the same
year define fibre optic connections. In 2004,
extension 802.ak-CX4 defined the use of copper
twin-axial cable (InfiniBand cable). The use of
10GBASE-T twisted-pair copper cable was specified
in 2006 as 802.3an. In 2007, two further
extensions followed: 802.3ap-KR for serial backplanes,
and 802.aq-LRM for optical cables. The
SFP+ form factor is defined in the SFF-8431
specification of the SFF committee (an industry
group concerned with small form factors that
represents major IT manufacturers).
While 10G has been available for embedded
server technologies like AdvancedTCA for
some time (and is now moving up to 40G),
10G is now becoming available in form factors
with lower thermal budgets and hence lower
power consumption including CompactPCI,

Figure 5: Evolution of 10G interfaces
Figure 6. The Kontron AM5030 with its Intel Xeon processor extends the performance range of
MicroTCA into the realm of high-end processing.
MicroTCA, VME and VPX as well as embedded
rack mountable servers. CompactPCI supports
GbE on the backplane according to the PICMG
specification 2.16. While 1 Gigabit/sec speed
is sufficient for many embedded applications,
it represents a mismatch to the latest generation
of CompactPCI processor blades, which handle
traffic at speeds of 10 Gigabits/sec. However,
when placed in a CompactPCI system, the
traffic capacity of the backplane generates a
bottleneck. This bottleneck can be solved by
front cabling.
An extension board (mezzanine board) can
be placed on the processor blade in order to
provide two 10 GbE links over SFP+. This
way, 10G links may be connected over standard
10G cabling. For multi-processor systems, the
front cables will usually meet at a 10G Ethernet
switch. The most compact solution is to place
a 10G switch directly into the CompactPCI
system. Also, for rugged environments, M12
connectors are now becoming available for
both 1G and 10G. Like CompactPCI, MicroT-
CA represents a PICMG standard for embedded
systems. MicroTCA is the first standard
using serial interfaces on the backplane, rather
than the traditional parallel bus architectures.
The AMC connector provides 21 ports, which
can be used for high-speed links at 2.5
Gigabit/sec each. Thus there is ample space
for high-speed fabrics like 10 GbE, PCI Express,
COMMUNICATIONS
Serial RapidIO, SATA and others. MicroTCA
defines 1GbE as basic communication infrastructure
between boards over the backplane.
In addition, extra fabrics can be used. 10 GbE
is currently implemented on the backplane
via 4x 2.5 G lanes using the XAUI interface
(according to 802.3ap -KX4). Future implementations
will use 10 Gigabit/speeds per lane
(according to 802.3ap -KR). Systems with 10G
backplanes have been on the market for some
time already. What will drive 10G is the next
generation of processor blades in the AMC
form factor. The double-wide (4U) form factor
allows a thermal budget of up to 80 watts per
AMC.
With this it is possible to implement quadcore
CPU boards in MicroTCA applications,
combining an extremely compact, modular
system design with highly parallel computing
power. As the de facto standard for many deployed
military applications, 6U VME successfully
adopted Gigabit Ethernet on the backplane
thanks to VITA31.1. The choice of leveraging
a common baseline with the CompactPCI network
infrastructure such as 6U CompactPCI
switches now permits VME computers to offer
the same evolutionary path towards 10 Gigabit
Ethernet using the common solutions of 10Gbenabled
switch boards and 10Gb XMC mezzanines.
These products are already supported on x86based
computers and also on PowerPC Altivec
single board processor boards. By offering
computers that are compatible with existing
application software, VME repeats the previous
success of adopting a new standard without
having to throw out the vast infrastructure developed
over many years. Designed right from
the start for high-speed serial interfaces, VPX
provides transfer rates of up to 6.25 Gbit/s per
lane with a cross-talk attenuation of maximum
3% and is well prepared for Multigig-Ethernet
and other high-speed serial technologies such
as PCI Express, SATA and Serial RapidIO.
With a total of 464 signal contacts for 6U
boards and 280 signal contacts for 3U VPX offers
enough capacity for even faster fat pipes,
that are not necessarily already envisaged today.
10G Ethernet implementation is usually done
via PCI Expressed based extension cards. Embedded
Rackmount Servers are usually based
on motherboards or PICMG 1.x with a system
host board and an application-specific backplane
with multiple PCI and PCI express extension
slots. Both system architectures can
easily implement standard PCIe NICs for
adding 10G Ethernet interfaces parallel to the
implemented 1G Ethernet ports on the system
board. Already available low-profile extension
cards enable to implement 10G Ethernet even
in space-saving 2U designs. n
31 December 2010

COMMUNICATIONS
Performance gains from multi-core
processors partnered with ATCA
By Gene Juknevicius, GE Intelligent Platforms
Today, multi-core processors
are an integral element of
electronics design and are
well supported by the
AdvancedTCA infrastructure.
This article describes technologies
and tools designers
can use to get full advantage
from multi-core processors
combined with ATCA.
n Multi-core processor technology combined
with the AdvancedTCA form factor results in
multi-faceted performance scaling options:
performance can be scaled by using processor
silicon with more processor cores, as well as
by adding more ATCA blades into the chassis.
Moreover, ATCA systems are easy to configure
for a specific workload by combining standard
multi-core x86 processors with specialized
packet processors. Having multiple cores within
a processor is potentially highly advantageous,
of course, but they are useless unless the software
infrastructure has a means of utilizing
these cores. Virtualization is one technique
that allows use of multiple cores to run multiple
applications and their operating systems in
parallel. New application development - or
porting an existing application to a multi-core
environment - is eased by the development
tools that are available. Packet processors in
particular have a powerful set of tools that
allow the design of applications that run in
parallel on multiple cores.
Just a few years ago each new processor silicon
release brought along a worthwhile clock frequency
improvement. Today, however, clock
frequency is not the main news in a new generation
processor release; it is the number of
processor cores within the device that is taking
center stage. As usual, small startups such as
Cavium Networks and RMI (now NetLogic)
were the first to market with multi-core general
purpose processors. Then followed the giants:
Intel, AMD and Freescale. Today, 4-8 cores
within a processor are the norm - and there
are architectures available that feature as many
as 64 cores within one processor. The motivation
for multi-core processors is fairly simple:
when running a typical application, the processor
spends most of its time waiting for data to
process. Historically, memory latency has improved
at a much slower pace than the speed
of the processor. Today, the mismatch between
processor and memory is such that adding a
few extra clocks to the processor does not improve
performance to any worthwhile degree.
As if this is not a big enough problem, there is
the issue of power consumption: adding a few
extra hertz to the clock translates into a significant
increase in power consumption.
From the multi-core architecture perspective,
having multiple cores, each running perhaps
at a slightly slower speed, results in a higher
overall performance solution. Considering that
the processor spends roughly three-quarters
of its time waiting for the memory, this approach
works well for applications that can
benefit from parallel processing. Obviously,
the memory subsystem implementation has
to support multiple data accesses in parallel,
which is typically the case today. Let us move
the focus from the silicon to the system. When
December 2010 32
Figure 1. ATCA integrated
platform from NEI
a single server with two or four multi-core
processors is required, the 19-inch rack-mountable
enclosure – the pizza box - works very
well. When the application requires more than
that, or when redundancy and higher reliability
are required, AdvancedTCA becomes a good
choice for system implementation. The AdvancedTCA
chassis can support up to 14 dualprocessor
blades interconnected via two highperformance
Ethernet switches in a redundant
fashion. All blades within the chassis share
power supplies and cooling fans, which are
also implemented to support redundancy and
higher reliability.
A key requirement when building a multiblade
system is a high-speed, reliable interconnect
between the blades. From this perspective,
an ATCA system interconnects each blade via
a fabric interface and base interface. The fabric
interface, which is considered to be a data
path interface, is predominantly 10Gbit Ethernet
today and will soon support 40Gbit Ethernet.
The base interface is a control path and is
implemented using 1Gbit Ethernet. Both fabric
and base interfaces are implemented in a redundant
fashion, such that each ATCA blade
connects to both ATCA hubs which provide
the required Ethernet switching resources. All
connectivity is provided via the ATCA backplane,
reducing external cabling, thereby making
the overall system more reliable and more

serviceable. The separation of the control plane
and data plane not only enables high performance
blade management and control services,
but also isolates the control traffic from the
revenue-generating data plane traffic. Such
isolation of the two planes becomes critical
when overall system security is considered.
Plane isolation ensures that data plane traffic,
which is typically customer-facing traffic, will
not intentionally or unintentionally start
managing Ethernet switches and disrupt the
operation of the complete system.
Depending on the application type, the high
performance interconnect brings a different
value proposition. In a compute type application,
it is essential that large numbers of processors
communicate with high throughput and
very low latency. To that extent, 10Gbit and
40Gbit Ethernet can provide the required data
throughput. Some Ethernet switches also support
pass-through switching mode where packet
transmission starts before the packet is fully
received. In such cases, packet switching latency
can be lower than 500ns. Although configuring
two hubs (Ethernet switches) in an ATCA
chassis is primarily for redundancy, it is also
possible to use both hubs in parallel, effectively
doubling the available bandwidth. From the
compute power density perspective, it is interesting
to note that 14 GE Intelligent Platforms
A10200 ATCA blades, each featuring dual Intel
6-core Westmere processors, yield no fewer
than 168 x86 cores within a single ATCA
chassis, all interconnected via an in-chassis
high-speed interconnect.
Compute applications also tend to require
significant storage capacity, bandwidth and
reliability. There are three main ways to address
storage requirements. At the lowest level, each
ATCA blade can have local hard disks, located
on the blade itself or on an associated RTM:
these could be two redundant SAS drives. At
the next level, one or more storage ATCA
blades could be used within the system. Such
Figure 2. 16-slot ATCA chassis internal interconnect diagram
storage blades would be accessed via Ethernet
using either the FCoE or iSCSI protocols.
ATCA storage blades can be shared among
multiple processor blades. Finally, an external
storage array can be connected via Fibre
Channel, FCoE or iSCSI.
A key feature of communication applications
is their requirement for high data throughput
and packet processing. Also, they typically
lend themselves well to parallel processing
which is where multi-core technology finds its
optimal advantage. Although processors from
both AMD and Intel are excellent computing
devices - especially when multiple cores are
considered - both lack the ability to efficiently
get data in and out at very high data rates.
Packet processors, another type of multi-core
processor architecture, are specifically optimized
to address the problem of efficient
movement in and out of packetized data. Such
devices are readily available in the ATCA blade
form factor allowing system designers to take
advantage of both x86 compute resources and
packet processor packet manipulation resources
within the same system. The interoperability
inherent in the ATCA specification enables
designers to plug in multiple x86 processor
blades as well as multiple packet processor
blades and interconnect them via high
performance Ethernet interfaces.
From this perspective, Ethernet switches within
hubs provide additional value in load distribution.
Ethernet switches today employ sophisticated
access control list features that
allow packets, based on their Layer-2 to Layer-
4 information, to be steered to a specific ATCA
blade. Such policy-based routing allows packet
streams to be distributed at very high data
rates (10Gbit/sec to 100Gbit/sec) among
multiple ATCA blades, while ensuring that
packets belonging to the same flow are always
directed to the same blade. An example of a
high-performance communication system is
shown in figure 4. This ATCA system employs
COMMUNICATIONS
two Ethernet hubs, two GE A10200 multicore
x86 processor blades and up to 12 GE
AT2-5800 packet processor blades with dual
16-core OCTEON Plus processors. Simple
math reveals that this system provides 320
MIPS64 cores (OCTEON devices) and 24 x86
cores (Intel Westmere devices).
From the data processing perspective, data enters
the system via Ethernet hubs where packets
are distributed - based on policies - among
packet processing blades. Then, within the
packet processor blade, packets are further
distributed between two OCTEON devices
and finally, within each OCTEON device, between
the cores. The packet processors perform
the majority of the high throughput packet
processing, and specific packets requiring more
extensive processing power are forwarded to
x86-based blades. The key principle here is
that although the majority of packets require
little processing, a small subset requires more
significant processing power. It is clear that
any ATCA system is useless without software.
Having hundreds of processor cores offers
huge potential, but unless used efficiently they
are a waste of silicon. Historically, most
applications were written without any parallel
computing concepts in mind. Consequently,
although modern compilers attempt to recognize
areas in the code that lend themselves to
parallel processing and try to harness the
power of multiple cores, performance improvements
are very limited when running legacy
applications on multi-core hardware. Virtualization
is often used today to better utilize
multiple processor cores. In a virtualized environment,
multiple instances of the operating
system – or even multiple dissimilar operating
systems - run on the same multi-core processor.
Since each operating system has no relationship
with the others, the operating systems can be
happily executed in parallel on multiple cores.
Hardware, with the help of Hypervisor, ensures
that each operating system can safely access
its own memory and I/O devices without
Figure 4. ATCA System with two Westmere blades and ten OCTEON blades
33 December 2010

COMMUNICATIONS
Figure 3. The GE Intelligent Platforms A10200 ATCA single board
computer
disturbing its neighbors. Virtualization allows
the consolidation of multiple physical servers
into one server with multi-core processors.
ATCA allows further consolidation of multiple
blades with multiple multi-core processors:
racks of legacy servers can be reduced to a
single ATCA chassis. Virtualization within the
ATCA environment provides another benefit -
redundancy and high availability. Using a high
availability virtualized operating system, an
application can be migrated from one physical
Kontron AM4211
Next Gen Packet Processor AMC Module
The AM4211 Packet Processor AMC
module is designed with the Cavium
Networks OCTEON® II CN6335
cnMIPS64® II 6-core processor, helping
to accelerate system designs for 4G, LTE,
WiMAX base station vendors.
Platform design considerations for the Kontron AM4211 include using
it as an eNodeB and LTE network element component or, in combination
with full-scale AdvancedTCA® blades, as a co-processor Network Interface
Card (NIC). The Kontron AM4211 supports 1x 10GbE to the
front and is interoperable with third-party DSP AMCs. Also supported
is the IEEE 1588 timestamp for Ethernet time synchronization.
The Kontron AM4211 AMC supports GbE on Ports 0 and 1 connected
to the CN6335 processor for control plane functions, and is fully software
compatible with the existing Kontron AM4204, AM4210 and
AM4220 packet processor modules, ensuring it is an ideal candidate
for configurations in the Kontron MicroTCA 1U platform OM6061.
As a massively integrated SOC, the CN6335 also incorporates SGMII
with IEEE 1588 timestamp for Ethernet time synchronization, ideal
server to the other if
hardware failure occurs.
Since packet processors
were designed for parallel
processing from the start,
their software environment
and development
tools are fully geared toward
application development
in a multi-core
environment. Although
OCTEON and similar devices
are often called
packet processors, internally
they are based on
standard processor architectures,
such as MIPS64,
and can run standard operating systems such
as Linux. Their performance advantages, however,
are best exposed when running simplified
proprietary operating systems, such as Cavium
Simple Executive. It is important not to confuse
these devices and their operating systems with
the network processors of the past, such as
Intel XScale. Modern packet processors are
programmed using standard C and C++ language
even when their proprietary operating
system is being used; in fact, they allow existing
C code to be simply ported.
December 2010 34
Simplistic applications, such as a packet filter
or L-2, L-3 switch, can be developed as sequential
code which runs to completion and
executes in an endless loop. The same code
could be run on all cores, and the parallel nature
of the processing would be provided by
the hardware itself, which would schedule a
packet processing event onto the next available
processor core, enforcing packet ordering and
atomicity rules if desired. The hardware also
takes care of memory management and cache
coherency, allowing developers to focus on
the application itself. Inter-core communication
can be implemented by setting aside a shared
memory region or by using a shared variable.
Depending on the application and development
requirements, a number of software packages
can help developers get a head start. One notable
example is 6WINDGate software which allows
the seamless marriage of x86 processors with
packet processors, offloading time-critical tasks
to be run by Simple Executive on the packet
processors and providing a large number of frequently
needed protocols. 6WINDGate can be
used standalone, or as a base platform for a specific
application, and can abstract inter-processor
and inter-core communications, significantly
simplifying software development effort. n
for all-IP network infrastructure synchronization implementations in
the 4G network.
n Ideal eNodeB and LTE network element component on MicroTCA.
n Leverage as a co-processor on ATCA blade.
n Best performance per watt compared to other multicore processors.
n Unmatched deterministic, low latency 3rd generation DPI performance
with unlimited rules and a rich feature-set on a single chip.
n 1x 10GbE to the front; software configurable interfaces to the
Fabric with either 2x PCIe x4, or SRIO, which makes it interoperable
with 3rd party Digital Signal Processing (DSP) AMCs.
n With direct connectivity to FPGA/DSP AMCs in MicroTCA platforms,
it supports MAC processing and L3-L7 processing on single
chip, at a throughput of up to15M packets per second (pps).
The Kontron AM4211 is available now. Contact us for more information
and to inquire about the Kontron AM4211 Software Development Kit
and additional optional software modules such as an IPv4/IPv6 stack,
IPSec, QoS management, multicast forwarding, IP filtering, VLAN,
L2 tunneling and application programming frameworks.
TO ORDER EVALUATION UNITS OR
UPGRADE AN EXISTING DESIGN CONTACT US AT:
Kontron Modular Computer
Sudetenstrasse 7
87600 Kaufbeuren
Germany
+49 (0) 8341 803 333
+49 (0) 8341 803 339
support-kom@kontron.com

Schroff
Schroff is a Pentair Technical Products company and
employs some 1300 people in Europe. The group is part
of Pentair Inc. (of St. Paul, Minnesota, USA) with over
13,100 employees in 50 locations worldwide.
For more than 40 years Schroff has been a leader in
providing reliable protection and solid packaging of
electronics. Our success is driven by the realisation of
customers desires and the understanding of their markets.
Being member of the international standard commitees
like DIN and IEC, we represent their interests when
global standards are developed.
Our product range extends from cabinets, cases and
subracks to power supplies, backplanes, climate solutions
and a variety of accessories. Our expertise and extensive
integration services allow us to combine components
inside a cabinet or enclosure – regardless of complexity.
Customers benefit from “plug&play” products for their
19'' technology from a single source, while avoiding
interface problems and allowing them to concentrate
on their own core competence. Beside complete CPCI
and VME/VME64x Systems we also offer customized
solutions.
Leading the way in AdvancedTCA, the new standard for
high performance computing, Schroff offers several
Rugged MicroTCA, MicroTCA, ATCA Systems, Advanced
MC in different designs as well as accessories such as
front panels, filler panels, shelf managers and backplanes.
Product Overview
n Cabinets
Cabinets for the accommodation and protection of your
electronics, to EMC and IP levels. For office and industrial
environments.
PROFILE
n Wall mounted cases
Wall mounted cases/wall mounted cabinets, steel or
plastic, type of protection IP20 to IP67. Applications in
Electronics, Networking Technology Industries.
n 19’’ cases, table top cases and tower
cases
19'' desktop cases, 19'' tower cases as well as 19'' chassis
and cases with 19'' compatible dimensions, i.e. for use in
Electronics, Medical Technology and Test & Measurement
Industries.
n Subracks
Subracks: europacPRO, europac Integral, accessories.19''
chassis: multipacPRO, inpac.
n Plug-in units
Front panels, plug-in modules, plug-in units, drive units,
PCB accessories, retention parts.
n Systems
ATCA, AdvancedMC, MicroTCA, CompactPCI, VMEbus,
VME64x, accessories.
n Power supplies
Power supplies for 19'' systems, computer systems, telecommunications,
19'' or open frame.
n Backplanes/testadaptors
For computer controlled systems. They provide simple
and safe power and signal distribution. VMC, CPCI, PXI,
ATCA, VME 64x.
n Climate
19'' fan units, 19'' fans, air filtered fans, air conditioners,
cabinet heaters.
n Socket strips
Socket strips SCHUKO, UTE, IEC, US and Swiss versions.
SCHROFF
Langenalber Str. 96-100
75334 Straubenhardt
Germany
+49 7082 794-0
+49 7082 794-200
schroff.de@pentair.com
http://www.schroff.biz
35 December 2010

COMMUNICATIONS
Built-in development and debugging
tools in MicroTCA systems
By Vollrath Dirksen, N.A.T.
MicroTCA and AdvancedMC
are increasingly used in the
telecoms, medical, industrial,
defense and high-energy
physics markets. Many
companies therefore port
hardware from other form
factors to AdvancedMC, or
even design own
AdvancedMC modules. Such
developments can be accelerated
with the built-in development
and debugging tools in
standard MicroTCA systems
n Bandwidth, scalability and power budget are
some of the reasons for the use of MicroTCA
and AdvancedMC standards in the telecommunication,
medical, industrial, defense and
high energy physics markets. Therefore an increasing
number of companies like to port
their hardware from other form factors to
AdvancedMC form factor or they even design
new AdvancedMC modules. By using the builtin
development and debugging tools in standard
MicroTCA systems these AdvancedMC
developments can be accelerated.
The development and debugging tools are introduced
in accordance with the AdvancedMC
development cycle. The cycle can be divided
into the following phases: concept, hardware
and software development, integration,
production and deployment.
Successful new concepts shall be future-proofed,
flexible and adaptable to changing market
needs, should minimize risk, and ideally create
a new product family. The MicroTCA and AdvancedMC
standards are perfect because they
allow scalability from small and low power to
big, high-performance systems. The MicroTCA
backplane with the combination of switch and
point-to-point technology is protocol-agnostic
and allows high bandwidth (6.125 Gbits/s per
lane) and several data transfers at a time.
Combining several differential line pairs (ports),
data rates of 20 Gbits/s are achievable. Using
different combinations of AdvancedMC modules
and chassis sizes allow to build a product
family, from compact size to high performance,
by optimum re-use of key components.
Standard AdvancedMC modules for CPU, graphic,
hard-disk, DSP and MicroTCA chassis are available
off the shelf. Thus, the problem could be special I/O
hardware not being available off the shelf. There are
easy workarounds available like carrier boards in
AdvancedMC form factor for PMC and IP (industrial
pack) modules. The connection of I/O boards
for PCI, cPCI and VMEbus and MicroTCA systems
is enabled via adapter cards NAMC-XLINK,
NPCI-XLINK, NcPCI-XLINK and SIS3100/SIS3104.
For PMC, cPCI and PCI boards no driver or
application software modifications are necessary.
Proving a concept with real hardware
gives assurance that a system based on MicroTCA
and AdvancedMC will fulfil the requirements
of better remote management, hot
swap and redundancy capability, and higher
data throughput.
Besides higher bandwidth, a MicroTCA system
offers immediately standardized remote management,
maintenance and inventory functions
without any modification in the application
software. This is achieved by the use of the
mandatory IPMI bus in such a system, which
December 2010 36
is independent of any topology (PCIe, SRIO,
GbE, XAUI, etc), customer application and
operating system. It is a world of its own, controlled
by a separate carrier manager in the
MicroTCA system. Relying on the existing infrastructure
for management and maintenance
in the MicroTCA system, new features can be
implemented in the application software. These
features can be for example sensor and inventory
information from the carrier manager.
This information can be gathered via the
RMCP protocol from the carrier manager by
using Gigabit Ethernet in the backplane of a
MicroTCA system. To avoid any delays in software
development of new application features,
carrier or adapter cards can be used as interim
solutions in hardware development. Currently
available products can be used meanwhile in
the development phases to close the gap
between the hardware launches.
Nowadays, MicroTCA chassis, backplanes and
power modules can be bought off the shelf.
The aim is to integrate specific company knowhow
in own AdvancedMC hardware. In the
fast-moving embedded market, time to market
is one of the most important issues in the development
cycle, necessitating quick and riskfree
design. The first decision is to choose the
appropriate AdvancedMC size. This depends
on the board size needed and the restrictions
on the complete system and environment. Two

Figure 1. Special bring-up functions of the
NAT-MCH MicroTCA Carrier Hub can be
used in case that no IPMI code is loaded in
the IPMI controller on the AdvancedMC
board.
board sizes are defined: 180mm x 73.5mm
(single AdvancedMC) and 180mm x 148,5mm
(double). If the board size is not sufficient or
rear I/O cabling is needed, the rear transition
modules (RTM) defined in the upcoming
MTCA.4 standard (double format 188mm
x 148.5mm) can be used. The second decision
is the size of the front panel, which may allow
or reduce the maximum number of 12
AdvancedMC modules in a 19-inch chassis.
There are three different sizes of front panels
available: compact (8.18mm), mid (13.66mm)
and full size (23.65mm). The preference
depends on the height of the components
used and if sub-modules should be used. The
maximum power for single and double
AdvancedMC modules is 80 watts. The third
decision is the choice of the intended Micro -
TCA standard depending on the cooling and
environmental conditions. The MTCA standard
offers four levels: MTCA.0 (standard forcedair-cooled
system), MTCA.1 (air-cooled rugged
MicroTCA), MTCA.2 (hardened air-cooled
MicroTCA), and upcoming standards MTCA.3
(hardened conduction-cooled MicroTCA) and
MTCA.4 (xTCA for physics). The engineering
team has to decide if they want to use the
backplane with up to 170 signals as edge connector.
If the aim is to guarantee high precision,
robustness and easy replacement, a suitable
choice is the use of commercial plugs (for ex-
Figure 2. The current measurement functions of the NAMC-EXT-PS…
ample Harting AdvancedMC plugs). Further,
these AdvancedMC plugs fulfil the requirements
for vibration and shock tests even for
the rugged standard MTCA.1, .2. and .3 and
are verified for 10 Gbits/s signals. The goldplated
edge connector with the tolerances required
by the AdvancedMC specification is
very challenging as far as production and reliable
quality is concerned. This challenge can
be overcome by using a plug connector. The
final decision to be made is: how to realize the
mandatory IPMI implementation? One way is
to use commercial solutions or to buy schematics
from AdvancedMC manufacturers. The
main difference from other form factors is the
separate management IPMI bus. The bus is
easy to implement for hardware developers
using a low-cost microcontroller as a one-chip
solution. The minimum functionality of an
IPMI controller includes: a temperature sensor,
hotswap sensor and LED at the front panel,
and two wires to the AdvancedMC connector
(I²C based IPMI bus).
Optionally, hardware engineering can add
small, low-cost ADCs to allow voltage measuring.
Further, other sensors can be implemented
to determine the health status of the AdvancedMC
module without any external measurement
equipment. This feature works
independently of power-up status, operating
system and application software. Thus, it saves
a lot of money in system debugging.
In this development stage the aim is to bring
up the AdvancedMC module at the first time,
which can be done using the AdvancedMC
extender NAMC-EXT-PS. For the upcoming
MTCA.4 standard, N.A.T. already offers the
compatible AdvancedMC-Extender named
NAMC-EXT-RTM-F (front) and NAMC-EXT-
RTM-R (rear). If the NAMC-EXT-P or NAMC-
EXT-RTM-F/-R is used in the standalone mode
it needs only 12V, generates by itself the required
3.3V management power, and gives access to
all sides of the new AdvancedMC module without
any disturbing chassis. This makes the
COMMUNICATIONS
measurement of all AdvancedMC signals easy.
Opening wire bridges allows measuring the
current for the management and payload power.
Solder pads close to the AdvancedMC connector
minimize the number of test cables to be soldered
directly to the new AdvancedMC module.
This is convenient if several AdvancedMC modules
have to be brought up. The AdvancedMC
extender JTAG debug pins are also available on
special solder pads, which allow downloading
of firmware into FPGAs etc.
If the AdvancedMC is successfully tested standalone,
the next step is its integration into a
MicroTCA system. Now, the NAMC-EXT-PS
is used in plug-in mode. The AdvancedMC in
the NAMC-EXT-PS extender can be plugged
directly into the MTCA system with all soldered
cables. Measurements can be continued interacting
with other boards in the system. In the
case that no IPMI code is loaded in the IPMI
controller on the AdvancedMC board, special
bring-up functions of the MicroTCA carrier
hub NAT-MCH can be used. These are for
example: powering up without IPMI code,
ignoring invalid FRU data. These functions
are only available with the guidance of a N.A.T.
engineer, and are hidden from normal or
accidental access. In combination with the
NAT-MCH the professional version of the
NATView software enables an in-depth view
and analysis of the MicroTCA system and the
AdvancedMC modules. The included FRU
editor manages and programs the FRU image
of the backplane and the EEPROM of the
AdvancedMC module. The link-viewer-function
of NATview-Professional shows all available
backplane inter connections. This
information is also available via the command
line interface of the NAT-MCH, which is
accessible externally via Ethernet or serial or
USB interface.
Using the console interface of the MicroTCA
Carrier Hub all information of the system or a
single AdvancedMC can be gathered:
- show_ekey
shows all activated connections
- show_fru
shows all FRUs (Field Replaceable Units)
- show_fruinfo device
shows the content of a FRU device
- show_cu
shows Cooling Units
- show_pm
shows the actual power allocation status for
all AdvancedMC modules and Cooling Units
- show_sensorinfo device
shows sensors for device.
Another time-saving command during
debugging is the history-command of the
NAT-MCH. It allows recalling the complete
37 December 2010

COMMUNICATIONS
Figure 3. …and NAMC-EXT-RTM-F/-R can be used to measure the current and to optimize the
application code to lower the power consumption.
log buffer. Even in case of a power fault the
last sensor events can be regained from the
battery backed-up sensor data repository. The
NAT-MCH contains GbE switch, clock module
and fat pipe switches in addition to the abovedescribed
carrier and optional shelf and system
manager functions. The infrastructure can be
configured through a web interface or via
command line interface. For example:
• 802.1Q VLAN protocol configuration
• 802.1x VLAN security protocol configuration
• 802.1p Quality of service configuration
• PCIexpress Root Complex, PCIe startup
sequence
• IP Routing
• clock configuration, clock source.
For quick support, the output of the MicroTCA
carrier hub can be delivered as a log file to the
suppliers of the MicroTCA or CPU boards to
isolate any problem. The PCB and firmware
versions as well as the serial numbers of the
equipment involved are included. All inventory
information can be logged by the MicroTCA
carrier hub.
Now the new AdvancedMC board is installed
among the others within the MicroTCA system.
The topology set up in the MicroTCA
carrier hub and all other components is ready
to run the application software. This software
can be loaded via local JTAG or other debug
interfaces to the individual AdvancecMC
boards. If more than one new AdvancedMC
module has to be integrated, a centralized
JTAG switch will replace separate JTAG connections
to each module. This function can
be provided by the JSM (JTAG switch module)
plugged into a chassis with a separate JTAG
connector in the backplane. The application
software load is often done via downloads
from a TFTP-server. The MicroTCA carrier
hub provides an Ethernet switch and a port
on its front panel. All AdvancecMC boards
can download their software over this single
interface during the development and test
phase. In a later development stage, the software
will be loaded from flash, SATA hard
disks of from one node in the system.
It is very difficult to predict the power consumption
of FPGA and DSP devices depending
on the applied software. The current measurement
functions of the NAMC-EXT-PS /
NAMC-EXT-RTM-F/-R can be used to
measure the current and to optimize the
application code to lower the power consumption.
Even power modules designed for
MicroTCA provide a current monitoring
function to switch off the payload of a specific
AdvancedMC module if it consumes more
amperes than defined in its FRU information.
In parallel to the application software the
carrier manager running on the MicroTCA
carrier hub monitors the health of the plugged
in AdvancedMC module in the background
independently of any operating system and
application software running.
After the successful integration of the hardware
and software, the production has to
take over the complete system. The centralized
firmware and application update via
the NAT-MCH reduces the number of cables
to one. The log files of the NAT-MCH summarize
the inventory and configuration information
(hardware, PCB and firmware
version, serial number, etc), and the status
of voltage and temperature sensors. In addition,
with customer test application output
and verification of a correctly installed end
application, all data can be used in the end
control documentation.
December 2010 38
NATView Easy, free available in combination
with an NAT-MCH, can be used as a visual
inspection tool. If for instance the FRU images
are not correct or the threshold values are not
set to the right values, the production engineers
can detect this visually. Also by sharing the log
files generated by the NAT-MCH a quick support
request can be sent to the engineering department,
if the production system does not run properly.
For support once the system is deployed in
the field, support engineering can use the
Java-Application NATView Easy on a USB
stick and check healthy and inventory information
of all systems visualized directly at
the MicroTCA system. As mentioned before
the log functions of the MicroTCA carrier
hub can be used as easy service tool containing
all necessary information for sophisticated
support.
At startup the MCH checks the FRU information
and the compatibility of the combination
of AdvancedMC modules and firmware. It detects
and logs the communication links like
GbE, SRIO, PCIe, XAUI, the power budget
and the process states. Additionally, alarms
are generated during the monitoring of sensor
data like temperature, voltage and other related
sensor values. To reduce service costs the
remote management functions of the Micro -
TCA carrier hub can be used to detect health
information, events and alarms, and do remote
power on/off of any AdvancecMC card independently.
If the system is built as a redundant
system with all components doubled, an uptime
of 99.999% can be achieved.
With hardware tools like the JTAG switch
module JSM, the AdvanceMC extender
NAMC-EXT-PS, NAMC-EXT-RTM-F/-R, carrier
boards for IP and PMC modules and
adapter boards for PCI, cPCI and VMEbus
and the AdvancecMCplug a new concept can
be proofed and an AdvancecMC module quickly
developed and tested. The built-in functions
of the MicroTCA Carrier Hub make the backplane
and the plugged-in modules (Field Replaceable
Units, FRU) transparent, extend the
easy support in the field, allow easy upgrade
and redundancy support.
NATView and/or the visualized inventory and
alarm functions based on open standards
differentiate the new customer solution from
other solutions by being easy to handle and
easily upgradeable with standard off the shelf
products. n
Note:
MicroTCA (µTCA) is a registered trademark
and AdvancedMC (AMC) a trademark of the
PCI Industrial Computers Manufacturers Group
(PICMG).

INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING
Will Ethernet be the only train bus
in the trains of the future?
By Manfred Schmitz, MEN
This article discusses
the various train busses
used today and the
possibility that Ethernet
could become the train
bus of the future.
n Railway vehicles – be it railcars or locomotives,
underground trains, trams or passenger
and freight trains – are equipped with a multitude
of single functions which are all interconnected.
For the train drive these are the
control of the traction and the brakes, the
clutches and the gearboxes, the antiskid system
and the increase of braking power via sanding.
In the driver cabin there are the display systems
for speed, tank filling level, SIFA (monitoring),
GSM as well as the data logger and train safety
systems. The motor starter, the pre-heating
system or the traction cooling system are connected
to the main supply, while the electric
equipment and the battery are connected to
the auxiliary supply.
In a vehicle for passenger traffic there is also
the control of the inner and outer doors, the
inner and outer lighting system, the air conditioning
and the sanitary equipment, the train
coupling and possibly the tilting system. Recently
passenger information systems and wireless
access to internet services have been increasing
traveling comfort. Another trend is
to systematically equip trains with monitoring
and safety systems for passengers and the train
infrastructure. In the past, many of these subsystems
could be accessed via point-to-pointconnections
on the basis of RS232 or RS485.
As the number of computer-controlled subsystems
increased, it was necessary to switch
to higher-performance communication channels
so that different fieldbus networks were
introduced in railway vehicles. The latest dataintensive
innovations like infotainment, web
access and other wireless services like GPS
and GSM led to solutions based on Ethernet
networks. At the moment the whole transport
industry is changing rapidly, there are as many
approaches as there are vehicle manufacturers.
In the IEC TC 9 WG 22, the train communication
network TCN was created in the 90s as a
railway-specific fieldbus according to IEC
61375, in cooperation with the UIC (International
Union of Railways). It consists of the
vehicle bus MVB (multifunction vehicle bus)
and the train bus WTB (wire train bus). The
TCN defines the time and safety critical data
transfer in railway vehicles using the complete
layer 7 architecture. Within the TCN network
the MVB can be used as a fieldbus inside one
vehicle or inside a group of fixedly coupled vehicles.
It is defined for a data transfer rate of
1.5 Mbits/s via optic fiber cables and/or twisted
pair cables. As the MVB controller chips are
proprietary and expensive, often other fieldbuses
like CANopen or Profibus are used instead
of the MVB. The WTB train bus, a dynamic
bus system that was developed for operation
of passenger trains with a locomotive,
is also extremely expensive in the application.
It features exceptional processes such as the
Figure 1. Rugged Ethernet
switch for use in trains
automatic numbering of the wagons during
train formation or the building up of fritting
voltages (very high direct voltage used for
cleaning of coupling contacts). It is defined
for a data transfer rate of 1 Mbit/s over a distance
of up to 860 meters via a twisted pair
cable and built up redundantly.
Seen from today, the bandwidth of TCN and
the other fieldbuses is reaching its limit. There
are no user organizations as for CANopen
and Profinet which look after the standard.
Thus there are implementation differences
and differing incompatible physical interfaces
which complicate interoperability. In addition,
the cost per node is ten to one hundred times
higher than for CANopen. This entails that
dependent on the manufacturer different fieldbuses
like CANopen, Profibus, Profinet, World-
FIP, Bitbus etc are used. This in turn generates
unnecessary costs, as different fieldbuses require
different configuration tools and analyzing
devices. In more complex trains, this
requires gateways which have to mediate between
the different buses and protocols. Price
and bandwidth problems together make it
ever more necessary to use high-performance
standardized transport protocols like TCP/IP
or UDP/IP. The big technological progress of
Fast, Gigabit and 10Gigabit Ethernet, switching
and collision-free full-duplex transmission as
well as time-synchronous protocols and stan-
39 December 2010

INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING
Figure 2. Different train applications today linked by various networks
dardized safety protocols on Industrial Ethernet
has accelerated development in automation,
which makes it possible to replace the fieldbuses
used today. In real-time applications,
however, there are competing standards like
Profinet, EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, Ethernet Powerlink
and many more. Which solution will
establish itself in railway vehicles remains to
be seen, but the costs per node should be similar
to those of CANopen. This opens up new
possibilities to build a completely homogeneous
network based on Industrial Ethernet
onboard a vehicle.
Figure 3. Rugged connectors for use in train
applications
Which (real-time) Ethernet will come out on
top in trains mainly depends on it being
capable of meeting some very special requirements
regarding functionality, environment
and maintenance. In trains three network
topologies are used; line, ring and ladder structures.
While line structures are chosen for uncritical
data, rings are common in real-time
environments. Gateways are indispensable as
long as different communication buses are
used in the train. An important function is
fritting, i.e. cleaning the coupling contacts via
current surges. As a simple and cost-effective
solution, Ethernet offers the possibility to use
Power over Ethernet. Here, the data lines are
used for supplying end devices and overlaid
with a direct voltage. There is an alternative for
building up train buses in existing trains with
couplings without data lines. It is called Ethernet
Powerline (also DLAN or Homeplug). This
„network via power socket“ establishes itself
increasingly beside the traditional Ethernet
cable and the WLAN network. One of the
undisputed advantages is its easy installation.
The theoretical speed of the newer Homeplug
AV standard is 200 Mbits/s by now, that means
it is faster than WLAN and the usual 100-Mbit
LAN for a maximum line length of 200 meters.
As the encoded data stream ends at the electricity
meter, Homeplug is safer than WLAN.
Drawbacks of Homeplug are the price, the intercompatibility
of the devices, the electromagnetic
susceptibility and the temperature range.
In addition environmental requirements as
prescribed by EN 50155 have to be taken into
account. A robust connector technology has to
be used on the hardware side. The RJ45 connectors
often used for Ethernet are not accepted
in the railway market. Instead, D-Sub connectors
and M12 connectors which are now also
available for Gigabit Ethernet are used. The
power supply units have to meet special requirements,
e.g. they have to support wide
input ranges from 9V to 154V. The requirements
for protective circuits also differ from those for
standard industry components. For example,
transients of 1800V for duration of 50 µs are
specified. Also, different demands are made on
the maintainability of the Ethernet devices.
These are for example used as an easily exchangeable
19“ cassette or as compact devices
for space-saving wall-mounting. For an easy
on-site configuration dongles are usually used.
This scenario in which there are still many
unanswered questions from perspective today
will probably become reality much faster than
expected. The driving factor is the big financial
gain for the final integrators and end customers
FREE Subscription to boards & solutions magazine
December 2010 40
or users. They will finally be able to use standardized
protocols as well as a wide range of
OEM devices and assemblies (including the
Ethernet backbone with switches, cables and
connectors). Product costs and system costs
can be lowered considerably. They can benefit
from the dynamic development in IT – while
conforming to the industry standard EN50155.
In the last instance the vehicle suppliers benefit
from the basic developments and use TCP/IP
or UDP/IP as transport protocol. They do not
have to care for railway specific proprietary
developments. The same scenario applies to
the infrastructure in buses or utility vehicles.
For operation of passenger trains with a locomotive,
the problem of the automatic numbering
of the wagons during train formation,
i.e. the need for interoperability, remains, so
the WTB will probably be used there for a
long time still. In applications where the UIC
556 does not have to be taken into account,
like for the modern ICE or TGV/AGV in
traffic, the vision of an Ethernet-only communication
structure could become reality in the
next three to five years.
Ethernet as a backbone for infotainment applications
(announcements, advertising, films
on the one hand – mobile office, games etc on
the other hand) in the train is state-of-the-art
even today. Likewise, monitoring systems for
the safety of passengers as well as logistic functions
communicate via Ethernet. In one of
several configuration possibilities for infotainment
systems, communication inside the train
is carried out via several Fast Ethernet channels,
while wireless interfaces are used for external
communication – for example for satellitebased
internet access. Access to GPS, UMTS,
GSM or HSDPA is ensured via PCI Express
MiniCards on suitable carrier boards. All these
functions are typically integrated modularly
and maintenance-friendly in CompactPCI systems
for 3U boards. For controlling the system,
one or several Intel-based CPU boards are
used which can carry out different functions.
RAID configurations for content servers are
housed in similar systems. Camera surveillance
systems are also often equipped with one or
several hard disk slots for building a RAID
configuration. One or several railway-compliant
wide-range PSUs per system complete each
solution. Often the assemblies are coated
against dust and humidity according to EN
50155 and specified for an operating temperature
of -40 to +85°C. n
Ensure getting your personal copy of bas magazine free of charge by completting the online form at:
• www.embedded-control-europe.com/bas-magazine
www www.embedded-control-europe.com/ba
p / as-magazine g

Performance to the full -
even under extreme conditions
By Gerhard Szczuka, Kontron
This article describes the
nanoETXexpress-TT -
the first ultra-small form
factor Computer-on-Module
based on the latest Intel Atom
processor E6XX. The COM is also
one of the first corresponding to
the new COM Express
COM.0 type 10 pin-out.
Furthermore it is especially
suitable for use in the
extended temperature range
and in extreme environments
n The history of Computer-on-Modules in
the ultra-small form factor category is at the
same time the success story of the PICMG
COM Express standard. Starting from the
basic version, which was introduced into the
market in 2004, it was possible to maintain
the specifications set by the standard but still
keep up with the pace of constant product
miniaturization. The compact and ultra form
factors have substantially smaller dimensions,
but the system developer nevertheless finds all
the pins in their COM Express-compatible
position. This standardization is a considerable
simplification for developers, because it means
they can populate their applications COMsistent
with the latest chip technology without
having to redesign every time round. That applies
worldwide because the specifications
standardized by the PICMG industrial consortium
are established globally. Besides Kontron,
renowned companies including Cisco
Systems, Fujitsu, IBM, Intel, NEC, Nokia
Siemens Networks, NTT, and Oracle along
with many others all participate in these standardization
measures.
At the center of the COM Express standard is
the COM Express connector: Depending on
the interface type, one or two connectors are
used, each of which has 220 pins which, depending
on the pin-out type, has a certain
standard assignment. A prominent feature of
this connector is its high resistance to shock
and vibration, making COM Express-designed
modules especially suitable for an industrial
environment. Kontron has consistently geared
its product strategy in the small form factor
category to the COM Express standard. The
company has implemented new processor innovations
from Intel into pioneering designs
in line with the COM Express form factors:
basic (125 x 95mm, such as the Kontron ETXexpress-AI
with Intel Core i5/i7 processors),
compact (95 x 95mm, a recent example being
the Kontron microETXexpress-XL with the
Intel Atom processor Z520PT), and ultra (such
as the Kontron nanoETXexpress-SP based on
the Intel Atom processor Z5XX with credit
card dimensions of 55 x 84mm).
Furthermore, with the Kontron microETXexpress-XL
with the Intel Atom processor Z520PT
and Intel system controller hub US15WPT,
the company extends its portfolio by a rugged
COM Express COM.0 pin-out type-2 Computer-on-Module,
specially developed for use
in extreme environmental conditions. All components
of the Kontron microETXexpress-XL
are fully industrial temperature rated and are
vendor-confirmed to withstand temperatures
from -40°C to +85°C. The company has now
launched the latest addition to its COM Express
family. The new Kontron nanoETXexpress-
TT is an ultra-small form factor module im-
INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING
plementing two significant developments in
the industry into the COM form: the market
entry of the Intel Atom processor E6XX series,
and adoption of the latest COM Express
COM.0 Rev. 2.0 specifications. The result is
an ultra-compact module that fuses the flexibility
and performance of the new Intel product
with the capabilities presented by the new
COM Express type 10 pin-out. Being one of
only four Premier Members of the Intel Embedded
Alliance, Kontron is in a position to
introduce its own products featuring latest
Intel processor technology parallel to its launch.
By the early adoption of new technologies, all
parties benefit from mutual experience, resulting
in technically mature solutions. For
OEMs and developers this means that they already
have access to the latest Intel® technologies
at board and system level, reducing their
time-to-market for latest solutions.
The prime benefit of the new module is its
suitability for use in extreme operating environments.
The Kontron nanoETXexpress-TT
is the first ultra module designed to COM Express
type 10 pin-out specifications that works
in the extended industrial-grade temperature
range E2 spanning -40°C to +85°C. Intel guarantees
performance in this range for its components
operating in the module. Plus, the
module has no moving parts; even the memory
is firmly soldered on. Another attractive feature
41 December 2010

INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING
Figure 1. The Kontron nanoETXexpress-TT is the first COM Express solution featuring the new
Intel Atom processor E6XX and is specially suitable for applications in extreme environments
(top view left, bottom view right).
of the module is that it is fanless and does not
require ventilators – a possible source of failures
- for smooth operation in extreme conditions.
Added to this is the long-term availability —
chip producer Intel plans five years product
availability plus a two-year transition period
after the EOL date.
A major difference between the Intel Atom
processor E6XX and its predecessors is the
processor architecture. In this new design, the
processor chip no longer consists of just the
pure computer core; interfaces have been added
that, in the earlier architecture, were typically
in the northbridge and southbridge, such as
those for graphics, memory, PCIe, SPI, and
LPC. In this way the processor can not only
tackle graphics jobs faster, but becomes more
autonomous overall. It no longer works with
proprietary interfaces like FSB or DMI, nor
does it orient on one particular Intel hub. Instead
it uses PCI Express as an open standard
interface for communication between the
processor and I/O chip. This enables the Intel
Atom E6XX series of processors to interconnect
not only with the Intel platform controller
hub EG20 but also with I/O hubs from thirdparty
manufacturers such as OKI Semiconductor,
STMicroelectronics, and Realtek and
any PCIe-capable device. These hubs satisfy
the specific proprietary I/O requirements of,
for example, applications such as in-car infotainment
or media phones. This is however
unimportant in the standardized COMs, because
the matching Intel platform controller
hub (PCH) EG20 provides precisely those interfaces
required by COM Express COM.0
type 10 at an unbeatable price/performance
ratio.
Using the Intel Atom processor E6XX for standardized
COMs together with the Intel platform
controller hub EG20 results as follows.
The Intel platform controller hub EG20 integrates
a number of common I/O blocks such
as SATA, USB host and device,
SD/SDIO/MMC, and Gigabit Ethernet MAC.
Plus, it offers various embedded interfaces
such as CAN, IEEE 1588, I2C, UART, and
GPIO. Many different applications such as industrial
automation, retail, gaming, or digital
signage require these interfaces. The latest
Intel Atom processor series is perfectly tailored
to the characteristics of the type 10 pin-out
first defined by the PICMG in the upgraded
COM Express COM.0 Rev. 2.0 specification.
Compared to the type 1 pin-out, followed by
the other ultra form factor product nanoETXexpress-SP,
type 10 (Kontron nano ETXexpress-
TT) more explicitly reflects the requirements
of new and highly compact processors. A
closer look at the individual pinning shows
the differences to bear in mind when migrating
from type 1 to type 10, although Kontron
type 10 pin-out is backward-compatible with
type 1. The pins in rows A and B on the connector
that were reserved for SATA ports 2
and 3 in type 1, for example, are vacated in
type 10. The new processor generations suitable
for type 10 pin-out usually provide a maximum
of two SATA interfaces anyway. The pins could
be used as SATA ports, but are now reserved
for alternative purposes, such as USB 3.0 at a
later date. Kontron consequently recommends
that SATA 2 and 3 no longer be allocated on
the COM Express connector in designs for
both type 1 and type 10 pin-outs. In this way
the modules remain compatible, but at the
same time, they are ready for USB 3.0. A
further difference in rows A and B is the pinning
of the PCIe lanes. Here type 1 pin-out
offers six lanes, although the chipsets used for
this pin-out never offered PCIe lanes in such a
quantity. Therefore the pins for PCIe lanes 4
and 5 are vacated in pin-out type 10 and can
likewise be used for upcoming technologies.
A further difference is that type 10 now uses
the pins reserved in type 1 - for the second
LVDS channel, TV-out, and VGA - to support
the SDVO port (alternatively DisplayPort or
HDMI) via DDI. Ultra-small form factor modules
with a COM Express type 10 pin-out thus
officially have dual display capability, because
they still support an LVDS channel separately.
The background to these examples is as follows.
The new small form factor processors, at which
type 10 is aimed, support up to two SATA in-
December 2010 42
terfaces and four PCIe lanes anyway and offer
no VGA but graphics interfaces, such as SDVO,
DP, and HDMI. Vacated pins on the module
connectors of the ultra standard can consequently
be used for the new purposes.
What do the new processor and pin-out type
add to the module in terms of performance?
First take a look at the architecture. The Kontron
nanoETXexpress-TT sets up on the Intel
Atom processor E6XX in versions 0.6 GHz,
1.0 GHz, 1.3 GHz, and 1.6 GHz plus the Intel
platform controller hub EG20. In Computeron-Modules
with earlier Intel Atom processor
generations, data flow from the processor to
the interface chipset is proprietary through
the FSB, whereas in the nanoETXexpress-TT
important graphics interfaces have been shifted
from the controller hub into the processor
chip, and communication between the two is
through PCI Express. As far as the performance
of the memory is concerned, the new COM
also has an edge over its predecessors thanks
to the new processor. It processes data at a
rate of 800 MT/s, albeit on a 32-bit channel,
whereas earlier Intel Atom processors use 64
bits. Tests will consequently indicate whether
there is actually a difference in performance
and how big it is. A bonus that comes with the
nanoETXexpress-TT is, of course, the number
of interfaces. Matching the COM Express type
10 pin-out it offers four PCIe lanes one of
which is used for connecting the Intel platform
controller hub EG20. In addition, it features
six USB interfaces plus an extra one dedicated
and reserved for the client. All preceding
processors carried out the external boot for
firmware hub support via a LPC bus. The new
design provides for implementing the boot
operation over the SPI interface, which is
firmly assigned in all new and old pin-out
types of the COM Express COM.0 Rev. 2.0
specification. The module thus already features
something that will apply to all new COMs in
future and that COM.0 Rev. 2.0 prepares for -
all future processors will solely support this
second boot option via SPI. The nanoETXex-
Figure 2. The Kontron HMITR — a fanless
and maintenance-free, EN50155-compliant
rugged display computer — is among the
first products of the company to be equipped
with the new Intel Atom processor.

press-TT module includes some interesting
memory options. It offers two SATA interfaces
(again following the COM Express COM.0
type 10 pin-out). Kontron combines two options
by offering these SATA interfaces: firstly,
the two interfaces are directed to the COM Express
connector where data can be exchanged
at a rate of 300 MB/s, and secondly, a soldered
microSD card socket on the module is connected
via SDIO. The second possibility is to
direct one SATA interface to the COM Express
connector and use the remaining one for onboard
flash memory. As yet, however, there is
no industrial temperature grade (E2) SATA
flash memory on the market, so this option is
not likely to become relevant until a later date.
The advantages of the Intel Atom processor
E6XX and platform controller hub EG20
particularly impact in terms of graphics performance.
By integrating the graphics interfaces
in the processor chip, as in the new Intel processors,
the graphics core frequency of the nanoETXexpress-TT
modules with 0.6 GHz and
1.0 GHz processors is 320 MHz, and for the
1.3 and 1.6 GHz processors all of 400 MHz.
Additionally, the new Intel processor features
video encoding, in other words hardware-supported
coding of incoming video signals.
These two features together result in 40 percent
more speed to implement 3D graphics than in
comparable Intel® platforms to date. For what
kind of requirements is the Kontron nanoETXexpress-TT
the most suitable solution? Firstly
of course in cases where you have to operate
in an extended temperature range and environmental
extremes. Then, in the version with
a 0.6 GHz processor, product featuring low
thermal design power (TDP) that results in
low heat dissipation.
The video encoding functionality with support
of MPEG4, H.263, and H.264 standards makes
the module interesting for all video applications.
In addition, the Intel Atom processor E6XX
offers virtualization and hyperthreading across
all performance bands of the processor family,
which is increasingly called for in safety-relevant
applications in the medical and military
sectors, for example. A major advantage is the
large number of PCIe interfaces that the Kontron
nanoETXexpress-TT supplies. This enables
developers to connect significantly more devices,
besides increasing flexibility in general.
It even offers serial interfaces, which are still
highly popular among designers working in
automation. Given the new Intel Atom E6XX
processors together with the new pin-out possibilities
of the COM Express COM.0 Rev. 2.0
specification and the growing attraction of
the ultra form factor, the new generation of
COM Express modules is obviously ready to
win new markets. Such as for example, bat-
tery-powered or solar-powered applications,
wind power plants, in-car applications, POS
for outdoor installation, or embedded mini-
PCs for construction sites or other tough industrial
environments.
In addition to the Kontron nanoETXexpress-
TT, Kontron is using these advantages of the
new Intel Atom processor E6XX series in other
embedded systems, such as its fanless and
maintenance-free and EN50155-compliant
Kontron rugged display computer HMITR.
Train conductors, for example, can benefit
from this human/machine interface (HMI) to
supervise all the functions of a train. In such
applications the extended temperature range
plus reliability and constantly low power consumption
are especially important factors.
Moreover, the entire system is EN50155 certified,
guaranteeing its safe use in trains. The
Kontron HMITR also offers flexible upgrading
through its Ethernet interface and a solidstate
disk or SD card memory, and ease of
scaling through its modularity. As part of its
customization and original design and manufacturing
(ODM) services, Kontron offers designers
the option of creating individual board
designs with the Intel Atom processor E6XX.
The company implements FPGAs, proprietary
ASICs (PLC logic), or dedicated standard
PCIe devices for this purpose. The result is
PC systems that offer various standard interfaces
plus extra communication ports, wireless
interfaces, GPS services, and audio and video
streaming. All the designer needs in order to
manufacture these devices is the processor
and the particular components. Energy consumption
and material use can be reduced to
a minimum in this way. Designers can also
use third-party I/O hubs as an alternative to
Intel®’s platform controller hub EG20. In the
PCIe-based interface, the new Intel Atom
processor E6XX series offers the developer
exceptional flexibility in the I/O design of an
x86 application. In this way the application
spectrum of x86 technology can be expanded
even further towards dedicated x86 systems
INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING
Figure 3. The type 10 pin-out as defined in
the COM Express COM.0 Rev. 2.0 specification
more explicitly reflects the requirements
of new and highly compact processors, like
the Intel Atom E6xx processor series.
of specially energy-efficient design. That can
be implemented very effectively with ultrasmall
form factor COM Express solutions like
the Kontron nanoETXexpress-TT COMs for
embedded PC applications. On the strength
of all these features, this COM and other systems
that set up on the Intel Atom processor
platform are highly suitable for applications
that are required to run reliably in extreme
operating environments - in markets such as
digital signage, energy, industrial automation,
medical, defense and security, public transportation,
as well as traffic control and surveillance.
n
43 December 2010

INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING
Rugged vehicle computing platforms
– design considerations
By Benson Chiu, ADLINK
Vehicle computing platforms
are systems for mobile
applications in the harsh
environments of the traffic
and transportation sectors.
The ideal platform should be
specifically designed to
meet these requirements and
not just be a ruggedized
office-based system.
n The trend in vehicle computing platforms
for end users has moved from office-based PC
platforms to rugged industrial PC (IPC) products.
IPC adoption is projected to increase at
an above average rate in the traffic and transportation
sectors. A significant driving factor
of this growth is the increasing popularity of
panel and box computer use on trains, buses,
and at rapid transit terminals. In-vehicle digital
signage and customer information displays
are the most popular applications in these environments.
The increasing availability and reliability
of the vehicle computing platform is a
significant source of stimulation to the growth
in rugged IPC deployment in the traffic and
transportation sectors. Rugged IPCs are well
suited to harsh environments and are therefore
well suited to the in-vehicle environment. So
what are the requirements of a vehicle computing
platform for the traffic and transporta-
Figure 1. Based on an Ampro
by Adlink ReadyBoard EPIC
form factor SBC, the airport
shuttle bus information system
can drive two displays: one
digital video output with HD
video decoder for an in-vehicle
digital signage application,
and an analog output for
driver navigation and dispatch
information.
tion sectors? Vibration and shock are commonplace,
as are additional demands such as
extended temperature operation, conformal
coating support and automotive power design.
Also required are system enclosures designed
to meet IP Codes (International Protection
Rating) with the degree of protection against
the intrusion of particulates and water that is
necessary for the specific application. In
addition to the ruggedness provided by an
45 December 2010

INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING
Figure 2. In a vehicle computing platform, the power unit should have reverse battery protection, surge and over-voltage protection, and a DC/DC
converter.
IPC, vehicle computing platforms may also
have specific video requirements. Digital signage
is a booming application in retail, education,
hospitality and transportation. In-vehicle
digital signage is increasingly in demand. With
modern video technology, high definition
video content is becoming the default standard
in digital signage applications. However, mainstream
embedded platforms generally do not
have sufficient performance for HD video
playback as their primary focus is low power
consumption applications. Therefore, a vehicle
computing platform will also require a high
definition video decoder to support video
playback at resolutions from QCIF to Full HD.
An often asked question is - how rugged is
rugged? The balance of cost and performance
is always a dilemma to manufacturers. A true
vehicle computing platform should be rugged
by design and not just ruggedized. In order to
support the extremes of shock, vibration, humidity
and temperature, care must be given to
component selection, circuit design, PCB layout
and materials, thermal solution, enclosure design,
and manufacturing processes. Robust
test methodologies including highly accelerated
life testing (HALT) help to ensure that the
platform is optimized while still in the design
phase and meets MIL-STD shock and vibration,
the ISO-7637 automotive EMC standard, and
other reliability requirements.
The automotive EMC environment is one of
the most severe and the most unpredictable.
The key areas for consideration are as follows:
broadband radiated emissions, narrowband
radiated emissions, conducted transient emissions,
conducted transient immunity, radiated
immunity, and ESD. Conducted transient emissions
and immunity are well known as critical
phenomena to power in the automotive environment.
Control of conducted transients in
a vehicle is not covered by legislation in the
same way as transients internal to systems in
other environments. The ISO-7637 standard
covers tests for conducted transients, as well
as tests for transients inductively and capacitively
coupled into adjacent wires from the
vehicle battery. Both 12V and 24V systems are
covered by the standard. In order to meet
ISO-7637, a power design for real automotive
environment is required, not just a wide range
of power input. In a vehicle computing platform,
the power unit should have reverse battery
protection, surge and over-voltage protection,
and a DC/DC converter.
Furthermore, the automotive power design
must have the ability to run on a wide range
of vehicle power inputs, and ensure the platform
can operate during load dump or cold
crank situations. Use of a high efficiency buckboost
controller in the automotive power unit
is recommended to provide the platform with
the required voltage supplies to the vehicle
computing platform. Another factor to be
aware of is that in the near future, 42V systems
could replace current 12V and 24V automotive
systems. As more electronic devices are installed
in vehicles, 42V systems can provide more
than twice the power efficiency of 12V/24V
systems. This should be considered for future
vehicle computing platform development. Conformal
coating is a method of providing protection
against moisture, contaminants, dust,
abrasion, corrosion and short circuits, and is
especially effective for in-vehicle environments.
December 2010 46
Conformal coatings also can protect circuits
and components from solvents, and maintain
the insulation resistance of the circuit board.
The selection of coating material is an important
consideration. Preferred coating materials
are fast drying and easy to repair, have high
moisture resistance and superior dielectric
properties, and contain a UV safety tracer for
ease of inspection under a blacklight. Conformal
coating are generally applied in thin layers
(typically 1~3 mils) onto the PCB assembly
and in accordance with MIL-I-46058 and IPC-
CC-830 standards. Temperatures in automotive
environments can change drastically, rising as
much as 20°C ~ 30°C within 15 minutes with
exposure to direct sunlight. Upper extremes
of 50°C inside a car are not uncommon. The
ideal vehicle computing platform is specifically
designed to withstand high temperature and
rapid temperature changes. It is also critical
for vehicle computing platforms to undergo
thorough temperature testing to ensure reliable
operation under these temperature conditions.
An example of the screening profile from such
a test is shown below.
An example of a typical vehicle computing
platform application is in an airport shuttle
bus information system for use by an international
airline running a city-to-airport transit
bus service. To implement this system, a rugged
vehicle computing platform with shock and
vibration-resistant design, flexible expansion
interfaces for communications, low power consumption,
HD video decoder, and automotive
power design is required. Based on an Ampro
by Adlink ReadyBoard EPIC form factor SBC,
the airport shuttle bus information system
can drive two displays: one digital video output
www.embedded-control-europe.com
The Online Information Source for Europe`s Embedded Engineers

Figure 3. Ampro by Adlink Extreme Rugged products screening profile
with HD video decoder for an in-vehicle digital
signage application, and an analog output for
driver navigation and dispatch information. A
flexible expansion interface, such as mini-PCIe
or PCI-104, supports a WiFi/WiMAX/3G
telecommunication module to receive real-time
Kontron AM4530
AdvancedMC NAS Storage Module
Unique in the market, the Kontron AM453x
AMC module is a cost-competitive storage
solution for MicroTCA and ATCA platforms
that require Network Attached
Storage connectivity.
Specifically for MicroTCA-based systems, the AM453x module provides
access to storage for Processor AMC modules that are without a SATA
connection, such as the AM4100 PPC AMC for control plane applications
or the AM42xx Cavium OCTEON II AMC for data plane applications.
From an ATCA platform standpoint, the AM453x can be a single
point of code storage for the entire system when populated in one or
both AMC slots of the Kontron AT89xx switch. This makes it an ideal
solution for fast boot code or application code updates.
Two AM4530 modules can be set up in a redundant configuration for
increased storage reliability, and are accessible by all blades and AMCs
in the system via the base or fabric interface.
In terms of media, the AM453x supports both Hard Disk Drives and
information, such as flight arrival and departure
information, news, and advertising content for
the signage display. Other expansion options
include a digital I/O module, GPS, or video
grabber module. Automotive power design allows
reliable operation of the airport shuttle
INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING
Solid State Drives using the 2.5” form factor and SATA interconnect.
Basic NFS NAS is available via port 0 and 1 in the Common Option
Region (Base Interface or Control Plane) and/or port 8 and 9 in the
FAT Pipes Region (Fabric Interface or Data Plane) with VLAN support
provided in all flavors.
Included into the module design are extensive sensors for monitoring
and event generation on thresholds. There are two redundant Boot
Block Flash BIOS and IPMI firmware with rollover.
Features
n AM4530 available with 120GB or 250GB SATA HDD
n AM4531 available with 64GB SATA SSD or 128GB SSD
n Base or/and Fabric access via VLAN
n AMC.0, AMC.1, AMC.2 and AMC.3 compliant
n IPMC, Dual IPMB, IPMI v2.0
TO ORDER EVALUATION UNITS OR
UPGRADE AN EXISTING DESIGN CONTACT US AT:
Kontron Modular Computer
Sudetenstrasse 7
87600 Kaufbeuren
Germany
+49 (0) 8341 803 333
+49 (0) 8341 803 339
support-kom@kontron.com
bus information system and avoids damage
from conducted transient emissions in the automotive
environment. The security of public
transportation systems has become an increasing
concern in recent years. City buses, railways,
subways and other transit systems are implementing
intelligent platforms to monitor public
areas and ensure riders safety. Stationary CCTV
systems can handle the requirements at stations,
but rail carriages are still blind spots. A rugged
vehicle computing platform plus intelligent IP
cameras is required to extend the range of the
security system to the entire transit system. A
mass transit rail carriage needs a rugged system
to fit into limited space that is able to withstand
the dust, shock, and vibration encountered in
the operating environment.
Such a platform could be based on an Ampro
by Adlink RuffSystem, which meets MIL-STD-
810 shock and vibration standards and has
IP50 rating. Dual Gigabit Ethernet ports can
interface with IP cameras and operate with intelligent
surveillance software combined with
built-in GPIO or digital I/O functionality to
automatically detect potential threats, or objects
on the tracks to aid emergency management
and response. This intelligent system could
also be used to increase operational efficiency
and performance. n
47 December 2010

INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING
Modular controllers enable platform
concept for custom applications
By Ingo Brussog, Siemens EDM
Despite the varied purposes
that industrial controllers
serve, an analysis of
several hundred enquiries and
projects has revealed
correspondences between the
detailed requirements. On this
basis EDM has developed a
modular platform concept
adaptable to particular
customer needs.
n Industrial controllers can be defined in many
ways. For example, an industrial oven or heat
pump has to be controlled. A single controller
can perform a wide variety of tasks in a large
number of industries. There are, for example,
simple control tasks, which can be performed
by any standard controller in the catalog ranges
of countless suppliers. However, specific and
innovative requirements demand special solutions.
This is where Siemens EDM comes in: it
focuses on the needs of industry. Solutions tailored
to industrial needs are required in quantities
ranging from a few hundred to 100,000
per annum. Despite this high number, an industry-wide
analysis of several hundred enquiries
and projects has revealed correspondences
between the detailed requirements. As
a result of this examination, EDM has developed
a platform and modular concept that can be
adapted to particular customer requirements.
A modern industrial controller generally consists
of a main module with complex interfaces,
the HMI (human machine interface), the associated
high-performance processor, a suitable
operating system, and one or more sensor-actuator
modules. The assembly varies in individual
cases, but some modules recur repeatedly,
for example digital input, digital output, analog
input as a measuring circuit, and analog output
as a control signal. Identical software modules
are also required, for example: remote service,
update algorithms, data logging, and access
rights. EDM refers to them collectively as
system services.
Many years of service experience with a large
number of processors has shown that the currently
available representatives of the ARM
family are particularly suitable, for example
the ARM7 and, in future, the Cortex M derivatives
as well. They are already used as a proven
CAD macro for the real-time handling of cus-
December 2010 48
Figure 1. Example of
a customer-specific
solution based on an
ARM9 module with
a 5.7“ QVGA and an
8.4“ VGA touch display,
ready for installing in
a metal housing
tomer-specific sensor-actuator modules. The
ARM9 platform already covers more than one
pure CAD macro. It is available as a prefabricated
module, complete with memory, onboard
power supply and all current, conventional
standard interfaces. Embedded LINUX or
Windows CE can be offered as the operating
system. The ARM9 platform can be used for
connecting the widest range of displays, with
up to VGA resolution. It is predestined for employing
resistive touches as the means of input.
EDM offers an ARM11 platform if the computing
power of an ARM9 becomes inadequate.
Figure 2. Example of a customer-specific solution in the low-level segment consisting of an ARM9
head assembly with embedded Linux (a) and an ARM7-based sensor-actuator module (b)

Figure 3. Customer-specific sensor-actuator module with expansion modules plugged in
This is available as a finished, check-card sized
core module with all important components,
and can be used on a customer-specific baseboard
that is yet to be developed. Individually
configured, it contains all the coarse components,
such as sockets, plugs, transmitters and
power supply. The ARM11 module is also
available with embedded Linux or Windows
CE. The ARM11 not only offers many times
the computing power of an ARM9, but can
also resolve graphics up to XGA format and
show videos in real time. For the top class,
EDM still has Power PC platforms in its range,
which are used to perform data-intensive and
highly graphic tasks. In this case, not only embedded
Linux but also VxWorks can be offered
as the real-time operating system.
The ARM9 processor platform is available in
a low-cost version with a graphics-capable display
(64x160) and Jog-Dial as the input medium.
The pure processor module is available
for use in individually prepared solutions.
Housing, display, input medium and an interface
module can be added according to customer
requirements. There are even readymade
solutions for high-end requirements. As
SITOUCH, the ARM9 platform can be supplied
with either a 5.7“ QVGA or a VGA display and
touch in a flush wall housing, or with an 8.4“
VGA display and touch in a stand-alone metal
housing. These platforms all run with 24 VDC,
without a fan, and in an ambient temperature
up to 60°C. The EDM concept is highlighted
by the fact that the platform, which is also
known as main modules, can be coupled via a
proven, standard RS485 interface to one or
more customer-specific sensor-actuator modules.
By means of a proprietary protocol, this
interface ensures that the intelligence of the
controller is informed at all times of the
current status of the entire machine and can
affect it in real time.
Two-module solutions have proven themselves
in several projects, each consists of an ARM9
HMI module adapted for the project, and a
sensor-actuator module developed individually
for the project. In line with the EDM philosophy,
the sensor-actuator module is composed
of previously tried and tested basic I/O configurations,
and controlled and driven by an
ARM7 or Cortex M3. The ARM7 or Cortex
M3 communicates continuously with the
ARM9 head via the serial interface and the
special machine protocol. The concept is designed
so that either multiple sensor-actuator
modules can be cascaded in order to realize,
for example, different expansion stages for different
types of machine. Or individual expansion
modules can be plugged into interface
sockets on the sensor-actuator module. These
are, in turn, automatically recognized and integrated
by the ARM7, and finally by the operating
system. This example can be realized
equally well with ARM11 or Power PC instead
of the ARM9. The requirements of the customer
system are decisive. n
www.embedded-control-europe.com/newsletter
www www.embedded-conntrol-europe.com/n
newsletter
INDUSTRIAL COMPUTING
Editors
Jürgen Hübner
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49 December 2010

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