Qseven Computer-On-Module (COM) challenges

Increasing numbers of patients, shrinking numbers of embedded computer physicians, and rising costs are pushing the medical field further into the age of telehealth. Unlike traditional clinical platforms, however, telemedicine demands portability, flexibility, and long lifecycle support from Small Form Factor (SFF) technologies. Targeted at low-power mobile applications, Revision 2.0 of the Qseven Computer-On-Module (COM) specification added support for ARM CPUs and defined a "micro" form factor, making it good Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) medicine for next-generation telehealth systems.

Go to doctor’s office. Wait. See embedded computer Primary Care Physician. Get tested. Wait. Get referred to specialist. Get retested. Wait. Get referred to another specialist. Wait. See how much insurance covers. Pay accordingly.

refer to: http://smallformfactors.com/articles/qseven-coms-healthcare-mobile/

Satisfying rugged memory requirements

While demands for ruggedized embedded devices continue to rise, memory module suppliers continue to make technology advancements and associated manufacturing enhancements that meet the needs of OEMs. DDR3 SODIMM, DDR3L, and lower-profile DDR3L are all examples of new technologies that help satisfy rugged memory requirements. These advancements solve many design challenges, including low power, enhanced thermal dissipation, and extended-temperature tolerance while delivering the performance needed for today’s complex embedded systems.

refer to : http://embedded-computing.com/articles/ruggedization-memory-module-design/

Embedded developers challenge to fasten system operating

Developers can often find answers to their questions through the Internet, but no one is on the hook to research and respond to a embedded computer specific question. Open source products are generalized in order to fit the widest array of users and can force designers to modify the hardware configuration, resulting in higher recurring cost for the embedded device. Cost is obviously a major deciding factor when selecting an embedded operating system. Since there is essentially no cost of goods with software, vendors can adjust their pricing model to generate revenue from various sources. Vendors can charge for an initial license fee, development seats per engineer, development tools, per-unit royalties, continuing support, or major upgrades. To fairly compare prices, the overall cost of ownership must be computed for each OS being considered.

 

refer to: http://embedded-computing.com/articles/choose-right-embedded-operating-system/

Memory needs for in-vehicle system

Automotive electronics are memory hungry. Therefore, the explosive growth of in-vehicle infotainment systems in modern cars has a significant impact on the market demand for semiconductor memories. For 2012, the average memory content of a car was estimated to be around US$12.8, ranging from US$2.0 for low-end models to more than US$100 for fully equipped luxury vehicles. As a result, the total available market value for in-vehicle memories in automotive applications is expected to reach a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of more than 9 percent from 2011 to 2015, well above the overall CAGR for the total memory semiconductor market, which is less than 7 percent.

refer to: http://embedded-computing.com/articles/automotive-industry-innovation-driven-electronics/#at_pco=cfd-1.0

Think you know embedded system? Rethink again...

“Many people initially think a cloud is inherently insecure as it is a single point of failure –the cloud goes and all your data goes with it,” says Todd Moore, Vice President of Product Management at SafeNet (www.safenet.com). “However, embedded computer build in redundancy so when they write data to a cloud, they also write it to a disk at the same time. The virtual environment is encrypted and is also stored on a disk.”

“Securing the cloud is simple, as it is about providing assurance,” says Will Keegan, Technical Director, Software Security at LynuxWorks (www.lynuxworks.com). “Users need to feel comfortable that when they log on remotely, every transaction they make will be secure. The complexities of public ISP embedded computer systems are too high to assure that data loss or leakages cannot occur. In a public cloud you have to assume all users are adversaries, and we rely on the ISP to protect other customers from stealing my data.”

refer to: http://mil-embedded.com/articles/cloud-security-the-dod/

Embedded product development and networking

Testing and traceability play a vital role in embedded product development. Traceability rendered via Application Life-cycle Management (ALM) software enables the team to automatically generate networking cases that link back to requirements, and report defects that link back to test cases. By knowing that defects are addressed and test cases run successfully, the team can have an immediate networking and accurate accounting of the state of product requirements.

Fifteen or 20 years ago, many embedded systems consisted of an 8-bit processor with a few KB of memory and perhaps a couple hundred lines of networking. Today, the explosion of embedded systems in automobiles, ATMs, cell phones, and other devices has dramatically changed that dynamic. It’s not uncommon to see multiple 32- and 64-bit multicore processors on an Ethernet network, running multiple applications totaling hundreds of thousands of lines of code in these systems.

refer to: http://embedded-computing.com/articles/application-testing-traceability-embedded-product-development/

About building, maintaining, and evolving proprietary network systems

In recent years, building, maintaining, and evolving proprietary network systems for telecom-grade applications that are highly available and "always on" have become increasingly prohibitive from the perspective of cost, risk management, time to revenue, and so on. The custom-built approach becomes even less cost effective as Communications Service Providers (CSPs) move toward offering cloud-based services, where they have to compete with non-traditional providers that offer such services on networks built using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) building blocks.

A change in market dynamics is causing a fundamental paradigm shift in industry's thinking: Instead of continuing to invest precious Research and Development (R&D) resources and dollars to build expensive, special-purpose proprietary systems with the hope that they will never fail, industry leaders are now assuming that there will be hardware and software failures and thus designing systems and applications that continue to provide end-user service in the presence of such failures.
State-of-the-art software and related standards have made significant advances in recent years to support sophisticated schemes and quick implementation of highly available applications and services that can run on relatively inexpensive COTS hardware systems. Some significant industry standardization efforts are:

• PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG), an industry consortium that creates and promotes COTS hardware standards that can be used for a variety of network applications
• The Carrier Grade Linux effort of the Linux Foundation that has helped create a version of Linux suitable for telecom gear
• The Service Availability Forum (SAF), whose interface specifications have long been used to develop COTS middleware that ensures uninterrupted service availability of network applications. Multiple implementations of these specifications exist, including an open source version that is available from the OpenSAF

refer to : http://xtca-systems.com/articles/engineered-cots-network-systems/