PICMG Systems & Technology with Resource Guide Spring 2020

President’s Corner

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Technology Focus

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News, specification updates, and more Solving the obsolescence challenge

@PICMG_Tech

SPRING 2020 VOLUME 24 NUMBER 1

Standards-based technology platforms for open innovation picmg-systems.com

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On the cover The PICMG Systems & Technology 2020 Resource Guide contains news and features on new and upcoming PICMG standards, the role of PICMG in IIoT and edge computing, CompactPCI Serial, and the challenge of obsolete and legacy embedded systems.

The Resource Guide highlights some of the industry’s top products, in the categories of COM Express, Industrial IoT, Advanced MC, and CompactPCI.

Simplifying sensors – an update on PICMG Industrial IoT standards

By Doug Sandy, PICMG

Technology Focus

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President’s Corner | Jessica Isquith

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News, specification updates, and more

Technology Focus 6

Simplifying sensors – an update on PICMG Industrial IoT standards

By Doug Sandy, PICMG

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Embedded legacy obsolescence: Obscuring the truth and the bottom line

By Tania Scroggie and Siku Thompson, GDCA

Technical Roundtable 12

When ratified and adopted, COM-HPC will address IIoT, edge computing, power- and memory-intensive applications

Q&A with Christian Eder, congatec; Stefan Milnor, Kontron America; and Jim Nadolny, Samtec

Technical Focus CompactPCI Serial goes full steam ahead

By Valerie Andrew, Elma Electronic

Technical Focus

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COM-HPC: Limitless high-speed scalability

By Christian Eder, chairman, COM-HPC subcommittee and Jessica Isquith, PICMG president

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CompactPCI Serial goes full steam ahead

By Valerie Andrew, Elma Electronic

Application Feature 20

Machine vision depends on open industrial standards

By Herbert Erd, N.A.T.

PICMG Consortium 24

PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers’ Group (PICMG) Consortium

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2020 Resource Guide

Published by:

Machine vision depends on open industrial standards

By Herbert Erd, N.A.T.

Application Feature

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| Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

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Industrial IoT Avnet Integrated

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Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide |

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President’s Corner

News, specification updates, and more

By Jessica Isquith, President of PICMG Welcome to the new issue of PICMG Systems & Technology.

In this issue you’ll learn about COM-HPC from subcommittee members and industry leaders; get details on IIoT initiatives; read articles on MicroTCA, CompactPCI Serial, and other specs; and gain insight on combating embedded obsolescence.

The PICMG organization enters 2020 with significant energy after a productive 2019, with more than 50 companies participating on five committees. Increased engagement among our 130 members continues to increase, resulting in a robust community dedicated to developing and promoting open specs for embedded computing. We expect to ratify some new and revised specifications in 2020.

COM-HPC and IIoT have each made in­cred­ible progress over the past year; moreover, I am pleased to announce our two newest initiatives: a significant revision to CompactPCI Serial and the next generation of MicroTCA specifications. To learn more and/or join the new initiatives, please contact PICMG (info@picmg.org) COM-HPC gains momentum Over the past year, activity behind the COM-HPC initiative has intensified: The team of 20-plus companies reached significant milestones in 2019, including approving the pinout of the new high-performance Computer-on-Module spe­cifi­cation. Now – with adoption of this pinout – all committee members have a solid basis from which to work on standard-compliant carrier board designs that offer interfaces supporting up to 100 GbE and PCIe Gen 4.0 and Gen 5.0, with up to eight DIMM sockets, and high-speed processors of more than 200 watts on standardized COM-HPC modules. The initial specification is expected to be ratified in the first half of 2020; early spec-­compatible products are in the design phase. To accelerate development efforts, the committee formed two subgroups focusing on signal-integrity challenges and defining management software elements of the new specification.

IIoT efforts move forward Doug Sandy – VP of technology for PICMG – continues to lead our IIoT initiatives related to the sensor domain. Our aggressive approach to advance IIoT encourages a firewalled, secure network architecture supporting a variety of synchronization methods, plus a uniform data model that scales down to the sensor domain through binary encoding. Two formal technical subcommittees were created. One is focused on the hardware component of connecting sensors and actuators into the secure network, while the other is aimed at defining three key components: a binary sensor data model for IIoT, a Redfish sensor data model/schema, and network architecture specifications. This combination of initiatives will provide plug-and-play interoperability at the sensor domain to the “last foot” of the IIoT network.

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jess@picmg.org CompactPCI Serial extension underway CompactPCI Serial is a modern modular computer standard based on proven mechanics in use. Key features are simplicity, flexibility, and robustness, thereby enabling cost-­optimized solutions. This technical subcommittee has the goal of extending the current CompactPCI Serial specification with an update covering requirements for modern high-speed applications; the subcommittee will strive for maximum interoperability between the current revision and extension. The market for CompactPCI Serial continues to grow in industrial automation and transportation; extending the standard will guarantee the further success of that technology.

The committee’s stated goals are to support PCIe Gen4 and Gen5; add Ethernet KR4 support; evaluate USB4; support a redundant system slot like CompactPCI Serial for Space; and recommend a robust “utility connector” with locks or screws.

EKF, Hartmann, and nVent are sponsoring this effort.

Defining the next generation of MicroTCA The newly formed committee will define the next generation of the MicroTCA specification, addressing the ever-increasing demand for power and throughput. New components will expand the modules and sub-parts defined in previous revisions of the standard. Full backward compatibility will be maintained for all non-fat-pipes-switching related components.

A new approach expects to separate MCH sections for management/common options/clocks and fat-pipe switching to over­come current limitations in the throughput of fat pipes.

This move will enable implementation of additional communication protocols such as 100 Gb Ethernet and PCIe Gen4 and Gen5 while keeping the design flexible enough to allow future developments.

Committee goals are to support PCI Gen5; increase power per slot to 160 watts or 240 watts with a potential additional and optional AMC power plug and PM plug; overcome the 80-watt limitation for AMCs in current systems at full backward compatibility; overcome the 40 Gbps limitation for fat-pipe bandwidth; separate completely the existing 12 V payload from new optional payload power; and improve cooling. The committee also seeks to optimize backplane layout and define routing guidelines, achieve physical separation of base MCH and fatpipe switching, and maintain full compatibility with existing modules as far as possible.

This effort is sponsored by DESY, ESS, Lodz University of Technology, N.A.T., and nVent.

I encourage you to learn more about these ongoing efforts and join PICMG to participate. Visit us at www.picmg.org. www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

Thank you to this year’s Sponsors!

Visit booth 5-341 to learn more about our Open SpeciďŹ cations picmg.org

Computer-On-Module for High Performance Computing Coming soon.

Visit booth 5-341 to learn more.

picmg.org

www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide |

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Technology Focus

Simplifying sensors – an update on PICMG Industrial IoT standards

By Doug Sandy “Simple is hard,” goes that old axiom. Reducing the essence of a complex idea or system into something that is readily understood and easy to use takes time, effort, and creativity. Never has this been more true than in today’s push toward the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and by extension its use of sensors. While much progress has been made on cloud analytics and back-end support, the sensor domain has remained largely impervious to change. With multitudes of different sensors, interfaces, and applications, standardization has been a necessary but missing ingredient. Simplifying this problem is hard.

In 2019 the PICMG standards organization, in collaboration with the DMTF standards organization, launched two new industry specifications targeted at bringing plug and play to the sensor domain of IIoT. The first of these specifications focuses on a small hardware module that today’s sensor vendors can use to create smart sensor nodes.

The second specification defines a network architecture and data model that ensures uniformity at the software level. Our aim is to enable and accelerate the industrial smart sensor market by making their creation and deployment simple.

Overall architecture Figure 1 shows a decomposition of an IIoT installation as it relates to the sensor domain. Blue boxes show various functions, and circles show interfaces that must be accounted for. At the highest level, we find the IIoT installation, which is the facility or context into which the sensors will be deployed as well as the operations and backend software for control and management; at the other end, the lowest level, we have nonintelligent sensors and actuators. Sensors provide real-time measurement of physical quantities such as temperature or pressure. Actuators (sometimes referred to as effectors) are motors, solenoids, heating coils, and the like that allow the physical state of factory equipment to be manipulated. The sensor bridge and the sensor

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intelligence functions shown in Figure 1 provide interoperability between the IIoT installation and the nonintelligent sensors and actuators. These are the focus of PICMG standardization activity.

Sensor bridge The primary functions of the sensor bridge device are to aggregate data from multiple sensors into one collection point, and to present the sensor data to the IIoT installation in an IT-friendly format that plays well with the rest of the IT infrastructure of the facility. Though not prescribed by the PICMG specification work, it is envisioned that a sensor bridge aggregation point will exist for each major piece of factory equipment. www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

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Figure 1 | Functional decomposition of IIoT at the sensor domain.

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Figure 2 | Factory installation showing equipment-level aggregation points.

This is a convenient physical location for sensor aggregation and provides an intuitive correspondence between aggregated sensors and their physical context. The sensor bridge and sensors with equipment-level aggregation are seen in Figure 2.

Interface A (in Figure 1) of the sensor bridge is responsible for interacting with the upper layers of the IIoT installation and is expected to communicate over Ethernet using IT protocols. The PICMG IIoT network architecture technical subcommittee has selected the DMTF Redfish API as the primary method for presenting the equipment state to the factory-level controller. Redfish is a human-readable JSON-based API that has been readily accepted in a wide range of enterprise and cloud data center applications. It provides flexibility and extensibility expected by IoT operators and is a good fit for Industrial IoT with only minor adaptations.

Many existing computing solutions, including PICMG CompactPCI Serial and PICMG COM Express, are well-suited to implement the sensor bridge function. The PICMG IIoT architecture working group is focusing its efforts on the behavioral aspects of the sensor bridge IIoT function.

Sensor intelligence A typical piece of factory equipment is expected to have multiple smart-sensor devices, each composed of two parts: the sensor (or actuator) element and the sensor intelligence function. The intelligence function is responsible for taking raw (non-smart-sensor) input and presenting it to the sensor bridge in a standard fashion.

Alternately, the sensor intelligence might be connected to an actuator. In this case it would provide a standardized method for controlling the state of the actuator. Though www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide |

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Technology Focus not prescribed by the specification, PICMG is targeting the functionality of the sensor intelligence so that it can be implemented with a small 8-bit microcontroller.

Interface C connects the sensor intelligence function with a sensor or actuator. In a physical sense this is accomplished with a small connector. Due to the wide variety of sensor types, analog voltage, analog current, and quadrature inputs must all be ­supported. Actuator control is accomplished through either an analog or digital control output. Conversion of voltage levels for sensor inputs is also the role of the sensor intelligence hardware function. From a software perspective, interface C also defines a method by which sensor vendors will configure the sensor intelligence module to work with their particular sensor. The PICMG IIoT Network Architecture and Data Model technical subcommittee is currently deliberating the requirements for this behavior; we can mention that a proof-of-concept of this method using tabular data was demonstrated at Sensor Expo 2019 in the PICMG Smart-Sensor Challenge.

Interface B defines the communications method between the sensor intelligence module and the sensor bridge. From a physical perspective, it is important that this interface support low-latency transfers and use an interface common on 8-bit microcontrollers. For this reason, a standard serial interface has been selected.

From a data-representation perspective, binary coded data is more efficient on an 8-bit micro since binary data takes both less memory and less communications bandwidth. Since the sensor node communicates with the sensor bridge in binary fashion, it is the job of the sensor bridge to translate the binary coded data into Redfish and vice versa.

The final interface (EnvSI) related to the sensor intelligence function is the environmental and mechanical interface. The sensor intelligence module is required to function within the full industrial temperature range (-40 °C to +85 °C) and is expected to have a footprint of approximately 30 mm2.

Standardization summary To date, PICMG has made great strides toward the standardization of the sensor domain for Industrial IoT. The hardware technical subcommittee has defined the physical signals, communication interface, and environmental conditions and begun to tackle the configuration and connector needs. The Network Architecture and Data Model technical subcommittee, on the other hand, has focused more on the overall network architecture, to enable sensor plug and play. We have created a framework for the architecture and behavior of the various elements and selected communications protocols. The work of both technical subcommittees is shown in Figure 3 (long bars show more completion than short bars).

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PICMG plans to make 2020 a year of significant IIoT advancement by releasing both the hardware and the network architecture IIoT specifications. The work done in 2019 lays a good groundwork for success. If you are interested in more information or want to participate in crafting the future of IIoT, please contact us at www.picmg.org. We are always looking for creative, motivated talent to help us specify interoperability and make the complex simple. www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

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Doug Sandy is the Vice President of Technology for PICMG, with over 24 years of industry experience in the embedded computing, industrial automation, telecommunications, and cloud computing spaces. Doug has worked as Technical Fellow, Chief Technology Officer, and Chief Architect for major corporations including Motorola, Emerson, and Artesyn Embedded Technologies.

Doug has focused much of his career advancing industry standards that provide multivendor interoperability and COTS solutions such as DeviceNet, ETSI NFV, and the PICMG families of specifications.

He now enjoys training the next generation of engineers at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic Campus where he is a full-time educator and program coordinator for softwareengineering capstone projects.

Readers may reach Doug at doug@picmg.org.

Figure 3 | Technical subcommittee progress summary.

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Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide |

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Technology Focus

Embedded legacy obsolescence: Obscuring the truth and the bottom line

By Tania Scroggie and Siku Thompson Starting in the late 1980s, the embedded industry started to see a change in electronic product life cycles. Before that time, computing technology was primarily commercial and capital equipment had long introduction phases. Today, however, consumer demand for electronic products drives component manufacturers toward a quick-to-market life cycle.

Balancing new product introduction and legacy product sustainment enables a robust life cycle management process and ensures that original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) do not have to choose between top-line profits and keeping customers happy.

With embedded computer-on-module (COM) boards seeing increased demand in long life cycle products, today’s small-form-factor manufacturers face a huge challenge with product life cycle management (PLM) process: product sustainment. Most original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) use a PLM model that was not designed to factor in sustainment. The PLM model was originally developed in 1985 to accelerate new product introduction (NPI) and production efficiency at scale.

Component obsolescence, manufacturing bottlenecks, and increasing demands on operational resources to sustain older products create gaps that considerably slow down the pace of NPI, undermining efforts to gain competitive advantages in the marketplace. Learning how to identify and address these gaps is critical for board OEMs to stay competitive.

That said, OEMs that use the PLM model have control of everything in the product life cycle, except sustainment: This is where unpredictable customer demand and obsolescence issues cause OEMs to lose control of a product’s profitability.

When a product first comes to market, there’s a desired return on investment (ROI).

After a certain amount of time, the ROI for an individual product family is no longer tracked. Due to this lack of visibility, the increased costs of maintaining systems during their active versus mature life cycle stages go undetected and unchecked.

The resources needed to manage a product in its active phase are not the same as the resources required for a product in its mature/sustainment phase. Our research shows that approximately 80% of a company’s revenue comes from its top 20% of products, usually the company’s newest offering. (Figure 1.) With boards and components having different life cycle expectations – five to seven years for boards and 18 months for components – overhead can quickly be absorbed by sustainment activities. This reality

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means that older products produce less revenue while costing exponentially more due to sustainment activities.

As embedded products age, the list of sustainment issues grows, going beyond component obsolescence to outdated manufacturing techniques and unbudgeted sustaining engineering investments. The resources needed to address and manage these sustainment-related issues are not only substantial, but ultimately undermine high-value business objectives by distracting from NPI, burdening profit margin, and inhibiting operational efficiency.

Without clear guidelines for realizing when a product passes from its active stage to the mature/sustainment phase, there are inaccurate performance objectives and no reference points to guide decisions. As a result, company-wide profitability suffers and resources are distracted from completing strategic objectives.

The impact of not having clear insight into the numbers goes beyond profits: www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

Customer relationships built on trust are strained by the EOL/LTB [end of life/ last-time buy] cycle. Customers with continuing demand often pressure OEMs to overturn their initial EOL decision.

Whether the phase-out decision is due to low demand or supply-chain disruption, it is not profitable for board manufacturers to continue supporting products having limited demand. To stay competitive in the market, manufacturers must retire products.

Lifecycle optimization: How to use old designs to increase revenue Knowing when and how to prune your product portfolio requires setting up the ability to analyze the true cost of continuing to manufacture older products.

By auditing operations and adding sustainment milestones to drive business practices, product pruning enables OEMs to achieve a higher ROI for products approaching maturity while still maintaining a focus on NPI and sales. (Figure 2.)

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Figure 1 | Research from GDCA shows that approximately 80% of a company’s revenue comes from its top 20% of products, usually the company’s newest offering. Graphic courtesy GDCA.

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Figure 2 | Product pruning enables OEMs to achieve a higher ROI for products approaching maturity while still maintaining a focus on NPI and sales. GDCA graphic.

Proactive OEMs who develop a sustainment phase for legacy products must choose between investing in specialized legacy services in-house or outsourcing to a legacy equipment manufacturer (LEM) that specializes in providing sustainment services to continue manufacturing through obsolescence issues.

Partnering with LEMs offers customers a more predictable and efficient production schedule for legacy products. The extended availability also gives OEMs confidence to provide customers with ongoing support when they aren’t ready to upgrade.

Whether auditing and providing sustainment services in-house, outsourcing it, or using a hybrid model, effective life cycle optimization includes legacy management and must achieve the following objectives for OEMs: ›› Ensure customers have ongoing access to tested and approved newly manufactured legacy products ›› Preserve critical brain trust and documentation in order to meet warranty repair commitment and avoid return backups ›› Minimize risk of customer downtime due to delays in sourcing obsolete components www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

›› Sustain a form-fit-function hardware configuration, requiring no software changes or forced recertification expenses on the customer’s part ›› Implement advanced production cost control to ensure product viability and avoid an astronomical increase in price Whether developing in-house and/or partnering with LEM, getting the balance right between NPI and sustainment is a problem worth solving and presents the prospect of a robust life cycle management process that keeps a competitive edge and doesn’t make OEMs choose between top-line profits and keeping customers happy.

Tania Scroggie, a business development executive at GDCA, has 15-plus years of experience in the semiconductor and embedded industry; contact her at TScroggie@gdca.com.

Siku Thompson, marketing manager at GDCA, focuses on integrated sustainment strategies that help solve obsolescence issues for customers. She can be reached at Sthompson@gdca.com.

GDCA • www.gdca.com Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide |

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Technical Roundtable

When ratified and adopted, COM-HPC will address IIoT, edge computing, powerand memory-intensive applications The final PICMG ratification of the COM-HPC specification is scheduled for the first half of 2020. In the meantime, PICMG Systems & Technology has convened a brief roundtable discussion on the upcoming standard’s key technical challenges, the benefits of designing in COM-HPC, and the applications COM-HPC is most suited for.

The participants are Christian Eder, director of marketing at congatec; Stefan Milnor, system architect at Kontron America; and Jim Nadolny, engineering manager at Samtec. Edited excerpts follow.

PICMG SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY: What Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications do you foresee as a good fit for COM-HPC? EDER: Edge servers. These are located in sometimes rough environments (hot, cold, shock/vibrations, EMC). They also need high performance (i.e., 25G Ethernet) and typical server functionalities (i.e., out-of-band management). High compute power and large memory sizes enables it to process and consolidate huge amounts of data by using AI. The COM-HPC client type will also address the typical embedded markets in industrial automation, transportation, and medical – for computer power and memory-hungry applications.

NADOLNY: Industrial Ethernet and the connected car.

MILNOR: I would not limit the question to what industrial applications are a good fit, but rather ask what embedded applications are a good fit for COM-HPC. And the answer to that is any application that requires high-performance computing, long life and support, high-bandwidth I/O, ruggedized characteristics, extended-temperature operation, multiple sources, and custom system form factors. Applications that are extremely cost-sensitive may not be right for COM-HPC, but it is suitable for many higher-end situations.

As such, COM-HPC will be useful in medical equipment, instrumentation, test equipment, telecommunications equipment, industrial equipment, casino gaming, transportation systems, avionics, scientific equipment, military subsystems, and likely much more. That has been the case for COM Express and will be the case for COM-HPC. COM-HPC is meant to complement COM Express, not replace it. Compared to COM Express, COM-HPC offers a significantly higher bandwidth connector (around four

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times higher), larger form factors supporting more powerful CPUs including server-class CPUs, more memory, more high-speed I/O options, and out-of-band management options. It will be possible to deploy COM-HPC, like COM Express, in situations requiring high shock and vibration survivability.

PICMG SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY: How do you see COM-HPC address­ing key challenges facing edge computing right out of the chute?

MILNOR: COM-HPC modules are ready-to-go high-performance units that can be deployed for almost any edge computing situation. The end system carrier board designer can focus on what their organization does best – whether that be medical imaging, test and measurement, gaming, telecom, etc. – and leave the core CPU design details to the module vendor. An interesting aspect of COM-HPC, not available on COM Express, is that provisions are in place on COM-HPC that allow modules to www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

be PCI Express roots or targets, or a combination of those. This allows vendors to design COM-HPC modules that host high-end FPGAs or GPUs, useful in many edge-computing situations, such as image processing. Arm-based COM-HPC modules are also permitted.

PICMG SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY: What are some of the potential technical challenges engineers will face in their COM-HPC-based designs?

NADOLNY: Server designs are expected to take advantage of the high-end features in COM-HPC and will require the use of high-speed design and fabrication practices. This includes Type 4 PCB technology (via stub-length control), lowloss PCB laminates, and attention to loss budgets. While these practices are mainstream in the datacomm market segment, they may pose new challenges for engineers unfamiliar with high-speed design.

SI design guidelines are included in the COM-HPC specification to help engineers achieve first-pass design success.

EDER: Almost all interfaces received a performance upgrade which lead to much higher signal frequencies and new challenges for signal integrity. This is addressed by the COM-HPC specification and the planned carrier board design guide will also help engineers to create their carrier boards. The new interfaces like eSPI and USB4 create new possibilities which will be addressed both in the specification and in the carrier board design guide.

MILNOR: To take full advantage of the high-speed I/O, designers need to be comfortable with basic high-speed PCB design techniques such as controlled impedance stack-ups and differential pair routing. Carrier board PCB design is not nearly as involved as, say, CPU module memory bus routing, but there are basic rules that need to be followed.

A COM-HPC Carrier Board Design Guide is planned, and the necessary rules should be available there. Additional concerns such as proper power delivery, EMI mitigation techniques, thermal management, and other concerns should be addressed in the Design Guide as well.

Most module vendors support their customers with carrier design help. www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

PICMG SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY: What are some areas that may need to be addressed in the next rev of the spec?

EDER: The workgroup is addressing all currently known issues. Once the first boards are designed by the member companies, we’ll ask for feedback in order fix potential undefined details in the specification with a minor update.

PICMG SYSTEMS & TECHNOLOGY: What are some of the benefits of going with COM-HPC over some of the competitive architectures?

MILNOR: The main benefit of COM-HPC over other mezzanine-style CPU modules are the very high bandwidth COM-HPC connectors, allowance for very powerful CPUs and large memories, provision for lots of high-bandwidth I/O (up to 65 PCIe lanes, up to 8 by 25 Gbps Ethernet, etc.) and the provision for non-x86 modules, such as Arm, FPGA, and GPU modules. A benefit of COM Express and COM-HPC over backplanebased architectures like VPX and Compact PCIe is that it is easier to fit a COM module and carrier in many space-constrained systems, for example, autonomous driving or a compact piece of equipment.

EDER: Designs based on COMs are typically created for single applications and are not changed for five to 10 years. Upgrades can be performed by changing to newer COMs based on the same specification. COM-HPC will extend the range of applications – where COMs could not be used in the past – because the previous COM standards did not support 25G Ethernet, [they] only supported 96 GB of RAM or did not provide enough computer performance as the max power consumption of the older COMs did not support the energy-hungry, high-performance CPUs. COM-HPC is the newest and fastest COM standard of all and can address the performance needs of multiple new applications.

Christian Eder is a cofounder of and serves as director of marketing for EMEA at congatec. Christian – with his 30 years of experience in embedded computing – is the chairman of the COM-HPC workgroup of PICMG. He is also active in a number of PICMG working groups and functioned as editor of the following specifications: COM Express 2.0, COM Express 2.1, COM Express Design Guide, Embedded EEPROM, Embedded EAPI, and COM Express 3.0. Christian is also board member of the SGET and editor of the SMARC 2.0 and 2.1 specification. He holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Applied Sciences Regensburg, Germany.

Stefan Milnor – currently system architect at Kontron – has worked for Kontron and predecessor/acquired companies (Jumptec Adastra) since 1993. Stefan was the editor/author of the original COM Express spec in 2004-2005. Since then, Stefan has been a technical contributor and secretary to COM Express revision efforts. He had a major role in the COM Express and SMARC Design Guides, and was the author/editor of the original SMARC spec. Stefan earned a BS in physics from University of California, San Diego, and an MS in EE from University of California, Los Angeles.

Jim Nadolny, senior SI and EMI engineer at Samtec, began his career focused on the EMI design of military and commercial platform; his focus then shifted to signal-integrity analysis of multigigabit data transmission systems. Jim currently chairs a technical group within PICMG to develop SI guidelines for embedded computing platforms. Jim represents Samtec at industry standards within OIF, IEEE, COBO, and other MSAs and is a frequent presenter at DesignCon, with Best Paper awards in 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2018. He has more than 25 peer-reviewed publications. Jim Nadolny received his MSEE from the University of New Mexico.

Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide |

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Technology Focus

COM-HPC specifies five different form factors, two for embedded computing servers and – similar to COM Express Basic/Compact and Mini – three for embedded computing clients. All versions provide 800 pins.

COM-HPC: Limitless high-speed scalability

By Christian Eder, chairman of the PICMG COM-HPC subcommittee; and Jessica Isquith, president of the PICMG organization COM-HPC is the new, soon-to-be released PICMG standard for high-performance Computer-on-Modules (COMs).

The pinout and therefore also the functionality were recently officially approved.

Final PICMG ratification of the COM-HPC specification is scheduled for the first half of 2020; in the meantime, the PICMG subcommittee already approved two key aspects in November 2019: the physical footprints and the pinout. This up-front approval enables companies involved in the definition of the specification to present their first products on the market shortly after the standard’s official ratification. The information that may be released to the public until that moment is strictly limited.

IHS Markit estimates that Computer-on-Modules (COMs) will account for around 38% of total sales of embedded computing boards, modules, and systems in 2020. This large share explains the significance of changes in this market, which – since the launch of the very first COMs – has created two important standards for high-end embedded computing: ETX and its successor COM Express. (Figure 1.)

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Higher performance, more interfaces The need for a new specification to complement COM Express is easily explained: As a result of the digital transformation, demand for embedded computers to provide high-speed performance is growing. To serve the new class of embedded edge servers, scalability must be limitless. With its 440 pins, COM Express does not have enough interfaces for powerful edge servers.

The performance of the COM Express www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

connector is also slowly approaching its limits: While COM Express can easily handle the 8.0 GHz clock speed and 8 Gbit/sec throughput of PCIe Gen 3, the verdict is still out regarding whether the connector meets certain technological advances such as PCIe Gen 4.

computing units – for example, to preprocess imaging sensor data or to execute complex deep learning algorithms. Today, GPGPUs are increasingly being used to execute such flexible and multifunctional tasks. Often replacing FPGAs and DSPs, they need high-speed connectivity towards the central CPU cores, with this need increasing with the complexity of the tasks. With their many PCIe lanes, COM-HPC systems can accommodate significantly more accelerator cards for further performance increases than COM Express ever could.

Headless embedded server performance The need for ultra-high embedded edge performance and extended connectivity is most pressing in the new class of headless edge servers that are increasingly used as distributed systems in industrial applications for harsh environments and over extended temperature ranges. An example of the need for high performance on the edge: An autonomous vehicle uses vision and AI logic to establish situational awareness.

It simply cannot wait for an algorithm to be computed in the cloud when things get tricky; it must be able to react instantly. The same idea applies to collaborative robots. Both of these examples would require systems to provide at least 10 GbE connectivity as well as the ability to use a large number of parallel

Massive parallel data processing A setup that combines powerful CPUs and massive parallel data processing capacity is also required in medical imaging, where the use of artificial intelligence is increasing to support medical diagnosis on the basis of existing findings. The same performance requirements apply to the countless vision systems used in industrial inspection systems and to public video surveillance systems. The entire field of Industry 4.0 applications also needs more powerful connectivity, as more and more formerly standalone machines and systems are being networked. All this connection drives up demand for high-speed interfaces in embedded systems to implement high-performance Internet solutions, including TSN support for tactile real-time behavior.

›

In addition, more workloads need to be consolidated in a single system: Next to data preprocessing in vision systems and deep learning, this includes firewalls and sniffing systems for intrusion detection, which must process virtually identical loads parallel to the running applications. This workload combination doubles requirements and calls for the use of hypervisor technologies for real-time capable virtual machines such as the RTS Hypervisor from Real-Time Systems. Other applications include data grabbers for automotive test systems and measurement technology for 5G as well as industrial storage systems with fast NVMe memory connected via PCIe. Edge logic for 5G radio towers and modular blades in industrial server racks can also benefit from high-performance COMs.

Figure 1 | COM-HPC is a consistent step in the progression of the Computer-on-Module market. It likely will take years before COM-HPC reaches market shares similar to COM Express, since COM Express also needed about five years to outstrip ETX in terms of quantities.

Moreover, with ETX modules still being sold today, existing COM Express customers can also expect to be able to buy COM Express modules for years to come.

www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide |

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Technology Focus Up to one terabyte of RAM COM-HPC will be covering these high-speed performance requirements with up to 100 GbE, up to 32 Gb/s PCIe Gen 4 and Gen 5, plus up to eight DIMM sockets and high-speed processors with more than 200 watts of power. The new standard distinguishes two basic variants: headless COM-HPC server modules, which can also be called Server-on-Modules, and COM-HPC client modules, which follow the concept of COM Express Type 6 Computer-on-Modules.

COM-HPC Server-on-Modules will be able to host a massive 1.0 terabytes of RAM with their eight DIMM sockets. They will also run up to 8x 25 GbE and support up to 64 PCIe Gen 4 or Gen 5 lanes – i.e., an I/O performance of up to 256 Gigabytes/ sec (GB/sec). Such ultrafast connectivity falls within the embedded edge server class, with the new PCIe lanes offering transfer rates of more than 32 Gigabit/sec (Gbit/sec) with PCIe Gen 5. This needed level of performance can be directly implemented via high-performance interfaces, since components with the ability to transfer 28 Gbit/ sec Non-Return-to-Zero (NRZ) are already available. In addition, up to two extremely powerful USB 4 interfaces are planned via the 800 pins.

Based on Thunderbolt 3.0, these interfaces correspond to about 5 GB/sec and run about twice as fast as USB 3.2 with a maximum of 20 Gb/sec, which is also supported up to 2x. An additional four USB 2.0 interfaces complete the USB choices on COM-HPC server modules. Next to 2x native SATA, support for eSPI, 2xSPI, SMB, 2x I2C, 2xUART, and 12 GPIOs is also provided to integrate simple peripherals and standard communication interfaces, for example for service purposes. (Figure 2.)

Server-class board management Another new feature of COM-HPC is the integrated system management interface. This software interface, which is currently being defined by the PICMG subcommittee, aims

OpenSystems Media E-cast Air Force/Army/Navy Convergence on Military Open Architectures Sponsored by Annapolis Micro Systems, Elma Electronic, Kontron, and Pentek The tri-service convergence effort – seeking to reduce costs and development time via open-architecture principles among the Air Force, Army, and Navy – is tied to specific programs in an effort to reduce life cycle costs and enable reuse.

This webcast with Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) representative Dr. Ilya Lipkin will cover open architecture initiatives such as the Hardware Open Systems Technologies (HOST), Modular Open Radio Frequency (RF) Architecture (MORA), and the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA).

https://bit.ly/2NAzLzW 16

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to include a small subset of the power­ful and complex IPMI definition in the COM-HPC specification to enable easy implementation of full server functionality. Thanks to this interface, COM-HPC will offer real edge-server functions that can be widely expanded by integrating suitable server-class board management controllers (BMC) on carrier boards.

Relevant carrier board design guides will be needed to help newcomers to the standard get started.

The specification will further offer the possibility to develop COM-HPC device modules for graphics processors or FPGAs. For this purpose, the specification defines PCIe clock inputs so that COM-HPC modules can also be used as clients. This capability makes it possible to design flexible and compact heterogeneous computing solutions without a need for complex raiser cards; in contrast, traditional graphics cards are developed for PCIe sockets that are mounted at a 90-degree angle on the motherboard. They also offer significantly fewer connectivity options. The same applies to the alternative of MXM3 graphics cards, as they also have only 314 pins. With COM-HPC enabling extremely thin modular designs, also for the GPGPU, it then becomes possible to design thin slot cards for rack systems that offer both COM-HPC server modules and accelerator modules based on GPGPUs, FPGAs, or DSPs. Matching solutions for all three accelerator module variants are already being developed, so that COM-HPC is no longer just a standard for embedded edge server processors, but can also be used for GPGPU, FPGA, and DSP expansion.

A boost to 800 pins Next to this ultra-high-performing embedded edge server class, which sets an entirely new standard for robust embedded computing, the second category of COM-HPC client modules positions itself somewhat more discreetly above the COM Express Type 6 specification. As the smaller footprint can accommodate only up to four SO-DIMM sockets, it is mainly the number of pins that makes a key difference: 800 pins clearly offer significantly more interface options than the 440 pins of COM Express. (Figure 3.) www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

But as long as COM Express can also handle PCIe Gen 4 – which can be assumed at least with regards to downward compatibility – developers of COM Express systems don’t have to switch to COM-HPC client modules. In addition to 49 PCIe lanes (COM Express Type 6 offers only 24), there are now for the first time two 25 GbE KR interfaces and up to two 10 Gb BaseT interfaces, significantly more than the current single GbE LAN. Another attractive feature is the capability for one or two MIPI-CSI interfaces, which enable cost-effective camera connections for situational awareness and collaborative robotics. Many developers will also appreciate the convenient, versatile and extremely powerful USB 4.0 interfaces that are offered in addition to 4x USB 2.0. There will be up to four of them, to connect ultra-fast memory with up to 40 Gbps, or up to two 4K displays including power supply and integrated 10GbE network connection via a single USB-C cable. The graphics have also been tidied up. Support now includes 3x dedicated DDI interfaces. Specific designs for DisplayPort, DVI-I/VGA and DVI-I, HDMI, or DVI to LVDS converters are now executed on the carrier board.

Further interfaces include 2x SoundWire and I2S as well as 2x SATA; eSPI, 2xSPI, SMB, 2x I2C, 2x UART, and 12 GPIOs round out the feature set.

SoundWire, which has been added as a new interface to the specification, will replace the currently used HDA interface. SoundWire is a MIPI standard that requires only two clock and data lines, with a clock rate of up to 2.288 MHz, to connect up to four audio codecs in parallel. Each codec receives its own ID which is evaluated.

OEMs that have a business relationship with one of the companies involved in the new specification can already start suitable carrier board designs as long as they keep them under NDA and do not share them with third parties. The new specification will only become available as an open standard after the official release.

Members of the PICMG COM-HPC subcommittee include the University of Bielefeld plus Acromag, ADLINK, Advantech, Amphenol, AMI, congatec, Elma Electronic, Emerson Machine Auto­mation www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

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Figure 2 | The USB 4.0 interface available on COM-HPC server and client modules integrates Thunderbolt 3, which supports up to 40 Gbps, two 4K displays, up to 100 watts, plus PCIe, USB, DisplayPort, and Thunderbolt protocols.

›

Figure 3 | COM-HPC specifies two different pinouts for embedded computing servers and embedded computing clients.

Solutions, ept, Fastwel, HEITEC, Intel, Kontron, MEN, MSC Technologies, N.A.T., nVent, Samtec, Schroff, SECO, TE Connectivity, Trenz Electronic, and VersaLogic. Adlink, congatec and Kontron are committee sponsors, while congatec marketing director Christian Eder acts as chairman of the COM-HPC committee. He has also played an important role in the development of the existing COM Express standard as draft editor. Stefan Milnor from Kontron and Dylan Lang from Samtec support Christian Eder in their functions as editor and secretary, respectively, of the PICMG COM-HPC committee.

Further information on the new COM-HPC Computer-on-Module standard and its pinout can be found at https://www.congatec.com/COM-HPC and www.picmg.org/ openstandards/development/.

Christian Eder is chairman of the PICMG COM-HPC subcommittee and Jessica Isquith is president of the PICMG organization. Please email info@picmg.org for more information.

PICMG • www.picmg.org Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide |

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Technology Focus

CompactPCI Serial goes full steam ahead

By Valerie Andrew The popular and very successful parallel CompactPCI specification (PICMG 2.0) has enjoyed a long life and is in fact still in use today across multiple industries. Its progeny is the CompactPCI Serial standard (CPCI Serial), PICMG CPCI-S.0.

It’s a serial architecture that significantly extends and enhances the best features of the earlier standard, by combining the advantages of the proven traditional CPCI with the latest high-speed data-transfer-rate technologies. A growing ecosystem (see sidebar, next page) is now taking this standard into some interesting applications.

CompactPCI Serial technology is ideal for use in systems requiring symmetrical multi­ processing and system redundancy. The highly flexible standard offers an easy-touse and cost-optimized development and deployable environment. It provides new ways for designers to work effectively in applications that have either previously used CompactPCI or will benefit from the new platform.

The architecture retains such features as system-level management and hot swap of boards during operation, enhanced with enhanced with serial point-to-point connections and a new connector with a signal density of up to 184 pin pairs (on 3U) and transmission frequencies of 12 Gb/sec. Single-star or full-mesh topology backplanes come in up to nine slots, the max as defined by the specification, but a bridge can be added to extend the backplane.

While full details can be found at www.picmg.org, following are some of the specific attributes of the high-speed interfaces, as well as the back-end architecture: ›› ›› ›› ››

Up to 8 PCI Express (6 x 4 lanes, 2 x 8 lanes) 8 SATA/SAS 8 USB 2.0/3.0 8 Ethernet interfaces plus signals for general system management (reset, IPMB, hot plug, geographical addressing, among others) ›› 12 V (60 W per 3U slot, 120 W per 6U slot) The system slot is positioned as the first slot and can be either on the left (typical) or the right. Each peripheral slot, all of which are simultaneously accessible, offers one PCI Express link, one SATA/SAS, and one USB 2.0/3.0 interface. The star topology is equal

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for all of these, and the slots are identical except for the two PCI Express x8 lanes.

Defined system and peripheral slot pin assignments will allow a system slot board to plug into any peripheral slot, thus supporting symmetrical multiprocessing.

Up to eight Ethernet interfaces with transmission capabilities of 10GBASE-T and higher are also supported by each slot, building a full mesh and affording the ability to configure redundant, safetycritical systems.

High-speed connectors for fast performance The most important factor behind CompactPCI Serial’s incredible performance is its high-speed connectors. The serial point-to-point connectors are equipped with 184 signal pairs and a 3U backplane, facilitating transmission rates of up to 12 Gbps (Figure 1). The connectors are attached on four sides, making them very robust, with the “female” end of the connector attached to the backplane www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

›› Scientific research: The scientific and physics labs use a multitude of computers based on a wide range of standards. VMEbus was at one time one of the more common platforms found there. Among the newer platforms being built, CPCI Serial has been selected to replace some older VME systems because it offers the higher data rates and serial interfaces on the same mechanical form factor, making it an easier path towards next-gen system development.

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Figure 1 | Views of CompactPCI Serial backplanes and their high-speed serial connectors.

to reduce the risk of malfunctions, even in demanding working environments; the rear I/O uses the same connectors.

Beyond this, access to WLAN can be attained via the USB hub, while power­ful and rapid storage and RAID applications can be implemented through existing SATA interfaces for use in safety, broadband communication, and facility automation. Used in transport, the technology can bring passengers greater comfort upgrades such as onboard infotainment systems and better-quality ­climate control.

Extended possibilities in traditional applications CompactPCI has always been aimed at use in the areas of industry and transportation; the inception of CompactPCI Serial offers additional potential for transport and defense uses. ›› Railway: CPCI Serial made its earliest debut in railway applications.

The enhanced communications protocols on a rugged Eurocard form factor lend itself well to rolling stock, trackside applications, and passenger-communications systems. ›› Traffic control: CompactPCI Serial was the selected computing architecture for a speedmonitoring system for highways.

The system monitors vehicles speeds; those over the set limit are photographed and their information is subsequently sent to the main system for processing. The maker migrated its system from the older CompactPCI in order to increase the speed for both monitoring as well as image processing. CPCI Serial enabled the customer to simplify integration of its existing electronics and interfaces. www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

The future is serial – CPCI Serial, that is The trend is clear: Future CompactPCI applications within railway, transportation infrastructure, and some industrial automation demand high system performance and universal interfaces. New products are being designed to meet increased rugged requirements, such as conduction options.

There is a derivative specification for use of CPCI Serial in space; this includes a dualstar topology option and an open management bus for space-related communications protocols, as well as rugged and thermal enhancements needed for operation in the severe environments of space. CPCI Serial for Space is finding its way onto orbiting satellites, as one example.

A technical subcommittee, being formed as of this writing, seeks to define CompactPCI Serial extensions. The new specifications will address the need for higher speed applications including support for PCIe Gen 4/Gen 5 and Ethernet KR4.

Valerie Andrew is senior strategic marketing architect for Elma Electronic.

She has spent much of her career in the embedded computing industry and led marketing and outreach initiatives for open standards trade associations including VITA, PICMG, and most recently SOSA [Sensor Open Systems Architecture]. She currently serves as an officer for PICMG. She is responsible for all communications, events, and outreach with industry partners and trade associations.

Elma Electronic • www.elma.com

SIDEBAR DESIGNING FOR CPCI SERIAL The growth of the CompactPCI Serial ecosystem is rapidly expanding, offering new performance and I/O options. Here is a partial list of manufacturers who offer CPCI Serial products for the ecosystem.

Aaeon Acromag ADLINK Advantech Advanced Micro Peripherals Ltd. Elma Electronic EKF esd Electronics Fastwel

›

Hartmann Heitec Kontron MEN Micro nVent Pixus Trenz WDL

Examples of CPCI Serial boards and systems.

Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide |

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Application Feature

Machine vision depends on open industrial standards

By Herbert Erd

Machine vision is widely used in automation for failure detection, quality inspection, medical applications, transportation, and public safety.

For the past 15-plus years, optical inspection – also called machine vision – has expanded worldwide, leaving its footprint in different vertical markets. These days machine vision is mainly performed in three ways: offline, where parts are removed from the manufacturing process; near-line, during which parts are inspected close to the manufacturing process, leading to a quicker return to the production line; and online, where components are inspected without removing them from the manufacturing process.

Machine vision is used in automation for failure detection and quality inspection, while in medical markets its main purpose is picture analysis and merging. In addition, the public safety and transportation industries use machine-vision technology for camera link aggregation, filtering, analytics, compression, and recoding.

Input sensors used in machine-vision applications can consist of different kinds of cameras for the visible or invisible spectrum; they may also include ultrasonic and X-ray laser sensors, or even a combination of any of these.

The amount of data per input link (bandwidth) as well as the number of links are growing with every new camera generation, because of 3D capabilities as well as realtime requirements with low latency.

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In order to terminate and process such data streams from different sensor types, hardware based on FPGAs has become very popular for image processing, particularly when latency matters. On top of existing applications, growing demands from AI [artificial intelligence] as well as the IoT [Internet of Things] will increase the need for processing power and intelligent interconnects. Any new feature has an additional impact on data input, throughput, processing, and data www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

output, which means that every development team should consider several aspects before choosing any specific hardware platform.

Idea to

Developers’ headache For machine vision, two types of software developers – with completely different backgrounds – are involved for solutions based on FPGAs. First off, digital imageprocessing engineers or C programmers may have limited hardware skills; in addition, real FPGA programmers can be hard to find. Developers in this realm must understand the overall effects of the software requirements on the suitable hardware platform for a system in production.

As a first approach, we often see FPGAbased PCIe cards in a PC, actually still one of the most common development environments with a simple master/slave architecture.

However, the following simple calculation might highlight the limitation of such a development environment: In a typical machine-vision application, a camera generates a data stream of 672 Mbit/sec (2.4 Mpix/frame x 35 frames/s x 8 bit/pix = 672 Mbit/sec).

This data stream needs to be terminated by a processing resource whereby the image gets further manipulated and processed. In order to transport the data stream from the camera to the processing engine, in this case a 1 GbE link on GiGE (GbE vision) is sufficient.

Upgrading the camera to a more enhanced version could easily increase the data stream from 672 Mbit/sec to 4.5 Gbit/ sec to be transported (5.2 Mpix/frame x 107 frames/s x 8 bit/pix = 4.5 Gbit/sec).

So it’s fair to assume that with any new or additional sensor being added to the system, the data stream between camera and processing device increases significantly. Therefore, one can conclude that a growing demand for bandwidth will soon drive the chosen processing engine to its limit. As a consequence, a system design with a fixed and dedicated number of I/O ports and processing engines – either CPUs or FPGAs by design – can soon generate major issues www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

Applet

›

Figure 1 | Visual Applets enables creation and programming of image-processing algorithms on FPGA hardware without the need for HDL knowledge.

for the performance and/or ability to upgrade of systems deployed to the field. This is a typical development issue.

Machine vision based on MicroTCA for embedded applications N.A.T. developed its distinctive NATvision platform concept based on the open industrial standard MicroTCA for embedded applications in industrial, medical, transportation, and public-safety markets. NATvision enables users to have a complete environment for development amd serial production of sophisticated image- and video-processing applications.

The platform consists of a wide range of different FPGA and CPU boards fully integrated in different proven MicroTCA chassis and is intended to reduce both development costs and time.

It uses a set of preselected software tools with different libraries to optimize FPGA/ Arm-based programming for machine vision. For larger systems that need high-speed interconnects between different boards plus timing and trigger signals, MicroTCA’s switching and clocking capability provides scalability and flexibility for machine vision applications. Add-on requirements during the system life cycle can also be implemented.

By combining proven hardware components with Visual Applets, NATvision eliminates the need for deep FPGA knowledge. Visual Applets (design software) is a graphical design tool for creating and programming image-processing algorithms on FPGA hardware. Vision algorithms are described by block design operators, available from included libraries. Due to a platform-specific glue logic layer, HDL [Hardware Description Language], skills are not required. This capability enables engineers to focus on the vision algorithm, thus achieving impressive results in very short time.

(Figure 1.)

NATvision allows combining any HDL-based logic with software libraries such as OpenCV or Halcon to expand the field of possible applications. Software algorithms can either run on an external CPU (x86, x64) or on the system-on-chip’s processing system (Arm).

It is even possible to accelerate software algorithms with an FPGA. This can be done by using high level synthesis (HLS), which compiles C code into HDL language. By Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide |

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Application Feature using FGPA resources instead of executing algorithms sequentially on a CPU, image processing can be accelerated by multiples of 10. This is mainly archived by rolling out loops into parallel logic structures. Developers will benefit from HLS as it is much easier to describe and test HDL algorithms when they’re written in C. Today, NATvision is available with different FPGAs from Xilinx and Altera including FMC (FPGA mezzanine cards)-based I/O. In order to meet special customer requirements, different processing engines such as x86 and RISC-/ARM-based CPUs are available. (Figure 2.)

What’s the benefit?

Based on N.A.T.’s NATvision platform, any development of new algorithms can start immediately and independent of the final system design. Due to NATvision’s flexibility, several parameters and solution characteristics can be easily altered during development – for example, amount and types of cameras, sensor resolution, frames per second, processing power, or new functions for the foreseen application – as well as the addition of new and additional output requirements without delaying the application development in any way.

The deployment system for serial production can be designed independently and in parallel to the software development based on a small NATvision development system. Based on MicroTCA’s design rules, larger enclosures for additional cards can also be used. High-speed switching capability enables handling whatever number of boards in a flexible manner. If needed, new or more powerful functions can be implemented by adding hardware in spare slots by reconfiguring the board to board communication via the switch. In this way, software tasks also can be split or distributed between different boards.

NATvision provides flexibility in several ways: ›› Provides scalability in terms of number and types of boards. ›› Provides independence of hardware requirements from software application development ›› Provides a graphical software-development tool and enables the use of C and C++ codes instead of HDL ›› Enables distribution of application functions afterwards, even for different boards ›› Timing and latency aspects are covered by hardware

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Figure 2 | NATvision is customizable with different FPGAs, software libraries, and more.

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›› Remote management and system health are also covered as standard functions by design ›› On-the-fly support for modular hardware without impact on the used software leads to scalable, flexible, and future-proven systems solutions.

Companies’ machine-vision needs can change Today’s machine-vision systems are facing additional and/or changing require­ments during the development process already, even after deployment during their lifespan. For industrial applications, an open industrial standard like MicroTCA provides the needed flexibility to extend hardware as needed.

NATvision – based on this approach – supports development and deployment and naturally provides software tools for remote upgrades.

NATvision enables a change of hardware if required, independent of whether new I/O requirements show up or additional or more powerful processing cards are needed. As soon as a common clock domain is required, a MicroTCA-based vision system proves its worth, as this scenario enables even distribution of a system across several enclosures located in different areas.

Herbert Erd is the Business Development Manager at N.A.T. With 35 years business experience and 15+ years of experience in business development, Herbert has an extensive technical background in embedded, automation/ IoT, and communication technology.

Since 2005 he has initiated and designed several major mTCA and ATCA projects for communication and automation applications. He holds an engineering degree from the University of Applied Sciences for Electronic and Radio Communication Academic – grade of graduate engineer – at FH Koblenz.

N.A.T. www.nateurope.com www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

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PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers’ Group (PICMG) Consortium Info

Thousands of PICMG-compliant products, ranging from components and subsystems to complete applicationready systems, are commercially available, representing more than $5 billion yearly in global revenue.

PICMG is a nonprofit consortium of companies and organizations that collaboratively develop open standards for high-performance telecommunications, military, industrial, and general-purpose embedded computing applications.

Founded in 1994, the group has more than 250 member companies that specialize in a wide range of technical disciplines, including mechanical and thermal design, singleboard computer design, very-high-speed signaling design and analysis, networking expertise, backplane and packaging design, power management, high-availability software, and comprehensive system management.

Key standards families developed by PICMG include CompactPCI, AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA, AdvancedMC, CompactPCI Serial, COM Express, SHB Express, and HPM (Hardware Platform Management). In its more than two decades of operation, PICMG has published over 50 specifications developed by participants from hundreds of companies. Work on standards across a wide range of markets, applications, and technologies continues as the boundaries of datacom, telecom, military and aerospace, industrial, man/machine interface applications, and deeply embedded computing continue to blur.

Equipment built to PICMG standards is used worldwide, with any company allowed to build or use equipment without restriction (although certain technologies used for some military applications may be subject to U.S. export restrictions governed by ITAR rules).

A rigorous intellectual property (IP) policy ensures early discovery of any memberowned IP; moreover, all members must agree to “reasonable and non-discriminatory” (RAND) licensing of any IP written into a standard. To date, no PICMG standard requires any license or royalty to build or operate.

PICMG adheres to a formal, multistep development process. Development work can be periodically be reviewed by all member companies, although work inside of a technical subcommittee is confidential to the members of that committee until that work

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| Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

is ready for broader review by other members. Until a specification or standards-related document is ratified by the entire membership, it is confidential to PICMG. After ratification, all documents are available to the general public.

Why use PICMG standards?

PICMG standards – because the organization has such a large number of contributing companies – reflect the extremely wide and deep technical capabilities of its members. By using well-understood and proven open standards, vendors can bring products to market quickly. Customers gain from the price and performance competition that results from many vendors operating in an open marketplace.

Thousands of PICMG standards-­compliant products – ranging from components and subsystems to complete applicationready systems – are commercially available, representing more than $5 billion per year in global revenue.

To Learn More To learn more about the PICMG organization and membership, please visit www.picmg.org/membership/ or email info@picmg.org. www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

Visit our members’ exhibits Hall 1

Hall 5 B5 A A5 H1 D1

O1 B1

K1

L1

A1

F1

G1

E1

J1 N1

C1

M1 P1

I1

Hall 4

Hall 4A

B4 C4A

A4 A4A B4A

Hall 2

C4

Hall 3

J2

Hall 3A B3

B2

E3 G3 C3

E2

A2 K2

F2 C2

I2

H2

G2 D2

Hall 1 A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 F1 G1 H1 I1 J1 K1 L1 M1 N1 O1 P1

AAEON Technology, Inc. . . . . . . . . . .

Acromag, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ADLINK Technology Inc. . . . . . . . . . .

Advantech Co., LTD . . . . . . . . . . . .

Concurrent Technologies PLC . . . . . . . congatec AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Connect Tech Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Data Modul AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

EKF Elektronik GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . .

Elma Electronic Inc. . . . . . . . . . . .

FASTWEL Group Co. Ltd. . . . . . . . . . .

HEITEC AG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kontron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . nVent, Schroff GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . .

SECO SpA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

TQ-Systems GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hall 3

A3 B3 C3 D3 E3 F3 G3 H3 I3

Avalue Technology Inc. . . . . . . . . . . .

Dolphin Interconnect Solutions . . . . . .

ENGICAM srl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ept GmbH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Eurotech S.p.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Polyrack Electronic-Aufbausysteme GmbH RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. . . . .

Scan Engineering Telecom . . . . . . . . .

Yamaichi Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . .

H3

D3 I3 F3

Hall 2

1-350 1-404 1-540 1-338 1-519 1-358 1-430 1-234 1-660 1-473 1-406 1-340 1-478 1-561 1-330 1-578

A2 B2 C2 D2 E2 F2 G2 H2 I2 J2 K2

AiTech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

American Megatrends Inc. . . . . . . . . .

Amphenol - TCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Arbor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Avnet Integrated / MSC . . . . . . . . .

DFI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ecrin Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . esd electronics gmbh . . . . . . . . . . . .

Hartmann Electronic GmbH . . . . . . . .

IBASE Technology Inc. . . . . . . . . . . .

Portwell, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-549 3-156 3-219 3-311 3-119 3-445 3-218 3-449 3-301

Hall 4A

Hall 3A

2-309 2-200 2-420 2-450 2-238 2-411 2-449 2-459 2-440 2-140 2-340

A3A Trenz Electronic GmbH . . . . . . . . . . 3A-240

Hall 4 A4 B4 C4

Keysight Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . 4-208 National Instruments . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-108 Nexcom International Co., LTD . . . . . . 4-639

A4A Analog Devices, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4A-240 B4A Qualcomm Incorporated . . . . . . . . . 4A-330 C4A Samtec . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4A-259

Hall 5

A5 B5 B5

Intel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-480/481 Open Systems Media . . . . . . . . . . . 5-341 PICMG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-341

Bold listings are also exhibiting in PICMG’s booth

PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

AdvancedMC

NAT-AMC-ZYNQUP-SDR The NAT-AMC-ZYNQUP-SDR (ZYNQ Ultrascale Plus) is a flexible software defined radio (SDR) platform for wireless applications, such as mobile cellular systems with massive MIMO or radio beamforming, which require many phasecoherent antennas. Consisting of a stacked FPGA base board and two radio frequency front-end mezzanine cards, the NAT-AMC-ZYNQUP-SDR supports different communication standards with variable signal bandwidths, carrier frequencies and transmit power. The synchronization of multiple SDR boards enables you to create large antenna arrays with RF phasecoherent radio channels. The on-board Xilinx® Zynq® UltraScale+™ FPGA provides a powerful general-purpose ARM-CPU, field-programmable hardware accelerators (FPGA, DSP, and GPU) and flexible IO for signal and base band processing. The combination of large bandwidth RFtransceivers and a powerful FPGA allows you to create 5G radio units with on-board PHY layer processing or NB-IoT/LTE full-network singleboard solutions with base station and core network processing.

N.A.T. GmbH

https://nateurope.com/



FEATURES AMC form factor Ą Flexible software defined radio (SDR) platform Ą Consists of stacked FPGA base board plus RF front-end mezzanine cards Ą Synchronizable for creating large phased arrays Ą Observation receiver for Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) Ą Xilinx® Zynq® UltraScale+™ FPGA SoC ZU7EG or ZU11EG Ą

https://nateurope.com/

info@nateurope.com

 www.linkedin.com/company/n-a-t/

 +49 228 965 864 0

AdvancedMC

NAT-AMC-ZYNQUP-4GigE-PoE The NAT-AMC-ZYNQUP-4GigE-PoE is designed for automated visual inspection, analysis and merging for applications such as public safety videos requiring high speed video data throughput, image processing or real-time manipulation. Consisting of a stacked FPGA base board (NAMC-ZYNQ-FMC) and power-over-Ethernet switch FMC module (FMC-4GigE-PoE), the solution combines high performance FPGA processing with a direct interface to four front panel GbE ports compatible with IEEE802.3af in a single width, mid-size AMC. Combined with an N.A.T. GigE Vision IP core, machine vision applications can support multiple streams over very long distances using common Ethernet cables. The GigE Vision IP core by N.A.T. can be used for GigE Vision protocol termination on FPGAs for using compliant GigE Vision cameras. The IP core integrates the necessary UDP/IP infrastructure that is needed for communication with the camera, ensuring real time behavior, higher frame rates and resolutions. This board can be extended using an additional FMC module with HDMI ports for a full single board solution without separate CPU modules.

N.A.T. GmbH

https://nateurope.com/

26



FEATURES Ą Ą Ą

AMC form factor Machine vision, image analysis and public safety camera applications Consists of stacked FPGA base board plus GigE PoE mezzanine card

Ą

Four IEEE 802.3af compatible front ports

Ą

15.4W per PoE link

Ą

Up to 50W total PoE power

info@nateurope.com

 www.linkedin.com/company/n-a-t/

Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

https://nateurope.com/  +49 228 965 864 0

www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

Server-on-Modules With the COM Express Type 7 specification, PICMG has defined a highly flexible new module standard characterized by highspeed network connectivity with up to four 10 GbE interfaces and up to 32 PCIe lanes for customization. This is perfect for bringing the embedded server-class Intel® Xeon® D SoC as well as the new Intel® Atom™ processors to the industrial fields.

Developers with high-performance demands for storage and networking applications, edge and fog servers for IoT and Industry 4.0 applications are best served with conga-B7XD based on the Intel Xeon D1500 processor family. Available with ten different server processors soldered on the module for highest robustness.

For applications that are power restricted, the new conga-B7AC modules with Intel® Atom™ C3000 processors raise the bar with a power consumption of only 11 to 31 Watt TDP, the new lowpower multi-core Server-on-Modules feature up to 16 cores.

congatec

www.congatec.us



FEATURES Ą High scalability from 16 Core Intel® Xeon® processor technology with 45 W TDP Ą

Ą Ą Ą Ą

to low-power quad core Intel® Atom™ processors with a TDP as low as 11.5 W. All Server-on-Modules support the commercial temperature (0°C to 60°C) range.

Selected SKUS even offer support for the industrial temperature range (-40 °C to +85 °C). conga-B7AC with Intel Atom technology offers 4x 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, conga-B7XD with Intel Xeon technology support 2x 10 GbE. Supporting up to 48 gigabytes of fast and energy efficient 2400DDR4 (ECC or Non ECC).

Up to 32 PCIe lanes for flexible server extensions such as NVMe flash storage and/or GPGPUs. Comprehensive set of standard interfaces with 2x SATA Gen3 (6 Gbs), 6x USB 3.0/2.0, LPC, SPI, I2C Bus and 2x legacy UART.

www.congatec.us

sales-us@congatec.com

 www.linkedin.com/company/congatec

 858-457-2600 @congatecAG



COM Express

conga-B7E3 The embedded computing market is demanding more computing power across application areas: Industry 4.0 applications require synchronization of multiple machines and systems; machine vision in collaborative and cooperative robotics requires processing of image and other environmental data. Many of the edge computing tasks that arise around the development of 5G networks require server class performance by default.

The conga-B7E3 with AMD EPYC processors are highly flexible and an attractive migration platform for next-gen embedded server designs. They support up to 32 NVMe or SATA devices and up to 8 native 10 GbE channels. Support is also provided for legacy I/Os such as field buses and discrete I/O interfaces, which is critical for industrial server technologies.

FEATURES Ą Equipped with AMD EPYC Embedded 3000 processors with 4, 8, 12, or 16

Ą Ą Ą Ą

www.congatec.us

congatec

www.congatec.us www.picmg.mil-embedded.com



high-performance cores, support simultaneous multi-threading (SMT) and up to 96 GB of DDR4 2666 RAM. Measuring just 125 x 95 mm, the COM Express Basic Type 7 module supports up to 4x 10 GbE and up to 32 PCIe Gen 3 lanes.

For storage the module integrates an optional 1 TB NVMe SSD and offers 2x SATA Gen 3.0 ports for conventional drives.

Further interfaces include 4x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 4x USB 2.0 as well as 2x UART, GPIO, I2C, LPC and SPI. Seamless support of dedicated high-end GPUs and improved floating-point performance, which is essential for the many emerging AI and HPC applications.

sales-us@congatec.com

 www.linkedin.com/company/congatec

 858-457-2600 @congatecAG



Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

27

PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

COM Express

PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

COM Express

CPU-162-23 COM Express Basic Type 7 – Rugged Intel Xeon D The CPU-162-23 brings the computational performance and RAM capacity of a server to the field. It supports extended temperature range (-40 to +85°C) and ECC memory to operate reliably in industrial and rugged applications.

The CPU-162-23 can be configured with any member of the Xeon/Pentium D-1500 family, ranging from 4 to 16 cores and is available with up to four SO-DIMM sockets for a total of 64GB DDR4 with or without ECC. The CPU-162-23 is a headless module with a Basic form factor (125x95mm) that is fully compliant with the COM Express Type 7 pinout, delivering very high speed interfaces, like up to x32 PCIe lanes, two 10Gbps (10GBASE-KR) and one 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet port (1000BASE-T). Other interfaces include two SATA 3.0 ports, four USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports.

Supported operating systems include Yocto Linux and CentOS; moreover, the CPU-162-23 supports Everyware Software Framework (ESF), a commercial, enterprise-ready edition of Eclipse Kura, the open source Java/OSGi middleware for IoT Edge Gateways.

Eurotech Professional Services are available for the CPU-162-23, starting from BIOS personalization and include carrier board design, system development and production. Deep module customization, such as feature changes are also available.

FEATURES Ą Up to 16 Cores for HPEC and Microserver-ready

Applications Ą Powerful Intel Xeon D-1500 CPU Ą Up to 64GB ECC RAM Ą 2x 10Gb Ethernet Ą Rugged and Fanless Design Ą Full HW/SW Customization Ą Eurotech Professional Services

www.eurotech.com/en/products/boards-modules/comexpress/cpu-162-23

Eurotech

www.eurotech.com



sales@eurotech.com

 +39 0433 485 411 @eurotechfan

 www.linkedin.com/company/eurotech



COM Express

COM Express™ Type 7 with AMD EPYC™ Embedded 3000 SoCs The COMe-C42-BT7 is a COM Express™ Rel 3.0 Basic Type 7 module designed by SECO empowered by the AMD EPYC™ Embedded 3000 Series of SoCs (Quad or Eight Core, up to 3.1 GHz).

This innovative solution introduces SECO’s COM Express™ Type 7 product line, aiming at delivering new high-level performing solutions to its customers. Harnessing AMD EPYC™ Embedded 3000 major improvements in power, optimization and security capabilities, this module provides scalable offerings with outstanding performance and more connectivity, thanks to a wide range of networking and connectivity interfaces (10GBASE-KR interfaces, GbE port with NC-SI, USB 3.1, PCI-e Gen 3 lanes).

Moreover, the performance is enhanced by four DDR4 SO-DIMM slots supporting up to 128GB of DDR4-2666 Memory (both ECC and not-ECC).

All things considered the COMe-C42-BT7 is a fitting compromise between innovation, features, performance and cost, and it proves to be a highlevel operating solution well suited for context such as Server and HPC, Industrial Automation and Telco.

www.seco.com

28

Ą AMD EPYC™ Embedded 3000 family of processors Ą Four DDR4 SO-DIMM Slots supporting DDR4-2666 Memory

with ECC, up to 128GB

Ą 4x 10GBASE-KR interfaces + 1x 1GbE port with NC-SI Ą 4x USB 3.1; 24x PCI-e Gen3 lanes Ą AMD Secure Processor for Crypto Co-processing Ą Dedicated embedded BIOS based on AMI Aptio V Ą Available in industrial temperature (-40° ± +85°C)

www.seco.com/eu/come-c42-bt7.html

SECO

FEATURES





marcom@seco.com www.linkedin.com/company/seco-spa/

Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

 +39 0575 26979 twitter.com/SECO_spa



www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

/MSC HCC-CFLS Avnet Integrated introduces its new line of COM-HPC products starting with the MSC HCC-CFLS, a COM-HPC Client module and complement carrier board, the MSC HC-MB-EV. The module features a PICMG COM-HPC Client interface and comes in size C format (160mm x 120mm). The COM-HPC Client interface supports a total of 32 PCI Express lanes, 1G and NBASE-T (up to 10G) Ethernet ports, and DDI/eDP graphic interfaces. Designed for the 9th Generation Intel® Core™ S-Series Processor family, the module enables the greatest scalability from cost efficient Celeron up to powerful Xeon with eight cores. The versatile carrier board in microATX format enables designers a quick path to COM-HPC based product development.

FEATURES Ą 32x PCIe Ą 1 x NBASE-T (up to 10Gb) Ą 2x SoundWire/DMIC Ą 4x USB 3.1 / 4x USB 2.0 Ą 3x DDI Ą 1x eDP Ą 1x 1000BASE-T Ą 9th Generation Intel® Core™ S-Series Processor

www.avnet.com/wps/portal/integrated/products/embedded-boards/

Avnet Integrated

www.avnet.com/integrated





integrated@avnet.com  See website https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/18980630/

OpenSystems Media works with industry leaders to develop and publish content that educates our readers.

Challenges in the development of an industrial PC based on COM By nVent Schroff Standards like COM Express – used in production of customer-specific small-form-factor solutions – are intended to reduce the purchasers’ development time andcosts. Is it possible to reduce the user‘s development costs even further?

In this white paper, learn how development costs can be lowered with a modular approach to the carrier, enclosure, and cooling using prequalified components. The paper focuses on the implementation and qualification of high-speed data interfaces and optimization of cooling through simulation and thermal measurement.

Read the white paper – https://bit.ly/2Rfq5wT Get more white papers – http://picmg.mil-embedded.com/white-papers/ www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

Check out our white papers at www.picmg.mil-embedded.com/ white-papers/

Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

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PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

Industrial IoT

PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

CompactPCI

A FINE TECHNOLOGY GROUP

cPCI, PXI, VME, Custom Packaging Solutions VME and VME64x, CompactPCI, or PXI chassis are available in many configurations from 1U to 12U, 2 to 21 slots, with many power options up to 1,200 watts. Dual hot-swap is available in AC or DC versions. We have in-house design, manufacturing capabilities, and in-process controls. All Vector chassis and backplanes are manufactured in the USA and are available with custom modifications and the shortest lead times in the industry.

Series 2370 chassis offer the lowest profile per slot. Cards are inserted horizontally from the front, and 80mm rear I/O backplane slot configuration is also available. Chassis are available from 1U, 2 slots up to 7U, 12 slots for VME, CompactPCI, or PXI. All chassis are IEEE 1101.10/11 compliant with hot-swap, plug-in AC or DC power options.

Our Series 400 enclosures feature side-filtered air intake and rear exhaust for up to 21 vertical cards. Options include hot-swap, plug-in AC or DC power, and system voltage/temperature monitor.

Embedded power supplies are available up to 1,200 watts.

Series 790 is MIL-STD-461D/E compliant and certified, economical, and lighter weight than most enclosures available today. It is available in 3U, 4U, and 5U models up to 7 horizontal slots.

All Vector chassis are available for custom modification in the shortest time frame. Many factory paint colors are available and can be specified with Federal Standard or RAL numbers.

FEATURES Ą

Most rack accessories ship from stock

Ą

Modified ‘standards’ and customization are our specialty

Ą

Card sizes from 3U x 160mm to 9U x 400mm

Ą

System monitoring option (CMM)

Ą

AC or DC power input

Ą

Power options up to 1,200 watts

Made in the USA Since 1947

For more detailed product information, please visit www.vectorelect.com or call 1-800-423-5659 and discuss your application with a Vector representative.

Vector Electronics & Technology, Inc. www.vectorelect.com

30



inquire@vectorelect.com

 800-423-5659

Spring 2020 | PICMG Systems & Technology Resource Guide

www.picmg.mil-embedded.com

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