About the custom-built approach becomes even less cost effective

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.
1.State of the industry
2.Network Applications Platform
3.Unified Availability
4.Unified Management
5.Extensible architecture
6.Operating environments
7.Vertical Integration
8.Integration Development Kit
9.A final word

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

Plug-and-play, it's gaming!

Today HomePlug devices gaming account for more than 90 percent of the world’s broadband-speed power line communications market. The HomePlug standards family includes HomePlug AV for broadband applications such as HD video streams, HomePlug GP for smart grid applications, and soon HomePlug AV2, the next-generation Gigabit-class broadband standard – all fully interoperable with each other and the IEEE 1901 power line standard.

Regarding HDTV support, HomePlug AV enables a broadband-strength network gaming connection via electrical wiring for high-demand applications such as gaming  movies or online gaming. Since the introduction of the HomePlug AV standard back in 2006, its purpose has been to provide high-quality, multistream, entertainment-oriented networking over existing AC wiring within the home. HomePlug AV employs advanced PHY and Medium Access Control (MAC) technologies that provide a 200 Mbps class power line network for video, audio, and data.

refer to:http://industrial-embedded.com/articles/plug-and-play-homeplug-homeplug-powerline-alliance/

Networking systems are under a similar form of stress..

IT managers are under increasing pressure to boost network capacity and performance to cope with the data deluge. Networking systems are under a similar form of stress with their performance degrading as new capabilities are added in software. The solution to both needs is next-generation System-on-Chip (SoC) communications processors that combine multiple cores with multiple hardware acceleration engines.

 

The data deluge, with its massive growth in both mobile and enterprise network traffic, is driving substantial changes in the architectures of base stations, routers, gateways, and other networking systems. To maintain high performance as traffic volume and velocity continue to grow, next-generation communications processors combine multicore processors with specialized hardware acceleration engines in SoC ICs.

1.Networks under increasing stress
2. Moore’s Law not keeping pace
3. Hardware acceleration necessary, but …
4.Next-generation multicore SoCs

refer:http://embedded-computing.com/articles/next-generation-architectures-tomorrows-communications-networks/

Innovation driven by electronics

 

High-end electronics provide drivers and passengers with in-car navigation and entertainment and information delivered over a wireless network. In fact, many car buyers today care more about the infotainment technologies embedded in the dashboard than what's under the hood. This phenomenon is requiring additional storage space for rich multimedia data and advanced software and applications and is driving an explosive growth of both volatile and nonvolatile memories. Embedded multimedia cards are helping meet this demand in today's memory-hungry automotives.

 

The automotive market is moderately but steadily growing. Global car sales rose 6 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2012, despite the ongoing headwinds associated with the sovereign debt problems in Western Europe and some moderation in the pace of global economic activity. Global sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles are expected to grow from 78 million units in 2011 to more than 100 million units in 2018. In a recent study, Gartner confirmed that electronics are playing a major role in the advancement of automotive technology. Electronic content in cars has been steadily increasing since the first digital engine control modules were introduced in the ’80s.
Today, microelectronics enable advanced safety features, new information and entertainment services, and greater energy efficiency. The electric/electronic share of value added to a state-of-the-art vehicle is already at 40 percent for traditional, internal combustion engine cars and jumps as high as 75 percent for electric or hybrid electric vehicles. This trend will accelerate as advances in semiconductor technology continue to drive down the cost of various electronic modules and subsystems.
Infotainment is one of the key megatrends fueling the pervasiveness of microelectronics in cars. Users want to be connected and conveniently access their personal content anywhere, anytime, on all of their devices. The vehicle becomes just another node in the network, an extension of the user’s digital and social lifestyle (see this article’s lead-in photo). A “connected” car is also more comfortable, safer, and energy efficient, having early access to important information such as weather reports, traffic jams, or road accidents. According to a recent study, 60 percent of new cars will be connected by 2017. Given this scenario, consumer electronic trends are dictating features in the car, and the innovation cycle time is becoming shorter and shorter. Meanwhile, a key to this automotive infotainment innovation is the system’s enabler: memory.

Refer:
http://embedded-computing.com/articles/automotive-industry-innovation-driven-electronics/

The competitive market for smart

 

The competitive market for smart, connected devices is heating up, which requires OEMs to stay focused on differentiating their products and getting to market quickly. ARM-based building blocks are enabling OEMs to reallocate the resources needed to find, install, program, and troubleshoot drivers or debug hardware and concentrate instead on their core competencies. With prevalidated platforms that are fully configured and tested to deliver the required interoperability, compatibility, and functionality, OEMs can focus on application development and reuse existing application-specific software on a flexible hardware framework.

It is a dynamic time in the embedded market, as processors and software advancements are breaking down the barriers that once limited the implementation of various computing platforms. In conjunction with these advancements, embedded computing board and module suppliers are continually enhancing their platform portfolios to take advantage of the performance, interface, functionality, and power improvements available with next-generation processor architectures.
Refer:
http://embedded-computing.com/articles/modular-scalability-smart-connected-devices/#at_pco=cfd-1.0

Intel 3rd Generation Core i7/i5 and Celeron processors AIV-HM76V0FL

Industrial PC, gaming platform, networking appliance

AIV-HM76V0FL features Intel HM76 mobile chipset and FCPGA 988 socket for 3rd generation Core i mobile computer platform. AIV-HM76V0FL adopts Acrosser’s expertise of design for in-vehicle applications. These designs include smart power management, high efficient thermal module, and diversity of integrated communication technology such as 4 USB 3.0, CAN bus, Wi-Fi, 3.5G wireless WAN, Bluetooth and GPS.

The smart power management subsystem enables user to define the power on and off sequences through software interface or BIOS setting to meet any requirement of in-vehicle applications.

AIV-HM76V0FL Features
‧ FCPGA 988 socket support Intel 3rd Generation Core i7/i5 and Celeron processors up to 45W i7-3820QM
‧ Fanless thermal design and anti-vibration industrial design
‧ HDMI/DVI/VGA video outputs
‧ Combo connector for Acrosser’s In-Vehicle monitor
‧ 4 external USB 3.0 ports
‧ CAN bus 2.0 A/B
‧ Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3.5G, GPS
‧ One-wire (i-Button) interface
‧ 9-32 VDC power input
‧ -20 to 60 degree C operating temperature

Embedded computer Intel Atom Chipset with PCI and PCIe Expansion Slot

Acrosser Technology Co. Ltd, global professional industrial embedded computer manufacturer.

AR-ES6003FL, a fanless embedded system with Intel Atom D525 / D425 which is onboard solution and fanless design. It supports DDR3 memory and maximum capacity is 4GB. Based on embedded concept, AR-ES6003FL has variety IO like 4 x serial port, 6 x USB, 2 x GbE and PCI Express expansion. It offers the CF socket that embedded customers used to use, 2 x SATA interface and 1 x disk bay for the customer has large storage capacity request.

Embedded computers ,gaming platform ,Console server

Acrosser offers two kinds of expansion cards as default, one is with 2 x PCI Express x1 slots and another is with 1 x PCI and 1 x PCI Express x1. For OEM/ODM request, we can offer maximum 2 x PCI and 2 x PCI Express x1 slots.

The following is features and specifications for AR-ES6003FL:
‧CPU: Onboard Intel Atom D525 / D425
‧Memory: 2 x SO-DIMM DDR3 up to 4GB
‧Storage: 2 x SATA, 1 x CF
‧Display: 1 x VGA, 1 x 18-bit LVDS (Pin header)
‧Networking: 2 x Giga LAN
‧USB: 6 x USB2.0 (4 x external, 2 x internal)
‧Serial: 3 x RS-232 (DB9), 1 x RS-232/422/485 (DB9, switch selectable)
‧Power: 12V single voltage input (Terminal block)
‧Dimension: 280mm x 210mm x 127mm
‧Operating Temperature: 32 to 131 deg. F (0 to 55 deg. C)
‧Operating System Support: Windows XP, Windows 7, Fedora 14, Ubuntu 10