3 - The RTC Group Inc.

Transcription

58
VPX Storage Module Boots over SATA/SAS and PCI
Express for Use with Any CPU
60
Embedded Platform Speeds Development of QsevenBased Systems
TABLEOF CONTENTS
63
PCIe Quad-Port Switch Board Operates at 64 Gbit/s
VOLUME 21, ISSUE 11
Departments
Technology in Context
TECHNOLOGY IN SYSTEMS
Developing for FPGA SoCs
Distribute Data in the Cloud
Tools Are Key for
6Editorial
18 Development
Klaatu Barada Nikto
FPGA SoCs
Insider
HLS and Programmable
8Industry
Latest Developments in the Embedded
22 Using
SoCs to Drive Real-Time Digital
Marketplace
Signal Processing
Small Form Factor Forum
12Big Protos for Small Systems
TECHNOLOGY CONNECTED
& Technology
Newest Embedded Technology Used by PCI Express Generation 3
58Products
Industry Leaders
Practical Implementation of PCI
Express Gen3 across Optical
30
Cabling
EDITOR’S REPORT
Matt Spexarth, National Instruments
Matthew Ouellette, Xilinx
Advances in SoCs
SoC Devices Are
Developing in Interesting Ways
14Advanced
Tom Williams
44Security in the Cloud
Communications for
50Speed
Selected Applications with UDP
Robert Day, LynuxWorks
John Carbone, Express Logic
TECHNOLOGY DEPLOYED
Security for Data and Design
it Secure? Target Both
Design and Data Security
54Want
Richard Newell, Microsemi
Christopher Wong, Avago Technologies
38 What Else Can PCI Express Do?
Krishna Mallampati, PLX Technology
Digital Subscriptions Available at http://rtcmagazine.com/home/subscribe.php
RTC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2012
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EDITORIAL
NOVEMBER 2012
Tom Williams
Editor-in-Chief
Klaatu Barada Nikto
I
n the 1951 classic science fiction movie, The Day the Earth
Stood Still, there is a very prescient view of what some of the
advantages and hazards of advancing technology can mean. It
was the early Atomic Age and there was, of course, anxiety about
nuclear weapons. However, the plot of the film highlighted some
of the broader implications of what was then a relatively early
technological society.
In the movie, a flying saucer lands on the White House lawn
and an alien named Klaatu, played by Michael Rennie, emerges
accompanied by a robot named Gort. Klaatu pulls out a gift intended for the president, which is immediately shot out of his
hand by a nervous soldier. But Klaatu has come to deliver a message and a warning. In what is a fairly cliché-loaded sequence, he
tells Earth that their use of atomic weapons has gotten the other
worlds so worried that they are prepared to eliminate our planet
if we don’t change our ways. Of course, these warnings are ignored and he is forced to demonstrate what can be done.
What he does, and what makes the Earth “stand still,” is shut
off all electricity except that to critical things like aircraft and
hospitals. We needn’t go further into the plot of the film, but it is
helpful to realize that the world was even then becoming aware
of how much our survival, our daily lives and our assumptions
about what is normal depend on an underlying technological infrastructure. Today, Klaatu would probably not even bother with
shutting down electrical systems, but would instead set some sort
of universal breakpoint that would halt all computer systems.
Why the 2008 remake of the earlier classic did not seem to think
of that is beyond me.
But contemplate such an event. As we head toward 50 billion
connected devices in the “Internet of Things,” as so many more
systems are both safety- and life-critical, and as our commercial
and banking systems plus all our everyday lives become ever more
inextricably tangled in the digital web, the vulnerability of this
environment should give all of us pause. And the beings that are
relentlessly trying to compromise and possibly bring down this
world, or parts of it, are not aliens. They are right here among us.
In the past, I have expressed a somewhat cynical attitude
6
toward the confidence some have been placing in current efforts
to secure critical systems—which, it turns out, means nearly all
of them. Since they are mostly all already connected, there is not
really a system that is not critical unless it’s isolated within some
vault. And I remain of the opinion that many efforts at security
have been misleading. However, I also think that is beginning to
change. There are a number of reasons and developments that I
won’t go into here, but there are still problems.
For one thing, the world is already so advanced in its vulnerable connectivity that one has to wonder how new developments
in security technology can possibly be integrated into the existing digital infrastructure in a way that will make a difference.
There should probably be some concerted effort to wall off the
most critical elements in our infrastructure, such as power plants,
water treatment facilities and critical industrial installations, to at
least get a handle on protecting what might be the prime targets
for foreign cyber attack, but where beyond there? Even small,
dedicated devices can be made lethal.
I am constantly amazed and dismayed that there seems to
be an urgent need to secure things like pacemakers and insulin
pumps from hacking. For one thing, it is surprising to learn that
these things have wireless connectivity, but after some thought,
that at least seems understandable. But what kind of cretin would
actually intentionally hack such a device to do harm short of a
political assassin?
One of the unspoken messages in the old 1951 movie was
that Klaatu’s society had apparently achieved high technology,
which included the ability to destroy whole planets, but somehow
had grown beyond that—with the exception that they seemed prepared to destroy ours. So is the answer some sort of humane,
ideal transformation of our society? Not likely. It only takes a
couple of determined individuals to wreak unheard-of havoc. We
seem to be left to count on technology and more than a little luck.
Despite advances, this remains a vast problem that has already progressed well past a quick or complete solution. The major difference here is that I am no longer cynical about it. It is far
too serious.
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INDUSTRY
INSIDER
NOVEMBER 2012
Green Hills Adds AUTOSAR Support to
Integrity RTOS
Green Hills Software has announced the availability of a compliant
(AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture (AUTOSAR) Application Programming Interface (API) for its Integrity real-time operating system
(RTOS). The availability of the new AUTOSAR API for Green Hills Software’s safety- and security-certified Integrity RTOS—combined with the
existing set of standard APIs for OSEK and POSIX—provides automobile
manufacturers a clear path to address the growing dilemma of Electronic
Control Unit (ECU) bloat facing vehicles today. The modern automobile
has upwards of 80 microprocessor-based ECUs, and the number continues to grow due to legacy design practices. This growth is negatively
impacting vehicle cost, complexity, quality and time-to-market. Integrity
RTOS’s separation capabilities and this expanded API targeting automotive electronics enable an effective, proven ECU consolidation strategy
to address this growing problem. Developers can now leverage Green
Hills Software’s experience in safety-critical systems and consolidation
to safely decrease vehicle ECU count and complexity without sacrificing
functionality and quality.
The Green Hills AUTOSAR support is an extension to a recent announcement of the Green Hills Multi tool chain, which is now qualified to
the stringent ISO 26262 standard for use at the highest Automotive Safety
Integrity Level, ASIL D. This compliant AUTOSAR API has been integrated
and tested with industry-leading providers of AUTOSAR development tools
and target processor Microcontroller Abstraction Layer (MCAL) layers, and
provides seamless incorporation of AUTOSAR applications on Integritybased platforms.
Xilinx Accelerates
Automotive Driver
Assistance Deployment
The automotive industry is
poised to accelerate development
and deployment of a new generation of automotive driver assistance systems (ADAS). Xilinx
unveiled its automotive ARMprocessor-based Zynq-7000 All
Programmable system-on-a-chip
(SoC) platform that can reduce
the cost and time-to-market of
driver assistance solutions by using programmable system integration to lower bill-of-materials
while meeting the technical requirements behind systems requiring driver assurance-critical
image-to-vision and in-vehicle
networking capabilities.
8
According to Nick DiFiore, director of Xilinx’s automotive segment, “The Zynq-7000
family allows ADAS developers to implement a familiar
software-based system, but
with closely coupled, fully customized hardware accelerators
that deliver a level of raw image processing performance
and low power consumption
that is simply not achievable
with traditional multi-chip approaches.”
Automakers are bundling
the current generation of ADAS
applications—which
includes
blind spot detection, lane departure warning systems, automatic
parking assistance, collision
avoidance, pedestrian detection
and driver drowsiness detec-
tion—as they seek to provide
drivers with multiple safety
features at lower costs. Common to both current and future
ADAS applications is the use
of a variety of cameras and ultrasonic sensors in combination
with specialized, real-time processing systems; this is a prime
example of the image-to-vision
capabilities that Xilinx is putting particular focus on across
all its markets. Currently these
systems use multiple chips for
the required processing, which
keep BOM costs high and reduce flexibility options to scale
between vehicle platforms.
Xilinx addresses this with its
Zynq-7000 family, which incorporates an ARM dual-core
Cortex-A9 MPCore processing
system with tightly coupled programmable logic on a single die.
This combination dramatically
increases the performance critical for processing-intensive realtime ADAS, and enables greater
system integration for bundling
multiple applications while reducing BOM.
Deutsche Telekom and Digi
International Announce
Collaboration in M2M
Market
Digi
International
and
Deutsche Telekom have announced a collaboration to enable easy access and control of
remote devices used in machineto-machine (M2M) applications
throughout Europe. Digi will
integrate Deutsche Telekom’s
industrial-grade SIM cards into
its wireless gateways and routers, and M2M SIM management
functionalities into the iDigi Device Cloud.
Digi M2M solutions are
used in numerous applications,
such as connecting and monitoring remote assets like storage
tanks, vehicle fleets, solar power
arrays and other remote devices.
Therefore, Digi’s M2M solutions
are often used in places where
rough weather, movement, vibrations and extreme temperatures
can interfere with the optimal
functionality of integrated SIM
cards.
Deutsche
Telekom
offers special M2M Form Factor
(MFF) SIM chips, designed for
the purpose of reliable usage
under extreme weather and temperature conditions. Digi will be
the first gateway and router manufacturer to integrate Deutsche
Telekom’s M2M Form Factor
SIM chips. Since the chips are
soldered into place, the possibility of a plastic SIM becoming
loose from vibration in transit
or while deployed is eliminated.
Extreme heat or cold temperatures will not damage the chip,
and chips are safely protected
against moisture.
To further their collaboration, Deutsche Telekom M2M
and Digi are integrating the
SIM management functionalities of Deutsche Telekom’s
M2M Service Portal into the
iDigi Device Cloud, allowing
customers to manage their devices and SIM cards in one central location.
4V Solid-State Battery
Technology Achieves Record
Energy Density >1,000 WH/L
Infinite Power Solutions,
a U.S. clean-technology company manufacturing solid-state,
rechargeable batteries, has announced the development of a
new all-solid-state rechargeable
battery technology with low
manufacturing costs and record
energy density. The High Energy Cell (HEC) technology features a 4V rechargeable chemistry that delivers high power, an
ultra-low self-discharge rate and
long life for permanent battery
implementations. This ceramicbased HEC technology uses
only low-cost, high-throughput,
non-vacuum manufacturing processes, which is fundamentally
different from the solid-state,
thin-film batteries currently
produced by IPS. The new HEC
technology offers much higher
cell capacity than existing thinfilm technology, yet remains inherently safe and eco-friendly.
This technology enables a new
era of low-cost, high-capacity,
small form-factor, rechargeable
batteries in traditional battery
formats such as coin cells, or
custom shapes and sizes to serve
medical, industrial and consumer electronics.
The new HEC technology
offers a fully packaged volumetric energy density of greater
than 1,000 Wh/l, which is unprecedented for a 4V rechargeable chemistry, especially when
packaged in form factors that
are smaller and thinner than
today’s coin cells. As a figure
of merit, HEC technology can
produce a single cell capacity
of 85 mAh per charge cycle in
a 20 mm diameter round cell ~1
mm thick. Such a cell exhibits a
continuous current capability of
30 mA and a peak pulse current
of up to 90 mA at 25°C. With
a similar 3-cell stack connected
in parallel and packaged within
a traditional 20 mm diameter
metal package like a coin cell, a
capacity of 250 mAh per charge
cycle can be achieved within
a 3.2 mm standard thickness,
while delivering an impressive
270 mA of pulse current at 25°C.
For comparison, a standard 3V
primary
(non-rechargeable)
CR2032 LiMnO2 coin cell has
a lifetime capacity of only 220
mAh and a peak pulse current of
up to 75 mA. Though less common, 3.6V rechargeable coin
cells are available today but provide substantially less capacity
and power than the aforementioned primary cell. Therefore,
the HEC technology developed
by IPS offers much higher lifetime energy and much more
power than conventional coin
cells available today.
All-solid-state HEC technology delivers about 70%
(700 Wh/l) of the rated capacity at a current density of 1 mA/
cm 2 , which is comparable to
the continuous current density
of a conventional lithium ion
(Li-ion) prismatic battery with
energy densities of only 400500 Wh/l. Employing the HEC
technology into a tiny, fully encapsulated, 4.8 mm round cell
with only 1.0 mm thickness
delivers ~3 mAh of capacity at
a continuous current of ~35 µA
and can provide a pulse current of ~3 mA at 25°C. This is
a strong capacity-current capability for many real-time clock
(RTC) and memory backup
power applications, and offers
five times more energy density
and five times more power than
existing ML414 cells using Li/
MnO 2 chemistry.
Time to Rethink Time
Precision
According to Napatech, a
vendor of intelligent adapters for
network monitoring and analysis,
the growth in 10 GbE port deployments and the introduction
of 40 and 100 GbE is driving the
need to rethink requirements for
precision time stamping and time
synchronization.
“The issue is simple,” stated
Napatech CEO Henrik Brill
Jensen. “As data is transmitted
at faster speeds, there is less
time to react and more data to
handle per second. It’s a doublewhammy that network monitoring and analysis applications
cannot handle using standard
network interface cards. These
applications rely on intelligent
adapters to take care of packet
capture and time-stamping at
high speeds. But, to be useful,
these network adapters must
ensure that each and every Ethernet frame is uniquely timestamped, otherwise the analysis
is worthless.”
At 10 Gbit/s, an Ethernet
frame can be sent every 67 nanoseconds. At 40 Gbit/s, the time
between Ethernet frames shrinks
to 17 nanoseconds and at 100
Gbit/s it is only 6.7 nanoseconds.
This means less time to accurately
time stamp. An accurate time
stamp is important in determining the sequence in which frames
are received. Without this basic
information, the analysis is compromised.
“There are many solutions
available on the market for
time-stamping and time synchronization, which claim that
microsecond precision is ‘good
enough’, but it’s clear that we
need to rethink this perception in the light of 10G, 40G
and 100G,” added Jensen. “Not
only do we need to start talking
about nanoseconds, but we also
need to start talking about subnanoseconds…”
There are a number of
technology choices available
for time synchronization, such
as NTP, GPS, CDMA and
IEEE1588v2/PTP. There are
also a number of very specific
technology terms that are easily confused, such as the difference between accuracy, resolution and precision in relation to
time-stamping and time synchronization.
“Time-stamping and time
synchronization have long been
the domain of specialists,” continued Jensen. “However, now
it is important that appliance
developers also understand
these concepts and can see
through some of the confusion
in the market in inaccurate use
of these terms as well as understanding what is possible to
achieve with various technologies available.”
Altera Named Among
World’s 100 Most Innovative
Companies by Forbes
Altera Corporation has announced it was selected as one
of the 100 most innovative companies in the world according
to a study recently published by
Forbes. This is the second consecutive year Altera was recognized by Forbes with this distinction.
“As a company that champions innovation, we deeply appreciate this global recognition
of our foremost core value,”
said John Daane, president,
CEO and chairman of Altera.
“Altera nurtures innovation
among our employees. But
equally important, Altera’s
business model is to unleash innovation within our customers’
engineering teams and boost
the success of their products.
Altera’s culture of innovation
gives our customers a measurable advantage in their system
development efforts.”
Altera’s recognized innovations cover the spectrum
of semiconductor and systems
technologies. The company’s
pioneering work in process
adaptation, circuit design and
SoC architecture underlies recent announcements on 20 nm
technology, deployment of the
world’s fastest backplane transceivers, and on being the first to
roll out all 28 nm FPGA product
families in production.
Altera’s innovation in system design methodology has led
to the company’s OpenCL ef-
9
INDUSTRY INSIDER
fort for deploying FPGAs as accelerators in high-performance
systems. Recent innovations in
application technology include
a development kit enabling
beyond-high-definition
(HD)
video processing, and a digitally
enhanced RF development kit
jointly developed with Texas Instruments. The Forbes ranking is
based on “Innovation Premium,”
an indication of the premium the
stock market gives a company
because investors expect it to
launch new offerings and enter
new markets.
Market for Control Valves
Using Electric Actuators to
Double by 2017
The market for electrically actuated control valve assemblies was estimated to be
$298 million in 2011, and still
10
Untitled-2 1
far smaller than the market for
products using air as the power
medium. However, recent advances in electric actuation
technology have dramatically
increased the addressable market base for these products. IMS
Research expects the market
for electrically actuated control valves to experience CAGR
growth of 13.4 percent through
to 2017, more than twice the rate
of any other control valve type.
As a result, IMS Research expects the market for electrically
actuated control valves to double in size, exceeding $630 million by 2017, representing more
than ten percent of global control valve assembly revenues.
Pneumatic actuation still
represents the dominant market
for control valves, and in 2011
air power was required for approximately 93 out of every 100
valves sold during the year. This
is despite the generally accepted
advantages of electric actuators,
which include higher efficiency
and greater levels of control.
However, fail safe limitations,
increased integration complexity, fragility perceptions and a
higher price tag have provided
an effective barrier for many
end-users considering electric
actuation over traditional pneumatic actuation. This has severely limited the applications
in which it was feasible to use
electric actuators. As a result,
the global market for control
valve assemblies using electric
actuation was estimated to represent slightly over six percent
of global control valve revenues
in 2011.
Recent developments in
electric actuation have seen a
dramatic increase in the customer base for these products.
Rugged electric actuators with
armored cables and water resistance capability have expanded
the instances where it is feasible
to use electric actuation to include increasingly hostile environments. The ability to now fail
open, fail close, or anywhere in
between, has also expanded the
market base to include a variety
of fail-safe applications, which
have further increased the ability of electric actuation to compete with air power in control
valve markets.
5/4/12 1:53:35 PM
Microsoft to Introduce Intelligent System
Strategy With Windows Embedded 8
YOU ARE INVITED: 34 CITIES
ONE POWERFUL TECHNOLOGY
AMERICAS
Mountain View, CA - Nov. 1
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Toronto, ON - Feb. 7
ASIA & JAPAN
Tokyo, Japan - Nov. 16
Osaka, Japan - Nov. 20
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Seoul, Korea - Dec. 6
Mumbai, India - Dec. 11
Bangalore, India - Dec. 13
Beijing, China - Dec. 13
Shenzhen, China - Dec. 18
Shanghai, China - Dec. 20
EMEA
Paris, France - Nov. 6
Milan, Italy - Nov. 20
Lyon, France - Nov. 22
Nuremberg, Germany - Nov. 27
Madrid, Spain - Nov. 29
Tel Aviv, Israel - Dec. 18
Cambridge, United Kingdom - Jan. 17
Stockholm, Sweden - Feb. 5
Moscow, Russia - Feb. 7
Cologne, Germany - Mar. 5
Munich, Germany - Mar. 26
*Dates and locations are subject to change
evolve2012tour.com
Windows Embedded Summit
What Is It?
A half-day technical brieng highlighting the
Microsoft intelligent system strategy and how
engineers and technology leaders can leverage
existing WES7 and upcoming WES8 technology
to increase embedded OEM business more
effectively.
Who Is Invited?
Business leaders and technology decisionmakers will be invited to join Microsoft and key
partners at over 30 global locations.
Questions Answered:
What game-changing technology does Windows
Embedded 8 bring to embedded design?
How to best select an embedded software
platform for next generation intelligent systems?
How to get started today and prepare your
business for the future?
SMALL FORM FACTOR
FORUM
Colin McCracken
Big Protos for Small Systems
T
he undeniable benefits of computer-on-modules—multisourced x86 and RISC computing cores with well-defined
interfaces to a carrier board—are helping more and more
embedded apps to shrink their system dimensions. Before racing
off to design your own optimized carrier board for such a COM,
peruse the variety of off-the-shelf carriers on the market.
Originally just offering basic PC-style I/O, this growing
COTS ecosystem now features real application I/O or at least
expansion connectors to plug into off-the-shelf I/O cards. Even
if readily available carrier boards don’t match your I/O requirements, many of these suppliers will spin their carrier boards for a
very modest, time-saving NRE fee.
If nothing comes close, you embark down the custom carrier
design path. This road is well paved by now, but littered with potholes that can’t be anticipated until they are right in front of you.
Or until after you hit one. Then the damage to your schedule and
reputation is done, and it’s too late to go back.
Designing with COMs is increasingly the ideal compromise
between full custom and fully off-the-shelf. But rather than going straight to the final optimized tiny carrier design, consider
designing a large spread out carrier board with all the debug bells
and whistles you can think of. Even better yet, try to build a huge
functional mock-up of your system using your COM supplier’s
largest (ATX-style) carrier board with I/O cards you purchase to
fill the expansion slots. Find I/O cards with the exact I/O controller chip that you want to put on a custom carrier card (e.g., LAN,
UARTs, A/D, CAN, 1553, etc.), so that you can first test the hardware and device drivers before you commit to the carrier design.
Software engineers are often more predisposed to think
in terms of functionally equivalent models than their hardware
counterparts who dive right into schematic capture. The software
folks have earned their scars of experience, such as running into
a device driver or DLL or kernel module that doesn’t behave right
and the supplier won’t fix it. When this pothole is hit and no reliable work-around can be created, the hardware team must iterate
12
their design until the “off-the-shelf” software works (OS, drivers,
etc.). System OEMs don’t write device drivers or OS kernels, and
chip vendors and OS vendors don’t provide source code or debug
your custom carrier board.
Naturally, the pointy-haired bosses want to see a very small
prototype that resembles the final system for their marginally
generous project budget. They are a visual species. Back in their
day, through-hole circuit boards with DIP microcontrollers and
parallel slow multi-drop buses were easier to probe and debug.
So how can it be so hard to “get it right the first time” with 1200ball BGAs and SoCs?
Without bruising their fragile egos, try this explanation. The
total cost of developing and sustaining a device over 10 years can
actually be reduced, considering the cost of field failures and customer down time, by having a known good platform with ample
debug hooks. Simple pin headers and/or logic analyzer connectors, access to critical signals for scope capture, a slot for an LPC
POST Code card, and other expansion slots for similar off-theshelf I/O cards cover myriad failure modes and scenarios during
initial development and production phases.
Multiple connectors and circuits for different display types
on the carrier board are useful when something causes the LCD
not to work. Finally, connectors for alternative / back-up boot
devices, for firmware updates, and for local access as well as remote access can prove invaluable for troubleshooting problems in
the lab, on the production floor, at the contract manufacturer, or
at a remote installation.
Bringing up and troubleshooting embedded systems is still a
complex endeavor, even with the vast array of software and hardware building blocks on the market. Sometimes, these building
blocks work individually, yet system integration reveals race conditions, resource conflicts, interrupts firing for no apparent reason,
and the list goes on. The more you plan ahead with a large prototype, the better prepared you will be to avoid, reduce, or at least
respond quickly to the inevitable potholes along your journey.
editor’s report
Advances in SoCs
Advanced SoC Devices
Are Developing in
Interesting Ways
The world of SoCs was once a simpler place. SoCs
were a compromise between very general-purpose
processors and specialized ASICs where the differences
often amounted to a selected mix of peripherals. That is
definitely changing.
by Tom Williams, Editor-in-Chief
W
hatever it is, it seems that it will
include a 32-bit processor core.
But after that, the devices and
configurable functions that are showing up
in the latest SoCs seem to be aimed at both
highly configurable capabilities as well as
at certain specialized tasks that some applications will use most frequently. In all
cases, the watchword appears to be low
power. And increasingly, safety and security are required as built-in features.
In the rapidly expanding “Internet of
Things,” the number of “things” is destined to be astronomical—over 50 billion
connected devices by 2020—and these
things will be ever smaller and more outof-sight than ever before. And these connections are increasingly wireless ones tying together ultra-low-power devices with
ever smaller footprints that are powered
by batteries or energy harvesting. Conventionally, we have had small devices based
on extremely low-power microcontrollers
integrated with transceivers that spent
large percentages of their time in sleep
modes only to awaken when they obtained
input or sent messages over the air.
Now a new 32-bit MCU family from
Silicon Labs is aimed at supporting this
trend by essentially doing the same things,
but in a much more efficient and targeted
14
manner. The SiM3L1xx family is based
around a low-power ARM Cortex-3M
core and boasts specs of 175μA in active
mode and less than 250nA in sleep mode.
But those numbers, if taken alone, do not
tell the full story of the flexibility built
into this family. By adjusting other parameters than simply process technology,
the idea was to create a device that could
more efficiently do the normal functions
of controllers in mesh network and sensor
environments, increasing efficiency and
further reducing power consumption.
For example, the ability to adjust the
clock rate makes it possible to clock only
what is necessary only as fast as necessary. Close attention to the characteristics of batteries would make it possible to
greatly extend their useful life. Attention
to the characteristics of different use cases
such as various sleep mode requirements
and the need for different types of sensors
could be accommodated. And reducing
the wake-up time between sleep and active
mode to 4μs means that even use cases that
have variable duty cycles can minimize
the power wasted in wake-up (Figure 1).
For example, most battery chemistries produce about 3V, while today’s lowpower silicon can run on 1.8V. The SiML1xx family has been supplied with an
integrated DC/DC converter, which dissipates far less heat than traditional linear
regulators. This results in an efficiency of
about 80% as opposed to the 60% to 70%
efficiency of a regulator. In addition, the
battery can be allowed to deteriorate to a
pre-selected voltage level, at which point
the converter can be turned off. On top
of that, the devices have pins that can be
used to power other external system components off the same internal DC/DC
converter. So setting the output voltage to
the lowest acceptable setting of the other
IC components connected to the MCU
minimizes overall power consumption.
Typically, devices controlling nodes
in wireless networks such as smart meters, security and energy monitoring
equipment have both a CPU and an integrated transceiver where the CPU constructs, encodes and transmits the data
packets. In the SiM3Lxx family, these
functions, from taking in the raw data to
encrypting, error checking and encoding
the protocols, are done via a data transfer
manager (DTM) while the CPU remains
in sleep mode. Data simply arrives as a
DMA transfer. Of course, the CPU is still
available and can be awakened for other
specialized or developer-defined functions, but the DTM is capable of providing
30% to 40% power savings, according to
the company (Figure 2).
Another major function offloaded
from the CPU is sensor management. A
dedicated sensor interface manager (SIM)
takes advantage of Silicon Labs’ mixed
signal technology to provide an analog
front end stimulus and response architecture that can support a wide variety of sensors including capacitive, inductive, Hall
effect, infrared, acoustic and more. In addition, the SIM is programmable such that
the developer can program the excitation
block to excite the sensor in terms of period and duration. The programmable inputs give control over such things as sampling rates, counting modes and threshold.
Thus the block can be set to take a reading
if a sensed value is above a certain level if
desired. In addition, the SIM can take in a
sensor reading and send it directly to the
DTM with no CPU intervention at all.
editor’s report
Along with an Eclipse-based IDE and
AppBuilder software are two new tools for
estimating power consumption and providing configuration guidance to achieve the
lowest system power. Power Estimator provides a graphical representation of the total
supply current and additive currents for enabled peripherals. The raw current values
of each peripheral show where power is
being consumed, and a pie chart shows the
percentage of each peripheral’s power usage relative to the total current. Power Tips
provides software configuration guidance
that helps developers minimize current
consumption. The feature automatically
appears within AppBuilder when the cursor hovers over a configurable setting.
Advances in Highly Integrated
Devices
Another advance in the attention that
semiconductor manufacturers are giving to
increasing demands of the markets includes
radically reducing power consumption
while concentrating on security and reliability for highly integrated devices that incorporate a 32-bit processor with its standard
peripherals onto the same die with a highly
configurable programmable logic fabric.
We have here dubbed this class of devices
“application services platforms” (ASPs), but
the different vendors have their own names
as well. The latest offering comes from Microsemi in the form of their SmartFusion2,
a class of device it calls the SoC FPGA,
which integrates a flash-based FPGA fabric
on the same die with an ARM Cortex-M3
core and its peripherals (Figure 3).
The main stated goals for this relatively new class of devices is to greatly
Raw Data
AES Encryption
SiM3L1xx
175 µA/MHz
SiM3L1xx
4 µs wake
SiM3L1xx
< 200 nA sleep w/ RTC
50 nA sleep w/o RTC
Power consumed
during sleep mode
Power wasted
during wake-up
Power consumed
during active mode
Figure 1
Reducing the wake-up time between sleep and active modes can greatly
reduce wasted energy in systems with high periodic behavior.
improve not only power efficiency but also
security and reliability. This is in response
to demands for greater security in industries beyond military and aerospace that
include telecommunications, medicine,
industry, transportation and more. Recent
attacks on these areas have highlighted
the need for security and anti-tamper safeguards within electronic systems.
SmartFusion2 provides advanced design and data security capabilities starting
with a robust root-of-trust device with secure
key storage capability using a physically
unclonable function (PUF) key enrollment
and regeneration capability. SmartFusion2
is also protected from differential power
analysis (DPA) attacks using technology
from the Cryptographic Research Incorporated (CRI) portfolio. DPA enables hackers
to analyze the power patterns to extract information to decrypt data. Users may also
CRC
Encoder
leverage built-in cryptographic processing
accelerators including: advanced encryption standard (AES) AES-256, secure hash
algorithm (SHA) SHA-256, 384-bit elliptical curve cryptographic (ECC) engine and
a non-deterministic random bit generator
(NRBG). An in-depth discussion of design and data security can be found in the
Microsemi-contributed article in this issue
titled, “Want it Secure? Target Both Design
and Data Security.”
Additional security features include
protection against overbuilding by contract manufacturers through supply-chain
assurance with a digital certificate of conformance. The bit stream is always encrypted with AES-256 encryption. In addition, there is protection against reverse
engineering and tampering with active
zeroization. This feature erases all content and internal fabric configuration on
SPI
Radio TX
DMA and DTM
Figure 2
The data transfer manager (DTM) carries out all the functions needed to take in raw data, encrypt it, do error checking and
format the needed protocols, and then sends it to the transceiver, which would normally be done by the full processor core.
The core can remain in sleep mode until needed by other applications functions.
15
editor’s report
JTAG I/O
SPI I/O
Multi-Standard User I/O (MISO)
SPI x 2
MMUART x 2
I 2C x 2
Timer x 2
System Controller
AES256 SHA256
ECC
NRBG
FlashFreeze
SRAM-PUF
CAN
In-Application
Programming
WDT
DDR User I/O
APB
PCMA
RTC
Interrupts
Micro SRAM
(64x18)
Serial 0 I/O
FIC_1
DDR
Bridge
eNVM
MSS
DDR Controller
+ PHY
eSRAM
Large SRAM
(1024x18)
Config
OSCs
TSE MAC
SMC_FIC
Config
AXI/AHB
Math Block
MACC (18x18)
Math Block
MACC (18x18)
AXI/AHB/XGXS
Serial Controller 1
(PCIe, XAUI/XGXS)
+ Native SERDES
HPDMA
AHB
Large SRAM
(1024x18)
AXI/AHB/XGXS
Serial Controller 0
(PCIe, XAUI/XGXS)
+ Native SERDES
FIC_0
AHB AHB
Micro SRAM
(64x18)
Config
SYSREG
COMM_BLK
FPGA Fabric
HS USB
OTG ULPI
Instruction
Cache
AHB Bus Matrix (ABM)
FBC
Smart Fusion 2
D
I
S
ARM Cortex-M3
MPU ETM
Microcontroller
Subsystem (MSS)
Config
PLLs
Serial 1 I/O
AXI/AHB
Fabric DDR Controller
+ PHY
Standard C+1/
SEU Immune
Flash Based/
SEU Immune
DDR User I/O
Figure 3
The new Microsemi SmartFusion2 family integrates an ARM Cortex-M3 processor with a flash-based FPGA fabric, a
number of high-speed serial interfaces, and extensive data and design security features.
detection of an attempt to tamper or hack
into the device. In the past, the military
used to send service personnel along with
explosive devices if there was a need to
ultimately protect sensitive equipment.
Increasing Reliability
Microsemi’s programmable logic solutions are used extensively in defense and security, as well as in aerospace applications due
to their high reliability and immunity to single
event upset (SEU) occurrences caused by the
impact of heavy ions from outer space, which
can cause binary bits to change state and corrupt data and cause hardware malfunction.
The need for SEU protection is also extending
into industrial and medical applications. This
has led, according to Microsemi, to a failurein-time (FIT) rate of zero.
In addition, SmartFusion2 flash FPGA
fabric does not require external configuration, which provides an added level of security since the SoC FPGA retains its config-
16
uration when powered off and enables device “instant-on” performance. The Flash
Freeze mode can be entered and exited in
100 μs, and in that mode consumes only 1
mW as opposed to the 10mW static power
during operation. This can be useful in
low-power sensor networks for periodically
turning on to look for a signal and then
shutting down to save power or performing
a specified operation on receipt of the signal
and then going back into freeze mode.
SmartFusion2 also protects all its
SoC embedded SRAM memories from
SEU errors through the use of single error
correction on the fabric and double error
detection (SECDED) protection on embedded memories such as the Cortex-M3
embedded scratch pad memory, Ethernet,
CAN and USB buffers, and is optional on
the DDR memory controllers.
System designers can leverage the
newly released Libero SoC software toolset
for designing SmartFusion2 devices. Libero
SoC integrates industry leading synthesis,
debug and DSP support from Synopsys,
and simulation from Mentor Graphics with
power analysis, timing analysis and push
button design flow. Firmware development
is fully integrated into Libero SoC with
compile and debug available from GNU,
IAR and Keil, and all device drivers and
peripheral initialization is auto generated
based on System Builder selections. The
ARM Cortex-M3 processor includes operating system support for embedded Linux
from EmCraft Systems, FreeRTOS, SAFERTOS and uc/OS-III from Micrium.
Silicon Laboratories
Austin, TX.
(512) 416-8500.
[www.silabs.com].
Microsemi
Aliso Viejo, CA.
(949) 380-6100.
[www.microsemi.com].
Technology in
context
Developing for FPGA SoCs
Development Tools Are Key for
FPGA SoCs
A new generation of chips that combine standard CPU architectures with
programmable logic fabrics offer unique opportunities. They also present a
challenge of bringing together two disciplines that must now focus on the
same device.
by Matt Spexarth, National Instruments
E
mbedded designers have practiced
heterogeneous computing by combining microprocessors and FPGAs within embedded systems since the
advent of commercially viable FPGAs.
FPGAs initially acted primarily as glue
logic that interfaced processing systems,
peripherals and I/O. As FPGA technology
improved, the FPGA market expanded to
take a larger and more central role in some
embedded systems. FPGA vendors began
embedding hard microcontroller and microprocessor IP into FPGA-centric chips
nearly a decade ago. More common today,
soft microcontroller IP is often integrated
into FPGA-based designs. The latest trend
in heterogeneous computing is integrating
processor and FPGA subsystems into a
single system-on-chip (SoC). Processor
and software centric design teams require
new tools to take advantage of both systems on these complex SoCs.
System designers find the combination of processor and FPGA attractive for
embedded systems because of the wide
flexibility it offers in a standard design
template. Essentially, the processor and
FPGA work together to overcome the
weaknesses in each element when they
stand alone.
The processor in the system provides
a wide range of standard peripheral in-
18
NI RIO Architecture
MPU/MCU
FPGA
• Real-time OS
• Application IP
• Application software
• Control IP
• Networking and
peripheral I/O drivers
• DSP IP
• DMA, interrupt,
and bus control drivers
Specialized I/O
Specialized I/O
• Specialized I/O
drivers and interface
Specialized I/O
• DMA controller
Specialized I/O
Figure 1
Inserting an FPGA between a processing target and application I/O creates a
reconfigurable I/O (RIO) system. The FPGA adds application-specific IP and
provides a path for field upgrades and changes to extend the lifetime of an
embedded device.
terfaces: Ethernet, serial, USB, CAN,
SPI, memory and more. In a processoronly approach, application-specific I/O is
typically interfaced via one or more peripheral interfaces, such as SPI or USB.
Developing software for the processor is
widely understood and manageable by a
large population of software engineers using standard tools, development languages
and operating systems. Once a processor
is chosen, the possible interfaces to I/O
are fixed and the system becomes rigid.
Placing an FPGA between the processor and the application-specific I/O boosts
the flexibility and processing capability of
the overall system. An FPGA between the
processing system and the I/O provides
a reconfigurable I/O (RIO) architecture
that can serve as a co-processing engine,
inline signal processor, safety subsystem,
or extremely low-latency control system.
The reconfigurable nature of the FPGA
provides a mechanism for hardware upgrades and product differentiation, which
technology in context
Processing System
2x
SPI
I/O
MUX
Dynamic Memory Controller
DDR3, DDR2, LPDDR2
AMBA Switches
AMBA Switches
2x
I2C
ARM CoreSight Multi-core and Trace Debug
2x
CAN
NEON/FPU Engine
NEON/FPU Engine
2x
UART
Cortex-A9MPCore
32/32 KB I/D Caches
Cortex-A9 MPCore
32/32 KB I/D Caches
512 KB L2 Cache
GPIO
Snoop Control Unit (SCU)
Time Counters
2x SDIO
with DMA
2x GigE
with DMA
System Gates,
DSP, RAM
ACP
256 KB On-Chip Memory
General Interrupt Controller DMA
2x USB
with DMA
Programmable
Logic:
Multi Standards I/Os (3.3V & High Speed 1.8V)
Static Memory Controller
Quad-SPI, NAND, NOR
Configuration
AMBA Switches
XADC
PCIe
Multi Standards I/Os (3.3V & High Speed 1.8V)
Multi Gigabit Transceivers
Figure 2
This block diagram of the Zynq-7000 All Programmable SoC outlines a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processing system
coupled with programmable logic.
extends product life in a world of evolving
interfaces and standards (Figure 1).
Despite the many advantages in a
standardized hardware topology of processor and FPGA, this combination presents some challenges. These include the
extra power consumed by the additional
FPGA target; the size, cost and complexity of integrating a separate FPGA into
PCB design; and the programming challenges associated with FPGA hardware
design compared to software development
on processors.
FPGA vendors are addressing many
of these challenges head on. Thanks to
increasing cost pressures associated with
shrinking feature size on ASICs and custom SoCs, FPGA vendors have developed
general-purpose, processor-focused SoCs
with programmable logic that can be
customized to meet specific application
needs. The Xilinx Zynq All Programmable SoC integrates an ARM Cortex-A9
processing subsystem with FPGA logic
(Figure 2). The Cypress Semiconductor
PSoC (Programmable SoC) and the Microsemi SmartFusion cSoC (customizable
SoC) integrate ARM Cortex-M3 processing units with programmable logic and
programmable analog interfaces. Altera
has also announced a series of SoC FPGA
devices based on ARM Cortex-A9 processors with FPGA fabric. These products
reduce the size, cost and power of incorporating an FPGA in an embedded system, potentially making a programmable
logic standard in a wide range of applications. In addition, a series of SoC FPGA
devices at different performance levels
can replace hundreds of custom ASICs to
create an attractive economy of scale.
Software Programming AND
Hardware Description Languages
Integrating the FPGA subsystem
into a processor SoC removes most of
the hardware PCB design concerns of
integrating similar functionality via a
discrete processor and discrete FPGA.
The final hurdle in the development process is programming the two subsystems.
Digital hardware designers cringe at the
use of the word “programming” in reference to the FPGA subsystem because
19
Figure 3
NI Single-Board RIO and CompactRIO are two potential off-the-shelf hardware
targets in the LabView RIO architecture.
Multidisciplinary Design Team
Graphical System Design Team
Domain Experts
Software
Designers
FPGA
Designers
Mechanical
Designers
Analog
Designers
Digital
Designers
Domain Experts
System Designers
Figure 4
With the appropriate system design tools, smaller design teams can focus on
scientific and market domain features and spend less time and resources on
ground-up custom design and middleware.
an FPGA isn’t simply programmed. The
FPGA subsystem is an electronic circuit,
and it is designed as hardware. Typically,
hardware description languages (HDLs)
such as VHDL or Verilog are necessary
to take advantage of the FPGA. Teams
who have used FPGAs in the past likely
already have HDL expertise, but design
teams interested in taking advantage of an
SoC with FPGA fabric now have a new
challenge.
The pool of system designers who
are fluent in processor programming
languages, such as C/C++, is abundant.
However, HDL experts represent a small
fraction of the embedded system engineer
workforce compared to software engineers. Managers must assemble a coordinated team that includes both software engineers and digital designers working in
tandem to realize the full potential of the
heterogeneous architecture on the processor and FPGA SoC architecture.
If programmable logic tools do not
20
evolve to better suit the skills of the large
embedded software engineering contingency, FPGAs and SoCs with FPGA
fabric will continue to serve only the
niches that FPGAs have carved today. For
maximum adoption of these SoCs, FPGA
vendors are investing heavily in tools and
partners to better align the development
practices between processors and FPGA
fabric. High-level synthesis (HLS) tools,
such as the LabView FPGA Module,
Vivado HLS or SystemC, reduce the gap
in code development between software
and digital domains.
LabView is a high-level tool used for
both processor and FPGA system design.
In 2003, National Instruments released
a plug-in module for LabView to target
NI FPGA-based hardware that includes
Xilinx FPGAs. The LabView FPGA Module uses Xilinx compile tools in the background to synthesize LabView code to an
FPGA bitfile. With LabView, designers
use the same development environment
and language for all programmable targets in the heterogeneous computing system. The same language is used to express
logic for processors and FPGAs. LabView
is system design software that includes a
graphical programming language based
on structural dataflow. By its nature, it intuitively represents parallel functions and
natively maps to the parallel implementation of logic in an FPGA and multicore
processors.
LabView abstracts the development
of both processor and FPGA logic to the
same language. With LabView, a single
system designer can master the software
and FPGA development realms that typically require two or more engineers with
unique skills. An algorithm, once written,
may be moved back and forth between
processing and FPGA subsystems to optimize the system topology.
The combination of processor, FPGA
and application-specific I/O programmed
with LabView has defined the LabView
RIO architecture. The Zynq-7000 All
Programmable SoC embodies that architecture, and NI is working to support
Zynq with LabView and future products
based on Zynq technology.
High-Level Tools, Off-the-Shelf
Hardware, Shorter Time-toMarket
With traditional approaches, I/O integration into an FPGA is often a timeconsuming process. Many HLS tools
cannot replace the entire HDL tool chain
familiar to digital designers because the
I/O interfaces from the FPGA fabric to
the real world must still be implemented
with HDL. Anecdotes from HDL design
teams indicate that I/O integration often
takes more than 70 percent of the time
dedicated to design, while only 30 percent or less is spent adding differentiating
value through control algorithms or signal
processing.
The LabView RIO architecture combines the LabView development language
with a platform of off-the-shelf, FPGAbased hardware targets to minimize the
time spent developing and integrating I/O.
For example, all low-level SPI communication to an analog-to-digital converter,
calibration and conversion to fixed-point
data are automatically implemented when
using NI C Series I/O modules with NI
CompactRIO hardware (Figure 3).
The typical embedded system design
team includes analog, digital and mechanical engineers for hardware design;
software developers for processor programming; and FPGA designers for HDL
development. In addition, the team requires market or scientific domain experts
who have the vertical industry knowledge
of the application the design is going to
fulfill. For example, a team working on
a medical device may require a medical
doctor. Individuals on large teams inherently have to communicate with other
team members to ensure they are delivering the right elements to each other and
staying on the same page. This larger
team dynamic has a higher risk of miscommunication or misalignment during
execution, leading to extra time to correct
mistakes.
LabView automatically implements
and abstracts the low-level I/O integration
details because NI design teams equip
LabView with an awareness of all system
components. The benefits of LabView
system design software are best realized
on NI-designed hardware targets. Smaller
design teams find the tight integration of
LabView software and FPGA-based hardware liberating—they are no longer burdened by the details of full custom design.
They can spend more time focusing on
adding their own value and differentiation and less on bringing up an operating
system, developing middleware drivers, or
debugging a PCB design signal integrity
issue. Because LabView intuitively targets
both the processor and programmable
logic resources, market and scientific domain experts can play a more active role
in developing rather than just consulting.
When the domain experts implement directly, the results quickly match the scientific or market requirements (Figure 4).
All programmable processors that
include FPGA fabric deliver a flexible computing platform to replace many
ASIC designs and augment traditional
processor-centric designs. The additional
reconfigurable programmable logic helps
meet the challenges of extending product
lifetimes while integrating new or evolving standards and adding highly parallel hardware-accelerated co-processing,
and differentiating products with unique
features. The biggest challenge with standardizing embedded system designs using both processing and programmable
logic elements is the large gap between
traditional development tools for the two
subsystems. While silicon vendors continue to seek out ways to narrow that gap,
smaller design teams can get to market
faster with highly differentiated products
using a system design approach based on
Untitled-7 1
off-the-shelf control and monitoring devices and LabView.
National Instruments
Austin, TX.
(512) 794-0100.
[www.ni.com].
21
7/31/12 4:43 PM
RTC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER
2012
ploration
your goal
k directly
age, the
source.
ology,
d products
Technology in
context
Developing FPGAs for SoCs
Using HLS and Programmable SoCs
to Drive Real-Time Digital Signal
Processing
For really demanding DSP operations, the latencies and software
overhead can be real challenges to performance. Implementing DSP on a
programmable SoC can greatly reduce such overhead with the use of the
proper development tools.
by Matthew Ouellette, Xilinx
A
growing number of embedded ap- thesis (HLS) tools now have an attractive
plications today need high-perfor- platform. Using HLS, the programmable
mance digital signal processing SoC’s functions in software can be protothat requires fast execution and low power typed using the same toolset utilized for
consumption. This confluence is occur- its hardware acceleration.
ring in areas like HD video processing,
software defined radios and ultrasound New Life for HLS
medical imaging. Such applications deHLS is a design method often used
mand an increase in performance, clock for complex ASIC and FPGA design. It
rate and I/O while consuming less power. takes as input C, System C or C++, speciTraditional software-based Digital Sig- fied using a graphical user interface (GUI)
nies providing
now (DSPs) do not provide the
nal solutions
Processors
or a Tool Command Language (Tcl) batch
ion into products,
technologies
and companies.
Whether
your goalreis to research
theand
latest outputs register transfer level
increased performance
and
flexibility
script,
ation Engineer, or jump to a company's technical page, the goal of Get Connected is to put you
quired for future product needs.
(RTL) design files in Verilog, VHDL and
you require for whatever type of technology,
The
programmable
SoC devices SystemC. Verification and implementaand products you are
searching
for.
on the market today provide a unique tion scripts, used to automate the RTL
platform for embedded designers. They verification and synthesis steps, are also
combine the traditional software pro- created. With the advent of programmagrammability of a SoC with the hardware ble SoCs, HLS now has an additional use:
programmability needed to implement to quickly and efficiently implement and
custom application-specific hardware ac- verify designs, which can then be targeted
celerators. Moreover, they offer real-time and integrated into a programmable SoC
performance meeting or exceeding that of device.
DSPs. Given the dual-natured programThe flow for this process is as folmability of these devices, high level syn- lows. First, the algorithm to be accelerated must be prototyped and verified. The
algorithm can be modeled and prototyped
Get Connected
in software using CPUs available in the
with companies mentioned in this article.
SoC processing system. This approach
www.rtcmagazine.com/getconnected
End of Article
22
Get Connected with companies mentioned in this article.
allows for a large number of verification
cycles, prior to committing the design
to hardware, on the same hardware platform. HLS tools also offer a methodology
for verification of generated intellectual
property (IP). This verification test bench
can be used for further testing of the core,
as well as the synthesized outputs of the
HLS flow.
After the accelerator algorithm is
verified and fine-tuned in software, an
HLS tool (e.g., Vivado HLS) is used to
synthesis the accelerator core. Once a
design that meets the core requirements
has been synthesized and verified, the
design is exported as an RTL output file
into an SoC development kit specifically
designed for programming the software
and hardware of the programmable SoC.
The next step is to pull the HLS core
(accelerator) into the programmable logic
(i.e., the hardware programmable portion
of the programmable SoC). The flexibility of programmable logic and the variety
of interfaces available in programmable
SoCs means that there are a number of
ways the accelerator can interface with the
system memory. The three most typical
options would be to use a cache coherent,
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4
PORTS
AXI MM
L2 Cache
ACP
L1
L1
GP
AXI
DMA
AXI STRM
HLS Synthesis
Module
I/O
CONTROL
DDR/OCM
Programmable Logic
AXI MM
AXI
InterC
Dual Core Cortex A9
(a)
Processing System
Programmable Logic
DDR/OCM
L1
ACP
AXI
DMA
AXI STRM
HLS Synthesis
Module
Implementing an FIR Filter Using
HLS
I/O
CONTROL
L2 Cache
AXI MM
L1
GP
Dual Core Cortex A9
AXI MM
AXI
InterC
(b)
Processing System
Programmable Logic
DMA
L1
AXI MM
L1
Dual Core Cortex A9
AXI
FIFO
AXI STRM
HLS Synthesis
Module
I/O
CONTROL
GP
GP
AXI MM
AXI
InterC
(c)
Figure 1
The three most typical approaches used to interface to the system memory
include: (a) non-cache coherent, (b) cache coherent and (c) memory-mapped
access.
24
non-cache coherent or memory-mapped
topology (Figure 1). Some hybridization
of these options might also be used.
With a cache coherent topology, the
input of the HLS is treated in such a way
that it is cache-coherent with the main
memory of the CPU. This provides a fast,
low latency way for the accelerator to
interface to the CPU memory. In a noncache coherent topology, the programmable logic accesses CPU memory directly,
and memory sharing must be managed
by the software application. A memorymapped topology grants the CPU or Processor System DMA the ability to read
and write directly into the HLS module.
Which topology is utilized is a decision
that ultimately depends on the application in question and how the memory is
to be managed by the CPU. Once the appropriate interface topology is selected
and implemented, the HLS core must be
wired up to the programmable SoC. Finally, control software must be written to
set up and initiate the HLS core.
To better illustrate the use of HLS
with a programmable SoC, consider the
example implementation of a 64-tap, lowpass Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter,
written in C, and implemented using the
Vivado HLS tool (Figure 2). Vivado HLS
(formerly AutoESL) is a high level synthesis tool targeting Xilinx’ programmable
SoC and FPGA devices. The resulting
HLS FIR core is integrated into a Zynq
ZC702 platform using the AXI protocol
and Xilinx AXI IP. Zynq is a tightly integrated hardware, software and I/O “All
Programmable” device.
For the purposes of this example, various software tools are used to integrate
the HLS FIR core into the Zynq device.
This includes the Software Development
Kit (SDK), Xilinx Platform Studio (XPS),
Embedded Development Kit (EDK) and
ChipScope. SDK is an Eclipse-based
tool software developers use to program
the Zynq Processing System (PS), while
XPS is the hardware stitching tool hardware developers use to configure and design Zynq Programmable Logic (PL) designs. The EDK tool suite includes both
SDK and XPS. ChipScope inserts logic
analyzer, system analyzer and virtual I/O
low-profile software cores into the design
to enable users to capture and display internal signals or nodes.
Following the flow previously detailed, the 64-tap, low-pass FIR design
is first written in C, and then synthesized
and verified with Vivado HLS to produce
an RTL output file. The C source code
is shown in Code Block 1. The input (x),
coefficients (c) and output (y) were all
defined as 32-bit integer values, making
it straightforward to interface with the
ARM processor in Zynq. The source code
consists of the basic convolution operation, which is contained within the “for”
loop and macros that map the I/O on the
function to AXI-4 interfaces on the generated RTL. The “AP_” macros are defined
in the header file, “ap_interfaces.h.”
The HLS-generated FIR module
contains two types of AXI interfaces: one
AXI Lite and two AXI streaming interfaces. The AXI Lite interface (declared
in the HLS project by the AP_INTERFACE, ap_none) loads and reads back
filter coefficients, while the AXI streaming interfaces (declared in the HLS project by the AP_INTERFACE, ap_fifo)
stream input and output data. The module is connected to the memory-mapped
GP ports on the Zynq PS using the AXI
FIFO IP core provided by Xilinx. The
core translates AXI memory mapped
to AXI streaming transactions and has
built-in FIFOs that collect pieces of data
and present them in streaming fashion to
the core’s output. The output of the HLSgenerated FIR module is wired to the
AXI DMA core, which translates AXI
streaming transactions to AXI memory
mapped master.
To scale performance, hardware
implementations can be parameterized
for greater throughput by placing various
directives on the input C source code. In
this example, to fully unroll the “for” loop
and pipeline the design for 100 percent
throughput, an “HLS Pipeline II=1” directive was placed on the top-level function.
The coefficient array, c, was also partitioned to allow access to every member
on every cycle. While this solution allows
for maximum throughput (64 multiply-accumulates per clock cycle for a 64 tap FIR
filter), due to the fully parallel structure, it
comes at the expense of a large number of
DSP48 blocks and other fabric resources.
Another RTL implementation might trade
off throughput for FPGA resources. This
could be accomplished by changing the
“II” value on the pipeline directive. In this
case, fewer resources (e.g., DSP48E1s,
etc.) would be time-multiplexed to pro-
CODE BLOCK 1
Shown here is a portion of the C source code for the 64-tap low-pass FIR.
Processing System Programmable Logic
L2
OCM
L1
L1
Cortex-A9
DMA
PL330
AXI3
GP0
AXI3
GP1
AXI MM
Programmable Logic Processing System
CONTROL
COEF
FIR
AXI
MM
AXI
FIFO
AXI
STRM
HLS
Synthesis
Module
AXI
STRM
AXI
DMA
AXI
MM
AXI3
HP
DDR
OCM
Figure 2
The HLS FIR core is connected via the memory-mapped AXI GP ports. The GP
ports are 32-bit memory mapped and are accessible by the CPUs, generalpurpose DMAs and PS peripheral DMAs.
25
Helpful Definitions
The Zynq Processing System (PS) is the software programmable SoC portion of the Zynq device
and is suitable for prototyping HLS components in software. It contains dual-core Cortex-A9 CPUs,
dedicated memory interfaces for DDR and flash, and configurable interfaces for standard I/O devices
(USB, GE, I2C, SPI, UART and CAN).
Zynq Programmable Logic (PL) is the hardware programmable portion of the Zynq device and
is connected to the PS via a set of AXI interfaces (e.g., HP, GP and ACP). It is an ideal target for HLS
generated cores, as the PS provides a number of interfaces for data sources (e.g., USB and GE) and
the ARM processors provide command/control of the HLS generated core.
AXI (Advanced eXentsible Interface) is part of ARM AMBA, a family of microcontroller interfaces.
There are three types of AXI4 interfaces: AXI4—for high-performance, memory-mapped requirements; AXI4-lite—for simple, low-throughput memory-mapped communications; and AXI4-Stream—
for high-speed streaming data.
The Accelerator Coherency Port (ACP) is a 64-bit AXI interface, which provides PL master
devices coherent access to CPU memory via the Snoop Control Unit. The AXI HP Interface provides
PL bus masters with high-bandwidth datapaths to DDR and OCM memories. There are four AXI GP
Interfaces: two that provide PS bus masters (DMA, CPU) with access to PL devices, and two that
provide PL fabric masters access to PS slaves. HP ports are higher performance than GP ports due to
their elaborate built-in “FIFO’ing.”
duce the same output results, but at a commensurately lower throughput.
Once the design meets system requirements and has been synthesized, it is
exported as a processor core (pcore) for
the EDK software. This step generates the
RTL output with the AXI interfaces as defined by the macro statements in the code.
It also generates C API calls that allow the
processor to read and write to the various
ports on the peripheral core (e.g., changing coefficients).
Next, the HLS-generated FIR core
is connected to the Zynq device using a
hybrid approach similar to the non-cachecoherent and memory-mapped topology
shown in Figure 1. While the memorymapped interfaces made it easy for test
and setup of the control software, a real
system may have a different front-end
interface, such as an analog front-end or
DMA from a PS peripheral device (such
as USB or Ethernet). The non-cache-coherent interface provides a high-speed interface into external memory to handle all
the processed data.
At this point, the HLS-generated FIR
module is imported into a default ZC702
hardware project in XPS. Importing the
peripheral identifies the component in the
XPS GUI as a local IP core and enables it,
along with other standard Xilinx IP, to be
wired up to the Zynq system. The ChipScope AXI Monitor core and AXI FIFO
IP are also connected to the HLS FIR
core. ChipScope acts like a logic analyzer
inside the device, providing monitoring
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26
Untitled-11 1
11/5/12 2:05 PM
points that can be used for verification
purposes. XPS then creates the hardware
bit file and exports it to SDK for integration and testing on the ZC702 board.
In this example, the input data set
used is a sine wave with additive Gaussian noise generated using Matlab. ChipScope AXI Monitors are added to debug
and view the AXI waveforms inside the
programmable logic. The ChipScope AXI
waveforms can be inspected and exam-
ined to ensure the HLS works as intended.
The processed data set can also be inspected and compared with processed test
bench data to verify system functionality.
Finally, the Zynq control software is
required to facilitate the processing. The
standalone C application configures the
FIR module by setting and verifying the
coefficients in the control port of the accelerator. Once the coefficients are verified, the software sets up the input data
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28
Untitled-1 1
11/7/12 3:35 PM
buffer and configures the AXI DMA to
receive the data into external DDR. Over
the memory-mapped AXI Lite control interface, the control software determines if
the core is ready for processing. Once it’s
ready, data flow is initiated. An interrupt
is generated when the DMA has finished
processing a pre-specified amount of data.
The control software tracks the amount of
data processed.
While the FIR design is a simple
example, HLS users could use a similar
approach to implement custom accelerator modules in a Programmable SoC. As
shown in Figure 1, there are a number of
ways to integrate HLS accelerator cores,
depending on how the accelerator will interact with memory. The Vivado HLS tool
provides an environment to develop, design, synthesize, prototype and verify the
HLS core before it is integrated into the
Programmable SoC device.
Programmable SoCs offer the flexibility and high performance that today’s
embedded designers demand. Even more
critically, their dual-natured programmability enables them to meet the real-time
system requirements of many systems
with performance that meets or exceeds
that possible with DSPs. High-level synthesis plays a key role in bringing such
functionality to life, by providing the
high-level description of how to quickly
and easily program the programmable
SoC. Working together, the HLS platform and programmable SoC are today driving real-time DSP applications,
while also opening up a range of new
high-performance, real-time application
possibilities.
Xilinx
San Jose, CA.
(408) 559-7778.
[www.xilinx.com].
Technology
connected
PCI Express Generation 3
Practical Implementation of PCI
Express Gen3 across Optical
Cabling
The PCIe Gen3 electrical standard presents certain challenges involved
with adapting commercially available optical technologies for use in lowcost PCIe Gen3 optical links. A test bed developed to explore these issues
produced data that illustrate a solution with a full 64 Gbit/s capacity in
commercial applications.
by Christopher Wong, Avago Technologies
F
iber optic technology can provide a
better alternative to copper coaxial cabling for PCI Express 3.0 (PCIe Gen3)
inter-chassis connections. The serializer/
deserializer (SERDES) technologies originally developed to carry PCIe’s Gen1/Gen2
bus signals across a PC’s motherboard can
be adapted to drive copper coaxial cabling
for inter-chassis connections in data centers
and server farms. Unfortunately, the faster
8 Gbit/s signals specified in the recently adopted PCIe Gen3 standard require a much
more complex transceiver to achieve a successful connection across even a few feet
of coax, making it difficult for electrical
solutions to meet the market’s price, performance and size/weight requirements.
Fiber optic technology provides an attractive alternative to high channel count
PCIe Gen3 interconnects, with dramatically longer link distances, lower size/
weight/power, higher performance and
competitive pricing. While standards efforts for fiber-based PCIe Gen3 interconnects are still in their initial stages, there
are already commercial products available to provide an interim solution.
30
PCIe Gen3 in a Nutshell
The PCI Express (PCIe) bus is a
high-speed serial I/O technology intended
to provide connections between a central
processing unit (CPU) and its peripherals (graphics cards, memory/disk drives,
external I/O cards). It has also gained
popularity as a passive backplane interconnect in larger systems. At the physical
layer (PHY), PCIe is implemented as one
or more point-to-point connections, called
lanes, between two endpoint devices (Figure 1), composed of two low-voltage ACcoupled differential signal pairs that form
a high-speed, full-duplex byte stream between the link’s endpoint devices.
When the PCIe 1.0a standard was introduced in 2003 it specified a link speed
of 2.5 Gbit/s for each lane although its
8b/10b line coding scheme reduces its useable capacity by 20%. PCIe 2.0 doubles
the speed to 5 Gbit/s, enabling a 32-lane
(x32) PCIe connector to support an aggregate bit of up to 160 Gbit/s. The PCIe
Gen3 specification (finalized in 2010)
doubles channel capacity once again. It
replaces the 8b/10b line encoding used by
Gen1 and Gen2 with 128b/130b encoding, which reduces the channel overhead
to approximately 1.5%. PCIe Gen3’s improved efficiency gives its 8 Gbit/s serial
lanes two times the useful capacity of an
equivalent 5 Gbit/s PCIe 2.0 connection.
Because PCIe technology’s highfrequency signals require an impedancecontrolled channel and have relatively short
“reach,” it is best suited for making “insidebox” connections where both the central
processor and peripherals are co-located.
Extending PCIe’s Reach
Thanks to its speed and efficiency,
there is also growing interest in the use of
native PCIe connections for inter-chassis
applications, such as links between servers, switches and storage elements. The
External PCI Express (ePCIe) specification was developed, which enables transport of PCIe Gen1’s 2.5 Gbit/s signals
across multimeter lengths of coaxial cabling and is already in use in storage systems, high-performance computers and
other products that require high-capacity
multi-chassis system interconnects.
technology connected
Work is underway to develop a practical solution for a PCIe Gen2 cabling specification, but any electrical solution that
moves from Gen1 (2.5 Gbit/s) to Gen2 (5
Gbit/s) data rates will face signal integrity
issues that shorten its reach. The higher
cable losses resulting from Gen 3’s higher
8 Gbit/s line rate will further limit the practical reach of a copper cable interconnect.
Consequently, implementing Gen 3 PCIe
over cable media may necessitate the move
to a fiber optic solution in order to support the longer distances needed for multichassis interconnects. Once implemented
in commercial volumes, optical PCIe interconnect is expected to consume fewer
watts and cost less per Gbit/s of capacity
than an equivalent copper-based solution.
Using PCIe across the entire I/O connection also reduces or eliminates the need
for intermediate protocol conversion chips,
which, in turn, lowers overall system costs,
power consumption and channel latency.
dards for fiber-based PCIe Gen3 interconnects, there are already commercial products available that can
provide interim solutions for critical
markets that cannot afford to wait for
the PCIe standards process. Since the
interface between PCIe’s MAC and
PHY layers is simple and well documented (Figure 2), it is relatively easy
to use off-the-shelf PCIe 3.0 switches
or other endpoint components to drive
a parallel optical transceiver module
instead of a multi-channel electrical
SerDes driver IC.
Pre-Standards PCIe 3.0 Solutions
Available Today
Although it will be several years
before the PCIe SIG releases stan-
To higher link,
transaction layers
Media Access Layer
(MAC)
Logical
Sub-block
State machines for
Link Training and Status
State Machine (LTSSM)
lane-lane deskew
PHY/MAC Interface
Physical Layer Specification
(Chapter 4 of base spec)
Physical Coding Sublayer
(PCS)
Physical
Sub-block
Physical Media
Attachment Layer
(PMA)
Rx
Figure 1
8b/10b code/decode
elastic buffer
Rx detection
Analog buffers
SERDES
10-bit interface
Tx
Channel
Partitioning of PCIe 1.0/2.0 PHY layer functionality. Courtesy of Intel.
31
CLK
PCLK
PLL
16 or 8
TxData
2 or 1
TxDataK
Command
6
16 or 8
2 or 1
TX BLOCK
Tx+, Tx-
RX BLOCK
Rx+, Rx-
12
Status
RxData
RxDataK
Figure 2
PCI Express PHY functional block diagram. Courtesy of Intel.
Multi-lane optical endpoints can
be easily implemented using vertical
cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL)
arrays housed in commercially available parallel optical Transmit/Receive
(Tx/Rx) modules from several vendors,
including Avago Technologies. They
support as many as 12 parallel channels, operate at 8 Gbit/s per lane or
more, and provide up to 150 meters of
connectivity.
In order to evaluate the feasibility
of using commercial products, a proof of
concept demonstration system was constructed. It consists of a host PC housing
a PLX designed adapter card, employing
the PEX8748, 48-lane Gen3 switch (Figure 3). The switch drive Avago Technologies 12-lane, 10 Gbit/s MiniPOD optical
modules (AFBR-81/82 Series), where 8
of the optical lanes are made active and 4
lanes are left unused.
32
Optical Domain Challenges
Constructing a proof of concept
system proved the feasibility of adapting commercially available components
for use in optical PCIe Gen3 links. The
project also uncovered several issues that
must be addressed by products serving
these applications including:
Receiver Detection: Where proper loading exists, the transmitter is triggered to operate in one of several modes based on what is
detected at the device receiver. In particular,
it is used as a queue to begin sending a series
of line probing signals, which allows the receiver to calculate the settings for its equalizer. In optical applications that use a standard PCIe MAC, the line probing and equalizer functions must somehow be disabled.
Electrical Idle Mode: The PCIe protocol defines an optional low-power Electrical
Idle (EIDLE) mode that the link may enter
into when there is no data to transmit. To-
day’s optical links have problems with the
entry and exit into PCIe’s low-power modes
because the transceiver’s longer warm-up
times can produce line chatter or improper
bias, which can lead to false EIDLE detection and/or exit from the EIDLE state.
Clocking: Optical PCIe endpoints
must be capable of supporting asynchronous clock operation. This is because
most optical PCIe links will not have both
ends of the connection in the same enclosure and will not share the Reset or system clock signals required to implement a
synchronous reset or clock across the link.
Remote Reset: In most applications, a
PCIe link’s remote optical card is powered
ahead of the main system box (Server/
PC). In these applications, the remote
card must be configured to undergo an autonomous reset upon power up so that it is
fully initialized and ready for link training once the host box becomes active.
Internet
Ethernet
NIC
PCIe
x8 Gen3
64Gbps
Optical
Cable
PCI Express
Gen 3
x8 Gen3
64Gbps
PCIe
x8 Gen3
64Gbps
PCI Express
Gen 3
PCIe
Fusion-IO
SSD Controller
Host
PC
SSDs
Figure 3
Block diagram of proof-of-concept optical PCIe link demonstrator.
Figure 4
MiniPOD 12-channel embedded
parallel optic modules.
External/Out-of-Band Signals: The current PCIe external cabling specification for
copper coaxial cable defines extra signals that
will not be carried in the AFBR-81/82 Series
optical solution. For instance, CREFCLK,
the 100 MHz Cable Reference Clock, is not
needed since the clock is recovered from the
data stream by the PCIe transceivers. In addition, the SB_RTN, CPRSNT#, CPWRON,
Figure 5
PEX8748 SI switch card with Avago Technologies MiniPOD adapter.
CWAKE# and CPERST pins are not applicable when using an optical cable.
Component Selection
Selecting the most suitable optical
module for test bed application involved
consideration of several factors including
lane width, form factor and compatibility. An 8-lane configuration was chosen
because it is commonly used in highperformance PCIe 2.0 designs. The CXP
and MiniPOD form factors were the two
33
SerDes Eye Width
No Errors
Up to 10% errors
10%–25% of errors
50%–75% errors
Over 75% errors
25%–50% of errors
100
Voltage (mV)
50
0
-50
-100
-80
-60
-40
-20
0
20
40
60
80
Picoseconds
Figure 6
Data eye measurement of recovered optical signal at PLX switch input over a link length of 30 Meters.
most attractive options because of their
wide availability and good performance.
The MiniPOD form factor was chosen because its embedded parallel optics configuration mounts directly onto the PCB, enabling a better electrical and mechanical
design (Figure 4). Unlike the board edge
mounts used by CXP modules, a MiniPOD optical module can be easily located
mid-board, within five inches of the highspeed driver electronics to minimize the
loss and distortion PCIe Gen3’s 8 Gbit/s
signals experience due to capacitive skin
effects.
The PEX8748, 48-lane Gen3 switch,
manufactured by PLX Technologies, was
selected to serve as the PCIe controller
for both endpoints because it incorporates
TRACE 32 ® Always one step ahead
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34
Untitled-1 1
10/11/12 11:14 AM
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features that can be used to support optical domain operation. The key issues addressed by the switch include:
• Switching devices in the PEX series
have the ability to mask receiver detection and perform link speed negotiation through decoding of the incoming data stream.
• The device used in this experiment
solves potential EIDLE issues because it can be configured to ignore
the changes in the data stream that
would normally initiate electrical idle
but continue to watch for the specific
data symbols that signal a request for
link speed negotiation.
• The PEX switch supports an asynchronous clocking mode for data recovery, allowing each end of the PCIe
optical link to operate independently.
Implementation
The proof of concept demonstration
consisted of a host PC housing a PLX
designed adapter card, employing the
PEX8748, 48-lane Gen3 switch. Shown
in Figure 5, the card contains a daughter
mounting assembly for which the AFBR81/82 Series optical transmitter and receiver modules are mated to the PEX8748
switch. At the opposite end of the optical
link, a second switch card with another set
of Tx/Rx modules resides on a distribution board, which can provide fan-out and
upstream data aggregation for express peripherals, such as SSD drives and Ethernet HBA cards. For this proof of concept
demonstration, only 8 of the MiniPOD’s
12 optical lanes are powered, with the remaining 4 lanes left unused.
Each end of the physical link is terminated using a PLX PCIe Gen3 Switch IC.
PLX PCIe switches include both clock/
data recovery and Tx/Rx equalization for
each high-speed port. Because the switch
IC’s transceiver runs in its optional asynchronous mode, clock and data recovery
(CDR) are not required in the optical
module, thus preserving PCIe’s latency
advantage. A simple AC coupling circuit
is used to tie the Avago Technologies
modules to the PLX switch IC’s Tx/Rx
signals. The MiniPOD module’s electrical interface also includes a two-wire serial control channel that can be used to set
the equalization/emphasis and amplitude
36
Untitled-1 1
10/31/12 11:23 AM
circuit in each SERDES lane’s transceiver
for optimum performance.
Demonstration Test Results
In this demonstration, a PCIe Gen3
x8 link was successfully implemented
over 30 meters of OM3 low-cost multimode optical fiber.
As implemented, the link supports
the following PCIe functionality:
• Asynchronous operation (no native
SSC, but SSC isolation provisions)
• L0 active state only (Link enable/disable functional under controlled operating system)
• PCIe normal link speed negotiation
• Configurable for PCIe standard link
width down training
As a result of the technical issues discussed earlier, the link does not presently
support PCIe active state power management or in-band synchronous resets. Only
out-of-band independent reset is supported. As seen in the representative example of eye quality plot (Figure 6), taken
at the PLX receiver driving a 30 meter
cable, the links demonstrate good signal
integrity and error-free data recovery.
It should also be noted that for this
demonstration, the MiniPOD optical
modules support PCIe 3.0, operating at 8.0
Gbit/s per lane, but are capable of operation over a wide range of line rates from 1
Gbit/s to over 10.3125 Gbit/s. As a result,
these optical devices can operate at PCIe
2.x at 5.0 Gbit/s and PCIe 1.x at 2.5 Gbit/s
operation without configuration changes
and without any trade-off in performance.
This wide speed range is encouraging
evidence that besides providing an excellent option for implementing PCIe Gen3compatible optical links today, the same
technologies can serve as the foundation
for backward-compatible multi-speed
optical links in upcoming generations of
application-specific products.
Avago Technologies
San Jose, CA.
(800) 235-0312.
[www.avagotech.com].
PLX Technology
Sunnyvale, CA.
(408) 774-9060.
[www.plxtech.com].
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Technology
connected
PCI Express Generation 3
What Else Can PCI Express Do?
The newly emerging PCIe Gen3 technology and products can enable new
applications, notably clustering and I/O sharing, and also introduce a new
trend in PCIe: isolation.
by Krishna Mallampati, PLX Technology
P
CI Express (PCIe) as a technology
has made inroads into virtually every
market segment—servers, storage,
graphics, communications, consumer, embedded and wireless, to name a few. Despite
this ubiquity, there are still some market segments that PCIe hasn’t penetrated, and Gen3
products are now poised to penetrate those
segments, such as clustering and I/O sharing. Although PCIe Gen2 products are being
used in many of these market segments now,
the scaling to Gen3 speeds (up to 8 Gbit/s per
lane) has never been more viable.
Leveraging low-latency, high-performance PCIe Gen3, offers new opportunities
to help manage the massive amount of data
flowing through a wide range of applications,
not the least of which is the Internet. Designers are creating sophisticated embeddedand consumer-focused systems using PCIebased architectures dedicated to processing,
storing and retrieving multiple terabytes of
data at a time. The markets experiencing
rapid growth and demand for PCIe-based
systems include oil/gas exploration, financial
trade routing, test and measurement, communications, and general-purpose computation on graphics processing units used to
accelerate a vast array of applications, such
as embedded systems, mobile appliances,
computers and gaming consoles.
Traditional I/O Server Deployment
Corporate Network
Multiple Ethernet
and FC ToR switches
Multiple Ethernet
and FC connections
per server
Multiple NICs and
HBA per server
Large server
form factor
Shared I/O
Traditional servers currently being deployed in volume have several interconnect
technologies that need to be supported. For
example, the system in Figure 1 combines
38
Figure 1
High-level overview of traditional servers being shipped today.
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InfiniBand, Fibre Channel and Ethernet.
This architecture has several limitations:
1. E
xistence of multiple I/O interconnect technologies
2. Low utilization rates of I/O endpoints
3. High power and cost of the system due
to the need for multiple I/O endpoints
4. I /O is fixed at the time of architecture and build…no flexibility to
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High-level overview of a server with shared I/O.
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5. M
anagement software must handle
multiple I/O protocols with overhead
Clearly, sharing I/O endpoints is the
solution to these limitations (Figure 2).
This concept appeals to system makers
because it lowers costs and power, improves performance and utilization, and
simplifies design. With so many advantages, it is no surprise that multiple companies have tried to achieve this; the PCISIG, in fact, published the Multi-Root I/O
Virtualization (MR-IOV) specification to
achieve this goal. However, due to a combination of technical and business factors,
MR-IOV as a specification hasn’t really
taken off, even though it has been more
than five years since it was released.
Actually realizing shared I/O brings
a number of advantages. As I/O speeds
increase, the only additional investment
needed is to change the I/O adapter cards.
In earlier deployments when multiple I/O
technologies existed on the same card, designers would have to re-design the entire
system, whereas in the shared-I/O model,
they can simply replace an existing card
with a new card when an upgrade is
needed for one particular I/O technology.
Since multiple I/O endpoints don’t
need to exist on the same cards, designers can either manufacture smaller cards
to further reduce cost and power, or
choose to retain the existing form factor
and add—in the space saved by eliminating multiple I/O endpoints from the
card—multiple CPUs, memory or other
endpoints to differentiate their products.
Designers can reduce the number of
cables that crisscross a system. With multiple interconnect technologies comes the
Host 4
Host N
PLX
Management
CPU
DMA
NT
DMA
NT
Management
Port
NT
Figure 3
A typical clustering application using a PCI Express Gen3 switch.
40
DMA
NT
DMA
NT
DMA
None N
None N
Node 1
Node 1
Node N-1
PCIE
PCIE
Node 2
CNA
CNA
Node N-2
Node 2
Node N-2
Converged Fabric
None N
None N
Node 1
Node N-1
PCIE
Node 2
Node N-1
Node 1
CNA
CNA
Node N-2
Node N-1
PCIE
Node 2
Node N-2
Figure 4
PCI Express fabric scalability.
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Untitled-2 1
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9/5/12 5:09 PM
2012
need for different (and multiple) cables
to enable bandwidth and overhead protocol. However, with the simplification of
the design and the range of I/O interconnect technologies, the number of cables
needed for proper functioning of the system is also reduced, thereby eliminating
the complexity of the design, in addition
to delivering cost savings.
Implementing shared I/O in a PCIe
switch is the key enabler to the architectures depicted in Figure 2. As mentioned
earlier, MR-IOV technology hasn’t quite
taken off, and a prevailing opinion is that
it probably never will. PLX is developing
solutions that will enable sharing of I/O resources in a software-compatible manner.
Clustering
PCIe clustering applications are
meant to achieve one very important
thing: the highest possible performance.
Designers will use virtually any possible technology or interconnect standard
to achieve this goal. Among the several
market segments that need such high performance are data mining, oil and gas exploration, financial markets, bio-medical,
and image and pattern recognition.
With PCIe Gen3 supporting up to 8
Gbit/s per lane, its use in high-performance
computing (HPC) systems has increased dramatically. A PCIe Gen3 switch with 96 lanes,
for example, can support up to 1.5 Tbit/s of
bi-directional data transfers, as shown in Figure 3.System designers obviously can concatenate multiples of such switches to achieve
even higher data transfers.
Such PCIe switches need to support
advanced features such as non-transparency, direct memory access (DMA),
spread spectrum clock (SSC) isolation,
link-layer and end-to-end cyclic redundancy check, lossless fabric and congestion management.
While a single PCIe switch can support up to 1.5 Tbit/s, designers can scale
using multi-stage fabrics and enable various new topologies. With multiple choices
for link width (x4, x8, x16), PCIe provides
more flexibility for designers to configure
their system depending on actual usage.
With PCIe becoming native on more
and more processors from major vendors,
designers can benefit from the lower latency
realized by not having to use any components
between a CPU and a PCIe switch. With this
new generation of CPUs, designers can place
a PCIe switch directly off the CPU, thereby
reducing latency and component cost.
With existing technology, PCIe really
shines in the area of small to medium clusters. For a larger cluster—those requiring a
greater number of nodes—a shared-I/O Ethernet controller or converged adapter could
be used to connect between the mini-PCIe
clusters over a converged Ethernet fabric, as
shown in Figure 4. Within the PCIe cluster,
congestion management could be achieved
by using simple flow-control schemes.
Solving Spread Spectrum
Clocking Challenges
Posing a challenge to optimizing
performance in PCIe applications such
as those discussed above is Spread spectrum clocking (SSC). In systems that are
required to operate with SSC, the only
available option has been clock isolation.
Spread spectrum is the process by which
the system clock is dithered in a controlled
42
Untitled-1 1
11/8/12 8:26 AM
manner so that it reduces peak energy content. SSC techniques are used to minimize
electromagnetic interference, or EMI, and/
or pass Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requirements. While the
overall energy is unchanged, the peak
(tonal) power is reduced. The amount of
peak energy dispersion is dependent on
the modulation bandwidth, spreading
depth and spreading profile. In the case of
PCIe, the typical modulation profile is a 30
KHz-33 KHz, 0.5% down-spread clock.
The modulation profile can be of several
types, but typically ends up triangular.
When extending high-speed data outside
of an enclosure, copper cabling can significantly increase the amount of peak radiated energy. System designers must either
modulate the data exiting the box or resort
to more costly cables with a high shielding
index. In the case of PCIe, the option of
modulating the data traveling outside the
box was until now not available.
At its fundamental base, PCIe is a
short-reach, point-to-point protocol that is
typically synchronous. Spreading the system reference clock under these conditions
has minor impact on the overall links, with
each device undergoing nearly the same
frequency deviation in approximate lockstep. Cable provisions must be made for
sending a clock signal, as well as data, in
order to extend modulated clock architecture beyond the confines of the box. This
not only adds cabling costs, but it also increases complexity in buffers for maintaining clock fidelity as well as in the clock
timing correlation between the transmitting and receiving devices. Furthermore,
if communication between systems with
separate master clock domains is needed—
for example, two independent servers, each
with its own CPU clock—passing a clock
between two master devices will not work.
A feature called Independent SSC
operation in PCIe addresses these challenges. With Independent SSC built into
PCIe switches such as those from PLX,
the need for clock management, additional
clock chips and/or buffers and protocol
translations is eliminated. PCIe vendors
are working to make Independent SSC
operation a standard functional feature of
next-generation devices.
With PCIe technology having become as ubiquitous as it now is, it is no
surprise that the Gen3 incarnation of the
technology can support shared I/O and
clustering, providing system designers
with an unparalled user experience unhampered by dated technology.
To satisfy the requirements in the
shared I/O and clustering market segments,
vendors are bringing to market devices that
are both power- and space-efficient, while
also flexible and high in performance.
These switches are being devised to fit into
the full range applications cited above, and
factor in the need for mitigating the nega-
Untitled-5 1
tive effects of SSC. The flexibility of these
PCIe switches is critical for such applications. Looking forward, PCIe Gen4, with
speeds of up to 16 Gbit/s per link, can only
help accelerate and expand the adoption of
PCIe technology in newer market segments,
making it easier and more economical.
PLX Technology
Sunnyvale, CA.
(408) 774-9060.
[www.plxtech.com].
43
11/2/12 10:40 AM
2012
technology in
systems
Security in the Cloud
Using military-grade security technology to help protect the enterprise.
by Robert Day, LynuxWorks
A
s more enterprises look to the cloud
as a mechanism for both data sharing and data streaming, key concerns of security of the cloud continue to
emerge, even for private and community
clouds. We are moving from a distributed data model, where the attack vectors
for sensitive information have been very
broad but the consequence of a single attack is small, to a cloud-based approach
where the attack vector is small but the
impact of a single attack can be huge.
Consequently, we need to establish much
greater security in the cloud, especially
when sensitive information or infrastructure is at risk.
new threats emerge that target industrial infrastructure directly. The Stuxnet
worm used Windows-based machines
as a vector to attack embedded systems
running on a Siemens microcontroller.
In September, the Trojan Duqu was discovered, which tries to steal information
from SCADA systems. Kaspersky Labs
believes it originates from the same developers as Stuxnet. These threats are using
ploration
the IT infrastructure to target traditional
your goal
embedded systems; therefore, moving to a
k directly
cloud-based world could have a dramatic
age, the
source.
impact on how we protect embedded sysology,
tems too.
d products
It is a challenge for most organizations to know if, and when, they are under
attack. IT organizations seek to empower
New Threats for Critical
their businesses by embracing cloud comInfrastructure
While attacks on corporations like puting, but in so doing open up their netHBGary and Sony PSN compromised works. Executives at all levels expect to
data and exposed the organizations in- access a range of applications including
nies providing
solutions
now
volved
to financial
losses, neither threat- social media tools to communicate effecion into products,
technologies
and
companies.
Whether
your goal isisto research
latesteven experienced users can be
tively,thebut
ened national security. More
alarming
caught
out
by malware that uses these apthe problem of key industrial infrastrucyou require for whatever type of technology,
plications
as
vehicles to bypass corporate
controlled
by connected computers.
and productsture
you are
searching for.
firewalls.
Zero-day
malware and singleMoving to the cloud requires more contarget
attacks
are
especially
problematic.
nectivity not less, as the cloud is only usIT
organizations
and
security
incident
able when connected, and as such, even
managers
now
need
to
detect
and
analyze
closed infrastructures will need to have
threats
in
real
time
to
fully
understand
increased connectivity. Often this critical
infrastructure is in the private sector, but who is attacking them and how.
targeted cyber attacks on its central control systems could bring a city, region or The Solution
country to a standstill.
The good news is that there are techOver the last few years we have seen nologies that have been developed to meet
the exacting security needs for connected
military systems, which can now be apGet Connected
plied to enterprise-based solutions, and
can give military-grade protection for
End of Article
44
both IT infrastructure and the embedded
systems that connect to it.
To maximize the cost-effectiveness
of a server-based cloud infrastructure,
virtualization is often seen as a good technology to allow multiple applications, operating systems and different technologies
to reside on the same server hardware.
This approach, however, does not add any
security benefits to the cloud infrastructure and actually could be an extra vulnerability as any attacks on one system
could spread to others hosted on the same
server.
A new secure software virtualization that offers additional security is now
available to help protect enterprise cloud
deployments. This technology was created to address the needs of tactical military systems that require information and
applications operating at different security levels to securely coexist on a single
hardware platform. This also removes the
need for the costly deployment of multiple
computer systems to facilitate communications and information from different
forces or different intelligence levels in
the battlefield. This extra-secure virtualization technology can now be used
to fully realize the cost savings of cloud
computing and the ability to host multiple
networks on a single system, without compromising its security. This virtualization
technology is not only available to protect
the cloud servers, but also the client computers that they connect to.
Secure Virtualization Technology
The secure virtualization technology
has two major components, a separation
tech in systems
Guest OS
Guest OS
Guest OS
Guest OS
Guest OS
Windows 7
Red Hat
Solaris
Virtual
Device Server
Virtualization
Management
Services
Native Drivers
Native Drivers
Para-Virtual
Devices
Direct Device
Assignment
CPU Scheduler
Virtual Device
Services
Full Device
Emulation
Memory Manager
Exception Handler
Interrupt Handler
Type Zero Hypervisor
Figure 1
An architectural representation of a separation kernel showing the four main components that provide the underpinnings for
the secure virtualization solution.
Linux
App
Linux
App
Windows
App
Linux
Windows
Linux Device Drivers
Windows Device Drivers
Self-Assisted
Virtual
Full Virtualization Devices
Self-Assisted
Virtual
Full Virtualization Devices
Direct Device
Assignment
Management Agent
Secure Virtual
Device Server
Trusted
App
SelfTest
Para-Virtualization
LSA
LSA
Inter-VM Communication
Locked-Down
Security
Policies
Hardware
Windows
App
Hypercalls
Separation Kernel and Hypervisor
Direct
Devices
TPM
Multi-Core CPU, Memory
VT-x VT-d
EPT PAT
Shared
Devices
Figure 2
A real-world example of a commercially available secure virtualization product that allows for multiple systems to run
in their own secure domains as if they were running on physically separate systems, allowing SWaPC savings without
compromising security.
kernel and a hypervisor. Combining these
best-of-breed features offers unmatched
capabilities that allow multiple heterogeneous operating system environments
to perform simultaneously without compromising security, reliability, real-time
performance or data on a single physical
hardware platform.
Examining these components further
allows us to understand how the technology provides a more effective security
posture by utilizing the separation kernel
(Figure 1), while still benefitting from the
virtualization functionality offered by the
hypervisor. A separation kernel is a concept that was originally introduced by John
Rushby in a 1981 paper “The Design and
Verification of Secure Systems.” Rushby
45
Tech In Systems
SINA Gateways
VDI Servers
Virtual
Desktop Pools
SINA MLW
Red Smart Card
RDP Config
Blue Smart Card
RDP Config
Yellow Smart Card
RDP Config
Figure 3
Single COTS
Network
Red Smart Card
Gateway Config
Blue Smart Card
Gateway Config
Yellow Smart Card
Gateway Config
A real-world implementation of secure virtualization running in a thin client system—the SINA system from secunet. Each
domain has its own authentication on both the gateway and client administered by smarts cards. The single thin client uses
the separation kernel to have multiple concurrent secure domains each having remote desktops hosted on the individual
servers. The separation kernel could also be used on the servers to collapse the number of those machines from 3 to 1.
offered the separation kernel as a solution
to the difficulties and problems that had
arisen in the development and verification
of large, complex security kernels that
were intended to provide multilevel secure operation on general-purpose multiuser systems. According to Rushby, “the
task of a separation kernel is to create an
environment which is indistinguishable
from that provided by a physically distributed system: it must appear as if each
regime is a separate, isolated machine and
that information can only flow from one
machine to another along known external
communication lines.”
In 1981 embedded processors did not
possess the horsepower or functionality
to really offer multiple workable isolated
systems on a single processor. Today with
modern processor technology, and multicore instantiations widely available in embedded form, John Rushby’s concept and
the separation kernel itself is now a reality
for use in embedded systems. Now, with
hardware also offering support for virtualization through mechanisms like Intel’s
Virtualization Technology for Directed
I/O (VT-d), a modern separation kernel is,
in effect, an operating system that can run
other operating systems as “subjects.”
A subject is defined as a collection
of resources accompanying a piece of
software like an OS, which allow it to be
46
executed and monitored by the separation
kernel. It is important to note that a subject might not necessarily be an OS at all;
in fact, it could be a dedicated program
that runs without an OS within a separation kernel context. Various parts of this
system would be protected by virtue of
the separation kernel handling low-level
communication with the outside world
as well as providing protected interaction
between the different subjects. A separation kernel has the following unique characteristics:
• Creates an isolated context for each
subject it runs
• Provides a means for different subjects to access hardware efficiently
(I/O, mapped memory, DMA, etc.)
• Enforces security policies between
different subjects as well as with the
outside world
• Provides a subject-based scheduling
policy
• Provides inter-subject communication
• Keeps overhead low
To make this separation kernel technology really useful for building multidomain systems on a single hardware
platform, another component needs to be
added atop the separation kernel. Hypervisor technology, when combined with the
separation kernel, offers a virtualization
solution that allows multiple operating
systems, applications and data to reside in
securely partitioned domains on the same
hardware. By using a software separation
kernel—which separates both applications
and data at the lowest level and is linked
to processor-based virtualization technology (for example, Intel VT-x and VT-d)—
a single platform can host multiple secure
virtual machines with no risk of compromise or mingling of applications, devices,
or information (Figure 2).
The hypervisor component creates
a virtualization layer that maps physical
system resources to each guest operating
system. Virtualization technology allows
for significant cost savings through hardware consolidation, while retaining the
ability to leverage the ecosystem of applications that belong to different operating
system domains within a single system.
The secure virtualization differs
from traditional hypervisors by offering
the underlying security of a separation
kernel to isolate each virtual instance and
provide protection to every subject with
its own virtual addressing space. In addition, it guarantees resource availability,
such as memory and processor execution
resources, to each subject, so that no software can consume the allocated memory
or scheduled time resources of other subjects.
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and our flagship product, ThreadX,
has been used in over Eillion
electronic devices and systems,
ranging from printers to smartphones, from single-chip
SoCs to multiprocessors. Time and time again, when
leading manufacturers put their company on the line,
when their engineering team chooses an RTOS for their
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Our ThreadX RTOS is rock-solid, thoroughly field-proven,
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simply must succeed. Its royalty-free
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A D
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your support costs down as well. ThreadX
repeatedly tops the time-to-market results
reported by embedded developers like you. All the while,
Express Logic is there to assist you with enhancements,
training, and responsive telephone support.
Join leading organizations like HP, Apple, Marvell, Philips,
NASA, and many more who have chosen ThreadX for use in
over Eillion of their products – because their products are
too important to rely on anything but the best. Rely on
ThreadX, when it really counts!
Contact Express Logic to fi nd out more about our ThreadX RTOS, FileX® fi le system, NetX™ Dual IPv4/IPv6 TCP/IP stack,
USBX™ USB Host/Device/OTG stack, and PHJX™ graphics toolkit for embedded GUI development. Also ask about our TraceX®
real-time event trace and analysis tool, and StackX™, our stack size analysis tool that makes stack overflows a thing of the
past. And if you’re developing safety-critical products for aviation, industrial or medical applications, ask
about our new Certification Pack™ for ThreadX.
Newnes
n
Second Editio
E
REAL-TIM
ED
EMBEDD ADING
RE
MULTITH
adX for ARM, Coldfire,
With Thre
ices
with append
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Now
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L. Lam
Edward
Copyright © 201, Express Logic, Inc.
ThreadX, FileX, and TraceX are registered trademarks, and NetX, USBX, PHJX, StackX, and Certification Pack are trademarks of Express Logic, Inc.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
M
CD-RO
INCLU DED
ie
Tech In Systems
This technology offers true security
by using secure separation kernel technology, and provides near-native performance of guest operating systems with a
combination of its “Type Zero” hypervisor
and its extensive use of hardware performance enhancements and virtualization
technologies. This allows legacy systems
and applications to run in a secure and
virtualized environment without compromising their performance or functionality.
Secure Virtualization Enables
Cloud-Based Systems
Virtualization has become a major
enabling technology for moving to the
cloud by allowing multiple applications to
co-reside on a single server platform and
efficiently serve different types of data
and applications to clients that connect to
it. Size, Weight, Power and Cost (SWaPC) are usually improved with virtualized
systems, which can be critical in field deployments. However, in a typical virtualized system, much of the virtualization of
memory and devices is held in the same
hypervisor code; hence, any breach of that
code gives access to all of the memory
and devices on that physical system.
Clearly this approach is not secure
enough to allow different types or levels
of sensitive information to reside on a
single system. By using secure virtualization, true separation of memory and devices is key, and allows for different applications to securely coexist.
When the resilience and data jurisdiction offered by distributed data technology is coupled with secure virtualization,
the true economies of scale of a cloudbased approach can be realized. Virtualization is critical to successful cloud
deployments, especially those in fieldhosted environments, because of SWaP-C
reduction for each deployment. However,
secure virtualization is needed to enable
cloud-based systems to handle sensitive
data. The additional compartmentalization provided by a secure virtualization
platform allows data processing and storage at different security classifications on
a single hardware platform.
Secure virtualization along with data
location control and very high availability are key to mission-critical military
deployments that support multiple data
48
classifications. Cloud solutions designed
to protect sensitive data for these kinds
of tactical military environments are now
attainable using secure virtualization in a
distributed computing environment.
Containment on the Client
One thing that has become apparent
in protection against cyber attacks is the
fact that today’s network security protection is struggling to effectively contain
new and emerging threats. The only complete (and complementary) solution is using platform security, either on network
infrastructure or endpoints themselves.
Securing the Internet connection or adding security to a browser are traditional
methods of endpoint protection, but a
more secure approach is to use secure
virtualization to properly isolate sensitive
data and applications from the point of
potential attack.
Virtualization can only provide real
system security if the hypervisor has been
built with security in mind (a hypervisor
or its underlying operating system can
be compromised). Defense grade “bare
metal” hypervisors running directly on
the hardware provide near native performance. Separation kernels designed to
operate in highly secure defense environments offer military-proven security
for the OSs and applications running on
them. They allow data and applications
with different security levels to co-reside
on a single device without risk of contamination.
Effective protection also means partitioning at the device level rather than just
at the network and server levels. A key
component for the usability of a secure
virtualization solution on client devices is
the performance of the OSs and applications that run on the virtualized system.
The best offer near-native execution of
fully virtualized guest OSs and their applications, showing an execution speed
within a few percentage points of running
natively. This secure virtualization can
offer client protection for both thick clients, where applications run on the client
and access data in the cloud, and thin clients where applications and data are both
streamed to the client from the cloud. An
example thin client application has been
demonstrated by German IT security spe-
cialist secunet Security Networks, using
the LynuxWorks secure virtualization solution to show multiple network sessions
at multiple levels of security on a single
hardware platform. They did this by isolating applications and networks into separate partitions to prevent dangerous software interactions and to thwart any zero
day or unknown cyber attacks (Figure 3).
With defense, general IT and commercial embedded systems increasingly
converging onto the same Intel processors,
the process of transferring technology developed for one environment into another
has become a great deal more straightforward. This is particularly useful as enterprise and embedded systems look at how
they can work in a cloud-based environment and determine the related security
issues. Being able to take technology that
has been developed to meet the exacting
security requirements of the defense community is a really good starting point, and
can help us build out and take advantage
of the cloud without leaving us more vulnerable to security threats.
LynuxWorks
San Jose, CA.
(408) 979-3000.
[www.lynuxworks.com].
secunet Security Networks
Essen, Germany.
+49 (0)201 5454 1520.
[www.secunet.com].
Why Should Researching SBCs Be
More Difficult Than Car Shopping?
INTELLIGENTSYSTEMSSOURCE.COM
IS A COMPARISON TOOL FOR DESIGN ENGINEERS
LOOKING FOR CUSTOM AND OFF-THE- SHELF SBCS
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from an array of companies for a side by side comparison and provide purchase support.
INTELLIGENTSYSTEMSSOURCE.COM
technology in
systems
Speed Communications for Selected
Applications with UDP
For applications like streaming video that offer real-time validation, user
datagram protocol (UDP) can provide a fast, low-overhead option to TCP.
by John Carbone, Express Logic
I
n today’s world of connected devices,
Application layer
DHCP, DHCPv6, DNS, FTP, HTTP, IMAP, IRC, LDAP, MGCP, NNTP,
smartphones upload photos to servers
NTP, POP, RPC, RTP, RTSP, SIP, SMTP, SNMP, SOCKS, SSH, Telnet,
in the cloud, car rental agencies check
TLS/SSL, XMPP, ...
in your rental upon your return, you can
purchase in-flight meals using your credit
ploration
Transport layer
TCP, UDP, DCCP, SCTP, RSVP, ...
card, and doctors access vital signs of payour goal
tients across town—or around the world.
k directly
Internet layer
IP, IPv4, IPv6, , ICMP, ICMPv6, RIP, OSPF, BGP, ECN, IGMP, IPsec, ...
While such machine-to-machine (M2M)
age, the
source.
communication is performed over the
ology,
Internet, and generally uses the popular
Link layer
ARP/InARP, NDP, Tunnels, L2TP, PPP, Media, access, control,
d products
transmission control protocol (TCP), what
Ethernet, DSL, ISDN, FDDI, ...
you may not realize is that many other
M2M communications utilize user dataTABLE 1
gram protocol (UDP) and communicate
Internet Protocol Layers.
at rates that would be unachievable using
TCP. In fact, UDP can be very advantageous for many embedded M2M system manner—across the network. Manage• TCP provides connection managenies providing
solutions now
requirements
and might be worth consid- ment type protocols like ICMP and IGMP
ment between two host entities with a
ion into products,
technologies
companies.
Whether your goal is to research
the latest also categorized as network
eration
in yourandnext
design.
are typically
reliable data path between them.
TCP/IP is a layered protocol, which layers, even though they rely on IP for
you require for whatever type of technology,
more complex
protocols are built sending and receiving.
The UDP protocol is the “poor sister”
and productsmeans
you are searching
for.
on top of simpler underlying protocols
The transport layer rests on top of the of the Internet, not getting much media
(Table 1). In TCP/IP, the lowest layer pro- network layer. This layer is responsible for love, while TCP soaks up all the attention.
tocol is at the link level and is handled by managing the flow of data between hosts But UDP operates with far less overhead,
the network driver. This level is typically on the network. UDP operates within the and can run rings around TCP. While each
targeted toward Ethernet, but it could also transport layer, along with TCP, DCCP, is a general purpose protocol, and TCP is
be fiber, serial, or virtually any physical SCTP, RSVP and others, since, as the more widely known and used, many Inmedia. On top of the link layer is the net- name implies, these protocols are used ternet applications use UDP, including
work layer. In TCP/IP, this is the IP, which to move data from sender to receiver. In the Domain Name System (DNS), simple
is basically responsible for sending and particular, two general transport services network management protocol (SNMP),
receiving simple packets—in a best effort are commonly used by M2M applications: routing information protocol (RIP) and
UDP and TCP:
dynamic host configuration protocol
• UDP services provide best-effort (DHCP). And, did you know that most
Get Connected
sending and receiving of data between voice and video traffic is generally transwith companies mentioned in this article.
two hosts in a connectionless manner; mitted using UDP? To understand why,
End of Article
50
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Offset (bits)
0–15
16–31
0
Source
Destination
32
Sequence Number
64
Acknowledgement Number
96
Data Offset
128
Reserved
Flags
Window
Checksum
160
Urgent
Options
TABLE 2
TCP Header.
Offset (bits)
0–15
16–31
0
Source Port Number
Destination Port Number
32
Length
Checksum
64+
Data
TABLE 3
UDP Header.
and to determine whether it is a good fit
for your M2M system, we need to introduce some fundamental characteristics of
each protocol and show how those characteristics make one protocol better than the
other for a given application.
Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP)
TCP is a widely used protocol for
Internet traffic. It enables applications to
send data from one system to another,
across arbitrary distances, through an arbitrary number of intervening machines.
Indeed, the sender does not need to know
where the receiver is, or how to get to it.
Those critical functions are taken care of
by other aspects of the Internet protocol.
TCP provides reliable data transfer
between two network members. All data
transfers sent from one network member
are verified and acknowledged by the receiving member. In addition, the sender
and receiver must have established a connection prior to any data transfer. All this
results in reliable data transfer, but it does
introduce substantial overhead. Addi-
52
tional overhead is introduced in the TCP
header.
TCP places a somewhat complex
packet header in front of the application’s
content when sending data and removes
the header from the packet before delivering a received TCP packet to the application. Table 2 shows the format of the TCP
header. TCP uses the IP protocol to send
and receive packets, which means there
is an additional IP header in front of the
TCP header when the packet is on the network.
The data section follows the header.
The length of the data section is not specified in the TCP segment header. It can
be calculated, though, by subtracting the
combined length of the TCP header and
the encapsulating IP header from the total IP datagram length (specified in the IP
header).
TCP protocol operations may be divided into three phases: connection establishment, reliable data transfer and
connection termination. To establish a
connection, TCP uses a three-way handshake. For data transfer, the protocol uses
a sequence number to identify each byte
of data. If the sender infers that data has
been lost in the network, it retransmits the
data. Sequence numbers and acknowledgments cover discarding duplicate packets,
retransmission of lost packets and ordered-data transfer. To assure correctness,
a checksum field is included.
TCP uses an end-to-end flow control
protocol to avoid having the sender send
data too fast for the TCP receiver to receive and process it reliably. The protocol
also includes a number of mechanisms to
improve performance and prevent congestion collapse, an event that can cause
network performance to fall by several
orders of magnitude. These mechanisms
control the rate of data entering the network, keeping the data flow below a rate
that would trigger collapse. They also
yield an approximately max-min fair allocation between flows. Once transfers are
complete, the connection is terminated to
free system resources for reuse elsewhere.
While it’s clear that the TCP protocol
is a rich one, with many features related
to data integrity, the TCP header is quite
large. One can imagine the overhead that
those characteristics introduce. For certain applications, UDP may be a more efficient solution.
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
UDP provides the simplest form of
data transfer between network members.
UDP data packets—datagrams—are sent
from one network member to another in a
best-effort fashion, which means there is
no built-in mechanism for acknowledgement by the packet recipient. In addition,
sending a UDP packet does not require
any connection to be established in advance. Because of this, UDP packet transmission is very efficient, but the process is
also prone to loss or error.
UDP uses a simple packet header of
32 bits in length, compared to TCP headers, which can be 192 bits long. UDP
uses IP for sending and receiving packets, which means there is an additional IP
header in front of the UDP header when
the packet is on the network. Table 3
shows the format of the UDP header.
UDP uses a simple transmission
model without dialogues for reliability,
ordering, or data integrity. Thus, UDP
tech in systems
provides an unreliable service and UDP
datagrams may arrive out of order, appear duplicated, or go missing without
notice. UDP assumes that error checking
and correction is either not necessary or
is performed in the application, avoiding
the overhead of such processing at the network interface level.
Comparison of UDP and TCP
The two protocols have different
strengths and weaknesses that need to
be considered within the context of the
application (Table 4). TCP is a protocol
focused around reliable data transmission. TCP is most appropriate where data
integrity is critical—lost packets must be
re-tried and recovered 100% of the time,
regardless of any resultant delay. The TCP
protocol includes provisions for channel
creation, packet verification, packet ordering and re-transmission in the event of
failure. TCP communications also can intentionally slow themselves down if losses
exceed a certain threshold, to prevent congestion collapse.
UDP is a simpler message-based connectionless protocol, with no dedicated
end-to-end connection. Communication
is achieved by transmitting information in
one direction from source to destination
without verifying the readiness or state of
the receiver. Because of the lack of reliability, applications using UDP must be
tolerant of data loss, errors, or duplication,
or be able to assume correct transmission.
Such applications generally do not include
reliability mechanisms and may even be
hindered by them. In these cases, UDP—
a much simpler protocol than TCP—can
transfer the same amount of data with
far less overhead, and can achieve much
greater throughput.
UDP is often preferable for real-time
systems, since data delay might be more
detrimental than occasional packet loss.
Streaming media, real-time multiplayer
games and voice-over-IP (VoIP) services
are examples of applications that often use
UDP. In these particular applications, loss
of packets is not usually a fatal problem,
since the human eye and ear cannot detect
most occasional imperfections in a continuous stream of images or sounds. To
achieve higher performance, the protocol
allows individual packets to be dropped
TCP
UDP
Reliable—monitors message transmission,
tracks data transfer to ensure receipt of
all packets
Unreliable—no concept of acknowledgment,
retransmission, or timeout –
Ordered—buffering provisions to ensure
correct order of data packets
Not ordered—data arrives in order of receipt
Heavyweight—dedicated connection,
provisions for speed and congestion control
Lightweight—no dedicated end-to-end
connection, no congestion control
Streaming
Datagram oriented
Heavy overhead
Light overhead
Lower speed
Higher speed
TABLE 4
A comparison of TCP and UDP.
with no retries and UDP packets to be
received in a different order than they
were sent as dictated by the application.
Real-time video and audio streaming protocols are designed to handle occasional
lost packets, so only slight degradation in
quality occurs, rather than large delays,
which would occur if lost packets were
retransmitted.
Another environment in which UDP
might be preferred over TCP is within
a closed network, where there is little
chance of data loss or delay. For example,
on a board or within an SoC, data transfers from one component to another can
be tightly controlled within the application, obviating the need for the reliability
features of TCP. UDP might be a more
efficient and equally reliable protocol in
such situations. UDP’s stateless nature is
also useful for servers answering small
queries from huge numbers of clients,
such as DNS, SNMP and so on.
Both TCP and UDP are widely used
IP transfer layer protocols. For applications requiring reliable transfers, TCP is
generally preferred, while applications
that value throughput more than reliability
are best served using UDP. Most TCP/IP
stacks provide both protocols, so the application can use whichever transfer protocol is more appropriate, even changing
from one to the other as desired. Rather
than rely solely on TCP, the network system developer might want to investigate
the trade-offs related to use of UDP. It
might turn out to be beneficial to sacrifice some reliability in favor of greater
throughput.
Express Logic
San Diego, CA.
(858) 613-6640.
[www.rtos.com].
53
technology deployed
Security for Data and Design
Want it Secure? Target
Both Design and Data
Security
In today’s increasingly connected world, security applies to
servers as well as mobile and remote embedded devices.
The latter are often exposed to physical tampering while
data travelling over networks is exposed to compromise
and hacking. Security depends on securing the complete
connected universe.
by Richard Newell, Microsemi
A
s defense, commercial and civil
network infrastructures become
increasingly dependent on arrays
of Internet-connected computers, they
are becoming increasingly susceptible to
attack from hostile nations, non-governmental terrorist groups and cyber criminals. This silent digital war’s constantly
escalating cycle of intrusion/interception
threats and countermeasures poses multiple challenges to designers, since adding robust security features to a design
can substantially impact the complexity,
power consumption and cost of a system.
These challenges include supporting the
computational complexity required to
run advanced cryptographic algorithms;
providing secure insertion and storage of
encryption keys, and authenticating and
encrypting data exchanged over public
network connections.
At first glance field programmable
gate arrays (FPGAs) would seem to be a
favorable way to deploy robust security
features in a system. FPGAs can address
the computational complexity associated
with advanced cryptographic algorithms
with relatively small incremental power
and cost impacts while supporting the
54
ability to upgrade features when new
threats are discovered.
Additionally, designs requiring robust
security can come under attack from noninvasive probing techniques designed to intercept data from secured networks by exploiting the detectable tell tale “signatures”
that virtually all conventional security
architectures produce. These signatures
can be detected through Electro-Magnetic
Analysis (EMA) or Differential Power
Analysis (DPA), which sense changes in
power consumption. Both of these methods
enable the encryption keys to be extracted
and the data to be decrypted.
Finally, while the military and intelligence communities still use hardened
networks to protect some of their most
sensitive data, like civilians, they also rely
on the Internet and commercial telecommunications networks to carry most of
their messages and data. This presents an
extremely attractive opportunity for opposing nation states and cyber terrorists
to disrupt both military and intelligence
data traffic as well as civilian business and
personal data traffic. As a result, one of the
biggest challenges facing today’s designers
is achieving secure communications over
public wire-line and wireless networks.
Wireless communication presents an especially challenging environment to military
equipment suppliers since the gear can fall
into the hands of an adversary and lead to
reverse engineering, cloning, and the discovery of new countermeasures against
similar fielded systems.
Public networks, as well as being
used for transactional data, are the primary conduit for machine-to-machine
(M2M) communications between the
sensors, controllers and other so-called
smart objects that populate “The Internet
of Things.” By allowing devices such as
smart utility meters, traffic light controllers and sensors in utility and industrial
systems to share real-time data and adapt
to changing real-world conditions, M2M
technologies are improving the efficiency
and flexibility of the world’s physical and
financial infrastructure.
As one would expect, however, the
same connectivity that enables these
dramatic improvements can also create
potential vulnerabilities. For example,
unauthorized access to a remote meter or
Design Security
Making sure that the FPGA Design is protected and the IP owner’s security intent are respected.
5
>5
D Q
Q
Figure 1
Design security protects against theft or tampering with an FPGA design, and
can help prevent overbuilding of systems containing them.
Technology deployed
a traffic control system’s M2M communications could allow an unfriendly individual to intercept any data they collect and
allow them to configure and control the
equipment to do their bidding. In a few
years, even automobiles may become targets as the growing presence of wireless
links normally used to exchange diagnostic data or vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and
vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communications serve as unintended gateways to
the vehicles’ control systems.
Similar assaults on the streams of
digital currency that underlie most of
the world’s economies are already under
way. The M2M connections used by magnetic and contact-less credit card readers, ATMs and other types of networked
financial transaction terminals have become targets for criminals with varying
levels of technical capability.
Preventing Attacks
Protection from these attacks is provided through two mechanisms—design
security and data security. Design security
protects information about the system’s
construction and operation from prying
eyes. The chief techniques for attacks on
a system’s design security are as follows.
• Cloning, where someone copies the
design without even having to understand how it works
• Overbuilding, where a contract manufacturer fills your order and builds extra for sale on the grey market
• Reverse engineering, where someone
figures out how the design works, then
uses or improves on what he learned.
• Counterfeiting, which is the illegal
use of a brand name on a work-alike
or cloned product
• Tampering, which is changing the design for malicious intent
The most malicious of these attacks is
tampering with a design to change its operation. To combat this several techniques
can be used to stop an attack on a physical
level. This includes active zeroization of
a device if an attack is detected. Zeroization is the ability to clear the contents of a
device, making it inoperable if tampering
is detected. Figure 1 shows how design security protects the design from these risks.
Data Security
The Application programmed into the device meets its security objectives
(authenticity, confidentiality, integrity, etc.)
THE CAPTAIN SAYS ATTACK AT DAWN
DEGO FKEO BSPX WOER PAQS KCOM
Figure 2
Data security protects the operation of the application from attack by third
parties.
Design security is essential for products that are based on FPGAs. The data
used to configure the FPGA must be carefully protected to prevent it from being
used in ways that the IP owner did not intend. For most FPGAs, the design files are
held in internal SRAM and are transferred
from an external memory every time the
device is powered up or reset. This inherently exposes the bitstream to anyone with
access to the physical system.
Some SRAM FPGAs have a form of
design security, enabled by encrypting the
bit stream that is held in external memory
and unscrambling it as it is loaded in to
the FPGA. This requires every FPGA to
be programmed with a security key before
it is used. Through the widespread use of
third-party contract manufacturers (CMs),
which may or may not be trusted by the
design house, the devices may have to be
programmed in a trusted facility prior to
delivery to the CM, adding time, cost and
complexity to the supply chain.
Data security protects the data
stored, managed within and transported
by the system from being read or modified by unauthorized parties. Ensuring
the design’s data security requires that
the application code it’s programmed
with produces an encrypted data stream
that has the required levels of authenticity, confidentiality, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation. The device
must also ensure that the critical data it
manages (e.g., encryption keys, access
codes, etc.) stays secure. As a result of
this interdependent relationship, unless
a system can deliver sufficient levels of
both design and data security, it is virtually impossible to provide good security
(Figure 2).
The methods used to compromise
a system can be broken down into two
broad classes, defined by whether they
originate far from or near to its so-called
“security boundary.”
Attacks that exploit a system’s device
security vulnerabilities must originate
from inside or near the security boundary and require some sort of physical
contact or close proximity to the target
equipment. It is possible to protect a system’s routers, servers and other sensitive
equipment against device-level intrusions
by putting them in a secure location, such
as a limited-access room, and securing
the communication interfaces that leave
the area. But fielded equipment such as
military radios, credit card readers and
smart utility meters have no control over
what or who comes in contact with them.
If a device operates in these environments, it must be tamper-resistant, and
able to protect itself against malicious
physical attacks.
Network attacks that originate
outside the system’s physical security
boundary are typically defined as network security issues. They attempt to use
a system’s network connection to insert
Trojan horses, worms, or other malware
and don’t require direct contact or proximity to the equipment. Most networkbased assaults are relatively easy and
inexpensive to launch, making them the
tool of choice for hackers working with
non-governmental political groups (i.e.
terrorists), “private entrepreneurs” (i.e.
organized crime) and even state-sponsored organizations. Because any device
connected to the Internet is subject to a
near-constant barrage of attempted network attacks, both government and comRTC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2012
55
technology deployed
mercial interests spend considerable resources on tools to protect against these
relatively well-defined threats.
Recently incidents involving a broad
class of non-invasive probing known as
side-channel analysis techniques have
increased. This surge in side-channel
attacks using electromagnetic analysis
(EMA) and Differential Power Analysis
(DPA) is largely due to dramatic reductions in the cost and effort required to deploy them. These once-esoteric methods
ACR O M AG
E M B E D D E D
are becoming increasingly popular with
entities of all types.
Originally constructed from expensive electronics and powerful computers, DPA and other EMA systems were
only affordable by a handful of elite
national and private security agencies.
This changed quickly as the algorithms
became more widely known and multiGHz, multicore commodity computer
chips made it possible to construct an
effective hacking rig for under two thou-
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www.acromag.com/xembedded
COM Express
r Type II/III Carrier
r Dual GbE ports
r RS232/422
r USB ports
r
VPX 3U Processor Board
with Intel Core i7 CPU
W hite
Paper
Download “Introduction to VPX”
white paper at
www.acromag.com/xembedded
ISO 9001:2000 and AS9100 certified manufacturer
xembeddedsales@acromag.com
r
734-975-0577
All trademarks are the property of their owners.
56
Untitled-4 1
9/5/12 5:21 PM
sand dollars. For example, a rig capable
of recovering an unprotected smart card’s
encrypted data stream in under a minute
can be constructed using a low-cost USB
oscilloscope that feeds readings from the
reader’s power supply trace to a gardenvariety laptop computer.
DPA applies statistics and signal processing to the analysis of faint signals from
low leakage sources. Originally discovered
and developed by a small private group of
security consultants at Cryptography Research, Inc. (since acquired by Rambus), it
is especially effective in applications that
repeatedly use the same key.
The demand for secure systems is in
every market and application segment that
exists today. Whether it is for the protection of military, commercial or financial
systems, vast amounts of sensitive information is passed through non-secure links
every day. Therefore, the cryptographic
functions that are performed on the data
must be efficient and effective. FPGAs
can help satisfy this need.
Design security is a major issue in
SRAM FPGAs, which lose their configuration when they are reset or powered
down. The configuration must be restored
when power is reapplied, which can expose the configuration bitstream to anyone
trying to make an attack on them. However, recent advances in FPGAs based on
non-volatile flash memory have made the
use of FPGAs in secure systems not just
possible—but also preferable. All of the
configuration for the device only needs to
be programmed once, and never needs to
be exposed again.
Microsemi SmartFusion2 devices
change the landscape on using FPGAs in
secure applications. They are flash memory based, and incorporate design and
data security features such as easy to use
always-on encryption, built-in NVM data
integrity checking, a true random number
generator, tamper detection and zeroization, and DPA-resistant technology from
Cryptography Research. SmartFusion2
SoC (System-on-Chip) FPGAs radically
transform the usefulness of FPGAs in security applications.
Microsemi
Aliso Viejo, CA.
(949) 380-6100.
[www.microsemi.com].
ECCN.COM
Beijing
Shanghai
Shenzhen
Xian
Wuhan
Hong Kong
MAKES IT HAPPEN
ECCN.com is the top and most powerful
network for China’s electronic market. It
provides hundreds of thousands of Chinese
engineers with the most up-to-date technology
information from the leading manufacturers and
solution providers from the U.S.A. and Europe.
The all-inclusive platform includes technology
news, new products, a technical library,
webinars, webcasts, training and videos.
Coverage ranges from consumer electronics
to embedded, industrial, automotive and
medical technolgoies. Components supported
range from sensors and analog circuits to
programmable logics and MCU.
Additionally, the portal allows engineers to
purchase products online to help them finish
their prototype and development projects.
ECCN.com has 6 local offices to serve the
engineers and make delivery fast and efficient.
It also has Global Electronics China Magazine
(GEC) to reinforce marketing and promotion.
Buy it online. Buy it in person.
ECCN.COM THE CHINA
eCONNECTION
Connecting 2 Continents and over 1,000,000
Chinese Electronic Buyers & Engineers
www.eccn.com
Tel: 010-82888222, 0755-33322333
Fax: 010-82888220, 0755-33322099
products &
TECHNOLOGY
VPX Storage Module Boots over SATA/SAS and PCI Express for Use
with Any CPU
A new bootable storage module in a 3U form factor, suitable for use with any CPU, supports dual slim SATA drives or a single 2.5” drive, either rotating or solid-state. The Xembedded
XVPX-9756 is a SATA/SAS module from Acromag that connects directly to the CPU via SATA
signals or by means of PCI Express signals through an onboard controller. Given its connectivity
options, the module is a universally bootable storage solution. The operating range is 0 to 70°C
or -40° to 85°C, dependent upon thermal options. This module permits
booting on SATA/SAS or PCIe signals, suiting either customized or
standard backplanes, which allows all CPU boards to benefit.
By employing dual slim SATA drives on the XVPX-9756,
users can take advantage of a simple single-card RAID system. This drive module is RAID 0/1 configurable with the option to use RAID 0 striping for high data throughput, or RAID
1 mirroring so that data written on one disk drive is also simultaneously written to the other disk drive.
The XVME-9756 SATA/SAS bootable storage module is part of Acromag’s line of Xembedded computing solutions. With Xembedded computer boards, users leverage the experience
gained from providing embedded computing solutions for more than three decades, including the
original Intel-based VME processor module. Xembedded processor and data storage modules
deliver dependable, high-performance technologies to maximize efficiency and minimize risk in
critical computing applications. List price is $1,345 for air-cooled, $2,025 for conduction-cooled
and $2,590 for REDI covers.
Quad-Ports Fiber Bypass/
Failover Network Card for Gigabit
Connectivity
A new quad-ports, two-segments bypass
card uses the latest fiber switch module with
board-to-board high-speed connection technology instead of an outside wired design.
This new special fiber switch module design
in the NIP-52240 from American Portwell can
support easy deployment, longer product life,
and more reliable network traffic than other
fiber bypass cards in the market. This makes
it a suitable solution for applications requiring
secured mechanical structure and high-availability (HA) on server-based systems, intrusion prevention server
(IPS), intrusion detection server
(IDS),
WAN
opti-
Acromag, Wixom, MI. (734) 975-0577. [www.acromag.com].
High-Intensity Piezoelectric Microphone for Extreme Applications
A new piezoelectric sound pressure level microphone is designed to measure very high
intensity acoustic noise and very low pressure fluctuations over a wide temperature range. The
Endevco model 2510 from Meggitt Sensing Systems supports extreme acoustic measurement
applications such as rocket launch separation studies and high-temperature aircraft engine noise
monitoring, among others.
Featuring a rugged design, a wide sound pressure measurement range of 100 to >180 dB SPL and temperature measurement capabilities from -55° to +260°C (-67° to +500°F), the hermetically sealed stainless steel housing of the Endevco 2510
encloses a special thick pressure diaphragm that is expressly
designed to prevent puncturing, particle impact damage, accidental mishandling or high pressure pulses. Special insulation
placed between the transducer and mounting surface prevents
electromagnetic interference (EMI or ground looping) that can
degrade data quality and lead to measurement uncertainty.
As a high-impedance piezoelectric microphone, the Endevco
2510 is intended primarily to be used along with charge amplifiers. Although basic design is
directed toward maximizing charge characteristics, the model 2510 also gives excellent results
when operated into voltage amplifiers. Long cables may also be used between the transducer and
charge converter without affecting charge sensitivity.
Meggitt Sensing Systems, Fribourg, Switzerland. +41 26 407 1111.
[www.meggittsensingsystems.com].
58
mization, security appliances and other mission-critical gateways.
The NIP-52240 provides a complete intrusion prevention solution using a Portwelldesigned Generation 3 bypass function that
supports normal mode, bypass mode and open
mode when the system crashes or encounters
power failure. The NIP-52240 utilizes an Intel
Ethernet controller 82580EB as its core technology, and provides Intel VMDq and Jumbo
Frame functions.
The NIP-52240 quad-ports GbE fiber
bypass card is compatible with all of Portwell
1U/2U network security appliances. Also, the
NIP-52240 is very easy to install into the systems. In addition, designed on a standard form
factor, the NIP-52240 can support up to 12
GbE SFP with 6 bypass segments in 1U appliances (based on Portwell CAR-4XXX series).
American Portwell, Fremont, CA.
(510) 403-3399. [www.portwell.com].
PRODUCTS & TECHNOLOGY
PCI Express Encoder for Simultaneous Capture from 16 Video and 16 Audio Inputs
A 16-channel H.264 PCI Express encoder can provide multiple output streams for each input video channel. With the Model 819 from Sensoray, this means two H.264 streams at independently set resolutions, frame rates and bitrates; a low frame rate JPEG stream; and an uncompressed
(preview) stream. Each channel allows an individually configured multi-window character and graphics overlay and provides
real-time motion data.
An internal 16 x 4 analog crosspoint video switch is used to route any combination of four composite output
channels to external video monitors. Individual scalers and deinterlacers facilitate optimal resolutions for each
captured stream. For example, a high resolution, high bitrate stream may be selected for archiving, while a lower
resolution, low bitrate stream is preferable for simultaneous streaming to handheld devices, including smartphones.
The H.264 encoders used on the Model 819 implement high-quality baseline profile level 3-compatible H.264
compression. Flexible encoder control allows achieving optimal stream parameters for a wide variety of applications.
The output streams may be formatted as elementary, MPEG-4 or transport stream.
Sensoray provides an SDK for the Model 819 that includes drivers and demo applications for both Windows and Linux operating systems.
OEM quantity 2-9 pricing for the Model 819 is $785.
Sensoray, Tigard, OR. (503) 684-8005. [www.sensoray.com].
Algorithmic Memory Delivers Performance and
Density Advantages
Based upon an award-winning Algorithmic Memory technology, a
new semiconductor intellectual property (SIP) product is able to deliver
up to a 4X increase in memory operations per second (MOPS) when
integrated in SoC and ASOC designs. In addition, the Renaissance 4X
product technology from Memoir Systems eliminates the need to build
custom multiport memories and can reduce area and power requirements by up to 60% compared to conventional physical multiport implementations. By combining +Memoir’s patented memory algorithms
with silicon-validated single-port/two-port memories, Renaissance 4X
can generate memories with any read/write combinations for up to four
active ports, easily achieving 4000 MOPS in a 28nm process.
Renaissance 4X alleviates the need for custom memory solutions
and creates a versatile memory portfolio offering of six multiport memory generators that cater to different
memory requirements and application needs. Memoir’s product uses
standard 6T BIST and DFT methodologies, contains RTL that has been
exhaustively verified using formal
methodologies, and does not require
silicon validation. Through this combination of benefits, Renaissance 4X provides a significant time-tomarket advantage, lowers product development cost and reduces risk.
With Renaissance 4X, customers have flexibility and options not available with custom memory solutions. For instance, memory replication is
area inefficient, requires much higher power and only works to increase
read performance. On the other hand, custom multiport solutions have
higher costs, risks, and require a longer time-to-market. This means
that they are not generally offered by third-party IP suppliers.
From an application standpoint, Renaissance 4X meets the data
requirements of next-generation SoCs used in networking and communication subsystems that have aggregated speeds above 400 Gbit/s.
This means that Renaissance 4X has extensive applicability for memories that require multiple memory accesses per cycle, such as packet
buffers, counters, netflow, linked lists, schedulers, lookup tables, etc.
In addition, Renaissance 4X provides multiport memories for shared
L2 and L3 cache architectures, for high-performance multicore SoCs.
Renaissance 4X Generators are available now and list pricing starts at
$500,000 plus royalties.
Memoir Systems, Santa Clara, CA. (408) 550-2382.
[www.memoir-systems.com].
Ad Index
Atom-Based Fanless Computer Delivers 3.5” HDD
and Rich I/O Support
Connected
with
technology
and
A new series of low-powerGet
fanless
computers is
based
on the Intel
companies series
providing
solutions
Atom D2550 processor. The MXE-1300
from
Adlinknow
TechnolGet
is a new resource
for furtherbyexploration
ogy increases processing power
byConnected
44% and graphics
performance
into products, technologies and companies. Whether your goal
90% over the previous Atom platform. Featuring low power consumpis to research the latest datasheet from a company, speak directly
tion, rich I/O capability
and large storage with 3.5” HDD support, the
with an Application Engineer, or jump to a company's technical page, the
MXE-1300 series makes
a suitable
application-oriented
forresource.
goal of Get
Connected
is to put you in touchplatform
with the right
digital surveillance,Whichever
intelligent
and for
factory
automation
leveltransportation
of service you require
whatever
type of technology,
Get Connected will help you connect with the companies and products
applications.
you are searching
The Adlink MXE-1300
seriesfor.adapts a 3.5” standard height hard
disk drive to a 210 mm (W) x 170 mm (D) x 58 mm (H) housing, providing a very compact fanless system supporting 3.5” storage capability, significantly reducing storage costs and physical
space requirements for highresolution image processing
and transmission applicaGet Connected with technology and companies prov
tions.
Get
Featuring operating shockConnected is a new resource for further exploration into pro
datasheet from a company, speak directly with an Application Engine
tolerance up to 100G, an extended
in touch with the right resource. Whichever level of service you requir
market-leading operating
temperaturewill help you connect with the companies and produc
Get Connected
range of -20° to 70°C, and unique thermal design with zero cable manwww.rtcmagazine.com/getconnected
agement requirements, the MXE-1300 provides reliable performance in
mission-critical and harsh environments.
The Adlink MXE-1300 supports rich I/O interfaces, including six
USB ports, four serial ports, four digital I/Os, three Gigabit Ethernet
ports, and one each Mini-PCIe and USIM slot for wireless operation.
The MXE-1300 accommodates three Intel 82574 GbE LAN controllers for top performance and a multitude of features supporting diverse
Internet/intranet applications. In addition, the MXE-1300’s four built-in
digital inputs and outputs allow the most intuitive inter-device communication implementation anywhere. The MXE-1300 also supports
multiple OS, including Windows 7, Windows 7 Embedded, Windows
XP, Windows
Embedded,with
WinCE
7.0 and
GetXP
Connected
companies
and Linux.
Products
products featured
in this
ADLINK Technology,
San Jose,
CA.section.
(408) 360-0200. [www.adlinktech.com].
Get Connected with companies and products featured in this section.
59
SATA SSDs Designed for Capacity and Workload
of Embedded Systems
A new line of solid-state storage products includes 1.8- and
2.5-inch SATA, Slim SATA, mSATA and CFast form factors
that are specifically designed for embedded systems that have
unique capacity and workload requirements. The StorFly SSDs
from Virtium are also optimized to meet the storage needs of a
diverse range of embedded application form factors and usage models, which differ substantially from storage requirements of client or enterprise applications.
Eliminating the need for costly product qualifications, StorFly SSDs deliver stable configurations and are engineered for the long-life needs of networking, industrial automation,
medical, military and gaming systems. Virtium’s new StorFly SSDs also provide the ruggedness and flexibility today’s embedded systems demand by offering extended temperature
operation, low power at peak performance and wide range of capacity points.
Supporting the company’s further storage product innovation and expansion, Virtium
has opened a state-of-the-art SSD design center. Virtium’s team of firmware, hardware and
test engineers is actively focused on solid-state storage development and in-depth characterization of Virtium SSDs applied to varying embedded workloads.
Virtium’s low-power StorFly 1.8- and 2.5-inch SATA, Slim SATA, mSATA and CFast
products are available now in capacities ranging from 8 to 256 gigabytes. Enhanced performance and capacity additions to the StorFly product line will be announced later in 2012.
Virtium, Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. (949) 888-2444. [www.virtium.com].
New Release Extends Data Distribution Service Infrastructure
Real-Time Innovations (RTI) has released the next generation of its RTI Connext product
family. With over 70 new features, the latest release of RTI Connext provides a much more versatile and scalable architecture for developing real-time and embedded applications that use a variety of enterprise integration patterns. The resulting flexibility reduces development, integration
and testing costs and enables rapid implementation of new system requirements.
New features include expanded enterprise integration patterns such as request-reply, which
allows applications to receive information on demand, only when they need it. It also supports
guaranteed delivery to ensure critical data gets delivered even in the presence of hardware and
software failures; and application level acknowledgement, which ensures that critical data is processed completely, even if an application fails after the data was received.
The new version also includes scalability enhancements for better performance across largescale systems—as the number of subscribers increase, there is virtually no measurable degradation in performance.
Initial support of DDS-XTypes facilitates information
model evolution by allowing extensions and changes to existing data types, while maintaining full interoperability between
deployed and newly developed systems. This is an important
feature for compliance with the Object Management Group
(OMG) Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard.
In addition, a new integrated administration console enables users to administer a running system. The new console also illustrates the state of services
in applications and systems, allowing for easy reconfiguration across the development, integration and testing phases of a system.
RTI has also announced a new Infrastructure Community (IC) licensing model, which,
when combined with the next generation of the RTI Connext product family, offers customers
an easy way to adopt common infrastructures within and across an organization to achieve cost,
time-to-market and interoperability benefits.
The next generation RTI Connext product family is available now with U.S. pricing ranging
from $1,000 to $3,000 per developer or $500 to $1,500 per processor. Free-of-charge licenses
are also available for evaluation and for qualified infrastructure communities, R&D projects and
university use.
Real-Time Innovations, Sunnyvale, CA. (408) 990-7400. [www.rti.com].
60
Embedded Platform Speeds
Development of Qseven-Based
Systems
A new embedded platform is designed
for the fast development of embedded systems
with Qseven modules. The MSC Q7-MB-EP4
platform from MSC Embedded is designed to
support the latest version (1.20) of the Qseven
specification, and offers system integrators a
ready-to-use carrier board with added functionality and I/O flexibility for easy customization.
The MSC Q7-MB-EP4 embedded platform provides a broad range of the interfaces
commonly used in embedded applications,
such as a dual Gigabit LAN, five USB 2.0
ports (four external), an RS-232 (pin header),
an AC97 audio port and Serial Advanced
Technology Attachment
(SATA) interfaces. CAN
signals
are
also
available
via a special
pin header. An RS232 Debug port for a
console output simplifies
Linux software development, which is especially important for MSC’s Qseven modules
using ARM technology. For the integration
of standard displays, the embedded platform
provides LVDS via a JILI30 connector and
a DVI connector. Additionally, the platform
integrates a controller for the connection of a
resistive touch screen and provides the power
supply for a backlight.
For added functionality of the 148 x
102 mm compact motherboard, a mini PCI
Express slot has been integrated, which supports a wireless LAN card. The mSATA slot
provides an easy way to add a SATA-based
flash memory card. Additionally, the MSC
Q7-MB-EP4 embedded platform can be individually configured via the integrated MMC/
SD card slot. The platform supports the industrial temperature range of -40° to +85°C.
The compact Qseven module is mounted via
a proven MXM connection on the solder side
of the MSC Q7-MB-EP4 baseboard, making
it easy to thermally connect the Qseven heat
spreader to a metal enclosure and provide fanless heat dissipation. Pricing for OEM quantities starts at $160.
MSC Embedded, San Bruno, CA.
(650) 616-4068. [www.mscembedded.com].
PCI Express Mini Carrier Card Brings SIM Power to CompactPCI
A robust PCI Express (PCIe) Mini Card carrier board features two PCIe Mini Card slots as standard with USB
and PCI Express connections as well as two SIM card slots. The F223 from MEN Micro is a 3U CompactPCI board
that can be used in virtually all wireless applications from GPS, WLAN and UMTS to GSM and HSDPA, and is
expandable to 18 SIM slots. Each PCIe Mini Card incorporates two or three redundant SMA antenna connectors on
the front panel to guarantee the most stable connection over different frequency ranges.
The two PCI Express Mini Cards on the F223 can be reset and powered on and off separately without having to
reset the whole system. For applications with frequent location or rate-related network changes, MEN Micro’s
AE64 adapter board enables each of the two PCIe Mini Cards to control up to eight additional SIM cards, so
that a maximum of 18 SIM cards can be accommodated on a single carrier board.
Additionally, when equipped with a USB-SIM emulator, the board can control SIM cards on a central server. This
is especially useful in railway applications, where SIM card data residing on a remote server can be transferred to a system in a moving train, which
then uses the corresponding network for a short time to update system information.
The F223 is both designed for -40° to +85°C operating temperature using qualified components and conformally coated for use in harsh and
mobile environments. Pricing for the F223 is $514. Delivery is six to eight weeks ARO.
MEN Micro, Abler, PA. (215) 542-9575. [www.menmicro.com].
Ad Index
Get Connected with technology and
Universal AC Input VITA 62 3U Power Supply Can be
Air or Conduction Cooled
Video Compression Module
with
Enhanced
companies
providing
solutions now
Connectivity and Flexibility
Get Connected is a new resource for further exploration
A universal AC input VITA 62-compliant 6-channel 3U OpenVPX
power supplies up to 400 watts output for air or conduction-cooled systems. The VITA 62 power supply standard defines connector configuration, power generation requirements, utility, functionality and form
factor requirements for power modules mating to a VPX backplane
VITA 62 power supply slot. The PSC-6236 from Dawn VME products
features a mission-critical wide temperature range at high power on a
1-inch pitch.
Input range is 85-264 VAC, 47-400 Hz. The Dawn PSC-6236 can
be special ordered to support high current single channel applications.
The PSC-6236 offers current sharing with up to four power supplies in
a system for outputs of 12V, 5V and 3.3V. Models
are available for air-cooled, conduction to bulkhead cooled, and conduction to wedge lock cooled applications
and configurations. The PSC-6236 is
designed to be compliant with MILSTD-461, MIL-STD-704F and MILSTD-810F.
Dawn’s proprietary embedded RuSH Rugged
System Health Monitor technology actively measures voltage, current
and temperature on each rail for intelligent monitoring and protective
control of critical power supply performance parameters. The PSC6236 is interfaced to the Intelligent Platform Management Bus (IPMB)
providing an I2C communication link with system cards. Onboard microprocessor and firmware provide real-time over voltage, over current
and over temperature protective control, with factory programmable
power sequencing and shutdown for all voltage rails.
Standard firmware provides Power on Hours and max/min temperature with time stamps via an onboard RTC. Firmware enables additional PSC-6236 features including customer specified monitoring windows for power sequencing, special alerts, alarms, status reports and
other monitoring and control factors. An optional 3-axis accelerometer
records and time stamps shock and vibration and other critical events.
The PSC-6236 front I/O panel includes an LED status indicator, a USB
port for field firmware upgrades and VBAT battery access for support
of the VPX memory backup power bus.
products,
technologiesXMC
and companies.
Whether your goal
A rugged high definitioninto
video
compression
module allows
is to research
latest datasheet
from a company,
speak directly
very high quality moving images
to bethecaptured,
transmitted
and stored
with very low latency and with minimal consumption of precious bandgoal of Get Connected is to put you in touch with the right resource.
width or disk space—meaning
actionable
information
is type
received
Whichever levelthat
of service
you require
for whatever
of technology,
more quickly and efficiently.
are GE
searching
for.
The ICS-8580 you
from
Intelligent
Platforms includes base level
support for Camera www.rtcmagazine.com/getconnected
Link, a serial communication protocol standard designed for computer vision applications based on the National Semiconductor interface. This allows seamless connection between the ICS-8580 and Camera Link-enabled
high resolution cameras, and means
that the module can be configured
Getinput
Connected with technology and companies prov
to support almost any camera
and system configuration. Get Connected is a new resource for further exploration into pro
datasheet from
Also new for the ICS-8580
is a company, speak directly with an Application Engine
in touch with the right resource. Whichever level of service you requir
support for IPv6, the Internet
ProtoGet Connected will help you connect with the companies and produc
col that will ensure the longevity of IPwww.rtcmagazine.com/getconnected
based networking by allowing a significantly larger number of the IP
addresses on which the Internet is based. This is in addition to the ICS8580’s support of IPv4.
The ICS-8580 can capture video inputs and archive or stream them
over Ethernet, managing multiple streams and performing capture, manipulation, conversion, compression, storage, decompression and video
display. It is rugged, compact, lightweight and consumes little power,
enabling it to be easily deployed in systems destined for deployment
in harsh environments that are constrained by size, weight and power
(SWaP).
The ICS-8580 features H.264 video compression/decompression
(codec) technology,
which is with
widely
regarded
Get Connected
companies
and as being the optimum solution. It is products
considered
to be
up to
three times as efficient as other codec
featured
in this
section.
solutions, allowing
vital image detail to be retained while occupying the
minimum possible bandwidth or storage.
Dawn VME Products, San Jose, CA. (510) 657-4444. [www.dawnvme.com].
Products
GE Intelligent Platforms, Huntsville, AL. (256) 382-8137.
[www.defenwse.ge-ip.com].
Get Connected with companies and products featured in this section.
61
Embedded PC for Instrumentation & Control with FPGA Core &
Configurable FMC I/O
A platform for embedded instrumentation combines an Atom or i7 PC running Windows/Linux/VxWorks with a Xilinx Kintex7 FPGA plus dual, industry-compliant FPGA
mezzanine card (FMC) I/O sites. The SBC-K7 from Innovative Integration incorporates a
Type-6 COM Express module, which provides full PC software and hardware compatibility.
Available variants support Intel dual-core Atom (consuming just 6W) or quad-core i7 processors (45W) and up to 16 Gbyte DDR3 RAM. Gigabit Ethernet, USB, SATA, DisplayPort,
touchscreen LCD, RS-232/485, ultra-low-jitter programmable sample clock generation and
PCI Express connectivity are standard.
The FPGA computing core features the Xilinx Kintex 7 FPGA family, from K325T
to K410T. The K410T provides 1540 DSP MAC elements operating at up to 500 MHz and
400K logic cells. The FPGA core has two LPDDR2 DRAM memory banks providing 512
Mbyte x 16-bit and 1024 Mbyte x 32-bit, respectively.
Two FMC I/O sites are provided. High pin count (HPC)-compatible site 0 features 80
LVDS pairs connected to the FPGA, plus clocks, controls and eight lanes of PCIe Gen2 connectivity. Low pin count (LPC)-compatible site 1 provides eight Gen2
PCIe lanes, 22 HB and 34 LB differential pairs pins—perfect for
connection to custom-designed user hardware. Innovative offers
an expanding line of FMC analog and digital I/O modules that
can be readily customized to meet customer requirements.
For system communications, the SBC-K7 includes dual 1 Gbit
Ethernet, two USB3 and two USB2 ports. The Ethernet and USB ports provide
instant connectivity to host PCs and networks. A USB client port also allows operation as
a USB device. 10 Gbit communications are available via optional FMC modules. The 10
Gbit Ethernet port connects directly to the FPGA, providing sustained “wire speed” rates
of ~1Gbyte/s over a fiber optic connection. Power consumption is <30W (K325T FPGA)
excluding FMC and operates from a 9-32V input. Air- and conduction-cooled versions are
available rated for -40° to +85°C, with up to 5G vibration.
The FPGA logic can be fully customized using VHDL/Verilog or MatLab using the
Frame Work Logic toolset. Real-time hardware-in-the-loop development using the graphical Simulink block diagrams is supported. IP cores for signal processing applications such
down-conversion, demodulation and FFT are also available. Software tools for host development include C++ libraries and drivers for Windows and Linux. Application examples
demonstrate card use and features.
Innovative Integration, Simi Valley, CA. (805) 578-4260. [www.innovative-dsp.com].
AMC Packet Processor Card Based on Broadcom XLP 300 Series
A new AMC card is a high-performance network processor-based acceleration card designed for use in AdvancedTCA- and MicroTCA-compliant systems. The RPM-100 from JumpGen Systems features the latest Broadcom XLP 300 Series processors with up to 1.4 GHz core
frequency, enabling telecom customers to reach new levels of packet processing and deep packet
inspection. The RPM-100 can be delivered with up to 16 Gbytes of dual-channel 72bit wide DDR3 ECC memory running at 1600 MT/s. Two 10GigE SFP+ interfaces
are provided on the front panel.
JumpGen is pleased to be the first to incorporate Broadcom’s XLP
300 Series processors into an AMC platform. JumpGen’s in-depth
knowledge of XLP technology and its supporting cast can now be
translated to many other solutions in standard platforms and custom form factors.
The RPM-100 features the Broadcom XLP316, XLP308, or
XLP304 with 2-4 cores—each quad-issue, 4-way simultaneous multi-threaded.
The card has up to 16 Gbytes of DDR3 memory with ECC on dual-channel x72 bus with clock
rate up to 1600 MT/s and up to 32 Gbytes SLC NAND Flash. There are two front panel SFP+
10GigE sites with AMC.1 PCI Express to the backplane and an optional AMC.2 10G Ethernet to
the backplane. The card comes in full-size or mid-size form factor.
JumpGen Systems, Carlsbad, CA. (760) 931-7800. [www.jumpgen.com].
62
Wireless Temperature & Humidity
Monitoring Kit
A wireless Temp/RH Monitoring Kit is
an easy-to-use, wireless system that includes
everything needed to make environmental
monitoring fast, cost-effective and convenient.
Using the Hobo from Onset, users can, in
three easy steps, monitor critical temperature
and humidity conditions, log data for trend
analysis, and stay notified of alarm conditions
via text or email—all without the hassles of
wires or manual data offload. The monitoring
kit is suitable for use in a broad range of facilities, including food processing plants, office
buildings, laboratories and warehouses.
Key features include fast, easy set up, out
of the box and centralized monitoring straight
from the desktop. The kit supports alarm notifications via text or email with automated data
delivery to remote locations via email or FTP.
The design has been made flexible for easy
system expandability
The system sends users a text message
via phone or email when temperature/RH
conditions exceed set thresholds, and sends an
alarm if one of the temperature/RH sensors
becomes disconnected from the network. The
system also provides visual notification on the
PC that an alarm has tripped.
The wireless kit includes HOBOnode
Manager software, a component of Onset’s
industry-leading HOBOware Pro software.
HOBOnode Manager allows users to view
near real-time energy and environmental data,
set alarm notifications, and get an at-a-glance
view of the system with its Network Map feature.
The Wireless Temp/RH Monitoring Kit
includes three wireless temperature/RH data
nodes, a data receiver, HOBOware Pro software and sensor mounting accessories. It is
available immediately from Onset, and is
priced at $899.
Onset Computer, Bourne, MA. (508) 759-9500.
[www.onsetcomp.com].
ARM-Based COM Module Offers Tegra 3 in New
ULP-COM form factor
A new ultra low power, low profile ARM-based Computer-onModule is specifically designed to extend the proven and scalable
Computer-on-Modules-based usage model to new modules with ARM
and SoC processors. The ULP-COM-sAT30 from Kontron offers a
low profile solution that measures 82 mm x 50 mm and integrates the
Nvidia Tegra 3 Quad Core ARM 1.2 GHz technology. The Kontron
ULP-COM-sAT30 delivers an advanced, rugged and scalable building block for industrial tablet and imaging-centric applications where
power consumption must be extremely low such as for those in the POS/
POI, infotainment, digital signage, security/surveillance, medical and
military markets. The combination of the low power Nvidia Tegra 3
ARM processor and ULP-COM’s optimized ARM/SoC pin-out definition enables designers to build fanless, passively cooled systems that
dramatically reduce power consumption and costs of deployed systems.
The ULP-COM-sAT30 is based on the new module standard Ultra
Low Power Computer-on-Module (ULP-COM). The ULP-COM specification has been submitted to the new Standardization Group for Embedded Technologies (SGET),
and is expected to be officially released and available
through SGET shortly.
The Kontron ULPCOM-sAT30 uses a 314pin connector (MXM 3.0),
which enables an extremely
low profile solution with
board-to-board separation
as low as 1.5 mm and an overall height as low as 5.7 mm. This connection method contributes to designs that have an extremely thin construction height. The ULP-COMsAT30 also offers superior, high-end graphics support with dedicated
interfaces for dual displays with HD video decode including MPEG2,
HD video encode, ultra low power Nvidia GeForce GPU with dual
display controllers, and 2D and 3D acceleration. In addition, flexible
display support is provided for parallel LCD 18- / 24-bit, LVDS single
channel 18-bit / 24-bit (18-bit compatible), as well as dual channel support for 24-bit LVDS (carrier board xmitter) and HDMI. Plus, Kontron’s
new ARM-based module delivers camera support via its 2x (dual lane)
CSI-2 camera ports.
To further assist customers in application development and evaluation, Kontron is also announcing the availability of its ULP-COM Evaluation Carrier board. This multipurpose carrier board is engineered
specifically to enable designers to easily evaluate the comprehensive
feature set of the ULP-COM Computer-on-Module. Additionally, it allows end-users to test and evaluate both hardware and software functionality in their particular application. Because many ARM-based
solutions support a variety of interfaces, the ULP-COM Evaluation
Carrier board also supports this diverse range of interfaces as well as
solid state mass storage options. Furthermore, this versatile board supports display and camera interfaces along with an accelerometer for enhanced design flexibility. Samples of the Kontron Computer-on-Module
ULP-COM-sAT30 are available now, and series production will start
in Q4 2012.
PCIe Quad-Port Switch Board Operates at 64 Gbit/s
A new PCIe x8 Gen 3 quad-port cable adapter operates as a switch
board in I/O expansion applications to fan out the PCIe signal to up
to four I/O devices like storage arrays and/or expansion systems. The
new adapters are also field-programmable to allow the different ports
to receive or transmit data. The
quad-port switch board is ideal for
building data storage farms.
The two-slot wide board has
one PCIe x16 edge connector and
four PCIe x8 cable connectors on
the slot cover. Therefore, in an I/O
expansion application, the card receives data from one server and
transmits it to four I/O points. This
quad-port board eliminates the need
for an external switch, which in turn
saves 1U of rack space.
Steve Cooper, CEO, says of Gen
3 adapters, “These state-of-the-art products bring greater performance,
less overhead and lower latencies to a demanding technology. With PCI
Express being the bus structure that all PCs are built on today, these
products have great longevity with new applications being continually
unveiled. OSS will continue to lead this technology and bring its latest
developments to the market.” The quad-port switch lists for $2,175.
One Stop Systems, Escondido, CA. (877) 438-2724.
[www.onestopsystems.com].
Solid or Spin...
we go both ways
Ruggedized VPX Drive
Drivv e Storage
S torage Module
Whatever your drive mount criteria
criteria, everyone knows the reputation
reputation,
value and endurance of Phoenix products. The new VP1-250X, compatible with both solid state or rotating drives, has direct point-to-point
connectivity or uses the PCI Express interface with the on-board SATA
controller. It is available in conduction cooled , conduction with REDI
covers (VITA 48) and air cooled (shown) configurations.
We Put the State of Art to Work
Kontron, Poway, CA. (888) 294-4558. [www.kontron.com].
XXXQIFOYJOUDPNt714-283-4800
PHOENIX INTERNATIONAL IS AS 9100 REV C / ISO 9001: 2008 CERTIFIED
Untitled-1 1
63
9/7/12 9:54 AM
Smart Meter System-on-a-Chip Combines Metrology, Security
and Communication
An important advance in integration and security protection for the smart grid comes
in the form of Zeus, a complete smart meter system-on-a-chip (SoC) from Maxim Integrated. Zeus offers highly accurate metrology, multiple layers of security, and plenty of
processing horsepower for today’s advanced communication protocols.
As smart meters become more connected, the need for security is paramount to protect
against energy theft and cyber attacks on the grid. Zeus provides meter manufacturers with
a platform for development in multiple end markets, supporting a wide range of security
and communication requirements. A built-in cryptographic module secures communication; a secure bootloader prevents unauthorized firmware
modification; and tamper detection assures providers that
any attempts to physically attack the meter will be detected,
recorded and reported.
Other key features include superior metering accuracy
with multiple ADC channels that each run at 10 ksps, offering 0.1% accuracy over a 5,000:1 dynamic
range. Future proofing to support tomorrow’s
applications includes a 120 MHz ARM Cortex
M3 application processor and a 40 MHz, 32bit MAXQ30 microcontroller with DSP support for the metering function. The multicore
architecture supports WELMEC separation of legally relevant and irrelevant functions to
ease validation.
Rugged COM Express Module
Boasts Small Size, High
Performance
A conduction- or air-cooled Mini COM
Express module (55 mm x 84 mm) supports
the Freescale QorIQ P2041 quad-core processor. The XPedite5650 from Extreme Engineering Solutions includes a quad-core
processor, 4 Gbyte of memory, a ruggedized
design, and is less than 7.2 square inches. It
can thus provide the processing subsystem for
a wide range of industrial, communications
and military applications where size, weight
and power (SWaP) are critical.
Designed and tested for harsh military,
aerospace and industrial
environments, the
XPedite5650
includes
Maxim Integrated, San Jose, CA. (408) 601-1000. [www.maximintegrated.com].
150W Industrial ATX Power Supply for PC/104, EPIC and EBX SBCs
A 150W industrial power supply for ATX-compatible embedded single board computers
(SBCs) supports ATX signals Power On/Off, Power Good and Power Fail, allowing ATX-compatible SBCs to utilize sleep and suspend modes for energy savings during periods of processor or system inactivity. The PS-ATX150-0 from WinSystems is designed to power embedded
SBCs that support the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification for
device configuration and power management by the operating system. Examples include SBCs in
PC/104, EPIC and EBX form factors.
Its global design accepts 90 to 264 VAC (47 - 63 Hz) input and generates five different DC
output voltages: +3.3V, +5V, +5VStandby, +12V and -12V. The PS-ATX150-0 has an active power
factor correction circuit that meets EN61000-3-2 and EN61000-3-3 Class D standards for better
energy efficiency. The design has tight controls and selfprotection features to offer reliable power in harsh
industrial conditions including 1% line regulation,
±2% - 5% load regulation, short circuit protection,
over temperature protection with autostart and over
voltage protection. The +5V output requires a minimum 1 amp load while all the other outputs require no
minimum load.
The PS-ATX150-0 measures 198 x 97 x 40.5 mm with a
thermally efficient chassis design to allow the product to operate over
a temperature range from -10° to +70°C. The unit needs only normal convection cooling and does not require a fan. Its MTBF is greater than 130,000 hours @ 50°C,
which calculates to over 14 years.
The power supply meets various safety and EMC standards. It is UL60950-1, IEC 60950-1
and TUV EN60950-1:2001 approved. For EMI, conduction and radiation it is compliant to
EN55022 (CISPR22) Class B and FCC Part 15. It also is compliant with EN61000-4-2, -3, -4,
-5, -6, -8 and -11 for electrostatic discharge, immunity to radio frequencies, fast transients, line
surge, conducted disturbances, magnetic fields, dips and short interruptions. Quantity one pricing is $199.
WinSystems, Arlington, TX. (817) 274-7553. [www.winsystems.com].
64
enhancements
above and beyond
commercial COM Express modules. It provides a rugged and reliable COTS processor mezzanine solution
that is designed and tested for operation from
-40° to +85°C. It includes additional mounting holes for increased structural integrity
and provides extended shock and vibration
capabilities for operation in harsh environments. Conduction-cooled and air-cooled applications are supported by a single design.
Soldered-down memory replaces less rugged/
reliable SO-DIMMs, and the module utilizes
a tin-lead manufacturing process to mitigate
tin-whisker effects. The RoHS-compliant process is also available.
The QorIQ P2041 processor with four
PowerPC e500mc cores at up to 1.5 GHz
comes with 2 Gbyte or 4 Gbyte of up to
DDR3-1333 ECC SDRAM, one x2 and two x1
PCI Express interfaces, two Gigabit Ethernet
ports (one 1000BASE-T and one 1000BASEX), two serial ports, two USB 2.0 ports and
two SATA 3.0 Gbit/s ports. Linux, Wind River
VxWorks, and Green Hills Integrity BSPs are
available. Other RTOS solutions may be available on request.
Extreme Engineering Solutions, Middleton, WI.
(608) 833-1155. [www.xes-inc.com].
Development Tools
Showcase
Platform for USB 3.0 Development Goes Beyond
Traditional Stacks
Stacks are no longer enough for reliable, extensible development
and deployment of USB 3.0 according to MCCI Corporation. USB 3.0,
now in Microsoft Windows 8 and Apple OS X Mountain Lion, is being
used for a growing set of connectivity applications that require a new
approach for USB host and device manufacturers to implement support
to ensure the optimum consumer experience and predictable time-tomarket. To address this issue, MCCI is now delivering a complete platform for USB 3.0 with its TrueTask USB development platform, which
USB Wi-Fi Modules
will deliver ROI savings as well as high reliability.
802.11b/g/n, 2Tx / 2Rx MIMO
USB 2.0 hot swappable interface
TrueTask USB is a
Compatible with USB1.1 and USB2.0
complete solution that
host controllers
includes USB 3.0 / USB
Up to 300Mbps receive and 150Mbps
2.0 host and device suptransmit rate using 40MHz bandwidth
port. It is highly porSoft-AP support
table, fast, efficient and
-40°c to +85°c operating temperature
designed to support a
2 x 2 MIMO for exceptional reception
variety of hardware.
and throughput
MCCI’s USB 3.0 host
On-board antennas or 2 ea U.FL
connectors
software has been tested
Wi-Fi security using WEP, WPA, WPA2
with tens of thousands
Compact size: 1.0” x 1.0” x 0.25”
of different devices and
(Modules)
shipped with over 20
Radicom Research, Inc.
million PCs. In addition
E-mail: sales@radi.com
Phone: (408) 383-9006
to licensing the softWeb: www.radi.com
Fax: (408) 383-9007
ware, MCCI offers design consultation, integration and customization services. MCCI, one of
only nine certified USB-IF test houses worldwide, also offers extensive
rtc1211_scv1.indd 2
11/7/12 3:31 PM
testing and verification services for USB developers.
Platforms go beyond simple stacks to provide APIs that are stable
across releases and variations in hardware and operating system. Only
a true platform allows the investment in USB development to be reused
across changes in CPUs, operating systems and host or device controller silicon. Because MCCI’s TrueTask USB is portable to any embedded system without source code changes, it saves considerable time and
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thus costs for manufacturers. Unlike simple stacks where you have to
0%)/$6+0%5$0
re-code for each product and each update, TrueTask USB enables manu0K]$UP&38
'LJLWDO,2/LQHV
facturers to leverage their investments for quicker time-to-market and
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profit across all future products, and across multiple current products.
86%DQG6HULDO3RUWV
+DUGZDUH&ORFN&DOHQGDU
“ROI/cost of development data derived from detailed and extensive
:DWFKGRJDQG$XGLR,Q2XW
9'&3RZHU
surveys of embedded developers has shown year-over-year that the use
of commercial software, as compared with free or open-source soft4W\
ware, results in a lower total cost of development, shorter time-to-mar
ket and better design outcomes,” said Dr. Jerry Krasner, vice president
and chief analyst, Embedded Market Forecasters. “In a market where
device manufacturers have a short window to launch new tablets, smart3UHORDGHGZLWK'26)ODVK)LOH6\VWHP
phones and other portable devices, buying commercial software from a
0+]&RPSDWLEOH3URFHVVRU
.)ODVK.'5$0
company that knows how to implement USB connectivity makes good
3LQ',36RFNHW
business sense.”
'LJLWDO,2/LQHV
6HULDO3RUWV
MCCI’s TrueTask USB is available now to select, tier-one custom&RQVROH'HEXJ3RUW
:DWFKGRJELW7LPHUV
ers in automotive, consumer electronics and printer industries, and will
9'&RU93RZHU
be generally available by the end of Q4 2012. Prices start at $50,000
for a single-project development platform. Variants are available for a
4W\
variety of embedded platforms, including Linux, MQX, Nucleus, micro-ITRON, Windows Embedded, Windows Compact Embedded and
non-OS/pre-boot environments.
Featuring the latest
in Development Tools
technologies
MCCI, Ithaca, NY. (607) 277-1029. [www.mcci.com].
ZZZMNPLFURFRPVDOHV#MNPLFURFRP
Untitled-3 1
65
6/25/12 1:14 PM
goal of Get Connected is to put you in touch with the right resource.
Whichever level of service you require for whatever type of technology,
you are searching for.
Advertiser Index
Get Connected with technology and companies providing solutions now
Get Connected is a new resource for further exploration into products, technologies and companies. Whether your goal is to research the latest
datasheet from a company, speak directly with an Application Engineer, or jump to a company's technical page, the goal of Get Connected is to put you
in touch with the right resource. Whichever level of service you require for whatever type of technology,
Get Connected will help you connect with the companies and products you are searching for.
CompanyPage Website
ACCES I/O Products, Inc................................................................................................... 29.............................................................................................................www.accesio.com
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc............................................................................................. 68................................................................................................ www.amd.com/embedded
American Portwell............................................................................................................. 13............................................................................................................ www.portwell.com
End of Article
Products
Apacer Memory America, Inc............................................................................................. 42.............................................................................................................. www.apacer.com
ChinaECNet....................................................................................................................... 57.................................................................................................................www.eccn.com
Cogent Computer Systems, Inc.......................................................................................... 41.......................................................................................................... www.cogcomp.com
Get Connected with companies and
Get Connected
Commell...........................................................................................................................
36.......................................................................................................www.commell.com.tw
products featured in this section.
Critical
I/O, LLC................................................................................................................. 35............................................................................................................www.criticalio.com
Digital Signage Expo.......................................................................................................... 37...........................................................................................................www.dse2013.com
Dolphin Interconnect Solutions........................................................................................... 17......................................................................................................... www.dolphinics.com
Elma Electronic.................................................................................................................. 2..................................................................................................................www.elma.com
Get
Connected
with companies and products featured in this section.
Express
Logic, Inc.............................................................................................................
47.................................................................................................................. www.rtos.com
Extreme Engineering Solutions, Inc.................................................................................... 67............................................................................................................. www.xes-inc.com
Innovative Integration......................................................................................................... 21.................................................................................................. www.innovative-dsp.com
Intelligent Systems Source................................................................................................. 49................................................................................... www.intelligentsystemssource.com
JK Microsystems, Inc......................................................................................................... 65............................................................................................................. www.jkmicro.com
Keil, An ARM Company...................................................................................................... 10.................................................................................................................. www.arm.com
Lauterbach........................................................................................................................ 34........................................................................................................ www.lauterbach.com
Logic Supply, Inc............................................................................................................... 26........................................................................................................www.logicsupply.com
Microsemi Corporation....................................................................................................... 5..........................................................................................................www.microsemi.com
Microsoft Windows Embedded Evolve 2012....................................................................... 11................................................................................................. www.evolve2012tour.com
Nallatech........................................................................................................................... 43...........................................................................................................www.nallatech.com
One Stop Systems, Inc...................................................................................................... 27................................................................................................www.onestopsystems.com
Pentek, Inc......................................................................................................................... 7...............................................................................................................www.pentek.com
Phoenix International......................................................................................................... 63........................................................................................................... www.phenxint.com
Radicom Research, Inc...................................................................................................... 65.................................................................................................................. www.radi.com
Real-Time & Embedded Computing Conference.................................................................. 51................................................................................................................ www.rtecc.com
Server Design Summit....................................................................................................... 39..........................................................................................www.serverdesignsummit.com
Super Micro Computer, Inc................................................................................................ 23....................................................................................................... www.supermicro.com
Themis Computer.............................................................................................................. 28.............................................................................................................. www.themis.com
Xembedded....................................................................................................................... 56........................................................................................ www.acromag.com/xembedded
RTC (Issn#1092-1524) magazine is published monthly at 905 Calle Amanecer, Ste. 250, San Clemente, CA 92673. Periodical postage paid at San Clemente and at additional mailing offices.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to RTC, 905 Calle Amanecer, Ste. 250, San Clemente, CA 92673. Ride along enclosed.
66
CompactPCI
new projects or upgrades
6U CompactPCI
(XCalibur4402)
3U CompactPCI
(XPedite5530)
X-ES has you covered
Whether you are replacing an EOLed SBC or starting a new
project, X-ES has you covered. You can extend the life of
your legacy systems and keep your existing software base
by upgrading to our PowerPC MPC8640D based 3U and
6U CompactPCI SBCs supporting a VxWorks 5.5.1 BSP. For
new designs, utilize the latest Freescale QorIQ and Intel
Core i7 processors on our 3U and 6U CompactPCI SBCs.
Contact us today to learn more.
Supporting the past and the future. That’s Extreme.
Extreme Engineering Solutions
608.833.1155 www.xes-inc.com

3 - The RTC Group Inc.

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