Brandon Lewis, Technology Editor
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Seeking a unified hardware approach for IIoT control
Although the Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged in every market segment, its implementation varies widely. In the Industrial IoT (IIoT), for example, a much more robust, reliable set of technologies is required than in the consumer world. Here, technology standards organizations will play an important role in ensuring that safety-critical IIoT systems can be developed at the lowest cost, fastest time to market, and minimize the low-level software engineering burden.
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Pentair and Pigeon Point - A match made in modular standards heaven?
In a July 31st press release, Pentair announced that it had acquired Pigeon Point Systems (PPS), a leading vendor of management solutions for standards-based platforms such as AdvancedTCA (ATCA), MicroTCA (mTCA), and VPX. In this Q&A with Volker Haag, Vice President of Product Management, Pentair Electronics Protection, and Mark Overgaard, Founder and CTO of Pigeon Point Systems, the two provide background on the deal, explain how the PPS portfolio helps augment Pentair’s existing offerings, and shed light on the implications of the union for the standards-based development community.
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The rule of four
A while back I used an interview with Chuck Byers of Cisco Systems as the basis for a series of columns on the future of optical backplanes (you can find the summer, fall, and winter 2013 articles online at http://bit.ly/1h5cRw9, http://bit.ly/1bP3JY5,...
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MicroTCA.4 continues culture of COTS signal processing at DESY
In this interview with engineers in the Machine Beam Controls Group at DESY, Holger Schlarb and Michael Fenner discuss the data acquisition requirements of the accelerator community, as well as how a tradition of using COTS signal processing solutions ...
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Proprietary implementations of open†source in SDN?
Cisco's open source based software-defined networking strategy is shifting to a more proprietary Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) approach.
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Ethernet - 40G to 400G: Interview with John D'Ambrosia
With Ethernet speeds advancing past 40G to 100G and higher, designers of systems such as AdvancedTCA (ATCA) meticulously follow activities in the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet subcommittee for any indicators on the future of backplane-based systems. In this interview with John D’Ambrosia, IEEE P802.3bs Chair, Chairman of the Ethernet Alliance, and Dell’s Chief Ethernet Evangelist, he discusses the development and deployment of the recently released 100GBASE-KR4 and -KP4 specifications, as well as the beginnings of IEEE work on 400G Ethernet and beyond.
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100GBASE-KR4 (yes, 100) powers the next iteration of AdvancedTCA
Amidst unrelenting bandwidth challenges, operators are continually in search of core infrastructure upgrades that can economically increase network capacity. In response, PICMG member companies have been working to apply 100 Gigabit per second (Gbps) backplane technology to AdvancedTCA (ATCA) systems since the release of the IEEE 802.3bj-2014 standard in June, and are already seeing results. Doug Sandy, CTO of Embedded Computing at Artesyn Embedded Technologies, discusses the development of a 100G ATCA-based platform and plans to advance a 100 Gb ATCA specification.
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xTCA ecosystem reacts to technology, market shifts while COM Express emerges as SFF workhorse
In the fast-paced world of communications, technologies such as software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) are ushering in a new networking paradigm. As these software-based solutions begin to take hold, the hardware architectures that will support them are jockeying for market share, with mixed projections for AdvancedTCA (ATCA) and MicroTCA (mTCA) growth over the next five years. Meanwhile, COM Express continues to surge in the ever-growing small form factor (SFF) market.
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AdvancedMCs adapt to Big Data network demands
With metatrends such as Big Data and the Internet of Things (IoT) promising to turn traditional notions of networking on their head, network hardware vendors have arrived at a crossroads between specialized, dedicated hardware appliances and general-purpose platforms with the ability to scale with bandwidth demands. In this PICMG Systems and Technology panel session, Drew Sproul, Director of Marketing, Adax Inc.; Ron Huizen, Vice President, Systems and Solutions, BittWare; Edward Young, Managing Director, CommAgility; and Nigel Forrester, Technical Product Marketing Manager, Concurrent Technologies discuss how the Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) ecosystem is evolving to meet these challenges.
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MicroTCA tabbed for next-gen test
MicroTCA (mTCA) technology was the highlight of the 25th PICMG Interoperability Workshop (IW) held at DESY in Hamburg, Germany earlier this year, as pilot users from the scientific community collaborated with hardware vendors to test the latest equipment and resolve any compatibility issues. While the first mTCA data acquisition (DAQ) systems are currently being installed at locations such as CERN during the facility's "long shutdown," ongoing advances in the mTCA specification could have implications for larger system upgrades scheduled at the research laboratory for 2018 and 2022-2023, as well as other emerging test and measurement markets.
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Pitted against pizza boxes: AdvancedTCA in the "datacom" environment
Jacques Houde explains how AdvancedTCA fits in next-generation network architectures.
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SWaP and ease of integration keep CompactPCI deployed in unmanned vehicles
Thanks to small size, low power, and long military lifecycles, 3U CompactPCI remains a viable option for unmanned systems applications.
Brandon Lewis, Technology Editor