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Industrial Reference Platform based on Intel® Atom™ Processor |
Stutensee, Germany – MSC Vertriebs GmbH today announced the modular and flexible reference design platform HPE-IRP for industrial automation applications. This platform has been developed using technologies from Gleichmann Electronics Research GmbH & Co KG, Intel Corporation, Altera Corporation and 3S-Smart Software Solutions GmbH. The development kit provides designers with a solution for immediately starting designs enabling field bus and real-time Ethernet connectivity in an industrial run-time environment. Target markets for the reference platform are industrial automation applications such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), human machine interfaces (HMIs), panel PCs, and industrial drives.
Wolfgang Eisenbarth, Director of Marketing, Embedded Computer Technology, MSC Vertriebs GmbH stated: “We provide our customers with a very efficient, flexible and high performance design platform based on the new Qseven standard that shortens design cycles, reduces costs and time-to-market significantly.” Dieter Scheurer, Managing Director, Gleichmann Electronics Research, said: “The HPE-IRP Industrial Reference Platform enables innovative custom designs with our leading FPGA design tools and a large library of real-time functions incorporating an automatic connection tool.” |
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The core of the industrial reference platform HPE-IRP is the MSC Q7-US15W computer-on-module from MSC Vertriebs GmbH. The board is based on the open
Qseven™ standard and comes in a compact form factor of 70 mm x 70 mm. The module integrates an Intel® Atom™ processor Z530 with a clock speed of
1.6 GHz and the corresponding Intel® System Controller Hub US15W. The MSC Q7-US15W features many standard PC interfaces, such as two PCI Express™
lanes, eight USB 2.0 hubs, two serial ATA ports, LPC, SDIO, Intel® High Definition Audio as well as a high-performance integrated graphics. Thanks to its compact dimensions and extremely power efficient processor technology, the highly integrated Qseven™ module is specifically designed for fan-less, energy efficient
deployment in industrial environments. Jonathan Walsh, General Manager Intel Embedded Lab Europe and Group Director of Software Engineering, Intel Embedded and Communications Group, stated: “The flexible HPE-IRP development kit demonstrates out of the box Atom low-power x86 processor technology in a SoftPLC real-time application for industrial automation.”
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In the HPE-IRP the Q7-US15W module is connected via PCI Express™ to a base board that includes an
Altera low-cost Arria® GX FPGA. A selection of industrial-rated I/O and industrial automation specific
interfaces, such as any of the industrial Ethernet standards and CANopen, can be implemented in the FPGA.
The Design-Under-Test (DUT) FPGA may be configured by the designer using library components or
his own VHDL code. To simplify the test of the FPGA code, the base board includes PHYs for interfaces
such as RS-232, RS-485, CAN and industrial Ethernet for field bus connectivity, as well as flexible hardware extension capabilities for application specific requirements. The Arria® GX FPGA provides users with full re-programmability, allowing the system to be easily updated to meet the latest industrial automation standards or application requirements. Frank Förster, Market Development Manager Industrial, Altera, said: “The HPE-IRP
delivers a flexible, high-performance design platform that clearly demonstrates the benefits of using FPGAs in industrial applications. By leveraging our Arria GX FPGA, designers are able to minimize the risk of
obsolescence and have the freedom to integrate a variety of industrial-rated IO and custom logic to meet
the needs of their specific application.” |
To support multiple field bus and real-time Ethernet protocols the HPE-IRP integrates CoDeSys, the IEC-61131 software programming system from 3S-Smart Software Solutions GmbH. Dieter Hess, CEO, 3S, said: “With the starter kit, machine builders (OEMs), systems integrators and users have an easy way to implement and
evaluate a wide range of fieldbus and real-time Ethernet protocols needed to support their automation projects.”
The MSC HPE-IRP development kit comes complete with the hardware platform, base board schematics, demo examples, development software, IPs and Linux
Drivers. The package also includes an evaluation version of the 3S CoDeSys. The software integration is based on Open Source Automation Development
Lab (OSADL) Linux. |
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