RTC Magazine

Our ideas about what constitutes embedded computing keep changing on the basis of what level of integration we’re talking about and, of course, the application. Today the applications are all over the map from small to large, from isolated devices to distributed to deeply embedded ones and to the vastly complex. If an ABS brake controller is an embedded system, so is an ATCA-based networking system. A rapidly expanding middle ground, however, is being served by standard small form-factor boards and, increasingly, fully integrated boxes.

The latter are showing up with increased frequency as small, enclosed packages containing a motherboard, such as an ETX board, along with some I/O modules, rotary or solid-state drive and networking capability. Others are debuting as panel PCs, which incorporate all the features of a PC inside a package that is the size of the given display, which can vary depending on the needs of the application. Often these displays are touch screens so that the unit, which appears to be a “screen-in-the box,” can be mounted into a piece of equipment. The operator, then, simply interacts with the graphical user interface, which is programmed to present the machine’s functions in an intuitive, graphical form.

But the concept of what constitutes a “box” is limited if we think of it only as an actual box, i.e., a rectangular shape containing embedded computing. The same sort of functionality is being integrated on small, single boards and even on chips where we find low-power, mid-function range embedded processors incorporating graphics and video processing on their dies. In other words, an embedded computer doesn’t have to be a panel PC to be treated like a panel PC. By that I mean it can come to the party with all the needed functionality pre-integrated. That includes processor, memory, display control, PCIe, Ethernet and the more standard forms of I/O. For specialized I/O needs many such boards provide standard connectivity such as that provided in COM Express.

It appears that this development is at least partly behind the formation of the Small Form Factor SIG, a new industry consortium formed to work out small form-factor standards that are both legacy-friendly and forward-looking as new technologies enable yet smaller form-factors. One of the benefits of such an effort is hopefully that with specifications (whatever they ultimately are) well understood, there can be a supply of different sizes and cost/performance levels of pre-integrated embedded computers that are both broadly applicable enough to be made in affordable economies of scale, yet are versatile enough to address the multitude of specialized applications. Then, such a selection of little boards could reasonably be thought of as a selection of “boxes,” modules that can be easily installed into target equipment, connected to general or specialized I/O—with either integrated or selected attached display—and be readily programmed for the desired application, because a selection of popular operating systems, including RTOSs, can easily be pre-qualified, integrated and sold with the “in-the-box” architecture.

So if we think about a box from the inside rather than just considering as a box only what appears to be a box from the outside, many possibilities open up for much more straightforward integration in an ever expanding world of applications of all sizes. So, whether it’s an actual box like an industrial PC or a panel PC, or a PC/104 stack, or an ETX board (micro, pico, nano, whatever) attached to a specialized I/O module, as long as it contains that full complement of standard functionality, it’s a “box.” Of course, different boxes have different capacities such as dual-core 64-bit processing, 10 Gbit Ethernet, etc., while others may have more modest contents. But they are analogous to different amounts of the same thing, so that they work and communicate together.

That standardization further expands utility to the world of mobile PC—many now made for rugged industrial environments—and more specialized wireless handheld devices, which are also often built on similar “boxes.” These all eventually connect to a continuum that runs up to the enterprise. So the old cliché about “thinking outside the box” may not always be accurate, especially if you have the right things inside the box. In this take on the metaphor, we wouldn’t want to get too far from the idea of things being in nice, well-defined boxes or we might find ourselves . . . boxed in.