Doug Sandy

June 27, 2018

Interoperable IIoT Data Models and Hardware Standards: Join the PICMG Revolution

Doug SandyIIOT VideoVideo

The Internet of Things suffers from a lack of common data models. Interestingly enough, PICMG, traditionally a hardware standards organization, is helping developing data models based on open source software as a possible remedy. Here, Doug Sandy CTO of PICMG uses a simple CNC machine to deconstruct the complexity, and also alludes to a potential standard, postage-stamp-sized hardware platform that will help fulfill the IIoT vision for embedded engineers.

February 14, 2018

Overview of IIoT Initiatives

Doug Sandy

At PICMG, we have kicked off a new focus on the requirements for Industrial IoT (IIoT). From there, our efforts can expand out to other IoT market requirements. In IIoT, hardware and software interoperability tends to be more important than household/consumer applications as sensors, actuators, and controllers from multiple vendors must work together seamlessly. But, standardization has not yet materialized.

IIoT, is different than traditional industrial automation in the fact that it combines ubiquitous sensing, advanced analytics, and IT technology. Going beyond traditional automation control functions, IIoT includes sensors and actuators for facility operations, machine health, ambient conditions, quality, and a variety of other functions. Advanced analytics enables the IIoT system to realize higher levels of operational efficiency by extracting meaning from the potential data available from a vast array of deployed sensors. Similar to cloud data centers, where sensors data is used to optimize virtually every aspect of operational efficiency, smart factories and other IIoT applications utilize analytics to improve up-time, optimize asset utilization, and reduce overhead costs. Migration to IT technology enables the IIoT operator(s) to deploy, monitor, and optimize their IIoT application. Standardization around IT practices helps to eliminate islands of proprietary equipment within the installation and provide tighter integration between the control domain and the operations domain. Adoption of IT methodologies enables IIoT companies to leverage the large existing base of IT hardware and software solutions when appropriate. Each of these benefits offers significant potential for capital and operational savings.

Standardization of the upstream interfaces for controller devices and meta-data models for sensors can help solve hardware and software interoperability and ease-of-use issues. Standardized interfaces would allow dissimilar pieces of hardware to communicate with the IIoT command center in a uniform fashion and eliminate isolated islands within the installment. Likewise, an extensible standardized meta-data model for sensors would allow for systematic detection and control of sensors and control points without extensive code re-writes. From a hardware standpoint, the IIoT marketplace would also benefit from greater standardization around communications interfaces, power, and environmental requirements.

Large industrial automation suppliers are not incentivized to embark on open standardization because it loosens the customer’s dependence upon their proprietary solutions. Smaller automation suppliers lack the industry clout or size to take on such an ambitious undertaking. This is a task best suited for an industry standards organization, and one which PICMG is well equipped to handle.

COM Express is one logical starting point to build upon because it has the small form factor, processing performance, and flexible I/O configuration to make it a natural fit for small gateways and control functions in small to medium installations, with distributed controllers for larger deployments. In larger installations, CompactPCI Serial or MicroTCA have been adapted for railway control and other rugged applications and may also serve as a flexible gateway/controller.

Click on the full IIoT Overview Discussion for more details.

October 26, 2015

Fully-baked 100Gb AdvancedTCA specification Expected in Q1 2016

Doug Sandy

Pound cake, I am told, has a very simple recipe: one pound of butter, one pound of flour, one pound of eggs, and one pound of sugar.  If you want to make a pound cake, all you need to do is combine these ingredients, bake at the appropriate temperature, and voila! Pound cake! Part of the beauty of this process (besides the easy to remember recipe) is that the ingredients don’t all need to come from specific sources.

Imagine for a moment if this was not the case.  Suppose butter from one dairy worked, but butter from another dairy did not.  Or even worse, butter form one dairy would only work with sugar and flour from specific suppliers, while butter from another dairy only worked with a completely different set. All of a sudden making pound cake just got a lot more difficult.

In a sense, the PICMG 3.1 (AdvancedTCA) technical subcommittee is trying to make 100Gb Ethernet as simple as creating pound cake. Combining boards from one vendor, switches from another, and backplanes from yet another will always result in a working 100Gb system. Those of you who are familiar with high speed design understand this is not an easy thing to do. With signals in excess of 25GHz, every part of the system must be accounted for and there is little margin for error.

Fortunately, PICMG has some of the best high-speed design experts in the world focused on this problem. The work, which began early this year, is progressing steadily and we are on target to compete the spec in the first quarter of 2016. With full multi-vendor interoperability, backward compatibility and 100Gb operation, the newest generation of AdvancedTCA products will let you have your cake and eat it too.

Doug Sandy | Chief Technology Officer