Automation Portals

Embedded Automation Portal

Articles

		Wireless Sensor Networks, Energy Harvesting and Standardization - 05/10/12 Automation.com, May 2012 By Dr Harry Zervos, IDTechEx EnOcean Equipment Profiles (EEPs) lays the foundation for fully interoperable, open wireless technology comparable to standards such as Bluetooth and WiFi.

		How to build industrial computers that resist vibration and shock - 05/12/12 What’s New in Process Technology, May 2012 By Bruce Chen, Moxa This article first explains some background about the physics behind vibration and shock, and then explores the specific mechanisms and technology used to build an industrial computer with high resilience against vibration and shock.

		Selecting Position Sensors in High Vibration Environments – the Do’s and Don’ts - 05/03/12 Automation.com, May 2012 By Mark Howard, Zettlex Article lists 10 simple rules for design engineers when selecting position and speed sensors that must cope with shock or vibration.

		Building automation bus design - 04/21/12 Industrial Ethernet Book, April 2012 By Heinz Lux, KNX Association There are a number of building automation buses, but probably the most important is the manufacturer and application domains-independent KNX Bus, which is administered by the KNX Association.

		PoE+ networks: how to keep a hot application running cool - 04/21/12 Industrial Ethernet Book, April 2012 By Siemon The advent of PoE Plus (IEEE 802.3at) brought to light a new problem in delivering power over structured cabling systems. The higher supply currents drawn by 802.3at devices has the potential to create a significant temperature rise within the cabling.


		Benefit of a Relational Embedded Database for Industrial Automation Systems - 04/15/12 Automation.com, April 2012 By Sasan Montaseri, ITTIA What are the important characteristics for selecting an embedded database for an industrial automation system? What can a database offer beyond recovery from power failure, preventing data loss, or reducing flash media wear? What are the hidden costs when selecting an embedded database?

		Touchless technology - 04/07/12 Instrumentation, March 2012 By Rachael Morling Non-contact sensors and transducers are being used across the world in countless applications in a wide variety of industries.

		Designing, simulating and implementing automation systems using model-based design - 04/07/12 What’s New in Process Technology, April 2012 By MathWorks Simulation can uncover problems earlier in the development process and reduce the number of defects found later in the process, when they are more costly and difficult to fix.

		Demanding big-time graphics in little packages - 03/21/12 Embedded Computing Design, March 2012 By Dan Demers, congate Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) equip small form factor embedded devices with big-time graphics capabilities, without costing in the size or power departments.

		Embedded computing off the power grid - 03/21/12 Embedded Computing Design, March 2012 By Robert A. Burckle, WinSystems Configured with COTS gear and the proper battery, solar-powered systems for off-the-grid computing are finally ’soaking in’ viability.

		Precise timekeeping for 'Smart Grid' - 03/12/12 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, March 2012 By Justin Wu and Bruce Chen, Moxa Article explores limitations that industrial systems, especially power substations, face in synchronising their networks. It also reviews commonly used timekeeping technologies, such as NTP and GPS, and shows how IEEE 1588 v2 precision time protocol (PTP) can transform how an industrial network is run.

		Eliminating EMI in motion systems - 02/25/12 Machine Design, February 2012 By Lee Stephens, Kollmorgen Effective grounding and shields work on solid engineering principles. No wizard hats, no witchcraft — just sound mathematical and logical processes that can resolve or reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) problems.

		Real-time performance: Build or buy? - 02/25/12 Embedded Computing Design, February 2012 By Warren Webb Although developing in-house software offers some advantages, the benefits of reduced complexity and shorter development schedules often justify the purchase of a commercial Real-Time Operating System

		Dialing up flexibility in microcontroller clock systems - 02/25/12 Embedded Computing Design, February 2012 By Craig Greenberg, Texas Instruments As microcontroller requirements evolve, so too must the clock systems that manage them.

		Pick Right, and Service Is Free - 02/25/12 Control Design, February 2012 By Dan Hebert Does it annoy you when automation suppliers charge for technical support? Do you think this service should be free, or at least built into the cost of the original product? Here’s how to get free service.

		Synchronize Clocks for Better Performance - 02/25/12 Automation World, February 2012 By Terry Costlow In many high performance environments, synchronization is as important as determinism. Technologies like PXI backplanes and the IEEE 1588 standard can help.

		Digital Factory Superstructure Emerging with OPC UA - 02/17/12 Automation.com, February 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor OPC UA is emerging as a fundamental technology for implementing Digital Factory concepts to increase production efficiency. The concept was reinforced at the ARC Forum in a session titled, Transforming Manufacturing with OPC UA: From Embedded to the Enterprise.

		5 Things to Consider When Designing an Electro-Hydraulic Machine - 02/12/12 IEN, February 2012 Here are five important points to consider in making the change from manually operated valves to an electro-hydraulic system.

		Ethernet Inside the Intelligent Device - 02/04/12 Automation.com, February 2012 By Jessica Forguites, Rockwell Automation Embedding Ethernet switch technology into devices brings new advantages to high-performance applications. It simplifies machine design, configuration and maintenance.

		Managing network traffic flow for multicore x86 processors at 40/100G, Part 1 - 02/04/12 Embedded Computing Design, January 2012 By Rolf Neugebauer, Netronome Systems, Inc. Embedded systems migrating to 40G today and 100G in the next few years demand an intelligent in-line preprocessor capable of handling traffic at this high line rate, while communicating with the x86 CPU subsystem over a high-performance, virtualized PCI Express interface.

		Embedded Application Frameworks: Simplifying the development of M2M devices - 02/04/12 Embedded Computing Design, January 2012 By Pierre Teyssier, Sierra Wireless With advances in wireless technologies, defining a strategy for building wireless M2M-enabled devices is not the dauntingly complex task it was once thought to be.

		Standard Gives Machine Vision Systems a New Image - 01/29/12 Vision Systems Design, January 2012 By Vincent Rowley, Pleora Technologies There are four key elements that define the GigE Vision standard, and between them they explicitly specify how video is transmitted over the network and how devices on the network, such as cameras, are controlled.

		Giving Power-over-Ethernet some muscle - 01/29/12 Machine Design, January 2012 By Robert Repas One can only assume that the next IEEE standard will double the power levels again. Until then, proprietary techniques such as the LTPoE++ format can fill the power gap where needed.

		Security for automation systems using risk analysis techniques - 01/29/12 Industrial Ethernet Book, February 2012 By Franz Köbinger To make a sound decision about which security measures will be implemented, it is first necessary to analyse those existing risks that cannot be tolerated. It is then necessary to derive protection targets, and from these, the concrete measures that can and should be implemented.

		Major Automation & Control Trends in 2012 - 01/16/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor Here are my thoughts on major automation and control trends in 2012. These opinions are based on a wide range of inputs from users, suppliers and industry consultants, and from attending numerous industry forums, conferences and trade shows every year.

		Highlights from PI NA General Assembly Meeting 2011 - 01/09/12 Automation.com, January 2012 By Bill Lydon, Editor The 17th Annual PI North America General Assembly Meeting was held October 4-6, 2011 in Phoenix, AZ and included vendors and users who provided updates on PROFIBUS and PROFINET technologies. Topics included PROFINET survey, GE IP, Chrysler-Fiat, Wireless and PROFIenergy.

		System Solutions for Industrial Sensors/Field Transmitters - 12/29/11 Sensors, December 2011 By Deepa Kalyanaraman, Texas Instruments Some of the latest trends and system considerations involved when designing sensors and transmitters for industrial automation applications.

		100 Gigabit Ethernet tackles backplanes and copper cables - 12/28/11 Embedded Computing Design, December 2011 By John D'Ambrosia, Dell The implementation of the IEEE 100 Gbps Backplane and Copper Cable Task Force precipitates the creation of specifications to increase signaling rates and establish a foundation for 100 GbE systems.

		Optimizing battery performance via design and measurement - 12/28/11 Embedded Computing Design, December 2011 By Curt McNamara, Logic PD A design requires engineers to develop a power budget, assess trade-offs in compute efficiency versus power consumption, manage power as a performance metric, and choose an appropriate power source for the application

		Designing for scalability and migration with small form factors - 12/28/11 Embedded Computing Design, December 2011 By Christine Van De Graaf Planning ahead for future generations of a specific device means designers must understand when to upgrade designs from legacy standards to next-generation COM Express.

		IP platforms enable cloud-connected device development - 12/28/11 Embedded Computing Design, December 2011 By Tony King-Smith As more devices become connected to the cloud of Internet access, engineers are looking to capitalize on this connectivity without having to develop the technologies themselves. Using a set of common APIs and IP platforms helps.

		Machine Vision Searches for Interface Standard - 12/28/11 Design News, December 2011 By Ann R. Thryft There has been an explosion of new camera interface standards for machine vision. In 2011, the industry got three: Camera Link HS, CoaXPress and USB3 Vision. What’s a user to do?

		Industrial Software: Programming With Old and New - 12/28/11 Control Design, December 2011 By Jim Montague Programs today consist of object-based software. Is this the end of legacy programming languages?

		Cooperate Sooner and Better With Mechatronics - 12/28/11 Control Design, December 2011 By Jim Montague Mechatronics is getting simpler, easier, affordable and practical for everyone. However, it still requires users to cooperate with other engineering disciplines and consider how their specialties affect overall systems.

		Enclosing the answers - 12/27/11 Instrumentation, November 2011 When protecting components, small enclosures and those used for handheld devices need to offer a number of features, ranging from being lightweight to withstanding vibration or weather conditions.

		Measuring Wi-Fi attack threats - 12/18/11 Industrial Ethernet Book, November 2011 By Wenye Wang Researchers from NC State University say that they can determine how a Wi-Fi network would be disrupted by various attack vectors. The information gained enables more secure security systems to be designed, so it is likely to be a valuable tool for developing new security technologies.

		Bluetooth Low Energy: the best media for sensors and actuators? - 12/18/11 Industrial Ethernet Book, November 2011 By Rolf Nilsson, connectBlue The advent of Bluetooth Low Energy - which leverages low energy Bluetooth v4.0, Classic Bluetooth and high speed Bluetooth 3.0 + HS - opens up the possibility of integrating Bluetooth sensors into industrial plant and equipment.

		MEMS In the Making - 12/18/11 Flow Control, November 2011 By Matt Migliore Probably the most common and widespread use of MEMS technology from an industrial fluid handling perspective is for pressure sensing in differential-pressure flowmeters.

		How to use Linux in industrial automation - 12/18/11 What’s New in Process Technology, December 2011 By CrispTech Today there are many automation controllers or embedded systems that use Linux to provide services. Linux offers a customisable, reliable and efficient OS solution for automation controllers and embedded systems.

		Understanding the automation knowledge crises - 12/18/11 Process & Control Engineering, December 2011 By Chris Lydent, PAS The size, complexity, and interoperability of modern automation systems has increased much more quickly than human ability to document and understand them.

		SCADA virtualisation – delivering real benefits? - 12/18/11 Control Engineering Europe, December 2011 By Tony Chapman, Siemens Virtualisation for SCADA systems brings many benefits such as time and cost savings, greater levels of security and operational efficiency advantages

		Making Sense of MEMS - 12/07/11 InTech, December 2011 By Jesse Bonfeld Advances in MEMS technologies and techniques mean manufacturers are now able to produce capable MEMS sensors and devices, but quite a few of these sensors and devices cannot be installed directly into an end application because they cannot survive the rigors of final assembly.

		A New HMI Software Product. Why? - 11/28/11 Automation.com, November 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor I was recently introduced to a new HMI software offering, Tatsoft FactoryStudio. My first reaction was - Why does the industry need another HMI software product? I interviewed Tatsoft CEO and founder, Marcos Taccolini to learn more.

		Photovoltaics Evolve Amid Cost Challenges - 11/18/11 Design News, November 2011 By Molex The solar photovoltaic (PV) market has evolved over the past five years to its current state of proliferation of producers, overcapacity, and a drive to differentiate similar panel products through aesthetics and “nice to have” add-on features.

		Non-intrusive code coverage for safety-critical software - 11/18/11 Embedded Computing Design, November 2011 By Benjamin M. Brosgol, AdaCore A coupled target emulator and non-intrusive coverage analyzer tool enhances safety-critical structural coverage verification and simplifies certification.

		Many-core processing: Sharing the performance load for greater energy efficiency - 11/18/11 Embedded Computing Design, November 2011 By John Goodacre, ARM The optimization of many-core architectures to balance power and performance is key in the future of mobile computing.

		Looking beyond performance per watt in embedded systems - 11/18/11 Embedded Computing Design, November 2011 By J. Scott Gardner, Advantage Engineering For embedded systems requiring scalable processing, adaptive power management approaches provide peak performance efficiency within the embedded power envelope.

		Securing software for the smart grid: Analyze early and often - 11/18/11 Embedded Computing Design, November 2011 With the proliferation of the smart grid, companies in the energy and utilities sectors will need strict cyber security measures enacted for software-based systems.

		Integrating error-detection techniques to find more bugs in embedded C software - 11/18/11 Embedded Computing Design, November 2011 Integrating several automated verification techniques as a best practice in embedded C software testing.

		Controls Spring - 11/16/11 Automated Buildings, November 2011 By Alper Uzmezler, BAS Services & Graphics What if the controls contractor had a standard open programming language? When they are building DDC code they are actually generating the O&M manual and graphics by definition and the code is vendor independent.

		Selecting Controllers for Brushless DC Motors - 11/14/11 Design News, November 2011 By Phil Faluotico & Mike Tetmeyer, Ametek When selecting controllers for brushless DC (BLDC) motors, many variables will come into play for designers to consider within the context of an application. Some of the most important are described in this article.

		How Many Interfaces Does Machine Vision Need? - 11/14/11 Design News, November 2011 There are five vision-specific interfaces, plus USB, FireWire and GIGABIT Ethernet. How many do we need?

		How to achieve redundancy in power supply systems - 11/05/11 Process & Control Engineering, November 2011 By Weidmuller Redundancy is paramount when extreme reliability is required in power supply systems, as is the case in the DC supply to a DCS or PLC control system.

		Has Open Architecture Delivered? - 10/28/11 Automation.com, October 2011 By Bill Lydon Since the 1980s, the automation industry has been adopting standards for networked industrial communications, software, and applications. Have users gained all the benefits originally envisioned?

		Intelligent power modules scale up EC motor drive energy efficiency - 10/21/11 Industrial Embedded Systems, October 2011 By Andreas Johannsen, Vinotech GmbH Conventional motor drive efficiency only reaches its peak when running at full capacity. Fortunately, Intelligent power modules (IPMs) have the brainpower to facilitate the use of electronic commutated motor drives amidst a slew of space, environmental, and EMC limitions while simplifying design.

		Finding the right combination for optimized power line communications - 10/21/11 Industrial Embedded Systems, October 2011 By Mike Holt, Semitech Semiconductor Communications over the power grid presents several challenges including noise, attenuation, and distortion. Engineers must make the right trade-offs in defining and configuring power line communications systems to provide optimal performance.

		Extracting intelligence from legacy equipment at the network’s edge - 10/21/11 Industrial Embedded Systems, October 2011 By Daryl Miller, Lantronix To remotely monitor and control communications across a network of smart meters, designers must address power failures, connectivity, security, and access to equipment behind firewalls. Integrating M2M communications into legacy equipment provides remote access and troubleshooting capabilities.

		Using virtualization to maximize multicore SoC performance - 10/21/11 Embedded Computing Design, October 2011 By Jim Ready and Patrick MacCartee, MontaVista Multicore Systems-on-Chip are multiplying the difficulties software developers face in enabling applications to scale linearly with available cores and the increasing amounts of processing power available. Linux-based virtualization methodologies can meet the high-level requirements of multicore environments.

		Sensor and Actuator Circuits: Safety & Reliablility - 10/21/11 Industrial Automation Asia, September 2011 By Erich Fischer, E-T-A Modern power supplies require designs that can provide effective overload and short-circuit protection for field devices.

		Device-Level Ethernet Requires Careful Network Selection - 10/21/11 Automation World, October 2011 By Chantal Polsonetti, ARC The stark contrast between using Ethernet as an integration platform versus a control network serving machine, motion or process control provides an indication of the growing range of potential applications.

		Markup Languages Enhance Integration - 10/21/11 Automation World, October 2011 By James Koelsch Incorporating markup languages into software application code can overcome disruptive inter-platform communications barriers, bringing together groups of engineers and disparate technologies.

		Manufacturing and the "Internet of Things" - 10/21/11 Automation World, October 2011 By David Greenfield The concept of networking every device imaginable to achieve higher levels of automated interaction is driving changes in industrial networking. But is this idea as viable for manufacturing as it is promised to be for the consumer sector?

		OPC UA: Entering the Practical Phase - 10/21/11 Automation World, October 2011 By Kai Binder OPC UA has yet to invade users’ experience and products still are a scarce commodity. But that situation is about to change.

		Energy harvesting - 10/06/11 InTech, October 2011 By Roy Freeland, Perpetuum Energy harvesting has many different forms that have been fully demonstrated to be ideal solutions for indefinite long term powering of wireless sensors without maintenance.

		Carving 'Challenging' Niche out of Automation market - 09/30/11 Automation.com, October 2011 By Bill Lydon, Editor National Instruments typical applications in the automation industry require very high speeds, high precision, and special functions. According to Christian Fritz, in these challenging applications, they are not competing against PLCs - PLCs just cannot do the job.

		Frame Grabbers: Pushing the Limits of Machine Vision - 09/29/11 Machine Vision On Line, September 2011 By Winn Hardin First it was Ethernet and USB. Then the smart camera. Today, it is USB 3.0 and 10GigE. Tomorrow, who knows what foul villain will be tagged as the murderer of the frame grabber. But one thing is for sure: They’re all innocent, and the naysayers, they’re all wrong.

		Get Smart - 09/26/11 Nuclear Engineering International, September 2011 By Robin Pearce Because of their design complexity, microprocessor-based devices are difficult to prove to be fault-proof. But substantiation of reliability is an essential requirement in the nuclear power industry. The UK nuclear industry has developed a working group and consensus standards to help manage these issues.

		Creating Robot Applications With ROS - 09/24/11 Manufacturing.net, September 2011 By Frank Tobe Willow Garage's ROS (Robotic Operating System) provides a collection of software libraries and tools to help software developers create robot applications.

		Computer vision systems get help from board-level systems - 09/24/11 Control Engineering, September 2011 By Brad Cobb PCI Express (PCIe) has multiple gigabits/second of bandwidth and deterministic behavior, well suited for use with a computer vision system frame-grabber.

		Smarter I/O Addresses a Host of Issues - 09/24/11 Control, September 2011 By Dan Hebert Smart I/O provides a microprocessor at the I/O level—adding flexibility, protocol conversion and/or high-speed local I/O processing and control.

		Optimizing Brushless DC Motors for High-Speed Applications - 09/11/11 Design News, August 2011 By Norbert Veignat, Portescap Some applications require motors that rotate up to 50krpm to 60krpm and are capable of delivering high acceleration and deceleration.

		How cellular technology will transform remote monitoring systems - 09/11/11 What’s New in Process Technology, September 2011 By Daniel Liu, Moxa The advent of advanced cellular communications technology has freed system integrators from bandwidth limitations and unleashed new potential in remote monitoring systems.

		Innovative development can be made simple - 09/11/11 Process & Control Engineering, September 2011 By Philipp Wallner Terms such as model-based design, simulation, rapid prototyping and hardware-in-the-loop are already well-known in the automobile and aerospace industries. It seems that there is potential here just waiting to be tapped by machine manufacturers.

		Continuous EtherCAT at all levels - 09/08/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, September 2011 By Conrad Muller, Beckhoff Automation Extremely detailed explanation of how EtherCAT works. Everything you ever wanted to know about EtherCAT and were afraid to ask.

		Features and benefits of EtherCAT - 09/08/11 Control Engineering Europe, August 2011 By Martin Rostan, EtherCAT Technology Group EtherCAT technology is not only fully Ethernet-compatible, but also characterised by particular openness ‘by design.’ The protocol can transport other Ethernet-based services and protocols on the same physical network.

		Embedded virtualization enables scalability of real-time applications on multicore - 08/31/11 Embedded Computing Design, August 2011 By Kim Hartman, TenAsys The advent of multicore processor technology has the potential to revolutionize the way embedded systems are designed. Embedded virtualization has several positive implications for OEMs.

		OSGi platform provides Internet-connected secure and real-time services in embedded devices - 08/31/11 Embedded Computing Design, August 2011 By Johnson Yan, aJile Systems Although Java has been widely used in enterprise software applications running on high-performance servers and in clients running on PC or mobile devices, its use in secure and real-time embedded systems has been limited. OSGI promises to change that.

		Camera Vendors Leverage CMOS Imagers - 08/18/11 Vision Systems Design, August 2011 By Andrew Wilson In recent years, CMOS sensors have shown image-quality improvements and manufacturers are leveraging their higher speed, lower power requirements, and greater integration potential in a range of novel cameras and camera systems.

		Vision Systems on Chip Offer Maximum Performance for Dedicated Tasks - 08/18/11 Machine Vision On Line, August 2011 By Winn Hardin A few pioneering vision companies are moving from single-board solutions to very close approximations of VSoCs to solve specialized high-volume industrial and consumer applications.

		Really, Really, Really Cyber Secure - 08/18/11 Control, August 2011 By Walt Boyes It is now clear that machine-level, embedded controllers, such as PLCs, PACs and DCS controllers are vulnerable from both inside and outside the plant.

		Harvest time - 08/13/11 What’s New in Process Technology, August 2011 By ABB Energy harvesting is the process by which energy (ambient, motion, wind, light), derived from external sources, is captured and stored to supply power for low-energy electronics. Ambient energy is available in abundance in the process industry and it is here that energy harvesting is beginning to make its mark.

		Overcoming smart grid communications challenges with OFDM and IEEE 1901.2 - 07/23/11 Embedded Computing Design, July 2011 By Jim LeClare, Maxim Integrated Products Developers of the IEEE 1901.2 standard identified difficult channel conditions characteristic of low-frequency power line communications and implemented advanced modulation and channel-coding techniques to help ensure a robust communications network for the smart grid.

		Proven technologies and embedded expertise improve the smart grid’s security and resiliency - 07/23/11 Embedded Computing Design, July 2011 By Jim McElroy, Green Hills Software Building a smart grid device requires a secure operating system as the foundation. Starting with a proven, secure operating system deployed in thousands of critical applications forms the groundwork on which security for an intelligent grid can be built.

		Industrial PC: The Power of the PC Processor - 07/22/11 Control Design, July 2011 By John Martin A multicore PC can run user interface applications and machine control on one piece of hardware that can sit inside harsh environments.

		Innovating for Industry - 07/22/11 Control Engineering Asia, June 2011 By Madanmohan Rao Technical innovations applied in the consumer electronics sector can provide valuable lessons for developers in the industrial automation space. Registration required to read article.

		PCs Don't Always Feel the Love - 07/22/11 Control, July 2011 By Dan Hebert Whether deserved or not, PCs have a reputation for being less robust and more prone to crashes than purpose-built controllers.

		Thermoelectric Energy Harvesting - 06/28/11 Sensors, June 2011 By Jim O'Callaghan, EnOcean Thermal energy harvesting can capture the power from the temperature differentials, enabling its use to power HVAC controls such as water valves, variable air volume vents (VAVs), and diffusers.

		Static analysis: Beyond a simple list of defects - 06/28/11 Embedded Computing Design, June 2011 By Rutul Dave, Coverity Finding defects is just the first step in the process of ensuring software integrity. Contextual information on every identified defect is essential to prioritize fixes and maintain bug-free software.

		Finding concurrency errors with static analysis - 06/28/11 Embedded Computing Design, June 2011 By Paul Anderson Due to the rise of multicore processors, programmers increasingly need to write multithreaded code. Pitfalls such as race conditions, starvation, and deadlock make it hard to get such code right, and traditional testing can only help so much. New approaches based on static analysis are proving effective at quickly finding difficult bugs.

		Low power: The key issue for system integration in mobile devices - 06/28/11 Embedded Computing Design, June 2011 By Pete Hardee, Cadence Design Systems Even if a hardware design is optimized, the embedded software delivered within these systems must correctly and efficiently use the power-saving capabilities built into the hardware.

		Microsoft Partner addresses automation needs of ETO manufacturers - 05/23/11 Automation.com, May 2011 By Thomas R. Cutler Within the manufacturing sector, particularly those involved in Engineer-to-Order (ETO) manufacturing, there are special issues and challenges that typical ERP implementations don't address.

		Faster, Smarter Camera Deployment - 05/18/11 Vision System Design, May 2011 By Andrew Wilson A number of smart camera companies are teaming with well-known software providers to allow multiple image-processing and machine-vision packages to run on their smart cameras. By doing so, these smart camera vendors allow system developers to choose from a range of software packages and smart camera hardware, alleviating the need for the developer to learn new software.

		Platforms continuum for system realization - 05/18/11 Embedded Computing Design, May 2011 By Ran Avinun, Cadence Design Systems Open, connected, and scalable hardware/software platforms should connect design and verification flows to offer higher performance and a more flexible modeling environment.

		Windows tackles embedded complexity - 05/18/11 Embedded Computing Design, May 2011 By Warren Webb With embedded devices looking more like off-the-shelf PCs, adding a Windows Embedded portfolio to suit consumer demands is a logical OS choice.

		IEC 61131-3 by the Numbers - 05/18/11 Control, May 2011 By Jeremy Pollard The intent of IEC 61131-3 is to normalize PLC and control systems' programming by standardizing functionality such as program entry, instruction visualization, data types and syntax. The general requirements section includes models for software, communication—external as well as internal instruction and variable parameter passing—and programming.

		Customize Embedded Control - 04/24/11 Control Design, April 2011 By Dan Hebert As the degree of customization increases, embedded control advantages become more pronounced, but so do upfront costs and risk.

		How Do We Minimize Murphy Consequences in Automation? - 04/17/11 Control, April 2011 By Roy Kok, AutomationSMX In today's automation world, we are building ever more complicated automation and management systems. How do you design for Graceful Degradation? And, how do you design for a quick recovery?

		Aligning Optics - 04/09/11 Vision Systems Design, April 2011 The manufacture of single-chip camera systems requires the use of advanced optical alignment systems; however, the method and approach to building multisensor cameras is far more challenging.

		Rising to the USB 3.0 challenge - 04/09/11 Embedded Computing Design, April 2011 By Alexander Glas, Infineon Technologies Successful USB 3.0 design requires both error-free Signal Integrity and excellent system-level ESD performance. To meet these requirements, the ESD protection device must provide excellent ESD performance and a very low device capacitance.

		Securing the transition to LTE - 04/09/11 Embedded Computing Design, April 2011 By Jeff Sharpe, RadiSys To handle an astronomical increase in data usage, major mobile operators worldwide are currently transitioning their networks to Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is an all-IP network that increases broadband capacity, supporting up to ten times higher data rates than traditional networks

		Embedded moves to multicore - 04/09/11 Embedded Computing Design, April 2011 By Warren Webb Although multicore processors have had a limited role in the embedded landscape for years, today’s performance, power, and form factor requirements compel designers to consider their use on almost every new project.

		Computers-On-Modules with ECC support for safety-critical systems - 04/09/11 Embedded Computing Design, April 2011 By Franz Fischer, Congatec Explains why Computer-On-Modules (COMs) with Error Checking and Correcting (ECC) support especially suit Safety-critical applications, and describes how ECC modules perform key tasks.

		Pressure Sensing Integration in Portable Devices - 04/09/11 Design News, March 2011 By Tim Shotter and Dan DeFalco, All Sensors Incorporating low-voltage die-based MEMS pressure sensors into device and equipment designs for measurement linearity and repeatability, with minimized power consumption and extended service life.

		Analog Sensors Simplify Machine Control Design - 04/09/11 Design News, March 2011 By Matt Simms, Eaton Analog inductive sensors can be advantageous in the design of machine control systems. These sensors are especially useful for applications requiring precision position sensing and measurement, as well as for use in component error-proofing.

		Switch Types Affect Test Results - 04/09/11 Design News, March 2011 By Jon Titus Many data-acquisition and measurement tasks do not demand simultaneous sampling or analog-to-digital conversions. So, measuring instruments can connect to devices under test (DUT) one by one through switches or multiplexers (MUXs). Here’s how those switches affect their tests.

		Electrical Computer-Aided Engineering (E-CAE) software - 04/09/11 InTech, April 2011 By Özlem Falkiewicz Electrical Computer-Aided Engineering (E-CAE) software has been shown to enhance controls hardware engineering in many traditional and new industries.

		Skid Integration Problems Solved by PLCopen Standards - 03/29/11 Automation.com, March 2011 By PLCopen North America The use of skid mounted equipment has become popular for a number of reasons but they pose some unique automation and control challenges that can be solved by using IEC 61131-3 and PLCopen standards.

		Challenges of porting Android to non-handset applications - 02/28/11 Embedded Computing Design, February 2011 By Vlad Buzov, Mentor Embedded Initially created for mobile phones, Android is quickly moving into the realm of non-handset embedded devices. Using a multi-OS approach when porting Android to these types of devices can help overcome the adaptation challenges

		Menu expands at the OS diner - 02/28/11 Embedded Computing Design, February 2011 By Maciej Halasz Analyzes the potential impact of MeeGo on embedded device designs, discussing opportunities and threats the MeeGo project faces. Finally, the author recommends some criteria to consider when selecting an OS for your next embedded project.

		OPC UA is Frictionless Bridge to New Automation Architecture - 02/21/11 Automation.com, February 2011 OPC UA elevates automation systems to the level of current computing technology by leveraging web services and Internet Protocol (IP), enabling automation systems to deliver increased value.

		Important Operating System Characteristics for Safe and Secure Applications - 02/11/11 Design News, February 2011 By Joe Wlad, Wind River When computing platforms are used in applications where safety or security is paramount, special requirements may need to be addressed.

		Prototyping autonomous robots with FPGAs - 02/07/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, February 2011 As more and more sensors are required for robotic development, it becomes imperative that engineers use prototyping tools and platforms that allow them to design and iterate quickly.

		Portability Rage-Part II - 01/16/11 Control Design, January 2010 By Jeremy Pollard The portability issue in IEC 61131 remains. Semantics aside, blocks are developed for each vendor. You cannot take a Beckhoff program and use it with B&R Automation hardware directly.

		Intel's Multi-core Technology Consolidates Controls - 01/09/11 Automation World, December 2010 By C. Kenna Amos Instead of deploying multiple system boards for control and human-machine-interface (HMI) functions, multi-core processors enable consolidation of applications onto a single board.

		The next big thing is really small - 01/09/11 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, January 2011 By Kim Roberts One of the biggest scientific trends of the 21st century is centred on something incredibly small: nanotechnology. This is the engineering of functional systems at the molecular level and involves building sophisticated products on a nanometre scale.

		Trees and Rings - 12/18/10 Industrial Networking, December 2010 By Ian Verhappen The lower you go in the OSI model, the more failures there are, and 72% of failures occur in the first three layers. These faults include hardware failures, cabling failures, power losses, programming misconfigurations, etc.

		Operator Interface for the Operator - 12/18/10 Control Design, December 2010 By Jack Chopper, Filamatic Machine manuals don't always get read—even if they're loaded on the HMI. Try to design the operator interface such that the manual isn't required for most—if not all—routine machine activities.

		Instant replay for multicore systems - 11/21/10 Embedded Computing Design, November 2010 By John A. Carbone Real-time event analysis is critical for multicore success, but gaining visibility into these types of events is difficult using traditional debugging tools. A new type of tool specifically made to facilitate multicore analysis provides new capabilities for seeing what’s really going on.

		Embedding flexible analog interface IP into digital SoCs - 11/21/10 Embedded Computing Design, November 2010 By Manuel Mota, Synopsys More and more analog and mixed-signal capability is being integrated into Systems-on-Chip, including baseband RF functions. Careful attention to detail is needed to maintain circuit performance and deliver functionality while keeping power consumption low.

		Connector and Cable Choices for Gigabit Ethernet - 11/21/10 Design News, November 2010 By Steve Loyal, Harting North America The types of connectors and cables used in the office are not robust enough for the factory floor. In order to successfully converge the two networks, passive component requirements for both sides need to be taken into account.

		Color Camera Cubes - 11/15/10 Vision Systems Design, November 2010 By Andrew Wilson Designers of cell phones and computers are adding imaging capability in the form of embedded color cameras. Driven by this demand, camera module manufacturers are developing products known as wafer-level cameras (WLCs) to reduce the cost and size of these electronic devices and the related manufacturing expenses.

		Using an IEC 61508-certified RTOS kernel for safety-critical systems - 11/15/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2010 By Chris Hobbs, QNX Software Systems Designing Safety into industrial systems requires starting at the basic level of an operating system kernel that addresses the appropriate safety needs. Here are the key points of IEC 61508 and how a kernel can assist with system compliance.

		Can security certification control cyber risk? - 11/15/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2010 By Jens Wiegand, Wind River Industrial devices comply with many standards, but Security certification is a relatively new area that is quickly rising in importance as devices are increasingly connected.

		Electric Components Open New Doors for Suppliers - 11/07/10 Assembly, October 2010 By Austin Weber To meet growing demand for electric vehicles, engineers are developing a new generation of products. There’s a big need for smaller, lighter, more robust and less expensive components that can meet the demanding high-temperature requirement of in-vehicle applications.

		Asset tracking: How industrial computers get the job done - 10/20/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, September 2010 By Christine Van De Graaf Rugged computers go directly into equipment like forklifts, automating previously manual tracking tasks and improving speed, accuracy, and more. But not just any computer can step onto a forklift and survive the wear and tear.

		Contrasting sprites and GPUs and the HMI modeling approach - 10/20/10 Embedded Computing Design, October 2010 By Peter Abowd, et al, Altia Graphics subsystems are critical to today’s embedded application displays. Choosing the right graphics engine for the job is the first issue, and then deciding how to program for it is the second.

		Collaboration in user interface development: New roles and better visualization - 10/20/10 Embedded Computing Design, October 2010 By Jason Clarke Industrial devices are already pulling UI concepts from the consumer and mobile markets for their next-generation devices. With this change in importance comes a shift in how UIs are developed.

		Network and x86 processors team up in embedded networking applications - 10/20/10 Embedded Computing Design, October 2010 By Daniel Proch, Netronome With 40G and higher speeds looming, along with more complex traffic and higher expectations for smooth delivery, the network processor has come to the aid of the x86 processor to handle processing requirements.

		Rockwell's integrated approach to safety - 10/20/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, October 2010 Recent technical improvements now provide automation designers greater flexibility in how they can implement safety systems to help streamline costs and improve productivity.

		Worst Fears Realized - 10/19/10 Control, October 2010 By Nancy Bartels A scary piece of malware named Stuxnet is in town. Remember its name. Its arrival may make you want to change the way you think about control system security.

		Energy Harvesting and Wireless Sensors Ready for Prime Time - 09/30/10 By Dr Peter Harrop, IDTechEx Energy harvesting is the conversion of ambient energy into electricity to drive small or mobile electronic and electrical devices.

		Mass InterConnect aims for higher standards with ATML - 09/24/10 Oil and Gas Engineer, September 2010 Under the IEEE Standards Coordinating Committee 20 (SCC20), ATML (Automatic Test Markup Language) is reaching the tipping point of being adopted by major manufacturers within the ATE industry.

		The Counterfeit Conundrum: Protecting Company And Customer - 09/24/10 Manufacturing.net, September 2010 By Duane Sword, vice president, Thermo Scientific Manufacturers need to be prepared to protect their brand, product and customers. Technology is needed to differentiate between legitimate products and counterfeits so that fakes can be kept out of the supply chain and out of customers’ hands.

		Designing a Wireless Sensor System for Storage Monitoring - 09/16/10 Sensors, September 2010 By N. Venkatesh and Rohan Joginpalli, Redpine Signals The considerations involved when integrating wireless connectivity based on IEEE 802.11 (Wi-Fi) into a sensor system that monitors a storage unit.

		Find the Bottlenecks - 09/12/10 Control Design, September 2010 By Jeremy Pollard If you're going to be creating a server-based system with some clients on the floor and using any connection method, then you'll need to find the bottlenecks. So, where are the bottlenecks and the big issues?

		Graphics Lighten the Programming Load - 09/12/10 Automation World, September 2010 By James R. Koelsch Graphical tools have a life beyond the design and programming phases of a project. Because graphics allow users to see how the different function blocks or other elements of a program fit together, graphical tools are a kind of self documentation that is much easier to comprehend than ladder logic.

		Isn't there enough real inertia around? - 09/10/10 Control Engineering, August 2010 By Kevin C. Craig, Marquette University Mechatronics in Design: Adding inertia to a system, that is, adding mechanical mass, is not usually desirable as it slows down system response. Electronic inertia through acceleration feedback improves performance.

		Fallout from Stuxnet Continues - 09/10/10 Control, September 2010 Stuxnet is notable not only for its technical sophistication, but also for the fact that it targets industrial control systems (ICS) designed to run power plants including nuclear plants, smart grid, water systems, off-shore oil platforms, ships, other critical infrastructure. Just because Stuxnet was first discovered in a Siemens system, doesn't mean other ICSs aren't vulnerable.

		A New Revolution Part 2: IP Enabled Smart Objects and the Smart Grid - 08/30/10 Sensors, August 2010 By Geoff Mulligan, IPSO Alliance The U.S. Smart Grid has adopted IP to interconnect smart energy components such as smart meters and thermostats. Previously, it was thought that IP couldn't be made to work for the Smart Grid. IPSO Alliance interoperability demonstrations have proven that IP can be implemented on microcontrollers and radios that cost less than $2.00.

		Graphical software tools target embedded applications - 08/30/10 Machine Vision Design, August 2010 In many machine-vision and image-processing applications, increasing the speed of point or neighborhood operators can be most efficiently accomplished using FPGAs. Software vendors now provide packages that allow FPGAs to be programmed at a high level.

		GigE Vision simulators ease distributed processing tasks - 08/30/10 Machine Vision Design, August 2010 Software vendors are offering GigE Vision simulators that can be used to speed the creation of multiprocessor systems while at the same time easing camera interface development. By deploying these simulators, system developers can use any camera/frame grabber combination to capture images in different formats to a host PC.

		Modular camera meets range of needs - 08/26/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, July 2010 The concept of a camera as we know it is changing. The sensor, digital image processing, and networking are important, while the camera body can adapt to the need.

		Protecting data and IP with flash memory - 08/26/10 Embedding Computing, July 2010 By Bill Stafford, Micron Technology Flash memory devices often do more than just store data – they offer specific features to secure data in embedded designs. Here’s an overview of what some flash devices provide.

		Protect and control software stored in flash memory - 08/26/10 Embedding Computing, August 2010 By Kerry Maletsky, Atmel Corporation Authentication chips in an embedded system can detect unauthorized modification or copying of system software stored in flash memory.

		4G data explosion: Compact base stations to the rescue - 08/26/10 Embedding Computing, August 2010 By Joachim Hallwachs, DesignArt Networks The explosion in data rates is driving a need for more base stations, which are typically big, expensive pieces of equipment. Integrating 4G functions into Systems-on-Chip enables wider deployment to meet the growing data traffic demand.

		Three Ways to Remote Diagnostics - 08/26/10 Control Design, August 2010 By Dan Hebert There are three main ways to perform remote diagnostics: with a PC-based control system, a PLC-based control system, and an interface component such as an embedded computer.

		Time for Innovation declared at NIWeek 2010 Automation.com, August 2010 By Bill Lydon NIWeek 2010 attracted a record 3000 engineers, scientists and researchers from all over the world. Dr. James Truchard highlighted how NI's products help users become more like Edison by enabling them to innovate more quickly. Jeff Kodosky elaborated on their innovative research on distributed real-time systems and the tight integration of hardware configuration along with timing.

		Smart machines provide more power - 08/23/10 South Africa Instrumentation & Control, August 2010 By Sean Homan, Rockwell Automation Machines with embedded intelligence offer an innovative way to wring more productivity out of the manufacturing operation. That is because these machines generate data and diagnostics that lead to meaningful analysis. This analysis then helps control engineers to identify how the processes can best be improved.

		Embedded motor condition monitoring, diagnostics - 08/23/10 InTech, August 2010 By Adam Krug Embedded condition monitoring and remote diagnostics prevent equipment failure, reduce energy consumption, improve reliability.

		High Time to Failure - 08/23/10 Control Engineering Asia, August 2010 By Nancy Pantone Assuring long-term reliable performance of industrial PCs is a complex process that should be considered early in the development phase.

		OPC Xi Overview - 08/22/10 Automated Buildings, August 2010 By Randy Kondor, OPC Training Institute, et al This article briefly compares OPC Xi with Classic OPC and OPC UA, and provides an overview of OPC Xi.

		Using a Small Solar Cell and a Supercapacitor in a Wireless Sensor - 07/18/10 Manufacturers’ Monthly, June 2010 By Emily Mobbs Energy management has become a top priority for business managers and systems integrators responsible for controlling a manufacturing plant’s bottom line.

		Four Ways to Enhance ESD Protection After Your Design Flunks Its ESD Test - 07/18/10 Machine Design, July 2010 By Chad Marak and Jim Colby, Silicon Protection Arrays You thought your electrostatic-discharge protection was bulletproof, yet the IC still fried in test. Now what?

		Intelligent Sensors Simplify Installation and Maintenance - 07/18/10 Machine Design, July 2010 By Robert Repas The next step in the evolution of smart sensors is the new international standard called IO-Link. An IO-Link system consists of an IO-Link master, a standard three-wire sensor/actuator cable, and an IO-Link enabled sensor or actuator.

		MQTT manages devices, collects data - 07/18/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, July 2010 By Wes Johnson, Eurotech Embedded devices can use the MQTT protocol to collect data from multiple devices while using limited bandwidth.

		Digital-to-analog in the loop: Closed, open, and ’set and forget’ systems - 07/18/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, July 2010 By Mark Thoren, Linear Technology Choosing a DAC at different resolutions involves trade-offs for price, package size, reference accuracy, and output impedance.

		Sensors Get Smart, Get Networked - 07/18/10 Control Design, July 2010 By Jim Montague Sensors that used to be networked via dedicated wiring to discrete I/O points and proprietary fieldbuses are freeing themselves from these often costly hardware and communication constraints.

		Overcoming SoC design challenges moving to PCIe Gen3 - 07/11/10 Embedded Computing Design, July 2010 By Ali Burney, MoSys and Prasad Saggurti, MoSys The PCI-SIG work group has delayed its final ratification of PCI Express Gen3 until early 2011, but designers can move forward on their System-on-Chip designs with assurance. Here’s a quick look at PCI Express Gen3 technical specifics.

		Transaction-level modeling brings IP up to speed - 07/11/10 Transaction-level modeling brings IP up to speed Embedded Computing Design, July 2010 By Steve Brown, Cadence Design Systems A new generation of High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools is currently being used for two main purposes. The first is to implement software in hardware for performance reasons. The second is to drive semiconductor design to a higher level of abstraction.

		Virtual Testing with Model-Based Design - 07/10/10 Process & Control Engineering, July 2010 By Brett Murphy, MathWorks Developing tests in parallel to the design process enables early detection of potential problems and significantly reduces the cost and time for fixing them. By thinking about testing while developing the model, you can design better for "testability," thereby ensuring the design can be fully tested.

		Selecting the Right Drive System - 06/23/10 MRO, June 2010 By Gates Corp. It's important to consider both costs and performance when choosing chain and belt drive systems.

		Intelligent metering solutions are key to energy and resource management - 06/16/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, June 2010 By Keith Odland Meters are no longer spinning mechanical contraptions; they’re embedded devices with MCUs inside. Here’s an overview of metering functions and considerations for designers.

		Automation revolutionizes embedded systems diagnostics - 06/16/10 Embedded Computing Design, June 2010 By Joseph Skazinski Overview about automated embedded systems diagnostics, and how this new technology helps meet the challenge of designing custom software and hardware for embedded devices.

		Migration to Ethernet in the Access networks - 06/16/10 Embedded Computing Design, June 2010 By Asif Hazarika, IP Infusion Emerging Carrier Ethernet standards enable end-to-end networks to deliver rapidly scalable bandwidth, reliable quality of service, and the high availability associated with carrier grade networks.

		Determinism in industrial ethernet: the EtherCAT protocol - 06/16/10 What’s New in Process Technology, June 2010 By Glenn Johnson This article describes how the EtherCAT protocol provides an isochronous real-time Ethernet master/slave network using standard ethernet frames.

		Hardware authentication secures design IP and end-user experience - 05/23/10 Embedded Computing Design, May 2010 By Robert Rozario, Infineon Technologies Protecting electronic systems from counterfeiting is a growing challenge for OEMs. With the move to outsourced manufacturing for consumer electronics and computer peripherals, it is increasingly difficult to protect IP and prevent unauthorized production of devices using an OEM brand.

		PKI security for embedded systems - 05/23/10 Embedded Computing Design, May 2010 By Nadaradjane Ramatchandirane, Renesas Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) isn’t just for enterprise applications – a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) authentication strategy based on PKI can form the backbone of a secure embedded system.

		The Details of the Safety Standards - 05/23/10 Automation World, May 2010 By Rob Spiegel While changing safety standards are always part of the industry environment for plant machine manufacturers, the standards that will go into affect for Europe at the end of next year provide a shift in how safety is assessed.

		Despite Delay, Machines Makers Move On Global Safety Standards - 05/23/10 Automation World, May 2010 By Rob Spiegel Machine builders prepare for the switch from EN 954-1 to ISO 13849 and IEC 62061.

		Pneumatics Integrates With Electronics - 05/23/10 Automation World, May 2010 By C. Kenna Amos Current trends for industrial pneumatics show expansion into more electronics as well as integration with them.

		Search for a Single Spine - 05/12/10 Industrial Networking, May 2010 By Jim Montague Integrating controls, power, security, environmental and enterprise systems is a pain. Some network designers are pursuing a single backbone approach.

		Wireless technology moves into industrial applications - 05/12/10 HazardEX, April 2010 By R. Stahl Wireless technology has become an everyday phenomenon in the home and office environments, but a recent trend is its foray into industrial applications. Although tried and tested standards such as WLAN and Bluetooth play a significant role here, other options are now being introduced.

		Time For Action: When Windows Can't Protect You Automation.com, May 2010 By Torsten Rössel, Innominate Security Technologies The clock is ticking. In a few months, untold numbers of Windows 2000 systems will no longer have access to Extended Support and Security Updates, when these end in July 2010. Nor may there be adequate time for analysis and evaluation of alternatives, decision making, planning, preparation and implementation of a new operating system.

		Making Sense of Data Management on Intelligent Devices - 04/19/10 By Ryan Phillips, ITTIA Flat file formats are not robust enough to handle all of the problems that embedded developers will face as storage media continues to grow in size. A relational embedded database is a powerful and important tool in any embedded developer's arsenal.

		Time For Action: When Windows Can't Protect You - 04/16/10 IMPO, April 2010 By Torsten Rössel The clock is ticking. In a few months, untold numbers of Windows 2000 systems will no longer have access to Extended Support and Security Updates, when these end in July 2010. Nor may there be adequate time for analysis and evaluation of alternatives, decision making, planning, preparation and implementation of a new operating system.

		Smart grid communication through S-FSK modulation techniques - 04/14/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, April 2010 By Koen Geirnaert, ON Semiconductor Smart metering and smart grid systems making use of power line communication technology offer great potential, but the choice of technology for robust operation is important. Try FSK.

		Sensorless Control of a Brushless DC Motor - 04/08/10 Control Engineering, April 2010 By Daniel Torres, Microchip Technology Digital signal controllers make it possible to meet motor torque and speed demands without employing rotor position sensors.

		Green up: MCUs power down - 03/19/10 Embedded Computing Design, March 2010 By Don Dingee MCUs are clearly powering down as technology gets better, and the result will be more efficient embedded devices.

		Flexibility, Integration Key For FPGAs in Automation - 03/19/10 Automation World, March 2010 By Gary Mintchell Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chips have been around since 1984, but this venerable technology continues to find a dedicated user community in industrial automation.

		The Path to Protection - 03/19/10 Control Engineering Asia, March 2010 By Paul Haake, Chloride North America Engineers are employing more electronic equipment, much of it adopted from non-industrial applications, and almost all of it more sensitive to electrical disturbances than the equipment being replaced. These are then mixed with the inherently poor power environment of an industrial facility and aging power generation and distribution facilities.

		From Consumer Electronics to your HMI - 03/13/10 Control Engineering, March 2010 By Renee Robbins Machine builders, HMI designers and industrial PC users take note: Smart phones and other consumer electronics are changing the way operators expect to interact with machines — and how you will create interfaces.

		Today’s motion control requires close hardware/software integration and flexibility - 02/26/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, February 2010 By Patrick H. Dwyer, Aim Controls Advances in FPGA technology with both integrated processing cores and better real-time performance have compelled designers to revisit tasks for motion control. Functions once completed in software can now be placed in an FPGA for enhanced performance and increased features.

		Building an FPGA-based solution for industrial wireless sensor networks - 02/26/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, February 2010 By Stefano Zammattio, Altera Corporation With the introduction of wireless field-side standards WirelessHART and SP100.11a, designers must make trade-offs between the cost of a solution and the requirement for it to communicate over multiple Industrial Ethernet standards. Solutions can be delivered using FPGAs, embedded processors, Intellectual Property (IP), and software protocol stacks.

		Encoders open the way for new applications - 02/26/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, February 2010 By Reinhard Kuhn, HEIDENHAIN Technology in optical scan linear encoders is changing to support more demanding applications in which motion control performance largely depends on the type of encoder used.

		PCs: Cost-effective, high-performance motion control platforms - 02/26/10 Industrial Embedded Systems, February 2010 By Kim Hartman, TenAsys The title is correct, but isn't referring to the basic Windows-based PC that we all know. Instead, a virtualized environment with real-time deterministic capability can turn a PC into a motion control platform.

		A Little Simulation Goes a Long Way - 02/25/10 Industrial Automation Asia, December 2009 By Mary-Anne Sotto, National Instruments ASEAN Simulate the design or model that was created and do an initial testing in simulation mode. This is a much preferred method since you are able to test out the capabilities of a design without incurring too much cost.

		Build vs Buy - 02/25/10 Industrial Automation Asia, December 2009 By David Pascoe, QSI Corporation Any manufacturer of complex machines or vehicles that include HMIs must face a crucial decision: should you build your own human machine interfaces or should you buy these vital components ready-made or customised from an outside source?

		What’s next for microcontrollers? - 02/22/10 Embedded Computing Design, February 2010 By Jacob Borgeson, Texas Instruments Despite what many say about software taking over the majority of the design process, developers still look to the silicon. Three emerging trends in microcontroller research are poised to open up a wide variety of applications within the next two years.

		Selecting A Motor and Drive Architecture - 02/22/10 Design News, February 2010 By Joaquin Ocampo, Bosch Rexroth In the past few years, the concept of integrating servo drives and motors together outside of the control cabinet and directly onto the machine has gained a lot of momentum among design engineers. But how do you know if this style of drive architecture is appropriate for your application?

		Stick to the Playbook - 02/22/10 Control Design, February 2010 By Dan Hebert One approach for machine builders is to create machines that can be developed and maintained by fewer highly skilled automation pros using a team approach. This requires an entirely different method of designing machines, one that relies on standards and modules instead of custom designs.

		Machine Control Integration Produces Savings - 02/22/10 Automation World, February 2010 By Rob Spiegel Plants are relying on new generations of more fully integrated control technology to run smaller, faster and more efficient machines.

		Multi-Core Virtualization Changes Process Controllers - 02/22/10 Automation World, February 2010 By Marty Weil Current design practice calls for three controllers: one for the sensor, one for the actuator and one to handle the HMI and network traffic. With a multi core processor, three controllers are no longer necessary.

		Intelligence at the Device - 02/16/10 Control Engineering Europe, January 2010 By Jeanine Katzel As components get smarter and more powerful, manufacturers are finding themselves managing high-performance automation and control systems whose parts are capable of monitoring themselves, diagnosing their own problems, and maybe even making a decision or two, economically and easily.

		Advantages of FPGAs - 02/16/10 Control Engineering, February 2010 By Renee Robbins FPGA design tools are increasingly available, allowing embedded control system designers to more quickly create and adapt FPGA hardware.

		When updating your computer security, why patch? - 01/27/10 Plant Engineering, January 2010 By Michael Bush, Rockwell Automation While the installation of a buffer zone in a manufacturing environment provides an excellent barrier to block direct attacks from the outside, no buffer zone provides a perfect security solution for your automation system. This is why you patch.

		New automation architecture puts the power at the device - 01/27/10 Plant Engineering, January 2010 By David Voynow, Schneider Electric Distributed logic is the most recent IT architectural offspring that is already moving the automation community away from a centralized logic architecture to putting just enough computing power at the mechanical prime mover – such as motor starters and drives that operate conveyors.

		A New Approach to Wireless Power Transfer - 01/27/10 Sensors, January 2010 By Fady Mishriki The conventional approach to getting power to the rotating parts of industrial equipment is to use a mechanical slip ring. Unfortunately, slip rings present reliability problems along with the associated downtime and ongoing maintenance costs. Today, however, device designers have another option: wireless power transfer.

		Advanced designs require new strategies in product development - 01/24/10 Embedded Computing Design, January 2010 By Greg Gorman, IBM Rational Product manufacturers are becoming software companies, infusing electrical, mechanical, and software components into a new generation of innovation. To deliver smarter products, innovative companies will put as much focus on software development.

		Three Bugaboos to Avoid When Designing a PC into Your Application - 01/24/10 Design News, January 2010 By Franklin Flint, Dell OEM Solutions Three common "gotchas" often show up too late: Planning for the PC form factor that best fits your requirement; Considering the reliability options available to the solution; Taking into account the long-term consistent supply of the PC hardware.

		Computers in a Nutshell - 01/20/10 Control, January 2010 By Jim Montague Industrial PCs can take almost any form these days, but many users still need protected and enclosed hard drives, screens, keyboards and other interfaces in increasingly harsh and varied settings.

		OPC UA - New Secure, Platform-Independent Standard Offers More Value Bill Lydon recently spoke with Roy Kok of Kepware to gain a better understanding of OPC UA. It is important with new technology to thoroughly understand its advantages so you can gain value and avoid misapplying it. Kepware, founded in 1995, has a great deal of OPC knowledge and knowhow as a leading supplier of OPC software.

		Verify control systems before committing to hardware - 01/09/10 What’s New in Process Technology, January 2010 By The MathWorks Australia Embedded control system designers are being pushed to provide better performance and more features, all while meeting tight deadlines and keeping costs down. As these demands grow, traditional design and verification methodologies are falling short.

		Cellular networks do more than voice - 12/15/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2009 By Michael Day, ADC Wireless monitoring and tracking systems will become common throughout industry. Industrial embedded systems designers should consider how these cellular technologies can improve the functionality, cost, manageability, and longevity of the equipment they design and begin planning for their use.

		Robust communication systems migrate into building intelligence - 12/15/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2009 By Herve Branquart, ON Semiconductor With so many networks to choose from, could a mature, tested, familiar industrial network be the answer for building intelligence? Here's the case for CAN in long-distance applications.

		More cores, less waiting - 12/15/09 Embedded Computing Design, December 2009 By Stephen Lau, Texas Instruments The majority of embedded systems developers today are accustomed to working with single-core processors. As the capabilities of end products increase, there is a rising demand for the increased processing power, lower cost, and robust power performance that multicore processors offer.

		Making multicore CPUs work in embedded communications designs - 12/15/09 Embedded Computing Design, December 2009 By Jarrod Siket, Netronome As network traffic gets more voluminous, diverse, and unpredictable, the solutions that used to work well are being overtaxed. A new heterogeneous multicore architecture comes to the rescue.

		Enabling better testing: Reprogrammable on-chip instrumentation - 12/15/09 Embedded Computing Design, December 2009 By Paul Bradley, DAFCA This extensive look underneath the hood at on-chip instrumentation shows how at-speed validation for SoCs can be greatly improved with the right visibility inside.

		Look Deeper at Shielding - 12/15/09 Design News, December 2009 By Jon Titus The Audio Engineering Society AES48-2005 standard covers grounding and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). The standard stresses the need to properly shield cables to reduce coupling with noise sources.

		Digital Controls Deliver Diagnostics, Maintenance and Troubleshooting Benefits - 12/15/09 Control Design, December 2009 By Mike Bacidore Are your controls digital-healthy?: The growing use of fieldbus, ethernet and wireless means more opportunities for diagnostic tools and monitoring, but how do you diagnose your digital controls?

		Listen to the Cable Guy - 12/15/09 Industrial Networking, December 2009 By Joe Feeley The signal-to-noise ratio of a cabling system drops as soon as you install it.

		Intelligent cameras advance embedded video processing - 11/17/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2009 By Albert Kay, IntelliVision An intelligent camera combines "eyes" with the "brain."

		Examining apps for smart cameras - 11/17/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2009 By Michael Long, Analog Devices Smart cameras offer an alternative for cost- and space-constrained application areas where requirements are not likely to change.

		A bright outlook for GigE Vision - 11/17/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2009 By Eric Carey, DALSA Using standard Ethernet equipment paves the way for new possibilities in interconnecting multicamera systems.

		An Update on Shielding - 11/17/09 Design News, November 2009 By Jon Titus When a length of cable shield exceeds 1/20th of the wavelength of the highest-frequency noise signal, you should ground both ends of the shield. But what's the source of the 1/20th rule?

		RF Energy Harvesting Enables Wireless Sensor Networks - 10/22/09 Sensors, October 2009 By Harry Ostaffe, Powercast Corp. A brief introduction to RF energy harvesting: what it is, what it does, and how it enables wireless sensor networking applications.

		Programming resources boost software security - 10/19/09 Embedded Computing Design, September 2009 By Paul Anderson, GrammaTech Ways to reduce the kinds of programming errors that can be exploited by malicious attackers, focusing on the unique requirements of embedded development.

		Current trends in cyber attacks on mobile and embedded systems - 10/19/09 Embedded Computing Design, September 2009 By Kurt Stammberger, Mocana With the advent of the "Internet of things," we are encountering a new wave of hacking that threatens mobile devices as well as wired computers and networks.

		Security for everyone - 10/19/09 Embedded Computing Design, September 2009 By Jerry Gipper When it comes to embedded computing, security is an escalating issue that has become more critical with the explosion of connected devices. The combination of intelligence and connectivity in many of our electronic devices makes them prime targets for intrusions of all kinds.

		Come Together - 10/19/09 Control Design, October 2009 By Jim Montague New mechatronics tools make it easier for engineers to collaborate on model-based, motion-enabled designs.

		How Should Vendors Handle Service Issues With Machine Builders' Customers? - 10/19/09 Control Design, October 2009 By Dan Hebert Whom should vendors serve? When vendors sell products to OEM resellers, service issues become complex.

		Protecting Mission Critical Electronics In Industrial Environments - 09/20/09 Maintenance Technology, September 2009 By Paul Haake, Chloride North America Don't let power and electrical noise problems disrupt your operations. Check out these solutions.

		Are you looking forward to Windows 7? I’m not - 09/13/09 Control Engineering Europe, September 2009 By Mike Babb Windows 7 is the same old stuff, just re-arranged a little bit to make you think you’re getting ‘the latest technology.’ In the past 15 years Microsoft has done nothing new in the way of office software technology, yet they have millions believing the illusion that they have.

		Managing an open system - 08/27/09 Plant Engineering, August 2009 By Shawn Gold, Honeywell Process Solutions For all the benefits open systems provide, they pose significant IT challenges. End users can only rely so much on their automation suppliers for support to keep process control networks secure. The reality is that plant engineers are now responsible for increasingly complex open automation architectures and the specialized IT support functions that go along with them.

		Tricks for fixing troublesome PCIe links - 08/27/09 Embedded Computing, August 2009 By Reginald Conley, PLX Technology PCI Express (PCIe) is a ubiquitous interface for embedded systems, offering several key advantages including autodetection, lane configurability, robust error detection and correction, and low power. Despite the interface’s power and versatility, designers occasionally need to debug a faulty PCIe link. Here’s how to resolve this issue.

		The best coding standards eliminate bugs - 08/27/09 Embedded Computing, August 2009 By Fergus Bolger, PRQA Understanding C and C++ guidelines can help developers prevent language danger and misuse.

		Getting the right Linux for your new design - 08/27/09 Embedded Computing, August 2009 By Brad Dixon, MontaVista Software The data remains clear, year-over-year, that commercial Linux products continue to outperform free downloaded versions of Linux that use noncommercial tools. Engineers who use Linux need to decide if they are satisfied with an average design outcome or if they want to achieve a design outcome superior to that of their peers.

		Overcoming the challenges of embedded Linux product development - 08/27/09 Embedded Computing, August 2009 By Maciej Halasz, Timesys Linux has become the Operating System (OS) of choice for many embedded products. However, as with any software, developers have encountered a number of challenges in adopting Linux. Here’s why using the latest code can resolve the issues that arise when building Linux-based platforms.

		DSPs for Data, Voice Networks - 08/27/09 Design News, August 2009 By Charles J. Murray Whether for data or voice, digital signal processors (DSPs) are gaining popularity in wired and wireless network applications. Their number-crunching capabilities make DSPs a clear choice over general-purpose microcontrollers in situations that are more computationally intensive.

		Multi-Core: Divide and Conquer - 08/27/09 Control Engineering Asia, August 2009 By John Wilhite and Tiger Yeh This article looks at why multi-core processors were developed, explores the characteristics of an industrial automation computer, examines what features a multi-core system should have, and details the advantages a multi-core system offers for automation applications.

		OPC UA Redefines Automation Architectures By Bill Lydon, Automation.com The new OPC UA technology provides an efficient and secure infrastructure for communications - from sensor to business enterprise computing for all automation systems in manufacturing and process control. OPC UA leverages web services to provide a single programming paradigm in a scalable architecture that can be implemented is a range of devices - from embedded to enterprise.

		Embedded Intelligence - 08/24/09 Vision Systems Design, August 2009 By Andrew Wilson Smart camera vendors are leveraging embedded processors and on-board software to increase the ease of use of their products.

		Real-Time Operating Systems Are Critical for Deterministic Control - 08/20/09 Control Design, August 2009 By Mike Bacidore Real-time operating systems are required when a machine must respond to events in a predictable manner. There is no hard rule for the duration of the response time since the amount of time will vary by the type of system.

		Software License Should Be Included in Hardware Price - 08/20/09 Control Design, August 2009 By TJ McDermott, Formost Fuji You major automation companies out there should take a page from the smaller ones. Your efforts to protect your software are poorly executed, interfere with my ability to do my job and reflect poorly on what is important, which is the programming software.

		Using USB for test and measurement: benefits and potential dangers - 08/16/09 What’s New in Process Technology, July 2009 All new PCs have a number of USB ports, some with as many as six, for connecting external devices. For test and measurement applications, USB data acquisition modules offer a number of significant advantages. But beware — they also contain some potential dangers that can cause catastrophic results depending on your application.

		The application of IEEE 1588 to industrial automation - 08/16/09 What’s New in Process Technology, August 2009 By Ken Harris The IEEE 1588 standard provides a time-based control solution that can be easily adopted by the industrial control industry to distribute precision time for time-based control on the factory floor.

		The myth and magic of OPC - 08/16/09 InTech, August 2009 By Patrick Dixon and Michael Velarde OLE for Process Control is a widely adopted industry standard for communication between applications in a control system: It’s a beautiful thing when it works. Unfortunately, there are times when OPC shows its uglier side.

		Testing, comparing industrial Ethernets - 08/16/09 InTech, August 2009 By James Gilsinn and Freemon Johnson One of NIST's long-term goals for this project is to develop standardized methods to measure industrial Ethernet performance metrics.

		Power Over Ethernet Continues Its Climb Into Acceptance and Higher Power - 08/16/09 Industrial Networking, August 2009 By Mike Bacidore While standardization of PoE by IEEE has helped to drive acceptance and create interoperability, the non-standard proprietary innovations have continued to push it to its full potential, whether industrial applications need it or not.

		Data Are Available for Your Network Diagnostics - 08/16/09 Industrial Networking, August 2009 By John Rezabek Diagnostics—use what you have: networks already have a variety of diagnostic capabilities that are underutilized.

		With Great Power ... - 08/16/09 Industrial Networking, August 2009 By Mike Bacidore Power over Ethernet (POE) is the relatively new ability to provide low power, along with data, to devices via standard Ethernet cable. However, organizations that opt for high-power PoE products are purchasing products that are not standards-based.

		Industrial Networks: Open Source - 08/14/09 Control Engineering, August 2009 By R.A. Hulsebos, Delem Open source industrial network software can be more economical than commercial choices and avoids problems associated with developing protocol stacks.

		Technology & Engineers Celebrated at NIWeek 2009 Dr. James Truchard opened the conference by describing National Instruments' technical directions and thanking attendees for taking on new challenges by innovating and solving problems. NIWeek 2009 attendance was up over last year and that alone is a significant statement compared with other conferences this year. It was billed as the Worldwide Graphical System Design conference providing three days of over 200 interactive technical sessions, exhibitions, and hands-on workshops on the technologies for control, design, measurement, automation, manufacturing, and test.

		The greening of industrial system design - 07/21/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, July 2009 By Tom Schulte, Altera A look inside the latest FPGA technology reveals how design separation is resulting in safer, lower-power motor control implementations

		Mesh wireless sensor networks: Choosing the appropriate technology - 07/21/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, July 2009 By Leor Hardy and Marius Gafen, Virtual Extension While most network approaches use routing as the basic architecture, new flooding-based technology offers distinct advantages, especially when it comes to larger networks

		PoE with integrated digital isolation saves energy and money - 07/21/09 Industrial Embedded Systems, July 2009 By Amit Gattani, Akros Silicon Employing on-chip electrical isolation between primary and secondary power in PoE devices provides real-time power management, parts count reduction, and substantial energy savings for large enterprises and Industrial Ethernet users.

		Remote service reduces maintenance costs - 07/19/09 Plant Engineering, July 2009 By John W. DuBay, ABB Remote service provides you with a cost effective way to keep your plant running at peak performance, for a fraction of the cost of traditional approaches.

		Can OPC Bridge the Engineering-IT Divide? - 07/19/09 Automated Buildings, July 2009 Randy Kondor, OPC Training Institute Driven by technology, the IT-Engineering convergence continues to affect control and security systems where they overlap. The contentious and disputed area of intersection between Engineering and IT is also where OPC lives and works.

		Open Automation Object Model - 07/19/09 Automated Buildings, July 2009 By Alper Uzmezler, BAS Services & Graphics Open Automation Object Model (OpenAOM) will enable programmers throughout the world to program building automation devices from a common object model. It will engage the programmer in the automation industry without necessary knowledge of controls drawings and engineering specific diagrams.

		Web 2.0 tools Conduct in Concert - 07/15/09 Control, July 2009 By Jim Montague Increased computing power is allowing colleagues to move themselves and their documents from user-located and maintained servers and software out into web-based environments on the Internet. These tools can be used by process control engineers to improve set-up, operations and maintenance of their applications and plants.

		Secure Embedded Wireless—Part II - 07/14/09 Industrial Networking, July 2009 By Ned Lecky, Lecky Integration The previous column explained how to go wireless, but the trick is ensuring security and creating adequate redundancy.

		Serving Up Object Architectures - 07/09/09 Control, June 2009 By Paul Miller Templates, services and the architectures they fit into are emerging and taking on and extending some of the capabilities first explored by object-oriented programming.

		A World of Interconnected Sensors The Sensors Expo was well attended this year - a pleasant surprise for exhibitors and hopefully provides some indication of an improving economy. The scope of the Sensor Expo and Conference has been expanding from sensors and sensor-integrated systems to include wireless communications and energy harvesting to support smart sensors.

		The secret behind wide-temperature embedded computers - 06/16/09 What’s New in Process Technology, June 2009 By Abel Lee, et al, Moxa Wide-temperature embedded computers generally have an operating temperature range of -40 to 75 °C. The ability to operate under such extremes allows the computers to be deployed in many more locations such as desert and polar regions.

		Down to the Core Vision Systems Design, May 2009 By Andrew Wilson As multicore processors are becoming commonplace, machine-vision software vendors are re-engineering their products, allowing their customers to leverage the power of multiprocessing. However, the task is not trivial since the programmer must optimize the power of image-processing functions across multiple processors.

		Product Briefs from Hannover Messe By Bill Lydon Over 6,000 companies showed products at Hannover Messe and there are important trends that are worth noting. Here are highlights of some products that caught my interest - some due to functional sophistication and others because of their elegant simplicity.

		Choosing the right RTOS: A life or death decision Embedded Computing Design, May 2009 By Colin Walls, Mentor Graphics Selecting an RTOS for an embedded application can be a complex process. If the embedded system is a medical device, that decision becomes even more complicated because the device’s operation has life or death implications. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the software developer to exercise extra caution during the selection process.

		Hybrid software development: Mixing open source with other code Embedded Computing Design, May 2009 By Eran Strod, Black Duck Software The number of quality open source components is simply too numerous to summarize. Embedded developers can leverage these components to significantly reduce the amount of code they have to write from scratch. However, hybrid development – combining internal and external code like open source software – involves several issues that must be managed carefully.

		Embedded control: Automation’s fastest growing segment Control Engineering Europe, April 2009 By Giuseppe Favata and Thomas Laudenberg, Siemens AG This growing technology is bridging the gap between conventional modular programmable controllers on the one hand and PC-based control systems on the other. The boundaries are increasingly fluid, and the power density continues to increase.

		Sleek and elegant: New touchscreens for embedded control Control Engineering Europe, April 2009 By Alexander W. Fiedel and Sandra Schrickel, Siemens AG With the decentralization of automation tasks, traditional control cabinets are becoming increasingly smaller—and may disappear entirely. If there is little or no cabinet, where will you put the Human Machine Interface (HMI) device?

		Solid-state micro-energy cells uniquely enable energy harvesting Industrial Embedded Systems, March 2009 By Tim Bradow, Infinite Power Solutions Energy harvesting is great, but it's better if there is somewhere to store the energy. Advanced energy storage technology is creating new design opportunities for small sensors, transmitters, and MCUs, but batteries aren’t good enough.

		Compact embedded sensors fit the bill for critical applications Industrial Embedded Systems, March 2009 By Karmjit Sidhu, American Sensor Technologies Sensor technology continues to evolve, with both the physical sensing mechanism and processing electronics making strides. This overview highlights some of the latest technology for small embedded sensors in critical applications.

		Component object-based supervisory systems What’s New in Process Technology, March 2009 By Steve Garbrecht, Wonderware There are several fundamental differences between component object-based and traditional tag-based human machine interface (HMI) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) products. This article explains the differences between the two methodologies and shows that significant savings in development can be achieved with a component object-based SCADA product, and explains how to calculate the savings.

		Boosting confidence with cybersecurity certification Asia-Pacific Engineer, March 2009 By Sean Ottewell With national governments around the world pushing for increased security and users also seeking reassurance, it's no surprise that many of the major control and automation equipment manufacturers are putting their products through cybercertification regimes.

		Winning Strategies and Best Practices for Sustainable Manufacturing By Bill Lydon, Contributing Editor The initial focus of the ARC Forum in Orlando was sustainable manufacturing strategies as they relate to environmental performance and resource management. Based on the recent economic downturn, the conference was expanded to address strategies for bottom line business sustainability of process and discrete manufacturing companies.

		COM Express Can Up Performance Control Design, February 2009 By Dan Hebert The natural progression of controllers and computers is one of shrinking size, increased performance and lower costs. For embedded machine control applications, this progression is perhaps best expressed by the computer-on-module (COM) trend, and more specifically by the COM Express specification.

		Coming Of The Digital Control Age Industrial Automation Asia, February 2009 By By Jim Iverson, Cummins Power Generation Traditionally, on-site power systems depended on analogue control systems to provide reliable service to a facility’s electrical loads. Today, reliable, flexible and user-friendly digital control technology is available for every on-site power system.

		Real-time digital power control increases system efficiency Industrial Embedded Systems, January 2009 By Keith Ogboenyiya and Zhen Yu, Texas Instruments Digital power electronics, or the control of power supplies via programmable embedded processor technology, can bring substantial savings to various applications including industrial motors, rectifiers, power supplies, and more.

		Changing the embedded development model with Microsoft .NET Micro Framework Industrial Embedded Systems, January 2009 By Mike Rohrmoser, Digi International Microsoft .NET programming in a much lighter, more embedded environment coupled with an embedded microcontroller sounds too good to be true, but it's possible now, thanks to a small .NET platform well-suited for next-generation devices.

		Convert to Digital Safety Industrial Networking, February 2009 As networks move to digital technology, some of them take on safety. Users integrate control and safety where possible and keep them separate when necessary.

		Industrial Quality Adds Up vs. Commercial Industrial Networking, February 2009 By Phil Burgert The extra cost of industrial-grade network components sometimes can be a problem for designers of manufacturing networks. They might be encouraged to learn that a surprising number of vendors will endorse some limited use of less-expensive, commercially available products.

		Secure Embedded Wireless Can Be Practical Industrial Networking, February 2009 By Ned Lecky, Lecky Integration How to go wireless, and how to do it securely? Try IEEE 802.15.4, a set of communication standards and applications commonly called ZigBee.

		Users Get Out of Their COTS Industrial Networking, February 2009 By John Rezabek One of the first challenges for COTS is when we venture outside the control house. For a relatively small premium relative to the security and peace of mind they afford, users should be considering today’s line of industrially hardened network devices for their process control network applications.

		Parallel Programming Makes Most of Multicore Processors - 01/24/09 Automation World, January 2009 By Gary Mintchell Traditional logic has been sequential—that is, a program executes one step at a time. But today’s increasingly complex systems often require several things to happen at the same time and then be brought together.

		High Performance Computing: Pursuing Innovation In Tough Times Manufacturing.Net, January 2009 By David Graff, Microsoft One way in which manufacturers can innovate during tough times is by using high performance computing (HPC) technology to simulate real-world scenarios and products, saving materials and labor costs. An HPC cluster contains a group of connected computers that simultaneously work on a job, delivering results more quickly and cost effectively than a standalone system.

		Zigbee explained Control Engineering Europe, December 2008 By Kevin Buckley, Intelligent Distributed Controls The 802.15.4-based Zigbee is designed for remote control and sensors, which are many in number but require only small packets of data, and in the main, extremely low power consumption for long life. Today, Zigbee has evolved seamlessly into the automotive, power generation, materials handling, safety and general industrial sectors.

		Protocol Blenders and Information Creators Automated Buildings, December 2008 By Jim Sinopoli and Neil Gifford Middleware deals with the babble between building automation systems. The bulk of systems are legacy propriety systems in existing buildings that have little or no integration and generate little or no meaningful information about the performance of the building. Middleware can leverage those existing investments.

		Have More Data Conversations—Part II Industrial Networking, Winter 2008 By Paul Miller OPC Unified Architecture addresses shortfalls of OPC DA for Cross-Platform Communications. This is Part II of a two-part examination of OPC UA. Part I appeared in the Q3 2008 issue of Industrial Networking.

		Picking a Controller Technology Control Engineering, December 2008 By C.G. Masi Unlike traditional control-system technologies, such as PLCs, PACs, and PC-based systems, embedded control provides a wide choice of controller targets. Microcontrollers are the best known, but this tutorial shows how ASICs and FPGAs provide unique advantages as well.

		Wireless & Networking Dominate ISA EXPO 2008, Product Highlights The emphasis on networked communications whether wired or wireless was visible at the event. We review the ISA Wireless Industrial Automation Standard (SP100) Committee meeting in Houston, which drew a standing-room-only crowd. Other product highlights include: PLC/Programming Learning Package, EtherNet/IP Controller, Single Board Industrial Controller, Remote Eyeballs for Wireless Reading Gauges, Quad Process Safety System, Universal Gas Transmitter and HMI Enhancements.

		Taking the IP Route Control Engineering Asia, November 2008 By Madanmohan Rao The push to extend wireless networking is making strides, thanks to moves in the IP networking and ZigBee space. A consortium of suppliers, the IP for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance, is pushing the wireless networking drive to small devices.

		The power of integrated motion control Process On-Line, October 2008 Integrated motion control solutions can be implemented into machine designs to reduce the size, cost and complexity of a machine. Industry demand for smaller, less expensive and more flexible machines is only going to increase. Integrated motion control is a solution that is transforming machine design practices.

		Instrumentation Moves from the Lab to the Factory Floor Design News, November 2008 By Randy Frank Portable. Battery-powered. Wireless. While these terms usually describe the latest consumer products, they are the enablers for taking laboratory-grade instrumentation into the factory.

		The next generation: Self-powered wireless sensor networks Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2008 By Cees Links, Greenpeak Wireless sensor network technology is moving forward by using less power, precluding the need to replace batteries, and enabling the use of energy harvesting.

		Distributing security for Industrial Ethernet networks Industrial Embedded Systems, November 2008 By Torsten Rössel, Innominate Security Technologies New Industrial Ethernet networks provide decentralized security with effective protection devices arranged in a distributed architecture.

		Streamlining customized embedded system design using cost-efficient interface boards Embedded Computing Design, November 2008 By Stéphane Hauradou Manufacturers are turning to third-party PCI, PCI-X or PCI-e add-in cards as a way to deliver savings in system designs. These boards incorporate an FPGA and a set of standard interfaces such as USB, DDR, Ethernet, Flash and others while alleviating key issues in the design, production, support and maintenance and upgradability of embedded systems.

		Power over Ethernet Plus: The next step Embedded Computing Design, November 2008 By Daniel Feldman, Ethernet Alliance An upcoming improvement to the PoE standard known as Power over Ethernet Plus (PoEPlus), or IEEE P802.3at, promises to deliver more power, enabling a new breed of Ethernet devices while continuing to support IEEE 802.3af.

		Multicore processors: Providing opportunities for embedded systems designers Embedded Computing Design, November 2008 By Paul Fischer, TenAsys The big news in processor development is how CPU manufacturers are now standardizing on multicore processor technology. While most of the software community has focused on server applications, developers of embedded computing applications can also benefit from multicore processors.

		Control system mounting options Control Engineering, November 2008 By Michael Thompson, Timken Mounting options can be broken down into several basic categories: wall-mount, rail-mount, panel-mount, rack-mount, or cage-mount. Each type of mounting has unique attributes that designers must consider.

		New Technology Changes the RTOS Game Control Engineering, November 2008 By C.G. Masi Multicore microcontroller technology and software virtualization make the embedded system and motion-control design engineer’s job more complex. In many ways, however, they make the job easier.

		ESD Device testing: The test determines the result By Robert Ashton, ON Semiconductor The ESD test you choose—HBM, MM, or CDM—has a profound effect on the amount of current that will pass through a device. When evaluating ESD test results it is very important to know to what standard the product is tested to.

		USB 3.0 is coming Test & Measurement World, October 2008 By Martin Rowe With 64-Gbyte flash drives and terabyte external hard drives now available, USB 2.0 has become a data bottleneck. USB 3.0, with its 5-Gbps bit rate, will change that.

		Drivers bring automation systems to life Plant Engineering, October 2008 By Roy Kok, Kepware Technologies What features should you look for in a driver? It isn’t just about getting data from point A to point B. Drivers need to be designed for performance, ease of use, reliability and optimum operation in the event of a disruption in operation

		Automation Insights Network By Rick Zabel, Publisher Automation Insights Network is a select group of controls and automation professionals who agree to help us cover news, emerging trends and technologies on various automation topics. Every two months, we will ask people in the Network to share their observations, knowledge and expertise with us. We take that information, distill it, and pass it on to our reporters and editors for use in future stories.

		RTOS Real-Time Performance vs. Ease of Use Embedded Computing, September 2008 By John Carbone, Express Logic Real-time operating system (RTOS) vendors often make claims of “fast real-time performance,” “low interrupt latency,” and “rapid real-time response,” to convince developers to use their RTOS. The implication is that “faster is better,” and sub-microsecond interrupt response and context switch times are offered as compelling benefits.

		ISA - Change the name to represent the industry By Rick Zabel, Automation.com The proposed name change of ISA (to "International Society of Automation") is up for a vote again during ISA Expo in Houston, October 14-16, 2008. Last year, the change was voted down, but I have yet to hear a compelling argument against the change. And there are many reasons for the change. If ISA is truly the global society of automation professionals, then its name should reflect its cause. It's time for a change!

		'Cool’ design for power supplies Control Engineering, August 2008 By Dr. Werner Woelfle, TracoPower Modern mains power supplies are extremely compact, but dissipate a substantial amount of power as heat while operating. This very often leads to overheating of internal components, which in turn has an adverse effect on reliability and the lifetime of the power supply.

		Software-Defined Instrumentation Design News, August 2008 By Kevin Bisking, National Instruments Next-generation test systems must be flexible enough to support the wide variety of tests that differ among convergent products and they must be scalable enough to accommodate a larger number of tests as new measurement functionality is required. Software-defined instrumentation is the essential differentiator for meeting this test challenge.

		Piezoelectric motors save power and downsize electronic access control Industrial Embedded Systems, July 2008 By Dan Viggiano III and Lisa Schaertl, New Scale Technologies Designers looking to save power and size are turning to advanced technologies, and motors are no exception. With piezoelectric technology at the heart, a new type of motor is improving small-scale motion systems in a big way.

		Controlling portable devices with FPGAs Industrial Embedded Systems, July 2008 By Gary Sugita, Actel Corporation As portable devices become increasingly feature rich, the task of managing and controlling various features within the device becomes more complex. Semiconductor vendors are giving designers a new breed of low-power FPGAs that can take on the complex task of interfacing and controlling a variety of HMI and miniature motor control functions.

		Think Things Are Small Now? Control, August 2008 By Jeffrey R. Harrow, The Harrow Group What might it mean to automation if virtually every sub-component in a machine or system could participate in a mesh network, within every device, to report its condition and allow it to tune its function based on the other sub-components around it?

Automation.com Real-time Information for the Automation Professional May. 25, 2012

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