VDC Research: Embedded Microprocessor, Board & Systems Market Blog

Curtiss-Wright Controls Sharpens Focus

Curtiss-Wright Controls, parent company of Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing (CWCEC), announced on January 9 the formation of a new business unit, Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions (CWCDS). The new unit will incorporate both CWCEC and the firm’s former Electronic Systems unit. Ref. http://www.cwcdefense.com/media-center/press-release/50.htm

The ultimate parent company, Curtiss-Wright Corporation, was formed in 1929 through the union of fifteen companies affiliated with aviation pioneers Glenn Curtiss and Wilbur and Orville Wright. Today the firm, with annual sales exceeding US$ 2 billion, operates in three primary market segments: Flow Control, Motion Control and Metal Treatment. Defense-related products and services comprised approximately 40% of overall income, covered under the Motion Control segment.

Curtiss-Wright Controls, headquartered in Charlotte, NC, is the Motion Control segment of the overall company. Both the former Embedded Computing and Electronic Systems units were part of this group.

Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing (CWCEC) was formed in 2002 through the acquisition of certain assets of Lau Defense Systems. Over the next several years, CWCEC grew to be a powerhouse in the military/aerospace segment of embedded computing, particularly on the merchant boards side. Growth was both organic and via acquisition. Succeeding acquisitions included Collins Technologies, Peritek, Systran, Novatronics, Dy 4, Prima Graphics, Synergy Microsystems, Indal Technologies, Pentland and Vmetro asa.

Military, Aerospace and Defense has, historically, been not only a primary market for CWCEC but also one of the fastest growing and most stable segments for merchant computer boards, in particular. In 2010, this market segment accounted for US$ 694 Million in shipments; this is projected to increase to US$ 912 Million in 2013. CWCEC was the number one supplier of boards to this market segment, with a market share of substantially greater than 17%. GE Intelligent Platforms was number two, with a market share slightly above 14%.

However, the projected 131% 2010-2013 increase in Mil Aero board shipments is actually less than the projected shipment growth for boards in general – 153%. Even this may prove to be optimistic, if certain massive cuts proposed for the military budget are implemented. Therefore, suppliers to this segment should be pursuing aggressive marketing and customer service policies in order to grow not only market share but actual shipments as well.

The establishment of the new Defense Solutions business unit within Curtiss-Wright Controls will not only address these issues, but will also produce a larger, yet more nimble, operation. It will also provide a sharper focus to Curtiss-Wright’s embedded efforts, targeting bread-and-butter elements of the business and reducing distractions from less critical aspects of the business.

Design West / ESC Show Highlights - Part 2

In this blog I will continue to explore some of the VDC Embedded Hardware team experience at the Design West ESC show. We saw a lot of great product demonstrations along with some excellent detailed briefings and meetings so it’s difficult to boil it all down to a reasonable size blog but here we go:

AMD: We saw a number of embedded computer products from multiple manufactures that featured AMD processors. Many of these would be great for scalable edge node applications. Heard a bit more about the latest Opteron 3200 series of processors which will likely find many cloud based applications. While at AMD we visited partner Xi3 they have some really nifty looking cube type computers that can be deployed in array like structures. The concept they were showing was a datacenter on wheels.

Atmel: Was showing some new products that seemed really great for embedded M2M type connectivity but, according to the press material I received, the details are embargoed for another week or two.

Digi-International: Digi was a company we covered in the Migrating to the Embedded Cloud report that published this week so we really wanted to stop by and see if there was anything new going on.  What we saw didn’t disappoint as there was a lot of evidence about the partnerships we talk about in the report. Digi and Wind River were announcing a collaboration to deliver M2M wireless connectivity solutions using Intel processors. This is on the heels of a similar partnership that Digi has with Freescale. We saw that Digi was using another company’s embedded computer hardware products as part of the cloud connectivity demonstration but, as that partnership is not announced; I can’t write more about that now.

Integrated Device Technology (IDT): In this booth there was a very impressive demonstration of  serial RapidIO technology being deployed in a number of different companies’ products. This is very important in cellular 3G and 4G deployments. Despite being handled by different protocols, hardware and connection methods the data travelled end-to-end efficiently and, most importantly without being corrupted.

Imagination Technologies:  We saw some really great examples of their IP used in mobile devices and applications. As people become more ingrained with mobile devices, high resolution videos, and larger screen sizes, it takes some pretty complex systems on chip to make it work. The difficult thing is getting the needed performance while not sucking the mobile equipments battery dry.

Inside Secure: As the market for M2M is growing there needs to be ways to ensure of the identity of the machines and people being connected. Inside Secure gave us a briefing on several of their security technologies that can be embedded into products to address these issues.

Lantronix: As an OEM is making design decisions on new products or looking to update older ones adding wired and/or wireless connectivity can be a problem. Lantronix briefed us on several of their products where the connective capability can be added to new designs or even old ones on an as needed basis. Almost as a proof of concept, Lantronix produced xPrintServer using technology they usually sell to OEMs to allow Apple devices to directly connect to existing legacy printers using a downloadable app.

Microchip: The VDC Embedded SW and HW teams had several meetings with Microchip and we were particularly happy to have an opportunity for a great discussion their President and CEO Steve Sanghi. As this blog looks to be running a little long, I will give the special focus to topics we covered with Mr. Sanghi in a blog next week. The hardware team learned a lot about some of the new Microchip MCUs that are adding analog circuitry such as ADCs, DACs, Op-Amps, and Comparators.  This puts more functionality into a single package while, at the same time often reduces device pin count.

Micron: I saw a detailed briefing on the latest about the Micron memory cube product. The through hole vias on the semiconductor dies that make this design possible are interesting in themselves.

National Instruments: This was another company that is covered in the Embedded Cloud report and, we saw that the Compact Rio product has some new, even more compact, product lines extensions. In the booth there was also a mock-up of a Siemens smart grid transmission line breaker module. The N/I Compact Rio was part of the design in that it could capture and transmit events that happened on the transmission lines. One of the neat things is Siemens/NI project is that the breaker can be reset remotely.

Netronome: If you ever want to see a place where powerful embedded processors are used in large quantities in high volume applications, a network flow processor is a good place to look. These impressive units we saw inspect packets and move internet traffic at extremely high rates.

Power.org: An interesting talk with one of the Directors at the IBM booth to learn more about this organization that unifies standards among its members around the Power Architecture technology with a goal of making sure that processors and communications products work efficiently as the scale of connectivity grow ever increasingly higher.

Silex: We saw some product briefings on their connectivity modules. With respect to M2M connectivity this is pretty interesting if for example you are a product designer supporting a legacy product that you want to add M2M services to or, in other cases, you are worried that a particular standard fall out of favor, and you want the product you are designing to be future proof.

SuperMicro: They have a very large line of products and the MicroCloud product was particularly interesting to us because of the embedded cloud report where we had profiled SuperMicro.  The MicroCloud product impressed us with its ability to scale up as a cloud service and/or the amount of machines being supported in an edge node application grows.

Texas Instruments: TI had a lot to show us with all types of embedded hardware products adding GPS and motion sensing as well as Wi-Fi and other connectivity. Anyone that has taken a portable device with GPS applications into a building, large city, or tunnel will realize that these types of products have a waiting market.  We also got briefings on some new process intensive DSP products that are becoming increasingly important to many markets. This is one of the topics I will expand on in the next installment of this blog series.

Next week, I’ll give a few last high level takeaways about things we saw and discussed at the show.

Connect with VDC Research Group at the Design West/Embedded Systems Conference 2012!

VDC Research Group will be joining the Design West/Embedded Systems Conference 2012 exhibition and conference.  During the conference, we will be presenting the coveted VDC Embeddy awards to a deserving product in each of the 2 software and hardware categories. To make sure your product is considered, please make sure that:

• The product is formally announced at the show or, has been announced as of January, 2012
• That the VDC Research team will be briefed on the details of the product by your show staff.

VDC’s Embedded Hardware Team will be arriving March 27th and will be at the conference through March 29th.  During that time, we welcome the opportunity to connect with attending vendors.  We look forward to explaining VDC’s research methodology, learning about your latest product releases, and discussing your market research and strategic needs.

If you would like to learn more about the show, please click here.

If you would like to schedule a meeting around Embedded Hardware, please contact:

David Laing, Senior Analyst, Embedded Hardware & Systems Practice, VDC Research Group at: dlaing@vdcresearch.com or 508.653.9000 x146.

Or

Chris Rommel, Vice President, Embedded Hardware & Systems Practice, VDC Research Group at: crommel@vdcresearch.com  or 508.653.9000 x123.

If you would like to schedule a meeting around Embedded Software, please contact:

Jared Weiner, Analyst, Embedded Software & Tools Practice, VDC Research Group at: jweiner@vdcresearch.com  or 508.653.9000 x143.

ESC Boston is Coming Soon - Schedule Time to Meet with VDC

The Embedded Systems Conference will be held this month (September 26^th-29^th) at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston.

VDC will be attending the conference once again this year and will be presenting our 7th annual Embeddy Awards for Best in Show live at the conference. The winners will be announced live ahead of Wednesday's morning keynote session.

So how can your company win the Embeddy award?

To be considered, you must schedule a meeting with VDC to discuss the announcement that you are making at the show. You can arrange a meeting time with VDC by doing one of the following:

Contact Stephen Balacco, Director, Embedded Software & Tools Practice, VDC Research Group by contacting Stephen at: sbalacco@vdcresearch.com or 508.653.9000 x 124.

Still need to register?

Online registration is still open and you can always register in person at the show as well.

We are looking forward to another great show.  See you all in Boston!

Military and Defense Cutbacks Could Prompt Spike in Asset Refurbishment through 2015

As worldwide military and defense spending receives increased legislative scrutiny - and in some cases program cancellations - procurement specialists and related life cycle management strategies are likely to become more receptive to retrofitting and refurbishment programs that keep aging equipment fully operational, but at a fraction of the cost of new equipment. 

A number of recent examples supporting the retrofit, upgrade, and refurbishment trend have emerged, including the U.S. Army's recent decision to replace obsolete electronics with electronic enclosures and circuit boards in the AN/TPN-31 Air Traffic Navigation, Integration, and Coordination System (ATNAVICS), a military air traffic control system that can be transported on C-130 aircraft.

The Army awarded the contract to Raytheon's Network Centric Systems segment, which will develop electronics enclosures and associated electronic circuit boards to replace obsolete signal data processors in the airport surveillance radar and precision approach radar portions of the ATNAVICS system. Raytheon is performing the work under terms of a $12 million contract from the Army Contracting Command at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama.

The ATNAVICS is an autonomous radar approach control system that complies with standards for the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The system is transportable aboard C-130 cargo aircraft, and is designed to support aircraft operations in forward-deployed military areas, as well as in civil disaster areas.  Apart from this announcement, analysts are predicting increased upgrades and retrofitting across the avionics landscape including the following key segments:

• Communications
• Navigation
• Cockpit Instrumentation and Displays

Finally, VDC believes, rarely, if ever, will military and defense spending go completely unchecked in most countries over the next decade.  Simply ordering new systems, tanks, planes, ships, etc. is no longer an economic or political option for an increasing number of economically challenged countries. Rather, concepts around retrofitting, asset refurbishment, and system upgrades will continue to be a priority ahead of buying new. 

New MicroTCA Specification targets Military Applications

PICMG has recently announced the adoption of a specification for a hardened, conduction cooled version of the emerging MicroTCA platform (MTCA.3). THis is the third in a proposed series of five specifications, aimed at broadening usage of the AMC architecture into ruggedized applications in both military and commercial markets.

The first MicroTCA specification, MTCA.0, was adopted in July of 2006. This defined the basic system architecture which employed AdvancedMC mezzanine cards (AMCs) plugged directly into a backplane, without modifications. This significant first step allowed AMC cards to be used as blades in small footprint systems, without requiring use of a carrier. It was anticipated that MicroTCA would find application not only in communications, but in industrial and military applications as well. However, many were skeptical about the edge connected nature of AMC cards, fearing that this could be a serious vulnerability. Thus the military, in particular, considered MicroTCA as only being appropriate for use in benign environments (e.g. wide-bodied aircraft).

A second specification, MTCA.1,which was adopted in March of 2009, defined an air-cooled ruggedized version of MicroTCA, intended for exterior and mobile communications applications. While an improvement over MTCA.0, this still did not offer the degree of ruggedization that was required by the Military and Aerospace market.

A hardened air-cooled specification, MTCA.2, was proposed and is the subject of an active effort at PICMG. However, MTCA.3, which was adopted in February of 2011, provides an immediate avenue for the introduction of MicroTCA into less benign application environments. Its one "downside" is that MTCA.3 does specify conduction cooling which, although desirable in many cases, is substantially more expensive.

As a part of the MicroTCA ruggedization effort, PICMG commissioned a study comprising military environmental testing of the MicroTCA connector system. The test program, performed by Contech Research (Attleboro, MA), was based on MIL-STD-801 and RTCA/DO-160 standards. The rigorous program investigated the connectors from the standpoints of mechanical shock, random vibration, thermal shock, thermal cycling with humidity, temperature life, mixed flowing gas, insulation resistance, dielectric withstanding voltage, durability, insert and extraction force, salt, fog and sand. The fact that the connectors passed these tests handily should put to rest the aforementioned skepticism and points to a probability that MicroTCA may be adopted for deployment under severe, even battleground, conditions.

MicroTCA, therefore, now provides an alternative to the small form factor VME-based systems micro.VPX and Nano-ATR, which were recently introduced by VITA members PCI-Systems, Inc. and Themis Computer.

Has VME Learned From xTCA?

Despite VME guru Ray Alderman’s (in)famous comment that CompactPCI was a “dog” and ATCA a “dog with fleas,” it appears that VITA and the VME industry may be moving along a path first blazed by PICMG and xTCA.

Late in 2002, PICMG released the first version of the Advanced TeleCommunications Architecture (ATCA) standard. This defined the first true blade-based architecture, wherein all communication across the backplane was via a high-speed serial switch fabric, rather than over a shared, parallel, multidrop bus. This was followed by the Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) standard in 2005.

It didn’t take folks that long to realize that AMC cards could also be used as blades in smaller footprint systems. PICMG released the first version of the resultant MicroTCA standard in 2006. The advent of MicroTCA was seen as a positive development for the market, not only because of its technical capability and reduced footprint (vs. ATCA), but because it also expanded the potential market for AMC cards. These could be used either as mezzanine cards or as MicroTCA blades, yielding higher potential volumes and thus greater economies of manufacturing scale.

The VME industry was slower to adopt blade-based systems architectures, largely because military and aerospace defines the primary market for VME systems, and the military tends to take a more cautious approach to innovation than do civilian markets. In the latter, time-to-market is of overarching concern, whereas in military and aerospace, where mission criticality is the primary concern, far more emphasis is placed on reliability and ruggedness.

However, the evolution of VME through VME2eSST and VXS to VPX and OpenVPX has brought blade architectures, similar to ATCA, to the forefront of VME-based technology. It now appears that parallels to AMC and MicroTCA are also in the works.

Two new small form factor systems architectures are currently being investigated by VITA, with the objective of producing standards. These are “micro.VPX”and “NanoATR.” The former is the brainchild of PCI-Systems, Inc., and is the subject of working group VITA 73; it utilizes a small form factor VPX card. The latter, NanoATR, was developed by Themis Computer, targeted at ATR systems for aircraft, and utilizes an even smaller card. NanoATR is the subject of working group VITA 74. Both versions of the cards are being evaluated by the VITA 71 working group, which is developing a standard for a new rugged VME mezzanine architecture.

VDC believes that these developments will be highly beneficial to the VME-based ecosystem, and applauds the effort. Development of the MicroTCA standard was, however, fraught with confusion and delay because of differing views on an optimal configuration (cube vs. rack mount). We caution VITA’s working group(s) against falling into a similar trap, and to allow either configuration from the start.

An xITX Standards Question Answered

An important question with any standard computer architecture is what comes next? Any standard or family of standards that hopes to remain relevant must continually reinvent itself through new iterations. This can happen in various forms - reducing the board size, adding higher speed interconnects/switch fabrics, reducing power, etc. At the same time some standard families offer multiple paths forward in the form of multiple new standards and not all of these are always well adopted. In these instances where there are multiple iterations there are always question marks about whether all of them will gain enough market traction to be relevant and which ones will be the successful ones.

In the case of Mini-ITX, the extremely successful embedded motherboard form factor first created by VIA Technologies, VIA has done a very good job of providing a future road map for the standard and keeping it relevant by turning out a family of xITX standards. Since Mini-ITX VIA has added Nano-ITX, Pico-ITX, and Mobile-ITX - all smaller versions of Mini-ITX to address the constant need for ever smaller form factors in embedded applications.

However, a big question mark around these smaller xITX form factors was which would become the most successful? Our latest research on the embedded motherboards market seems to provide some insight.

Our numbers indicate that Pico-ITX is gaining the most traction throughout the market and will likely become the next most successful member of the xITX family after Mini-ITX. By 2012 total market dollar volume shipments of Pico-ITX are projected to be nearly double those of the slightly older Nano-ITX standard.

It appears that both Pico-ITX and Nano-ITX will have a place in the embedded motherboards market and both are important in offering customers a range of choices through the xITX family of form factors, but Pico-ITX is becoming more widely adopted in both suppliers' product portfolios and by customers.

Mini-ITX Success a Metaphor for General Embedded Market Trends

Having just finished the 2010 edition of VDC's Embedded Motherboards research I have spent the last month analyzing the embedded motherboards market and with it the Mini-ITX segment of that market. The level of success that Mini-ITX has been able to achieve in such a fragmented market and in such a short period of time still amazes me every time I look at this market.

But really the success of Mini-ITX is a metaphor for the major trends of the overall embedded market. Mini-ITX was designed specifically to provide low power consumption in a small and compact form factor. And to do so cheaply by creating an active backplane standard that is able to take advantage of the latest x86 silicon solutions.

Mini-ITX not only had the largest sales figure of any single embedded motherboard form factor in 2009 (eclipsing ATX by a few million dollars in dollar shipment volume), but it is also the most diversified embedded motherboard form factor by vertical market segmentation.

The reason for Mini-ITX's rapid growth and success across most embedded verticals is that size, weight, and power (SWaP) reduction has become one of the most important requirements for embedded customers across segments, if not the most important, as it is for so many customers today. Customers have become borderline obsessive about SWaP reduction, which is the very value proposition that Mini-ITX was founded on. It has been the success of Mini-ITX in reducing SWaP cheaply for customers that has made it so successful, which is also the very same thing that will enable the success of the next iterations of the standard - Nano-ITX and Pico-ITX.

40G ATCA SwitchBlade to Help Embedded Community Carve Out Their Next-Gen Niche?

The next generation of wireless networks are rolling out, in fits and starts, from carriers still coughing and wheezing from the recession.  But, they are rolling out. 

There is simply too much demand for wireless access and services from too broad a swath of existing and new customers for carriers to consider delaying their investments -- if they have been -- any longer.  Delay has been a requried part of the equation as the recession put many wireless carriers in the Gordian knot of trying to figure out how to support emerging customer requirements with aging infrastructures. 

And while the 'traditional' equipment development ecosystems centered on internal Tier 1 TEM development might still be a challenging market, a growing community of Tier 2 and Tier 3 OEMs and ISVs are finding sockets for their more tightly focused solutions.

Capex budgets remain stagnant -- in some cases at mid-decade levels.  Carrier and TEM access to credit remains a worry for the  vast majority of companies in these communities.  And yet, read almost weekly of legions of customers raging at dropped calls, low data rates and limited coverage. 

In the race to 4G networks, waiting a year, or a season, to upgrade or extend capacity or capabilities, could result in your network performance and customer satisfaction, revealing your backbone's 'age'. 

Enter the 40G ATCA switchblade. 

The 40G ATCA switchblade has been positioned as a high potential cost savings tool, a capacity and capabilities driver, and a revenue generation enabler perfect for just such times.  Technologies such as this one might support the the telecommunications equipment market and wireless carrier community in ways that neither community has seen in a number of years. 

And it might further blur the lines between embedded and enterprise, computing and communications, in a number of markets.

The 40G ATCA switchblade could also be a powerful tool for the community of embedded, third-party suppliers of merchant ATCA boards, blades and systems to demonstrate their value-add and drive some business of their own. 

We took at quick look at this market recently.  In a Research Note, we offer a few observations, based on our broad view of the embedded computing and communications equipment markets, and a review of Emerson Network Power's approach to the opportunity.  We think the product and company positions are instructive on a number of dimensions. 

Click here to find out what we think.