How to Build 5G Networks - Netcope Technologies

Fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks are a significant topic in the acceleration of mobile networks.

Networks are gradually being upgraded with 5G equipment to replace existing 4G technologies. With this upgrade comes an expectation from users for a significant increase of network traffic data speed, but this creates a big challenge for operators... It's just not that easy to accelerate something twenty times!

Victor Puš, CTO Netcope Technologies, has written an easy to digest article about the specifics of building 5G networks.

Find out more about Netcope Technologies.


Article:

"Fifth generation mobile networks are a big theme of today. Users obviously hope for quicker data rates from 5G. There is a promise of up to 20 Gbps, which is about twenty times more than the theoretical speed of the current 4G networks.

On the other hand, telcos are scared of the costs of the upgrade of their networks. After all, to accelerate something twenty times is not that easy. At this point, public discussion is mostly led by new frequencies and about territorial coverage with the 5G signal. But equally, if not more difficult technical battle will be fought backstage, particularly about the aggregation of user traffic and its connection to the Internet from the telco network."

Article - The Bus Too Tough To Die!

 

MilesTek has offered complete connectivity solutions since 1981, and since then their customers have come to expect more than just top quality products. MilesTek provides answers that help customers solve their installation or project questions, as well as writing and sharing useful articles, white papers and industry news. 

The latest article from the Mil/Aero component experts at MilesTek is an in-depth look at the MIL-STD-1553 bus.

Considering how long it's been in service, the MIL-STD-1553B bus has survived remarkably well, despite other, more advanced solutions having gained wide acceptance in the last few years.

However, the fact remains that the maximum data rate of 1Mb/s is orders of magnitude too slow for today’s data-intensive systems, therefore on paper logic dictates that it will soon fade away. That may be a logical assumption, but it’s likely to prove wrong, for several reasons.

 The most obvious is that MIL-STD-1553B continues to fly on at least 30,000 aircraft, as well as on commercial and military ships, and is widely used in industrial and ……

To continue reading this article which was originally published in Aerospace & Defense Technology please click here.

Unrivaled Processing Performance on Rugged, Deployable Intel Xeon D Processor Boards

Since announcing their first single board computers (SBCs) based on the Intel® Xeon® D-1500 family of processors in 2015, Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) has been busy, developing an industry-leading portfolio of embedded Xeon D products that is still growing.

These embedded SBCs provide designers with feature-rich computing solutions that are equally at home in a broad range of industries and applications, from challenging industrial environments to rugged defence deployments.

Originally available with up to eight cores, the Xeon D processors from Intel are now available with support for 12 and 16 cores in a single processor. Integrated on X-ES VPX SBCs, these high-performance, low-power processors are ideally suited for a variety of applications and infrastructure, including routers, network appliances, and battlefield communications.

Xeon D is also the first Intel processor with native extended temperature support, a key requirement for many defence and aerospace applications. Xeon D processors with up to 12 cores are rated by the manufacturer for an operating temperature range of -40⁰C to 85⁰C.

Keeping pace with strong demand from the defence and aerospace sectors, X-ES continues to introduce new products and features to their Xeon® D lineup. Their talented design engineering team draws upon an impressive breadth of experience with this architecture to minimise risk for even the most challenging designs.

There are a number of configurations available, including 3U VPX, 6U VPX, and COM Express form factors. For more information please contact Christos or Nigel who can discuss your application with you in detail.

EE Journal Feature Article - The x86 Moat: Can Intel Defend the Data Center?

A Data Centre is a dedicated space for housing computer systems and associated components,

including telecoms and storage systems. Data centres stem from the days of the huge computer rooms of the early ages of the computing industry. This arrangement was largely unaffected by the steady reduction in size of the computer as the functionality requirements increased to such an extent that the systems still required the same amount of space. 

During the 1990s, the challenge was deploying enough processing power to meet the rapidly growing web audience. Considering Intel's market share for this industry today, x86-based servers didn't actually exist until the late 90s. But within a decade x86 processors were in the majority of servers being deployed in data centres.


Kevin Morris has written a really interesting article for EE Journal, looking at the role of FPGAs and their potential impact on the EDA industry.


May 31, 2016
The x86 Moat - Can Intel Defend the Data Center?
By Kevin Morris

Read the full article 

Excerpt:

Intel’s data center fortress is defended by the x86 moat.

The single factor that most locks Intel’s hardware into the sockets that sit on the blades that slip into the racks that line the rows of just about every data center on the planet is the x86 moat. Just about every piece of software in the universe was written and optimised for the x86 architecture. There are billions and billions of lines of code out there working every day that have been debugged and tested and proven to work reliably (well, as reliably as software gets, anyway) on Intel’s architecture.

Before any attacker can hope to displace the incumbent supplier, they have to convince the customer that changing processor architectures is really not that big a deal.

Well-designed fortresses are very good at protecting against the expected. For the fortress to be truly at risk - for Intel’s position in the data center to be realistically challenged in a meaningful way - we would need to see a sea change - an event that profoundly alters the nature of the game - a discontinuity.

FPGA-based acceleration is that discontinuity.

If the creation of heterogeneous processors with von Neumann machines sharing the workload with FPGA-based accelerators can improve energy efficiency in the data center by orders of magnitude, we have a compelling event worth an incredible amount of money - and trouble.

End of excerpt


FPGA Hardware
Sarsen Technology supplies and supports a wide range of hardware based on both Xilinx and Altera FPGAs, and can also supply a full range of software development tools and software drivers to get your FPGA system to market on-time and on-budget - www.sarsen.net
For more information please contact Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 511166, or send us an email: info@sarsen.net

The McHale Report Roundtable - Border Security, COTS tech and VPX systems

Each month the McHale Report hosts an online roundtable featuring experts from the defense electronics industry.

This month the report discusses the Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) event and the European defense electronics market with exhibitors from the show.

Taking part this month are:
Joe Held - Director of International Sales, Omnetics Corp.
Nigel Norman - CEO - Sarsen Technology Ltd, and
Nigel Forrester - Technical Marketing Manager - Concurrent Technologies.


MCHALE REPORT: The Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) show was held this month in London. What trends regarding military designs and applications did you see emerging at the event?

HELD: We saw a continued movement towards threat detection (i.e. – advanced radar) and soldier worn electronics (communication, vision systems).

NORMAN: The biggest trend we are seeing this quarter is engineers at leading military and aerospace OEMs looking to make use of large FPGA devices in their new designs. The downside is that there is a shortage of competent VHDL & Verilog designers at many of these OEMs. This is an opportunity for specialist FPGA consulting design houses and for the implementation of initiatives such as OpenCL development for FPGA. The other continuing trend is the re-engineering of legacy CompactPC and VME systems to VPX and custom COM Express-based designs.

FORRESTER: DSEI is a wide-ranging show with military products from thermal underwear to complete battleships, but we didn’t pick up on a specific trend this time. There did appear to be more unmanned devices on display confirming a continued focus in this area. As an exhibitor we perhaps saw what we were looking for, the improved acceptance of COTS-based electronics products many of which used Intel processor technology.


See what the panelists think about the following questions by reading the full article on mil-embedded.com

McHALE REPORT: What are the hot application areas in the European military market such as unmanned systems, radar, avionics, etc.?
McHALE REPORT: How would you describe the defense electronics market in Europe -- growing, declining, or just flat? Why?
McHALE REPORT: How would you describe the demand for commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products in Europe? What standards or products are hot?

UEI makes it SIMple: An in-depth look at designing a Temperature Warning System using the UEISIM

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

We promised a new Technical Article... So here it is!

Our very own Alberto Bassett brings us his findings from his first look at designing a Temperature Warning System using the UEISIM from United Electronic Industries (UEI).

A Temperature Warning System is just one example among thousands of applications you can build with United Electronic Industries (UEI) Racks and I/O Layers. This example shows the simplicity you gain when using UEISIM combined with Simulink from MathWorks. The powerful Software Suite that comes with UEI products makes it possible.

Click the image to read the complete article...