Real time systems, demand for more processing power

Real time systems, demand for more processing power

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19122177_mReal time systems are software and hardware that must operate according to a set sequence, with no diversions. In comparison to a home computer, which can operate updates in the middle of editing an important document, in systems relating to national security and in army systems, there is no room for uncertainty regarding the order of actions and timeline provided for each one. These systems receive data, analyze it and perform various actions based on the algorithm determined to them, to influence on its environment. With the technological advance and the ability to process growing amounts of data, the real time systems are competing against one another on the quality of their processors, whose role it is to receive the data, process it and lead to action.

“We identify a growing demand for processing power,” explains Rafi Horesh, the sales manager of Aitech, “the army and the homeland security markets move to image processing applications, and use radars that take plenty of processing power. Our additional challenge is to allow the processor to work in an optimal manner, and still distribute the heat through the system and protect the processor from field conditions”. An additional challenge the company faces is to provide systems with longevity. “Our clients, especially from the aerial systems and control systems, are interested in systems to last for years, which they don’t have to replace every year or two,” says Horesh, “we are required to support the systems for 15 years and therefore we share the interest of working with extremely powerful processors”.

This is the reason the company developed a new series of processor cards, based on the new FreeScale T4 QorlQ processors. “According to FreeScale, this is the most powerful processor available in the market and we offer it in variants of twelve, eight and four cores,” Horesh says. “In addition, FreeScale argues that this series features 4 times better performance than the previous one. Each core contains two virtual cores, so the cards essentially hold up to 24 virtual cores and the products are based on nm28 technology, hardware acceleration and power distribution management. “All of our products are VME and VPX formatted, and this is the first time we market a commercial verison for the industrial market, for control systems, energy systems and a system compatible for the maritime market,” Horesh adds.

Another innovation from Aitech regards the operating system of the new series. “We come across a growing demand to work on the Linux system,” Horesh clarifies, “our clients want to be capable of developing software on their laptops and transfer it easily for military and homeland security uses.” According to him, working on a Linux operating system is not similar to working on an open source. “Linux was supposed to be rather free, but this is hardly the situation,” Horesh says. “Still, this is a much cheaper operating system in a world of increasing competition”.