Author: Mihir Mehta

Rugged (or ruggedized) computers are designed to operate reliably in harsh conditions by providing a controlled environment for the electronics installed in them. They are built to meet minimum industry-standard specifications—standards that far exceed those applied to consumer and commercial-grade devices. As a result, rugged computers are generally more expensive and heavier than their brethren. They also tend to be less “powerful” because high-end computing power is not usually required.

The challenging conditions/elements that rugged computers are used to combat include:

Shock and vibration Extreme temperatures, humidity Corrosion, abrasion Water/fluids Low pressure/altitude Dust Electromagnetic interference Salt

                      Matrox® 4Sight EV6

Rugged computers usually come in the form of a laptop, a tablet or a PDA (personal digital assistant, or palmtop computer) and are used in the following applications:

• Public safety
• Field sales
• Field service
• Manufacturing
• Healthcare
• Transportation/distribution
• Military
• Agriculture
• Retail
• Outdoor recreation

Electronic Components of Rugged Computers

One of the fundamental strategies for developing a rugged computer is to select electronic components that are better capable of withstanding extreme environmental conditions than conventional components. This means designing the computer from the inside out: rugged computers comprise much more than just protective cases. Spending money up front on the most rugged electronic components available is an investment that pays dividends if it reduces or eliminates downtime and the need for repairs, which, if they need to be done in the field, can exceed the cost of the computer.

Rugged IO board from North Atlantic Industries

Selecting appropriate electronic components requires giving due consideration to the different stressors these components will encounter. Temperature is usually the most common and important because it can damage electronics in several ways. The use of liquid cooling instead of fans with moving parts is sometimes adopted to combat this. Mechanical stresses can also cause a range of failures. For this reason, rugged computers feature solid state hard drives that have no moving parts.

Rugged IO board from North Atlantic Industries

Designing from the inside out requires, for example, ensuring that the packaging and mounting of the integrated circuits— the electronic semiconductor parts of the device—are up to the tasks the computer will be used for. The same applies to chip scale packages, which can be very small and designed to be soldered directly onto the printed circuit board. This can make the device very small and flat and less expensive to produce, but more vulnerable to temperature and physical stresses, which ultimately costs the user.

Passive components of rugged computers: Capacitors, inductors and antennas

How these passive components are attached can be vital to whether a computer can be used effectively in harsh environments. Surface mount connections can cause, for example, cracking in the layers that make up a capacitor, resulting in intermittent failures that are hard to track down. Wherever possible, passive components should have flex mount terminations, even if they are more expensive. Short term pain for long term gain.

Rugged Computer User Controls: Connectors, Switches and Buttons

User controls link a computer to the real world and all the abusive conditions/elements therein, such as dust, moisture, pressure, and flexing. Connectors, for example, are subjected to pressure and torque from cables and mate/de-mate forces. User controls that have a means of transferring forces to something other than fragile surface-mount solder joints help make computer truly rugged. Parts with stakes through the board or screw mounts to the device housing are less likely to fail.

Connectors are also a good place to think about water. The spots where the printed circuit board connects to the outside are the weak points where water, and dust, can intrude and attack components. Some interfaces, such as sensors that use light or pressure, can be sealed inside a protective membrane such as molded silicone or GoreTex that’s translucent or pressure sensitive. Ruggedized connectors can be alarmingly more expensive than those used in consumer electronics. A waterproof, properly sealed military-spec connector can easily cost $35. Fully sealed keyboards are another way of keeping out destructive incursions of water.

 Protective cases

Users of rugged computers expect their expensive devices to be able to survive a fall or two, as well as other indignities such as blows and blasts. To achieve this, most manufacturers of rugged computers use a thicker housing than a regular laptop—one made of more robust, high-tech materials. Common materials used for rugged housings include polycarbonate (PC), acrylonitrile butadiene tyrene (ABS), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and nylon.  Material combinations like PC/PET and PC/ABS are often used to further increase impact resistance.

Elastomeric polymers can also be added to the melt to increase impact resistance. Because these additives are elastic in nature, they deform upon impact without failing, and then recover original shape when the load is removed.

To learn more about rugged computers, view Integrys’ rugged computing inventory.

Versatile, Scalable Rugged Architecture for Demanding Embedded System Applications

The SIU36 configurable 3U OpenVPX COTS System signals North Atlantic Industries’ intention to significantly expand its rugged systems product family. As NAI’s Lino Massafra, VP of Sales and Marketing, explains, “The SIU36 is the first of our latest generation of sensor interface units that focuses on the OpenVPX and COSA® architectures to truly maximize I/O density—and accelerates our customers’ time-to-mission.”

NAI’s SIU36 is a highly configurable rugged COTS system for military, industrial, and commercial applications that require high-density I/O, communication and processing. The SIU36 was designed to operate under extreme temperature, shock, vibration, and EMI environments. EMI filters and gaskets meet or exceed MIL-STD-461F, MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-1275 and MIL-STD-704 (A included) requirements. Configured applications that are available using the SIU36 and (COSA®) include Data Acquisition (DAQ), Fire Control & Targeting Systems (FCTS), Remote Data Concentrators (RDC), and Vehicle Management Systems (VMS).

The SIU36 uses NAI’s Configurable Open Systems Architecture™ (COSA®). Smart Function Modules are configured in a mix-and-match fashion onto rugged 3U-OpenVPX controller boards or SBCs to meet countless system requirements. Customers can choose their ideal NAI 3U OpenVPX SBC with processors, including Freescale PowerPC™ QorIQ® T2080, Intel® Core™ i7, and ARM® Cortex®-A9 & -A53. Software support includes Wind River® VxWorks®, Xilinx® PetaLinux, Microsoft Windows® and DDC-I Deos®. All I/O and communication data is available through memory mapped register access using NAI’s free-of-charge SSK libraries.

About North Atlantic Industries

NAI is a specialized provider of embedded electronics, power supplies and computing for sense & response intensive, military and aerospace applications. We accelerate our clients’ time-to-mission with a unique approach based on our Configurable Open Systems Architecture™ (COSA^®) that delivers the best of both worlds: custom solutions from standard COTS components

For over 50 years, companies like Boeing, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon have leveraged our capabilities to meet the demanding requirements of a wide range of I/O and communication-centric applications, and do so with uncompromising quality, efficiency and responsiveness.

For more information about North Atlantic Industries’ products, please view Integrys’ NAI supplier page.

Founded in 1955 and based in Bohemia, New York, North Atlantic Industries (NAI) is a leading independent designer and manufacturer of rugged embedded electronic and computing systems, power supplies and motion simulation and measurement instruments for military, commercial aerospace and industrial applications.

Remarkably successful in bringing quality, innovative products to market and delivering superior value and exemplary service, NAI’s customer base includes renowned companies/organizations such as:

• Boeing
• Northrop Grumman
• Raytheon
• Honeywell
• Lockheed Martin
• General Dynamics
• U.S. Army
• NASA
• Airbus

A testament to their extensive product portfolio, dedicated service and leadership in their field, NAI’s network of demanding, discriminating customers truly is world-class—and appreciative.

“I can’t say enough about you guys. If all my vendors were like NAI, my job would be a lot easier! Very quick and timely response to all issues and always seem to be on top of a program!”
–Mike Barbour, Sr. Subcontracts Manager, Raytheon GBS

“We love your products. I’ll be looking to see how your new products can solve our next problems.”
George Camann – Software Engineer Manager, Calspan Corporation, Flight Research Group

COSA^® architecture (Configurable Open Systems Architecture™)

One of the keys to NAI’s success has been enabling their customers to leverage NAI’s modular and adaptable COSA^® architecture, providing them with application-ready systems for harsh air, land and sea environments plagued by, for example:

• Shock and vibration
• Extreme temperature, humidity/wetness
• Corrosion or abrasion
• Electromagnetic interference
• Low pressure/altitude
• Dust

COSA^® gives NAI customers the most modular, agile and rugged COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) portfolio of embedded smart modules, I/O boards, single-board computers, power supplies and ruggedized systems on the market. All are pre-engineered to work together today—and can be easily changed, reused or re-purposed down the road. NAI has used FPGAs and SoCs to create smart modules that enable their customers to rapidly create configurable mission systems—while reducing or eliminating SBC overhead.

Accelerate your time to mission with COSA®.

COTS systems

NAI’s rugged COTS, pre-configured and tested systems are unequalled and allow rapid deployment with less risk, and no NRE (non-recurring engineering). They are also SWaP optimized—striking a fine balance between size, weight, and power that gives users the edge in highly competitive real-world scenarios. 

North Atlantic Industries’ COSA^® family of products

NAI’s COSA^® family of products comprises the most modular, agile and rugged portfolio of embedded I/O modules boards, systems and power supplies of their kind.

Smart function modules

NAI offers more than 70 smart, field-proven function modules covering a wide variety of I/O, measurement and simulation, communications, ethernet switch and SBC functions.

IO boards and SBCs

NAI offers a variety of rugged embedded boards—both multifunction IO cards and single board computers in OpenVPX, cPCI, VME and PCI/PCIe form factors.

Power supplies

NAI designs and manufactures a full line of COTS, modified COTS and custom power supplies—including configurations that meet VME, cPCI and VPX (VITA 62) requirements.

Rugged systems

NAI’s rugged systems are designed to provide fast, fail-safe access to sensor-based information in the harshest military environments while optimizing SWaP (size, weight and power) requirements.

To learn more about North Atlantic Industries’ products and find the right one for your application, please view Integrys’ NAI inventory.

Integrys participated in embedded world 2020—the world’s largest international

trade show for embedded systems, held in Nuremberg, Germany, February 25-27, 2020. The fair attracted more than 900 exhibitors with expert knowledge from 42 countries, each of whom was keen to present the value chain of their products and services. Attending this conference is one of the most effective ways for Integrys to stay current with trends in embedded technology—and thereby introduce relevant technologies to the Canadian market.

Some of the trends we observed at embedded world 2020 relate to significant announcements on new solutions in artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and ARM processors.  Many of our suppliers exhibited at the fair, showcasing their embedded systems for distributed intelligence, IoT, data acquisition, energy efficiency, and AI.  Connect Tech and Diamond Systems highlighted their embedded boards and carriers for NVIDIA Jetson GPU technologies, while Arbor Technology and DFI-ITOX presented their latest embedded fanless computers and panel PCs.  Polyrack Tech Group showcased their electronics packaging while Matrox Imaging featured their latest addition to the Matrox Imaging Library, a comprehensive software toolkit that provides support for ARM processors.

Though embedded world 2020 was enlightening for Integrys on many fronts, it bears noting that, as a result of the spread of the coronavirus, about 200 companies withdrew from the event on short notice, and there were around 13,800 fewer visitors than the previous year. We live in a dynamic, ever-changing world that is full of surprises.

Matrox Imaging is taking a leap forward. That’s precisely what the introduction of industrial machine vision for a new range of embedded applications—through support of the Arm® Cortex®-A family of processors—represents.   Matrox’s flagship software library, the Matrox Imaging Library (MIL), now supports Arm® with enhanced performance using the Neon™ SIMD architecture extension under MIL X.

While MIL has the field-proven image processing and analysis functionality world-renowned OEMs and integrators have relied on for over 20 years, MIL X on Arm® Cortex®-A processor empowers developers to imagine and conceive of applications with an unprecedented price/performance ratio!

This means you can run an MIL X runtime license on a low-cost Arm® based device (as found on a Raspberry Pi) with a USB3 camera to create solutions in situations where the high price of machine vision components precluded them.  Embedded vision also addresses low-power battery-centric applications.

Embedded vision (integration of an image sensor and a processor chip) usually requires deep engineering knowledge of processor and camera sensor technologies.  Now, with the MIL X on Arm® Cortex®-A series, you are now abstracted to creating your application via MIL’s time and field-tested algorithms without deep low-level engineering knowledge.

With MIL X and an Arm® Cortex®-A processor you can now easily embed a real-time vision capabilities into limited space at minimal cost. Key advantages of embedded vision systems include:

• Small footprint
• Minimal weight
• Reduced cost
• Low power consumption

For industrial applications that require extended-temperature-supported hardware and higher MTBF, Integrys offers a number of Arm® solutions, including the Diamond Systems’ Eagle leveraging the Torodex ARM SOC.

Suitable for a diverse range of industrial applications, embedded vision systems are increasingly used in factory automation applications such as automotive component manufacturing, pharmaceutical manufacturing and processing, electronics manufacturing and assembly, industrial robots, and autonomous vehicles, including drone use.

Arm® is the industry’s most prevalent processor platform for embedded vision. The release of MIL X now provides support for a wide selection of processing, analysis, annotation, display and archiving functionality directly on the Arm® Cortex®-A family of processors. MIL X’s processing and analysis functions are optimized for speed using the Neon SIMD architecture extension.

Click here to view a primer on how to set up, configure and deploy MIL software using Arm architecture. Click here – Matrox Imaging Library X

Availability

MIL X Service Pack 4 is available now in early access form, with the official release slated for Q2 2020.For select qualified developers, MIL for Arm® is available as a separate software package compatible with the MIL X version. MIL for Arm® is supported on appropriate 64-bit Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu.

Diamond Systems’ Eagle ARM embedded system is in full production and available now.