Embedded industrial computer system is undoubtedly one of the most popular and promising application technologies at present. Its application fields are increasingly close to the people, especially with the intelligentization of consumption, embedded is more important. Such as mobile phone, PDA, dictionary, videophone, VCD/DVD/MP3Player, digital camera (DC), digital video camera (DV), U-Disk, set-top box (SetTopBox), high-definition (HDTV), game console, smart, switch, Routers, numerical control or instrumentation, electronics, home appliance control systems, medical instruments, aerospace equipment, etc. are all typical embedded systems. With the development of embedded technology, industrial computer products based on embedded systems have also become a major development trend in the industrial control industry in recent years. Advantages make it quickly favored by emerging market fields, while the original market situation of traditional rack-mounted IPC 'dominating the world' is undergoing earth-shaking changes.
Compared with the traditional industrial computer, the embedded industrial computer is application-centric, based on computer technology, and can be tailored for software and hardware. system. It generally consists of four parts: embedded microprocessor, peripheral hardware device, embedded operating system and user's application program, and is used to realize functions such as control, monitoring or management of other devices. The main advantages are:
(1) The function of the product has good adaptability, and it almost completely matches the function of the tested and controlled object. It has a certain scalability but does not take expansion as the main purpose, so the product is cost-effective;
(2) The miniaturization of the device is one of the main manifestations, which is reflected in the compact design. There is no standard for structural design to refer to, and the rational use of external interfaces and installation space should be fully considered;
(3) The reliability requirements are high. On the basis that the function meets the reliability design, the reliability design content such as heat dissipation design, electromagnetic compatibility design, dustproof and waterproof design, and anti-vibration design should be carefully considered;
(4) Ultra-low power fanless design is the mainstream. Due to the limited heat dissipation capacity after the miniaturization of the device, and the requirement of MTBF (mean time between failures) of the embedded system is also very high, especially in unattended applications, ultra-low power consumption fanless design becomes a must.
At present, the number of applications of embedded industrial computers far exceeds that of various traditional industrial computers. The manufacturing industry, process control, network, communication, instruments, meters, automobiles, ships, aviation, aerospace, military equipment, etc. are all embedded industrial computers. machine applications.
The rapid development of embedded industrial computer has replaced traditional industrial computer products in many fields, but industry experts believe that embedded industrial computer cannot completely replace traditional industrial computer. First of all, the position of the embedded industrial computer in the entire measurement and control system is often at the front end. The upward connection of the embedded industrial computer is often the traditional industrial computer. The computing power, software resources, database support and other aspects of the traditional industrial computer are embedded Second, in the construction of large-scale systems, the system expansion capabilities and network communication capabilities of traditional industrial computers are also difficult to replace with embedded industrial computers; also, in visual design, process monitoring, data statistics, scientific computing , prototype simulation design, in-loop simulation and other fields, traditional industrial computer has inherent advantages.
Overall, the future market development prospects of embedded industrial computers are very optimistic. Entering the era of big data, the market potential of embedded industrial computers is quite huge. The data collection work done by the embedded industrial computer is the front-end application of the Internet of Things, but most users currently only apply this information to a small range of monitoring and control, without expanding its wider range of applications, and now rely on the Internet Such a powerful basic platform can provide this information to a wider range of applications after calculation and optimization. This is the important role that industrial computer products can play in the Internet of Things and cloud computing applications.
