Dear Readers,
3
V
iewpoint
November 2015
And once again its show time! Beside
the exhibition Embedded World in
springtime there is another import-
ant event for the embedded com-
munity in Germany: SPS IPC Drives
in fall. This year this international
exhibition for industrial automa-
tion will be held from 24th to 26th
of November in the Exhibition Cen-
tre in Nuremberg. More than 1,600
exhibitors including all key players
in this industry will present their
innovations and trend-setting new
products as well as future technolo-
gies. Main focus of many exhibitors
this year will be Industrie 4.0. To simplify it for visitors getting infor-
mation about this important topic the organizer created for the first
time the “Industrie 4.0 Area” in Hall 3A. In this area there will be the
joint stand and forum “Automation meets IT” which will present data
based business models as well as IT based automation solutions for the
future digital production. The joint stand “MES goes Automation“ will
show how the use of MES optimizes order processing and production
processes. The special show space SmartFactory will demonstrate the
multi-vendor intelligent factory of the future. Industry associations
ZVEI in hall 2 and VDMA in hall 3 will offer competent lectures and
panel discussions about actual topics. The joint stands “AMA Centre
for Sensors, Test and Measurement” and VDMA´s “Machine Vision” in
hall 4A as well as “Wireless in Automation” will inform visitors extensive
about the respective topics.
And the content of this combined issue of ECE and Boards & Solu-
tions is also focused on the topic automation. As usual in the embed-
ded market there are always various form factors created as standard
and today there is no difference: Our cover story starting at
page 6
introduces and describes in detail the advantages of embedded ver-
sion of NUC (Next Unit of Computing) which was created by Intel
in 2012. The SGET (Standardization Group for Embedded Technolo-
gies e.V.) adapted this form factor to suit the requirements of embed-
ded and IoT applications and published the official 1.0 version of the
embedded NUC specification at the beginning of 2015. Essentially, it
defines an embedded form factor, which uses the 4 x 4 inch format
(101.6mm x101.6mm) of the commercial NUC form factor and turns
it into an industrial-grade as well as processor vendor-independent
version. A system design specification is currently in the pipeline.
Furthermore the interview with Jim Liu, Founder and CEO of
ADLINK Technology gives an interesting insight in this company.
This year, the company is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Over the
past 20 years, it has evolved from a T&M instrument supplier to a
leading provider of robust, reliable solutions in industrial automation,
healthcare, defence, transportation, communications, and infotain-
ment, while consistently growing its market share in T&M. And it
raises the bar for the future.
But there are much more articles to inform you what´s actual going
on in the embedded industry.
And if you like you can
visit our booth 160 in hall 3A.
Yours Sincerely
Wolfgang Patelay
Editor
