Up to now, such applications haven't been easy to design, largely because rich user interfaces typically required microprocessors while real-time applications used microcontrollers. Moreover, such systems often employed different operating systems -- a Linux-based OS for an HMI and a real-time OS for the microcontrollers.
"You have two very different paradigms -- the rich domain and the real-time domain," Subramanian said. "Developers solved it with two different types of devices, and then they would have to marry the two domains, which wasn't easy."
The Vybrid architecture addresses the issue by integrating two 32-bit ARM cores onboard a single chip. An ARM Cortex-A5 core handles the HMI functions, while an ARM Cortex-M4 core manages real-time applications. The Vybrid controllers also use a software environment that's tightly coupled with the hardware, facilitating communications between the two operating systems.
To be sure, it's not the first time that such architectures have been employed. ARM previously introduced "big.LITTLE processing," which combined an ARM Cortex-A15 core with an ARM Cortex-A7. The Vybrid is different, however, in that it employs a core for a consumer application with another that's largely used in industrial.
"This is not like the multi-tasking you might do on a PC, where you run Word and Excel," Halfhill told us. "These are very different tasks, and in the past they would have required very different kinds of chips."
Freescale said, however, that recent business trends have made it necessary to combine the different types of cores. "We're seeing a consumer-ization of the industrial space," Subramanian said. "People want iPhone types of interfaces."
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Very cool development and one that puts Freescale squarely ahead of a trend that I don't see any signs of stopping. With more and more people (overly) dependent on smart phones and tablets for everything related to both work and play, there's no doubt that people are expecting the same ease of use and intuitive user interface in every kind of electronics/appliance/piece of gear they touch. Why settle for less when the touch and gesture interface popularized by Apple is so pervasive. If I can intuitively use my smart phone to access my home security system, why shouldn't I be able to employ the same interface to control industrial automation system or my fridge. I think this trend will go gangbusters over the next year and Freescale's new multicore processor is only going to help.
Interesting partitioning of tasks between the two processors, and one that makes a lot of sense. The HMI/GUI continues to get more complicated as a greater proportion of electronics users are consumers, and a smaller proportion are engineers, as the iPhonization of industrial applications continues. In the ancient old days of much lousier, less intuitive UIs we had to put up with quite a lot of confusing interactions. OTOH, some people (my husband included) find the command line interface a much more powerful way to interact with the machine. Well, yes, if you actually need to program the thing. Personally, I'd prefer a one-way non-vocal Siri: I talk, it listens, figures out what I want, and does it, with no talking back. Meanwhile I'm on to the next thought and task.
I agree, Beth. Freescale, as well as other chip makers moving in the same direction, are on to something important. When you see a company like Cadillac use iPhone capabilities in their touch screens, then you know it must be solidly in the mainstream.
Charles, it seems that integration of two tasks in a chip, where real-time applications and domain specific applications. I think such hybrid model chips have to develop further, so that they are more compactable to the board and efforts can be minimize.
This sounds like a much better approach than conventional methods where HMI's either use one mutitasking processor for communication, screen updates and background processing or two seporate processors, one being used for communications alone. This all in one approach is bound to be much more effiecent.
Oh that's classic Ann!! "...with no talking back." I don't want my 'hardware' to talk to me either! We each want a different UI according to what we like. And I like all my (non-audio) hardware silent and obedient! "STOP that BEEPing!!" I find a train of thought to be very fragile and noise is distracting.
Chuck, Excellent article. There's no question but that industrial HMIs will be providing all types of additional computing options from animations and video-based instruction manuals and other applications. As PCs in particular continue to provide additional processing power, and operating systems go to the next level, the Industrial HMI becomes the portal to the machine more and more. Thanks.
One other question. A key trend for industrial factory HMIs is that they are often also serving as the main controller for the machine. Most are PC based architectures increasingly using Windows because of the flexibility. Does this approach also compete effectively with that approach? Can envision an appliance or other products might have entirely different HMI needs.
Thanks, Craig. Glad you liked my humor and that someone else knows what I mean. "Silent and obedient"--yes! Sometimes my train of thought is fragile, and sometimes it's so fast that I hate wasting time interacting through such a slo-o-o-w medium as two-way full-duplex speech, or even just listening to a bunch of beeps. Besides, it's just a machine, a tool. I prefer to have conversations with actual living beings.
And you're right, there are several different preferences for UIs. So why do we get stuck with just one on a given machine?
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