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 EMBEDDED SYSTEMS
To Build Or To Buy?

Avichal Kulshrestha
Technical Marketing Engineer

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The Impact of Great Engineering

Save time, effort, Improve Ensure

and money quality of life safety

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 Todays Engineering Challenges
Business Development

Profitability Innovation

Service and Support Performance

Time to Market/Solution Quality

Supply Chain Management Tools

Talent and Resource

Technical Integration
Management

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The Dilemma: Build or Buy?
Build Buy
Advantages Advantages
Custom HW/SW solution Off-the-shelf hardware/software solution
Maximum flexibility Use fewer resources because
Ability to get exactly what you want systems are pre-built
Shorter time to market
Disadvantages
Lower life-cycle costs
Long lead times for new product
Significant resource requirements Disadvantages
Higher life-cycle costs Often pay for much more than you need
Limited flexibility
Limited functionality

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 The Complexity of a Custom Build
Hardware and software costs Mechanical design

Mechanical components (non-electronic) Manufacturing setup and tooling

EDA development tool costs Manufacturing test

Design specification and Compliance and environmental engineering
component selection
Documentation, training,
Prototyping and customer support

Hardware design Inventory management and EOL issues

Hardware test and verification Sustaining engineering

Software development Opportunity cost

Software test and verification

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A Custom Build Requires Large
Specialized Teams

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 The Reality of Embedded System Design

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 The Buy Option
Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Technologies
Shorter Time to Market
Extend time in market
Start on next project sooner
Be more responsive to customer demands
Lower Development and Maintenance Costs
Lower Life-Cycle Management Cost
Reduced Risk Over Time
Easier Migration Paths to Future Technologies

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 Challenges of Buying COTS Technology

Functionality

Flexibility

Performance

Ruggedness

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The Dilemma: Build or Buy?
Build Buy
Advantages Advantages
Custom HW/SW solution Off-the-shelf hardware/software solution
Maximum flexibility Use fewer resources because
Ability to get exactly what you want systems are pre-built
Shorter time to market
Disadvantages
Lower life-cycle costs
Long lead times for new product

Higher life-cycle costs Build and Buy?

Significant resource requirements Disadvantages
Often pay for much more than you need
Limited flexibility
Limited functionality

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The Benefits of Off-the-Shelf Technology
With the Flexibility of Custom Design

Why compromise?
The NI approach delivers the benefits of custom design with quality off-the-shelf
products so you can focus on INNOVATION not IMPLEMENTATION

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The Benefits of Off-the-Shelf Technology
With the Flexibility of Custom Design

Benefits

High-Level Software

Flexible Hardware

Integrated Hardware and Software Platform

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Graphical System Design
A platform-based approach for measurement and control

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 Benefits
High-Level Software

LabVIEW System Design Software

Project Explorer Hardware Connectivity
Manage and organize all Bring real-world signals into
system resources, including LabVIEW from any I/O on
I/O and deployment targets any instrument

Deployment Targets Parallel Programming

Deploy LabVIEW code to the Create independent loops
leading desktop, real-time, that automatically execute
and FPGA hardware targets in parallel

Instant Compilation Block Diagram

See the state of Define and customize the
your application at behavior of your system
all times, instantly using graphical programming

Front Panel Analysis Libraries

Create event-driven user Use high-performance
interfaces to control systems analysis libraries designed
and display measurements for engineering and science

Models of Computation Timing

Combine and reuse .m files, Define explicit execution
C code, and HDL with order and timing with
graphical code sequential data flow

Accelerates Your Success

By abstracting low-level complexity and integrating all of the tools you need to build any measurement or control system

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 Benefits
Flexible Hardware

The NI Approach to Flexible Hardware

Processor Commercial Modular I/O

Real-Time or FPGA
PC-Based
Technology for Any Signal

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 Benefits
Flexible Hardware

Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)

Memory Blocks
Store data sets or values in user defined RAM

Configurable Logic Blocks (CLBs)

Implement logic using flip-flops and LUTs

Multipliers and DSPs

Implement signal processing using
multiplier and multiplier-accumulate circuitry

Programmable Interconnects
Route signals through the FPGA matrix

I/O Blocks
Directly access digital and analog I/O

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 Benefits
Flexible Hardware

The NI Approach to Flexible Hardware

We call this the LabVIEW RIO Architecture.

Processor FPGA Analog I/O

Application IP
Real-time OS
Control IP
Digital I/O
Application software

Processor
Networking and DSP IP
Modular I/O
Real-Time or FPGA
Specialized
I/O drivers Specialized I/O
peripheral I/O drivers for Any Signal
DMA,PC-Based
interrupt, and and interface
bus control drivers DMA controller Custom I/O

Bus Protocols

Highly Productive LabVIEW Commercial

Graphical Programming Environment for
Programming Host, FPGA, I/O, and Bus Interfaces
Technology

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 Benefits
Flexible Hardware

NI CompactRIO

FPGA

Processor Modular I/O

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 Benefits
Flexible Hardware

NI CompactRIO Integrated Hardware

and Software Platform

FPGA

Processor Modular I/O

Extreme Ruggedness: -40 to 70 C temperature range; 50 g shock, 5 g vibration

Highly Productive LabVIEW Graphical Programming Environment for
High Performance:
ProgrammingUpHost,
to 1.33 GHz,I/O,
FPGA, dual-core
and Busi7 Interfaces
processor
Comprehensive I/O: Analog, digital, custom, specialty, bus communication

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 Benefits
Flexible Hardware

Connect to Any Sensor on Any Bus

100+ Industrial I/O Modules

Accelerometer Thermocouples
Strain gage 4 to 20 mA
Resistance Storage media
Load cells RTD
Digital I/O and protocols Engine control
Microphone Industrial vision
Bus communications Motion control

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 Benefits
Flexible Hardware

NI Single-Board RIO Integrated Hardware

and Software Platform

FPGA

Processor Modular I/O

Highly Productive LabVIEW Graphical Programming Environment for

Programming Host, FPGA, I/O, and Bus Interfaces

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 Benefits
Flexible Hardware

NI R Series and NI FlexRIO Integrated Hardware

and Software Platform

Host
FPGA Processing
Real-Time or PC

Built-In I/O for Analog

and Digital Signals

Highly Productive LabVIEW Graphical Programming Environment for

Programming Host, FPGA, I/O, and Bus Interfaces

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 Benefits
Flexible Hardware

LabVIEW RIO Hardware

CompactRIO and NI Single-Board RIO PXI, PC RIO (R Series, NI FlexRIO)

Value
Value Performance High Performance

Expansion I/O

MXI-Express RIO Ethernet RIO EtherCAT RIO Wireless

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 Benefits
Integrated Hardware

Unparalleled Productivity Through an and Software Platform

Integrated Hardware and Software Platform

Language Designed for Measurement and Control Applications

Software that is hardware aware

One-click deployment and execution
Seamless, visual debugging
Hardware timing in the LabVIEW language
Consistent development despite CPU
and FPGA variants

Abstraction of fundamental components

Inter-element communication (for example, DMA FIFO)
Common I/O abstractions across many I/O modules and devices
Hardware auto-detection

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Its not just the tools Its a solution for success
Communication Motion Wireless HMIs

NI LabVIEW RIO Architecture

Third-Party I/O Vision Alliance Partners LabVIEW FPGA IPNet

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Committed to Your Success

Technical sales engineers in more than 40 countries

Systems engineers to assist

Local technical support worldwide

Global manufacturing

World-class NI services

800+ NI Alliance Partners worldwide

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NI Alliance Partners
More than 800 partners worldwide

Consulting Integration Product Ecosystem

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We chose National Instruments products because we needed a versatile, powerful, and
reasonably tough platform for our challenging measurement and control system.

Bjarke Dahl-Madsen, CIM Industrial Systems A/S

Renewable Energy | Vestas Technology

 By programming in LabVIEW FPGA, we were able to vary the timing and
power of each pulse to optimize for speed and precision.

Michael Wiltberger, OptiMedica Corporation

Laser Assisted Cataract Removal | OptiMedica

We were able to rapidly prototype our system for FedEx with LabVIEW and CompactRIO and
create a final deployed solution with NI Single-Board RIOall in under a year.

Jeremy Snow, Ventura Aerospace

Fire Suppression System | Ventura Aerospace

 The Reality of Embedded System Design

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 The Reality of Embedded System Design
With Graphical System Design

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A Platform-Based Approach to Embedded System Design
 Stay Connected During and After NIDays
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