February 21, 2012

The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute at "embedded world 2012" in Nuremburg

Innovative solutions for embedded systems from Fraunhofer HHI

At embedded world 2012, the annual trade fair for embedded systems, the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI presents video codecs for industrial applications, a profiling tool for simulation models, a Field Programmable Gate Array-based hardware platform for high resolution interactive content and a flexible FPGA-based Rapid Prototyping System for the efficient design of communication processes.

Fraunhofer HHI at embedded world 2012 in Nuremburg, 28 February through to 1. March 2012, hall 5 at the Fraunhofer Community stand, 5-228.

All the exhibits from Fraunhofer HHI at a glance

Video Codecs for Industrial Applications

Fraunhofer HHI demonstrates two hardware implementations of a H.264 video codec characterized by outstanding ultra low latency. Both the Ultra Low Latency Video Codec, ULLVC, and the Enhanced Low Latency Video Codec, ELLVC, are available for the first time as FPGA-based implementations and represent a new level in system integration. They are suitable for a broad range of applications where simple to integrate, standards-compliant video codecs are required as in video conferencing or surveillance. Their optimized design means they have only low requirements in terms of hardware resources and power consumption. The two video codecs differ from each other in terms of complexity of implementation and associated coding efficiency.

NoCTrace – A Profiling Tool for SystemC-based Multi-Core Simulation Models

NoCTrace is software specially developed by Fraunhofer HHI for the analysis of SystemC-based architecture models. NoCTrace enables efficient analysis of hardware and software components in an early stage of the design process, thus significantly shortening the development time. Even complex systems consisting of multiple processors and their associated software can be analyzed in detail by NoCTrace. Thus users can conduct comprehensive analyses without having to resort to an array of different tools.

HEP-2 – A flexible, FPGA-based Rapid Prototyping System

HEP-2 is a FPGA-based hardware platform which tests hardware design under real world conditions in an early stage of the development cycle. The large number of interfaces featured in Hep-2 gives it a high level of flexibility and makes it suitable for a broad range of different fields of application including signal processing, software defined radio or automotive engineering. Its modular structure also enables combination of FPGAs from a range of vendors. The module is based on the HSMC industry standard.

M2M Communication – Bespoke Customer Solutions for Distributed Highly Integrated Systems

Fraunhofer HHI develops customer-specific machine-to-machine or M2M solutions based on state-of-the-art communication technologies like UMTS and LTE. The rising overall complexity of systems is steadily putting the spotlight on communication and data exchange between individual subsystems. With its development of communication technologies for distributed embedded systems, Fraunhofer HHI makes it much easier to install and operate distributed sensor systems. Researchers, for instance, have developed a system comprising of communication protocol, hardware, surface and smartphone/tablet-PC application with which a network of very diverse sensors can be installed by "lay people". This development now opens up new fields of application for distributed sensor systems such as support systems for the care of the elderly where the networked sensors required to monitor patients must be simple enough to be easily installed by non-technically expert nursing staff.

FPGA-based Hardware Platform for Efficient Communication Process Design

Developed by Fraunhofer HHI, this FPGA-based hardware platform demonstrates how standard protocols and off-the-shelf Ethernet components may be used for the efficient design of communication processes with the highest data rates and lowest latency. The platform serves for production of high resolution interactive content in the fields of medical electronics, and automation and automotive technology as well as for future multimedia and finance applications. The Fraunhofer HHI solution is an efficient protocol implementation which combines high performance with low power consumption in embedded real-time systems. The platform uses highly optimized digital circuitry implementations and sophisticated Radio Frequency design. This means that the platform can not only transmit but also process data at a rate of several gigabits per second.