The rise of the embedded Wintel Architecture

During the 90's, the combination of Intel x86 architecture and Windows operating system steadily gained ground among manufacturers and users of board-level computers in the embedded and industrial instrumentation and control markets. By the close of the decade, the value proposition of this so-called “Wintel architecture” seemed to have become nearly irresistible: very powerful and low cost hardware, backed by an immense base of software.

The ephemeral longevity offered by each specific x86 processor model was offset by the fact that the same processor socket could be equipped with subsequent and faster pin-compatible future versions of the CPU. Until recently, when Intel retired a processor there were other vendors like AMD or Cyrix who were happy to continue servicing the market at lower prices and margins.

Indeed, the relatively low volume and slow paced embedded board market was free-riding the dynamic and ultra-competitive PC market.

These days are now over, however, for three reasons:

• Intel's monopolization and vigorous control of the x86 roadmap;
  
• Microsoft's failure in the embedded market;
  
• and last, but not least, the Internet.

In light of Intel's increasing dominance of the PC chipset and motherboard arena, compatibility with older sockets, chipsets, and memory architectures is no longer an important concern. The limited number of ways that an x86-based board can be built, which represent an increasingly narrow product offering targeted exclusively at the high end of the desktop-PC performance spectrum — coupled with the increasingly short life span of PC hardware — puts the x86 increasingly at odds with the diversity and longevity requirements of markets like embedded and industrial instrumentation and control.

On the software front, Microsoft's ever more bloated and unstable operating system software further distances itself with each new release from the requirements of embedded systems for lean, efficient, and reliable software. Windows, in all its many flavors (9x/2000/NT/CE), has never achieved the dominance in the embedded market that it enjoys in the home and business markets. Recently, the emergence of Linux, with its greater scalability, perceived reliability, and zero dollar per-unit cost has dashed any hopes Microsoft ever had to dominate the server or embedded markets. Unlike Windows, Linux runs quite well on a multitude of non-x86 platforms, as do a number of real-time operating systems that are available to the embedded market.

But the final blow to the PC's appeal to the embedded and industrial instrumentation and control markets comes from the new possibilities and expectations brought about by the growing use of Internet (or intranet) connectivity. An embedded computer merely needs a TCP/IP protocol stack and related services to deliver, in a distributed fashion, a graphical user interface (using a web browser), file system (over the network), and general connectivity to other controllers as well as to enterprise-wide supervisory and management systems.

Defining the post-PC embedded computer

So what will be the features of embedded computers for instrumentation and control applications in the post-PC era?

Certainly, the x86 will continue to find its way into many embedded systems — but only when the full functionality of a PC is required. Otherwise, in new applications, RISC processors enabled by Internet-aware OSes like Linux can be expected to make a very strong showing.

As an example, Actis Computer is currently developing board-level computers based on Motorola's PowerQUICC II communication processor (see photo). By combining the features and performance of a PowerPC CPU plus a RISC processor dedicated to communication functions, the PowerQUICC delivers both the computing power and the Internet connectivity that form the staple of modern embedded systems.

Non-PC processors specifically made for the embedded market also enjoy a guaranteed long lifecycle well in excess of any x86 processor, making them the right choice for the new generation of OEM machines and instruments.

Marc Marinello
CEO, Actis Computer

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.