Feature: Embedded


Moxa’s UC-1222A and UC-2222A-T industrial computers are two examples that are compact and fanless, built for space-critical automation applications; see Figure 1.


Small form factor architecture The RISC architecture uses a small, highly-optimised set of instructions, or commands, to perform operations. The architecture streamlines the instruction set, to include only the most frequently used and essential instructions, thus offering simplicity and efficiency. In a RISC architecture, each


instruction typically performs a single, well-defined operation, with each instruction executed in a single clock cycle. This results in faster and more efficient processing of instructions compared to Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC) architectures, with their larger and more diverse set of instructions. RISC architectures are known for


Figure 1: Moxa’s range of industrial computers


Exploring the capabilities of ultra-compact RISC devices


By Louisa Rochford, Marketing Executive, Impulse Embedded W


hen it comes to embedded systems, every nanosecond matters in the stakes


for efficiency and optimal resource use. RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) allows this high efficiency,


18 May 2024 www.electronicsworld.co.uk


so it is adopted in many applications that require speed and performance, for example in fast data acquisition applications. Here, precise real-time processing is highly important, and RISC devices offer that high performance in a small package. Compact RISC computers offer many advantages in data acquisition, and


their ability to deliver high performance, especially in specific computing tasks, by optimising the execution of instructions and minimising the overhead associated with complex instruction decoding.


Super-efficient ARM computing ARM is a well-known developer of RISC processors, and its Armv8 Cortex-A53 is a 64-bit part of the Cortex-A family, commonly used in high-performance embedded systems like smartphones and tablets. Its architecture enables it to handle


larger volumes of data and access more memory than 32-bit architectures. The processor runs at a clock speed of 1GHz (one billion cycles per second). It is a dual-core processor, meaning two individual processing cores are on the chip, handling processing tasks in parallel, for faster execution. This dual-core configuration makes it highly suitable for applications where power efficiency and performance are important, such as embedded systems, single-board computers and low- power devices that require low energy consumption.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48