Ruggedization and reliability are key requirements for industrial, medical, and aircraft applications. Reliable operation is especially important for critical devices used for avionics and railway control. This article by Barbara Schmitz, Chief Marketing Officer of MEN Mikro Elektronik GmbH, describes how embedded developers can build rugged and reliable solutions with minimal cost and effort using a migration platform based on CompactPCI PlusIO standard and embedded Intel® processors. The article covers the essential steps of processor selection, evaluation of software configurations and manufacturing criteria in both the initial design and implementation phases.  

Although generic challenges such as operating temperature, shock, vibration, humidity or ESD are common across many harsh environments, ruggedization standards can vary significantly by application segment. This article shows how CompactPCI single board computer modules with embedded Intel processors can help developers meet the performance per watt demands of compute-intensive embedded solutions, while addressing multiple requirements for I/O flexibility, thermal management and system reliability, including the ability to withstand shock and vibration in accordance with applicable DIN, EN or IEC industry standards.  

The article also reviews important software configurations that can impact reliability, including virtualization, which can enable a single processor concurrently support multiple real-time and general purpose operating systems. Another important factor is manufacturing monitoring, and the article discusses the importance of working with a supplier who can work within certified lab conditions, including in-house capabilities for environmental, high-voltage and EMC chamber testing in order to carry out pre-qualification of rugged designs.