congatec launches new product family aReady.COM
congatec has launched a new product family aReady.COM, the first key stage of its innovative aReady strategy, which offers smoother implementation of embedded and edge computing technology with the assistance of high-performance embedded building blocks, ranging from Computer-on-Modules (COM) to cloud. congatec’s new aReady.COMs integrate application-ready hypervisor, operating system and IIoT software configurations that customers can put together according to their individual requirements. Developers can boot these individually configured aReady.COMs straight away and then install their applications. This means that the complexity of the integration work below the application layers and for the diverse IIoT functionalities of an embedded and edge computing system is reduced to a minimum.
For customers, aReady.COMs mean that they can count on computer-on-modules in a function-validated complete package, the application-readiness of which extends to the virtualisation, OS, and software layer, to which OEMs can seamlessly connect their applications. aReady.COMs decouple system development from application development to the highest degree, resulting in significantly faster time-to-market because OEMs can focus completely on application development.
In terms of hardware, application-ready aReady.COMs offer a hypervisor integrated in the firmware and an integrated memory on which the operating system(s) and IIoT applications are pre-installed to individual requirements. If, for example, the Linux-based ctrlX OS operating system from Bosch Rexroth is used, the entire ctrlX OS World is also opened up automatically, along with the extensive app portfolio of the ctrlX Store for PLC applications, motion control and communication, as well as engineering tools. Developers can also access a wide range of IoT and cloud apps, including key functions such as firewalls and VPN clients.
For the evaluation of the aReady.COM portfolio, customers can currently choose between two computer-on-modules on the basis of the COM-HPC standard: The COM-HPC conga-aCOM/mRLP Mini Module and the performance-oriented COM-HPC conga-aCOM/cRLP Client Size C Module, both based on the 13th Generation Intel Core processor series (code name “Raptor Lake”). Their software building blocks are application-ready and can be freely combined/configured to provide customers with an adapted subsystem which is precisely tailored to their specific requirements. The current portfolio includes the hypervisor for system consolidation, the IIoT software for device management, security, multi-site networking and databases, as well as the complete Bosch Rexroth ctrlX OS ecosystem.
