PICMG, Author at PICMG

May 18, 2018

IIoT Update

We have exciting progress on our IIoT efforts. First, we are announcing a work register has been formed with the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) to collaborate on IIoT efforts. The DMTF is an industry standards organization striving to simplify the manageability of network accessible technologies.

The alliance between the organizations will help ensure the groups’ standards are coordinated and aligned in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) domain. PICMG is utilizing Redfish® Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to create a meta-data model for IIoT. This model will facilitate a distributed network of sensors, each of which act as a micro-server. So, what does this mean?

Essentially, we are filling in the missing link in the smart factory chain for IIoT interoperability. As you know, PICMG specifications have long-standing usage in industrial automation going back to 1994. Dozens of the organization’s members have high-performance embedded computing products in industrial gateway, controller, and other applications based on specifications such as CompactPCI Serial, COM Express, and more. What we’d like to do is connect these deployed embedded computers with legacy PLCs and all sorts of sensor devices in the smart factory. Using the Redfish RESTful (Representational State Transfer) APIs, our model will utilize a coding approach that is already well known to IT/Web developers. The combination of the meta-data model for a connected sensor network along with a wealth of versatile open standard hardware computing possibilities may finally provide the market a “plug and play” path for end-to-end IIoT interoperability.

Sensors Expo and Demo

PICMG will have a booth at the Sensors Expo next month. We plan to have a simple demo using RESTful commands connecting sensor devices to open up discussions with attendees. Our CTO, Doug Sandy, will also have a speaking slot on our IIoT approach.

Check out the Sensors Expo held in San Jose, CA from June 26-28th. PICMG will have a 10′ x 10′ booth to promote the organization and our IIoT initiative.

If you’d like to meet with a PICMG officer, contact us at [email protected] to set up a meeting at the show.

August 16, 2017

JASA Announces Embedded Computing and IoT Technologies Show in Yokohama, Japan

Japan Embedded Systems Technology Association (JASA) , a leading trade show organizer for embedded technologies in the Japan market, has announced its next show will be held November 15-17, 2017 in Yokohama Japan. As one of the world’s most established and professional events for Embedded & IoT Technologies, their last show successfully ended with 415 exhibitors and 102 conference sessions, over 30,000 attendees. This year, the event is heading toward its 31th iteration with 450 exhibitors, 35,000 attendees expected and 4 specialized areas dedicated to the hottest hi-tech trends of the market.

For more information, click here.

August 1, 2017

PICMG Turns its Gaze to Asia and Europe

Although PICMG is based in the USA, it truly is a global organization. In fact, the breakdown of membership is fairly evenly distributed. With all of the current PICMG officers located in the USA, we have made an effort to reach out to our Europe and Asian members. In March, we met with dozens and European and other vendors at Embedded World to address the views, strategic roadmaps, and concerns of our members. Last month, I was privileged to visit members in Taiwan, Japan, and China. My trip included Medical and Design shows in Taiwan and Japan as well as Industrial Automation and Telecom shows in China. The members had excellent ideas to continue to improve and enhance existing specifications. It was also very beneficial to understand the local needs of each market. Stay tuned in the coming months for changes to address those needs.

Other efforts included solidifying a barter agreement with a key embedded trade show supplier in Japan and “evangelizing” both PICMG and our members’ products. There was often true excitement from the potential users in seeing the new PICMG Overview Brochure and my pointing to the multiple vendors in their country from the Executive Members list. (This is another benefit of being an Exec Member, we didn’t have space to list everyone, so the Execs are printed on the brochure!)

A key topic during the Asia trip was our Industrial IoT initiative. PICMG has been exploring interest in a specification and have been having open, informal discussions with several members and key contacts at the Industrial IoT Consortium (IoT), Fog Computing, Flexible Factory Project, contacts at Intel and Cisco, and some specialists in IoT security. If you are exploring IoT products, I highly recommend you join the calls, which are open. But note, we are hoping to transition to the new specification phase soon.

If you have any questions on PICMG’s global activities, feel free to contact us at [email protected]

Justin Moll

Vice President of Marketing

PICMG