Kontron
Streamlining Analysis of Data at the Edge and Business Processes using HPEC

HPC conjures vivid images of heavy equipments covering large real-estate, data scientists hurriedly monitoring, and huge capital expenditures are envisioned. This imagery is changing because of companies like Kontron and their dedication to R&D, revamping the notion of HPC through High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC). Kontron, based in Augsburg, Gemany, is a unique company that serves a large portion of the embedded computing market. “We are in everything: from very simple devices like a parking meter, to very complicated medical devices, defense devices and even communication servers,” notes Eric Sivertson, Executive Vice President, Avionics, Transportation, and Defense (ATD) Business Unit, Kontron.

Kontron’s proven history of providing application ready solutions helps customer to better analyze the growing volume of data from the Internet of Things (IoT). Its SYMKLOUD application-ready cloud platform series is designed from the ground up to transform and simplify the way network equipment and cloud service providers deploy web-based, machine-to-machine, and mobile applications in varied cloud environments. “Size and power optimized, SYMKLOUD helps users to effectively handle the explosion of data coming in from IoT,” remarks Sivertson. SYMKLOUD provides real time processing across critical industries such as analyzing medical device image data, providing multiple views of a flying object for radar or handling multiple channels for communication space. “One blade module equivalent from Kontron is equivalent to four to six standard rack mount server blades from our competitors,” claims Sivertson.

StarVX is another strong HPEC offering from Kontron. StarVX is designed to help developers dramatically streamline the process from design to field deployment of next-generation HPEC radar, sonar and imagine processing applications.

This powerful platform is able to host multiple VPX (ANSI Standard) cards. “And since VPX is an open standard, it will accept many different sensor interface cards, or other data pre-processing platforms that can plug into the StarVX backplane. This enables customers to quickly build custom solutions. Coupled with our VPX processing boards, StarVX can be utilized to perform real time HPEC processing at rates demanded by this explosion of sensor data,” explains Sivertson. Platforms like these help Kontron’s customers expand their value-added offerings to their customers.

An interesting example is farm vehicles, which are now being equipped with more sensors and automated controls. This data can be coupled with satellite images of a farm (such as Google Maps) resulting in a HPEC big data application that helps farmers quickly visualize where to fertilize, seed and harvest their farm in both a cost and environmentally optimized way. “By leveraging our platforms, correlation analysis of these images in real time is possible as the vehicles are traversing the farms — this is the power of HPC at the edge,” adds Sivertson.

One blade module from Kontron is equivalent to four to six server blades from our competitors

With dedicated staff and business units for key segments, Kontron has the resources to develop long term roadmaps. “Our global footprint and product portfolio breadth support many different segments are a big enabler for our customers and it will help enable a revolution to take place that will invariably generate more value to society,” concludes Sivertson.