Learning The Difference Between an Embedded System and Real Time System
Have you ever wondered what a Real Time system actually means. We were discussing this topic this week as it relates to SAP BW. Sometimes our customers want and expect SAP BW data to be presented to them in "Real Time".
What Does Real Time Mean?
The question is, what exactly does real time mean. Well, we happen to have a deep pool of experts with expertise and experience in developing real-time embedded systems for automotive and aerospace application control systems.
Compare Embedded Systems vs Real Time Systems
Within this environment, a typical real-time scenario involves reading an electrical square wave generated by a crank or cam sensor as the crank or cam gear rotates past the sensor while an engine is operating. There are many configurations and variants in this application.
The question we want to answer is “How fast is real-time in this environment”?
The crank gear itself is normally a 60 tooth gear spaced 6 degrees apart and this crank gear spins as the engine spins.
However, to synchronize engine position so that engine position is positively known, 2 gear teeth are missing.
Tooth 58 and tooth 59 are usually missing and are known as “the gap”.
The gap is used to indicate to the real time embedded software that the number 1 cylinder is at TDC (Top Dead Center) and is a point of positive synchronization.
Sometimes, the engine timing does get lost and the gap synchronization point is used to bring the software back in sync with the engine.
Mechanics will know this as the “Top Dead Center” teeth.
If the engine is spinning or idling at 1000 RPM, the embedded crank sensor generates a square wave created by an electromagnetic hall effect off each tooth, which is then picked up as an input to the TIO (or Timer Input Output Unit).
The TIO is a specialized port on the microprocessor dedicated to processing Fuel and Spark Timing events.
While the next fuel and spark event is being calculated from the crank sensor tooth that just passed the sensor, the microprocessor has to wait about 20,000 clock cycles or microseconds between the passage of one tooth and the next tooth.
In other words, the microprocessor is doing nothing except executing a “wait loop” waiting for the next crank tooth to pass by the crank sensor.
Keep in mind that the engine is spinning at 1000 rpm in our example and the crank teeth are also spinning at 1000 RPM and the crank teeth are spaced only 6 degrees apart.
This is fast by human standards but glacially slow by real time embedded microprocessor standards.
The microprocessor used in these systems typically runs at 40,000,000 cycles per second, which is really slow by today’s standards.
Why?
Because the application, in this case, real time embedded car sensor systems, don’t require the fastest chips on the planet. This means the OEMs can get by with cheaper older generation microprocessors.
Real-Time Embedded Sensor Equipped Gear
What is the microprocessor (also known as the ECM or Engine Control Module) doing with these 20,000 cycles?
It is recalculating the fuel quantity and spark delivery timing between each crank tooth.
What does it do with the rest of the cycles?
It mostly waits.
Typically, the time to execute and update the fuel and spark calculation is on the order of 40 nanoseconds. So the time required to execute the software is minimal and the wait time between each crank tooth interrupt is quite long.
The point of the above real time embedded software application description is to demonstrate the meaning of real time.
The engine software is reacting to the engine from moment to moment.
How Would Real-Time Data Acquisition be Used in a SAP Business Warehouse Application?
If you have seen the movie Minority Report, you’ve already seen one potential application of real time data:
Advertising that is specific to a single user.
You might call it the Honey Pot billboard advertising model, which, in real-time, can scan a face, recognize who it is, and serve up advertising specific to that person's interest.
Going one step further, and probably well beyond the Real Time Data acquisition capabilities of SAP BW, you could modify the advertising offer or offer new or customized offers on the fly to reflect past purchasing or other demographic or behavior based information as well as reacting to the consumer in real time as the consumer interacts with the products on the shelf.
RFID Chips and Demographic History
For example, with RFID chips attached to different products coupled with the demographic history of the particular customer browser, real time data could customize offerings to that specific potential customer as they walk down the shopping mall or through smart electronic billboards through GPS smartphone tracking.
You see this with how Amazon seems to read your mind when you visit their site.
This is also math based as well as real-time based. GPS phone tracking is also how some of the vehicle route navigational traffic flow tracking is performed while you are driving down the road to indicate to you on the route map that there is a traffic jam ahead and for how long the traffic jam is.
Would this be real time?
Well, a person walking up to a sign with such capabilities is actually going extremely slow in comparison to our engine example.
So it appears to be real time; in fact, it mostly is wait time for the microprocessor.
What makes this application real time is the fact that the offer is responding to the person walking up to a sign as they walk up to the sign and it is customized and specific to that particular person walking up to that sign.
What might be a system that is closer to real-time, meaning that the system needs to operate in real-time.
Well, Hubspot, which we use to host our inbound marketing efforts, comes real close to it.
With thousands of customers getting millions of hits constantly, they have a heavy processing load to handle, while giving us constant updates on our sites' performance.
Other embedded systems applications include such things as apps that track your position while traveling, in real time, though they do lag behind where you are actually at most of the time.
SAP HANA System
The SAP HANA database and the overall SAP HANA system is, of course, the tool that enables near real time performance of BW systems. The SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud system takes the concept of real-time embedded system to a whole other level of performance. It is built to provide easy extensibility.
SAP Business Technology Platform
You can extend on-premise database landscapes to the cloud with expanded capacity for computing and storage to begin your cloud journey. SAP HANA Cloud is the database management foundation of the SAP Business Technology Platform.
SAP Applications Development Environment
The SAP HANA Cloud Business Technology Platform provides a highly scalable elastic database management environment. It can be connected to almost any data source and can be a data source to almost any destination system.
Mobile by Default
The SAP HANA Platform makes designing, developing, deploying and integrating mobile applications exceptionally easy for SAP developers. With the SAP Fiori Interface, and extensive existing SAP Fiori Library, real-time, mobile web applications are natively enabled.
Internet of Things (IoT)
SAP HANA's in-memory capabilities have proven to be incredibly useful in building Internet of Things (IoT) applications. With its ability to process large amounts of data in real-time, SAP HANA can be used to analyze and act on IoT data as it is generated. This allows for faster decision making and can be especially useful in industries like manufacturing, where real-time data analysis can enable predictive maintenance and reduce downtime. SAP HANA can also integrate with a wide range of IoT devices, sensors, and platforms, making it a flexible and versatile tool for building IoT applications. With its advanced capabilities and ease of use, SAP HANA is a powerful tool for businesses looking to leverage the power of IoT.
SAP HANA Spatial Data Support
SAP HANA is a powerful tool that supports spatial data to build location-based business app development. With its ability to process large amounts of data in real-time, SAP HANA can be used to analyze and act on location-based data as it is generated. For example, a possible app that can be developed using SAP HANA's spatial data support is a real-time traffic monitoring app. The app can track the movement of vehicles on the road and provide real-time updates on traffic conditions to drivers. The app can also suggest alternate routes based on real-time data to help drivers avoid traffic congestion. The real-time data is used to make the app work by continuously analyzing the location and speed of vehicles on the road and updating the app with the latest traffic information. With SAP HANA's spatial data support, businesses can develop location-based apps that provide real-time insights to their customers, improving their overall experience.
Real Time Predictive Analytics
SAP HANA's in-memory database technology has revolutionized the way businesses handle data processing and analysis. With its ability to process large amounts of data in real-time, SAP HANA is particularly useful for predictive analytics within the supply chain. Using real-time data, businesses can gain insights into supply chain performance, identify potential bottlenecks, and make proactive decisions to optimize operations. With SAP HANA's advanced capabilities, businesses can also integrate IoT devices and sensors to gather data on the supply chain in real-time, allowing for faster decision-making and more efficient operations. Overall, SAP HANA's real-time capabilities have the potential to transform supply chain management and revolutionize the way businesses operate.
Real Time Machine Learning
SAP HANA Machine Learning is a powerful tool that enables predictive analytics in real time. With the help of cloud computing, businesses can process large amounts of data in real time and gain insights into their operations.
Deployable Using Various Operating Systems
SAP HANA is a highly versatile database management system that can operate on a variety of enterprise-class operating systems. Some of the approved operating systems for SAP HANA include SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux, and Microsoft Windows Server.
In a subsequent article, we will compare the performance of an engine embedded system to a SAP HANA scenario.
In the meantime, if you need SAP HANA expertise or embedded systems consulting, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.
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