Inexperienced engineers may view a form, fit, and functional replacement simply as hardware with the same mechanical measurements, connector pin-out, and equal or better performance.

Connected applications in industrial settings are termed as Industrial Internet of Things, or IIoT. Such applications require systems that can operate efficiently in unpredictable environments.

The demand from customers for long-term availability remains unchanged. This is especially problematic for the military, medical and industrial sectors.

If we have an alternative that?s faster and ubiquitous in the industry, why are we still including it on our boards?

Where consolidation becomes a challenge is when you want to retrofit into existing equipment. Swapping in new boards or servers isn?t as simple as it sounds, particularly from a software perspective.

While COTS hardware offerings provide significant cost and time-to-market advantages, many industrial systems demand customized hardware for reasons as basic as specialized packaging requirements.

Embedded Computing Design's Brandon Lewis interviews George Hilliard of WinSystems at Embedded World 2019 booth #1-161.