When the wall street journal starts talking about IT departments reimagining their roles by adopting Agile methodologies to fuel experimentation and prototyping in order to reshape the way their companies work, you know the concept has not just gone mainstream; it is mainstream.
In this article on software defined everything ,they touch upon software defined networking in particular. There are parallels in process control system hardware ; The latest Emerson deltaV hardware CHARM IO channels are software configurable to be either a DI, DO, AI or AO. In addition, electronic marshalling further reduces internal cabling.
The article also touches on standardisation across systems and how it should be central to the design from day 1. This is not news to engineering, considering we invented the concept. However they do note that new standards, design patterns and approaches will be required, and that constant engagement with application teams is necessary to jointly determine how best to architect new platforms. Our interpretation of this management consultant speak is simply this; ‘Go Agile’. Here at HAL Software, we dont say go Agile necessarily, but we do suggest prototyping and fast iterative development .
Elsewhere, virtual prototyping is progressing at breakneck pace. ARM Chip programmers can now write entire operating system and firmware without even having the chip as its not yet in production; they use a ‘virtualizer’ kit from Synopsys . Their take on virtual prototyping is unsurprisingly, a hardware abstracted layer – a reference design available before the silicon is. This enables software engineers to start development months before the hardware design is complete. The process automation equivalent is developing and testing on virtualised hardware then transferring to real hardware. Siemens, Rockwell, Emerson for example, all have ‘SoftPLCs’ or simulation modes whereby software can be developed independent of the hardware.
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