Systems Thinking, which seeks to understand complex problems by way of examining how individual components (people, objects, processes, events) work together, is the basic foundation from which Systems Engineering was developed. From the standpoint of designing complex embedded computing platforms, the key to maximizing performance, reliability and compatibility is to determine how a variety of mechanical and electrical components and sub-systems are going to interact with each other.
Systems Engineering Principles and Practice - Alexander Kossiakoff, William Sweet, Sam Seymour, Steven Biemer
For those companies who only integrate off-the-shelf components into standard rackmount chassis, this situation can become a guessing game of sorts, as there is no guarantee that a newly added component, such as a multi-headed video card or GPU processing card, will work properly with the installed motherboard or single board computer.
But for those few companies, such as Trenton, who design and manufacture the backplanes, single board computers and embedded motherboards, the process of complex systems engineering is based on logic, planning and execution rather than guessing. Overall system performance, compatibility and reliability are accounted for in the design phase, and refined during the prototype phase.
Systems Engineering Considerations
- Slot Configuration
- Bus Bandwidth
- Power Consumption
- Shock & Vibration
- EMI Interference
- Cooling Requirements
- System Bus Bandwidth
- System BIOS Compatibility
- Height & Depth Constraints
Trenton TCS4501 Rackmount Computer
Trenton’s TCS4501 rackmount computer is an excellent example of systems engineering. The BPG7087 14-slot backplane was designed with multiple x16 PCI Express 2.0 slots that accommodate single or double wide video processing or GPU cards, and the PICMG 1.3 processor slot is able to host a variety of single board computers such as Trenton’s JXT6966 or TQ9 SBCs.
Beyond designing and manufacturing the backplane and SBC, Trenton also maintains total control over the BIOS, which provides an added level of system integrity, along with an enhanced level of after-sale customer service. For customer applications with complex configurations, the ability to modify the BIOS is something many other vendors cannot provide.
The 20″ deep aluminum chassis addresses the need for achieving reduced size and weight in many space constrained applications, while the high-performance power supply providing up to 1500w and the three 120mm center-mount fans were designed to take care of power and cooling requirements.
“Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary approach and means to enable the realization of successful systems. It focuses on defining customer needs and required functionality early in the development cycle, documenting requirements, then proceeding with design synthesis and system validation while considering the complete problem. Systems Engineering integrates all the disciplines and specialty groups into a team effort forming a structured development process that proceeds from concept to production to operation. Systems Engineering considers both the business and the technical needs of all customers with the goal of providing a quality product that meets the user needs.”
International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
Trenton’s product development cycle has always been based on the principles of systems engineering in order to ensure the highest level of system reliability and compatibility, and we’re ready to design and manufacture your customer-driven computing solution. Give us a call at 770-287-3100 to discuss your project needs, or visit the Trenton website for more information.
