Intel® Edge Controls for Industrial
Intel® Edge Controls for Industrial (Intel® ECI) is a software reference platform with compatible hardware, which:
- Enables you to move to a software-defined solution for controls; thus, providing better flexibility, higher levels of availability, and reduced costs
- Integrates multiple workloads onto a single compute platform
- Leverages the power and flexibility of various IT-style technologies, such as containerization, virtualization, and orchestration, to allow fixed function boxes to run as applications on an industrial PC (IPC)
- Optimizes real-time computing performance
Intel ECI is very flexible and can be applied to a wide range of applications and end equipment. Currently, ECI focusses on three major groups:
- Machine builders: ECI makes it possible to consolidate motion and logic control and provides a local user interface to monitor processes and enable supervisory controls. A platform management agent simplifies software updates and application provisioning.
- Discrete automation(such as automotive manufacturing): ECI enables low-latency motion control and puts safety first. Using a fully managed infrastructure, the platform can securely onboard new nodes and update software.
- Process automation: (such as oil and gas industry): ECI allows control execution to be managed as containerized microservices. Using advanced orchestration techniques, the platform also improves redundancy with increased workload availability and portability
The following are the key features of ECI:
 Time Deterministic Compute Keeps industrial processes working predictably with deterministic compute using TSN implementation and Intel® TCC Technology
|  Workload Convergence Uses virtualization and containerization configurations to consolidate mixed-criticality workloads
|  Application and Platform Management Enables zero-downtime updates and enhanced maintainability, with increased flexibility due to real-time workload orchestration
|  Infrastructure Management Scales control node clusters with software-defined infrastructure, including network, storage, and CPU
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 Industrial Connectivity Bridges brownfield and greenfield communication technologies to achieve a complete edge-to-cloud solution
|  Controls Application Offers production-verified and standards-compliant controls samples to simplify production and deployment
|  Security Provides authentication and confidentiality capabilities that cover the entire computing environment, from chip to cloud
|  Functional Safety Provides safety using capable tool chain and software, and built-in fault-tolerance mechanisms
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