Embedded PC solutions to the Medical Applications and devices

By Oded Amir


With an increase in pressures to both lessen the time to market and increase the amount of features in their latest models, many medical equipment manufacturers are looking to off-the-shelf PC boards in making these designs. Using embedded P.C boards can dramatically cut back the design time of feature-rich medical equipment, but just if the feature set of the board is matched to the application.

Knowing what points to ask is important to picking an inserted PC solution. By finding out more about the features available on embedded Computers, it becomes easier to know which points to ask.

Reasons for Using an Embedded Computer or ARM Base solution

During the past, it was commoner for designers to select a microprocessor or microcontroller chip, design the supporting circuitry around it, and add the special inputs and outputs required by the application. In many cases, this is still a fascinating path to take. It gives the most control over exactly what features are included in the final design. Every part of the circuit in an absolutely customised design is there for an excellent reason explicit to the end application. Nonetheless fully customised designs can take substantial time to get from the drawing board to the market.

Reducing the time to market is amongst the biggest reasons for choosing an off-the-shelf embedded PC for medical applications. If the core processor circuitry is prepared to be plugged into a system, it saves on circuit design and debugging time. It also reduces the time spent on developing firmware, because embedded PCs sometimes already have basic input/output system (BIOS) firmware that initializes the core parts, tests vital subsystems, and loads the application program. In an increasingly competitive environment, shaving a few months or even weeks of a product development cycle can have an effect on the success of a product.

A different reason that embedded Computers are being used more often is that the range of features that users expect is rapidly increasing. Although alphanumeric liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) are utilised for some jobs, eg blood sugar monitoring, it is beginning to become more workaday for a modern piece of medical kit to have a full-color graphical display. This allows more information to be conveyed to the user, but at the price of skyrocketing the amount of computing horsepower required, as well as the complexness of the software. Embedded Computers may help to decipher that problem by employing the large number of graphics software already available on the desktop Computer.

Embedded PC- Particular Features

There are several reasons, such as product lifetime or size, for using an inserted Computer rather than a desktop PC motherboard in a medical application. However , the large reason is that inserted PCs have features that are not found on desktop PCs features that includes the following: Digital I/O, Analogue I/O, Solid state disks, Different system buses such as PC/104, CompactPCI, and so on.




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