ConcurrentSolutionsVolume 16, 2014

A publication

for the real-time

computing industry

The Challenge: Achieve New Levels of Performance Without Compromising Fuel Economy Whether deploying freight or passenger trains, railroad companies must continuallymeet new levels of safety, performance and fuel economy without sacrificing power. These challenges are passed on to companies like GE Transportation who manufactures locomotives that are delivered globally.

The Solution: GE Transportation’s Simulation, Modeling and Integration Team (SimTeam) Standardizes on Concurrent Real-Time Solutions GE has responded with an investment in hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation where many problems are solved and new efficiencies are developed – even before the metal meets the rail.

It Begins with Simulation and Fault Injection

Walk into GE Transportation’s Pennsylvania SimLab and you’ll see numerous complete closed-loop HIL locomotive systems and subsystem simulators supporting all locomotive product lines. All of these simulators leverage Concurrent Real-Time products. GE Transportation’s SimTeam has created an environment to help its transportation engineers develop solutions to address a broad range of customer needs and rail operating environments.

GE Transportation Keeps Locomotive Development and Performance Rolling with Concurrent Real-Time Simulation

In the United States – and in countries around the world– railroads are important arteries for the economy. At the heart of the industry is GE Transportation, a global technology leader and supplier providing freight and passenger locomotives, railway signaling and communications systems, and information technology solutions.

A SimTeam engineer points out that diesel locomotives are comprised of a largenumber of electronic, electromechanical, mechanical, pneumatic and operator controllers. The lab’s simulation environments provide the necessary I/O, plant and behavior models along with scripted or user-induced fault injection to allow engineers to develop new control algorithms, customer-requested enhancements, new products and services.

Concurrent recently renewed its Value Added Reseller (VAR) Agreement with Diamond VisionicsTM, the standard in high-performance geospatial visual simulation.

Through the new agreement, Concurrent Real-Time will sell and redistribute the Diamond Visionics family of run-from-source-data Genesis Visualization software products globally.

“Our customers value Diamond Visionics’ rich visualization software products on our ImaGenTM Visual Servers powered by our RedHawkTM Linux® operating system,” notes Ken Jackson, Concurrent Vice President, Real-Time. “They can now benefit from an optimized end-to-end solution for the ultimate high-fidelity visual experience.”

Dave Gdovin, Diamond Visionics’ President and Co-founder, added, “Working more closely with Concurrent Real-Time gives us the opportunity to expand our presence in the U.S. and abroad. It has also led to the development of an innovative new product.”

See related “ImaGen Powered by GenesisIGTM“ story on page 4.

ConCurrent real-time StrengthenS allianCe with DiamonD ViSioniCS

Continued on page 3

GE Transportation invested in HIL simulation to solve problems and develop efficiencies before the metal meets the rail.

page 2

ExecutiveMessagein thiS iSSue The Bridge to Success:

Interoperability

• SIMulation Workbench™ now supports modeling environments such as Simulink®, VI-grade, SIMPACK, AMESim®, Dymola®, veDYNA®, MapleSim™, CarSim™ and GT-SUITE. We have also added support for the environment-independent FMI standard with support for OpenMP to enable its parallel processing mechanism. All of the models can interact together as well as with hand-written C, C++, and FORTRAN® models. In addition, SIMulation Workbench support has been added for GenesisRTX from Diamond Visionics, rFactor Pro, and PreScan® to provide the best visual solutions for man-in-the-loop simulations.

• RedHawk Linux real-time operating system version 6.5 offers an improved real-time enhanced 3.10 Linux kernel with the CentOS™/Red Hat® 6.5 user environment, and support for the latest Intel® and AMD® motherboards and chipsets.

• SIGnal Workbench™ programmable signal conditioning, coupled with analytics software from our technology partner EDAS, works with our own NIST-certified 24-bit Sigma- Delta analog input board as well as any other AI board on the market.

• NightStar™ tools now offer advanced CUDA® 6.0 debugging features including the support for concurrent and hierarchical CUDA kernels.

Our business continues to grow and prosper because of you, our valued customers and partners. We thank you for your continued support and offer our best wishes for another successful year.

- Ken Jackson, Concurrent Vice-President, Real-Time

1 GETransportationkeepslocomotivedevelopmentandperformancerolling

2 ExecutiveMessage

4 ImaGenPoweredbyGenesisIG

5 TechTalk:ParallelProcessingAlternatives

6 rFactorProPartnerswithConcurrent

8 ConcurrentontheMove

On the I/O side, GE is now using Concurrent’s new CP-DA3218 32-channel, 18-bit analog output card in its complex simulation systems.

No man or company is an island. We all work together to achieve success, and the level of success that we attain depends on how well we connect with other companies and their products. We believe that providing an open system with commercial-off-the-shelf equipment provides the best solution with the highest performance while maintaining the most interoperable platform.

As systems become more complex, the component solutions must become more tightly coupled with specific functionality to ensure the total system works once it is fully integrated. As an example, when you are simulating a car as a whole solution, one may want different software modeling packages for different parts of the car to optimize the simulation of the equipment. This might include different networks such as CAN or FlexRay® to make sure that the interactions of the sub-assemblies do not interfere with the operation of another.

As the complexity of the simulation systems continues to grow, our customers look to us to support multiple software modeling packages that can interoperate and communicate in hard real-time. Concurrent Real-Time brings the best solutions together to share interdependent data and I/O on the same system, and we provide our customers with an efficient way to pick and choose the modeling software they need to get the best results from their simulation.

As part of our continued support for interoperability and open systems, we have enhanced the following products:

Concurrent Real-Time and Diamond Visionics LLC are unveiling ImaGen Powered by GenesisIG, a new 4-channel image generation system for high-performance simulation and training applications

page 3

GE Transportation [continued from page 1]

Visit real-time.ccur.com

The SimTeam originally developed the lab around Concurrent Power Hawk® systems with NightStar tools. With the introduction of new Concurrent iHawkTM multiprocessors running the RedHawk Linux real-time operating system, the SimTeam is increasing testing capacity and, more importantly, its overall test capability using more HIL, pseudo HIL and virtual platforms.

Taking Control, Reducing Risk

One of the key benefits of GE Transportation’s integration SimLab is its ability to provide an environment in which locomotive and train control can be safely tested. Many customer use-cases center around train safety operations. To reproduce these scenarios on real locomotives can be a safety risk; therefore the simulation environment is the proper place for safety and failure mode testing. Controlled fault injection allows the SimTeam to duplicate the most hazardous and extreme operational scenarios without putting the operator/test engineer at risk. As a SimTeam project manager touts, “That’s the beauty of cutting-edge Concurrent HIL simulation.”

GE’s Trip OptimizerTM _

“Cruise Control on Steroids”

Due to the typical 20-year lifespan of diesel locomotives, there needs to be a way to optimize performance in response to emerging regulations, new customer requirements for power and fuel economy, and even changes in computer system platforms – without locomotive and system downtime.

This leads us to a dramatic example of the power of HIL simulation – GE’s Trip Optimizer energy management system. Trip Optimizer is a fuel efficiency software application that GE has built into its own diesel electric locomotives, and will be designing for other manufacturers.

Designed on simulators using Concurrent iHawk computers, Trip Optimizer is what the SimTeam calls “cruise control on steroids.” The application helps heavy haul railroad companies to efficiently run a variety of trains on their rails. Trip Optimizer can virtually recreate a customer’s rail route – mile by mile – accounting for a number of factors that affect operating efficiency.

Staying on Track: Standardizing on Concurrent Real-Time

GE Transportation began migrating its HIL simulation operations to Concurrent in 1995. Since then, GE has standardized on Concurrent products including NightStar tools for debugging, scheduling and developing model sets running in real-time. According to a SimTeam engineering manager, “I have seen these tools evolve over 20 years. They have been especially helpful in optimizing performance, and they are intuitive and easy to use. In the hands of our senior engineers, there is a high degree of comfort in new application development and in the training of new engineers.” Overall, standardization on Concurrent Real-Time products has provided consistency and multi-generation support that has easily accommodated technology insertion and new HIL features over time. This has saved time and money – with virtually no retooling.

Getting Ready for Next Generation Locomotive Design, Manufactureand Operation

GE Transportation is continually striving to anticipate and meet new customer requirements. One area of interest is the use of liquid natural gas fuel. Like in automotive hybrids, it is foreseen that the next generation of locomotives will be able to switch power sources from diesel

to natural gas on the fly. Natural gas offers a significantly lower price point plus environmental benefits. Concurrent’s iHawk real-time systems are designed to accommodate simulation for that evolution.

On the I/O side, GE is now using Concurrent’s new CP-DA3218 32-channel, 18-bit analog output card in its complex simulation systems. With twice the number of channels as previous AO cards, the CP-DA3218 allows smaller subsystem HIL test stands to be used for stand-alone and HIL system integration. The new Concurrent card fully meets National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) requirements for quality and dependability.

The Results: New Economies, Better Performance, Increased Safety

Overall, GE Transportation has been able to reduce time-to-market while maintaining the highest manufacturing standards. The introduction of new, NIST-certified Concurrent technology offers GE customers assurance of optimal performance. And in response to ever-tightening EPA and global requirements, the simulation-designed Trip Optimizer application has helped GE customers realize fuel savings of up to 17% depending on type of service and rail topography.

The effectiveness of GE Transportation’s SimLab is a testimony to its approach to problem solving. In fact, at a time when many companies are mandated to do more with less, GE is increasing its investment in real-time simulation technology.

geneSiSig FeatureS

Formats Supported

u Elevation: DTED, GeoTiff, GridFloat, Jpeg2K

u Imagery: ECW, JPEG2K, NITF

u Vectors: ESRI Shape

u Models: OpenFlight

u Misc GDAL supported formats

60hz Dynamic Construction

u Elevation: Gridding and real-time modification

u Imagery: Filter, select, clip, feather and contrast

u Vectors: Filter, construct and attribution translation

u Models: Scaling, construction and sprite generation

u Lights: Size, attributes and light pools

u 3D particles: Smoke, explosions, fires, wakes, rotor wash, contrails, chaff and flares

u Features: Pitched and slanted roofs on extruded buildings

page 4

At this year’s ITEC in Cologne, Germany, Concurrent Real-Time and Diamond Visionics LLC are unveiling ImaGen Powered by GenesisIG, a new 4-channel image generation system for high-performance simulation and training applications. Concurrent’s ImaGen visual server family offers flexible, multi-channel COTS-based graphics platforms. ImaGen can be custom configured to address a broad range of price/performance requirements- from single-channel systems to large, multi-channel solutions. ImaGen runs Concurrent’s RedHawk Linux real-time operating system and offers the industry’s

Concurrent Real-Time and Diamond Visionics Join Forces to Deliver ImaGen Powered by GenesisIG

latest high-end graphics cards such as the NVIDIA Quadro® K6000G.

Diamond Visionics Genesis is a family of image generation software products that provides real-time, CIGI-compliant rendering directly from GIS source data, including elevation, imagery and shape files. GenesisIG takes advantage of the multiple cores on the ImaGen system to deliver smooth, high-fidelity real-time visualization. With GenesisIG, an entire 3D scene can be rendered on-screen

New Four-channel Image Generation (IG) System to be showcased at Interservice/Industry Training and Education Conference (ITEC) )

GenesisIG takes advantage of the multiple cores on the ImaGen system to deliver smooth high-fidelity real-time visualization.

page 5Visit real-time.ccur.com

For more information about ImaGen powered by GenesisIG visit real-time.ccur.com ordiamondvisionics.com

at 60 Hz in real-time. Visualization is immediate and can be modified on-the-fly. GenesisIG also offers options for advanced physics-based FLIR, NVG, Radar and E/O sensor simulation. Concurrent and Diamond Visionics partnered to produce ImaGen Powered by GenesisIG. It provides a truly unique solution to the training industry- a powerful 4-channel IG in a single, 4U enclosure. The new platform offers ultra-smooth rendering performance at Mach speeds while reducing cost, footprint and power consumption. ImaGen Powered by GenesisIG is also available in 1, 2 and 3-channel versions. Ken Jackson, Concurrent Vice President, Real-Time, notes “GenesisIG software fully leverages Concurrent’s ImaGen 24-core platform configured with four Quadro K6000 cards at 4K resolution to provide a powerful and compelling rendering solution. A major North American aerospace company recently purchased ImaGen Powered by GenesisIG for a helicopter simulator upgrade.”

Dave Gdovin, Diamond Visionics President and Co-founder, says, “The power of GenesisIG software allows you to ingest and run your raw GIS source data quickly. Our two companies recently announced a reseller agreement for Concurrent Real-Time to sell and redistribute the Diamond Visionics’ family of run-from-source-data Genesis software products globally. We see this partnership as a win for both companies as well as our customers.”

Parallel Processing Alternatives

Parallel processing technology is widely used by engineers in many fields of study including molecular biology, particle physics, cosmology, medical imaging and financial analysis. Applications can run in a small fraction of the time needed to run them on a CPU. Today’s popular commercial alternatives are NVIDIA Tesla™ GPUs supported by the CUDA SDK and Intel Phi™ coprocessors support by the Manycore Platform Software Stack (MPSS). Which solution is the better performer? It depends upon the application. Tesla cards typically have ten times the number of logical cores as Phi cards. In applications where most of the code is parallelizable, the Tesla cards will outperform Phi. The cores on Phi cards are actually multi-threaded Pentium® processors that are faster and more capable than Tesla cores. In applications that have a mix of parallel and sequential code or cross-path dependencies in parallel code, the Phi is able to perform better. A third alternative for mixed-case applications is today’s high-end CPUs. Standard Xeon® CPU cores are more powerful than Phi cores and have extensive SIMP instructions that can be used to process parallel applications. Conclusion -- a user needs to fully analyze their application’s behavior profile in order to make the best price/performance choice of this technology. Concurrent’s RedHawk Linux real-time operating system currently supports CUDA applications on Tesla and will support Xeon Phi in RedHawk version 6.5. RedHawk includes the latest version of the NVIDIA CUDA SDK and will offer an integrated version of the Intel MPSS support package.

Vince hauberDirector,ProductManagement

page 6

Concurrent Partners with rFactor Pro to Offer Unrivaled Driver-in-the-loop (DIL)Simulator Performance

Powerful new combination delivers real-time response and high-performance I/O for realistic simulation of vehicle ride and handling)

Pro’s Technical Director, Chris Hoyle. “Effective real-time simulation is all about latency, the time between input and output. The combination of our software and Concurrent’s RedHawk and SIMulation Workbench technology provides minimum latency even when handling vast amounts of data. This makes it possible to use DIL simulation for studies of ride, handling, steering and safety systems.”

RedHawk and SIMulation Workbench - a Comprehensive Environment

Concurrent’s SIMulation Workbench provides a comprehensive environment for developing and executing real-time HIL and DIL simulations. It runs on Concurrent’s RedHawk Linux, an industry standard, real-time version of the open source Linux operating system for X86-based platforms. RedHawk is used in time-critical and hard real-time environments such as modeling, simulation, data acquisition, industrial control and imaging systems.RedHawk guarantees that a user-level application can respond to an external event in less than 5 microseconds on certified platforms.

Integrating rFactor Pro TerrainServer and visual software with SIMulation Workbench allows the rFactor Pro components to run in real-time and synchronize with the main simulation loop that runs the high frequency vehicle chassis models.

Specialist software company rFactor Pro has teamed up with Concurrent Real-Time to provide new levels of fidelity and realism in DIL simulation. The combination of Concurrent’s nearly 50-year expertise in hard real-time systems, and cutting edge Image Generator and TerrainServer software from rFactor Pro, will provide OEMs and T1 suppliers with a very powerful tool to reintroduce human test drivers into the development process as they move more of their engineering to model-based development.

Fast High-bandwidth Solutions for Highly-dynamic Maneuvers

Providing industry-leading DIL simulation requires a platform that can host the manufacturer’s existing model library in a reliable real-time environment. The solution must deliver high bandwidth video to the driver and accurate, high-resolution road-data to the vehicle model in real-time. Latency must be reduced to an absolute minimum so that there is no perceived lag between the driver and the vehicle. By implementing fast, high-bandwidth solutions, manufacturers can deliver DIL test systems capable of simulating highly dynamic maneuvers, such as those experienced when exercising active safety control systems.

“This partnership enables us to provide something unique to the simulation industry,” said rFactor

Pleasesendmeacaptionforthisportraitwhenyoucan-thanksLisa!

rFactor Pro is a specialist software company that has developed driver-in-the-loop simulators for vehicle dynamics applications, offering the fastest video and audio pipelines, an architecture for soft-real-time model execution and an optically correct off-platform vision system optimized for motion profiles suited to ride and handling development. this specialised area of driver-in-the-loop simulation is all about closing the loop through the driver and the vehicle model as quickly as possible while delivering a high quality and immersive environment.

to deliver complete Dil simulators for the engineering development of vehicle dynamics, and the control systems and active safety systems that affect vehicle dynamics, rFactor Pro works in partnership with motion platform providers such as mclaren, ansible motion and moog.

the company’s products can wrap around vehicle models from all the popular modeling environments, including Dymola, SimPaCK, Simulink, aVl-VSm, CarSim, Carmaker, lmS ameSim, Vi-grade and C/C++.

about rFaCtor Pro

Chris hoyleTechnicalDirector,

rfactorPro

page 7Visit real-time.ccur.com

rFactor Pro’s software tool, TerrainServer, feeds high-bandwidth, high fidelity, cleaned LiDAR point cloud data for each tire contact patch into a vehicle model in real-time and at up to 5kHz. By supporting multiple CPU cores, performance can scale with the available hardware so even extremely demanding studies in the high-frequency domain can obtain very high quality data in a timely manner. With Concurrent’s RedHawk, all processor cores can be fully utilized. For example, each tire model can have its own dedicated core, shielded from all other events and interruptions for faster response.

Maximizing Existing Model Library

“The open architecture used by Concurrent systems permits the straightforward addition of a wide range of software packages, meaning that customers can make use of their existing models,” according to Ken

Jackson, Concurrent Vice President, Real-Time. “By bringing rFactor Pro’s TerrainServer into our SIMulation Workbench environment, we enable the sharing of data points between multiple models through a real-time database. We also make it possible to use models from different sources, such as Dymola, SIMPACK or AMESim, allowing customers to make full use of their existing model library.”

DIL systems can also leverage rFactor Pro’s Image Generator package that provides optically correct graphics with each pixel positioned accurately within a fraction of a degree. The video signals are delivered 10 times faster than existing systems by using a very high bandwidth bespoke video ‘pipeline’ to ensure the necessary response in real-time.

Testingatthevirtualprovingground.

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SIMulation WorkbenchTM provides the backbone for the world’s most sophisticated simulators

• Hard real- time performance

• Support for industry- standard modeling environments

• Multiple models executed concurrently

• Multi- rate, multi-core support

• Model- independent I/O mapping

• Client (GUI) / Server (real- time) architecture

524028-2 Label.indd 1

TolearnmoreaboutSIMulationWorkbench,downloadthebrochureatreal-time.ccur.comorvisitthewiki.simwb.com.

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for the real-time

computing industry

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©2014 Concurrent Computer Corporation. Information subject to change without notice. Concurrent Computer Corporation and its logo are registered trademarks of Concurrent. All Concurrent product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Concurrent, while all other product names are trademarks or registered trade marks of their respective owners. The registered trademark Linux® is used pursuant to a sublicense from the Linux Mark Institute, the exclusive licensee of Linus Torvalds, owner of the mark on a worldwide basis. RTlit - 0514 0514 3000

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Over 350 participants from all over the world attended the Modelica Conference in Sweden, the main event for Modelica and the Functional Mockup Interface. In conjunction with Dassault Systems, Concurrent Real-Time presented its FMI/FMU solution with its integration into SIMulation Workbench.

Vi-graDe international uSerS ConFerenCeConcurrent Real-Time was a Silver Sponsor of the VI-grade International Users Conference in Pollenzo-Bra, Italy. Simulation engineers from all over the world in the aerospace, automotive, rail and motorsports industries shared their experiences in simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing and controls.Concurrent also participated in a panel discussion on bridging the gap between real-world testing and technical simulation in complex engineering applications.

ConCurrent on the moVe: moDeliCa, Vi-graDe international uSerS ConFerenCe, iteC anD itSeC

Concurrent’sPraveenkumarRameshwithDanHenriksson,SeniorManager,DassaultSystemes(DymolaDeveloper)atModelica2014.

See ConCurrent real-time later thiS year:

iteC / May 20-22, 2014Cologne, GermanyStand F122

itSeC / December 1-4, 2014Orlando, FLBooth 2033

ConcurrentSolutionsConcurrent Solutions is a newsletter

published by Concurrent Computer

Corporation for the real-time

computing industry.

Please direct content suggestions,

comments or questions to the

ConcurrentSolutions Editor:

Lisa Thornhill: SeniorMarketing CommunicationsManager,Real-Time

lisa.thornhill@ccur.com

(954) 973-5103