Xentara Information and Data Sheet

Xentara Information and Data Sheet

Description

Xentara is a distributed, networked, object-oriented, semantic real-time capable industrial edge and Industrial-IoT platform enabling Smart Factories and Devices as well as skills like Edge AI based on the paradigms of Industry 4.0.

Configuration is handled dynamically during runtime or through dedicated tools. The feature set is expandable through Skill plug-ins and embedded ocean certified third party applications.

Key Features

The following tables show which features are available in the current release version (v1.0) or under development for rollout with upcoming releases. Feature availability in upcoming releases may be subject to change at the sole discretion of embedded ocean GmbH.

 

released (v1.0)

planned

Horizontal integration and data transfer (M2M, shop floor)

✔

✔

Connect machine interfaces, sensors, and PLC in real-time

✔

✔

Vertical integration and data transfer (higher tier systems, cloud)

✔

✔

Connect to IT systems (MES, ERP, Cloud services…)

✔

✔

Seamlessly connect legacy equipment to state of the art devices

✔

✔

 

released (v1.0)

planned

Data structure and device templates

✔

✔

Digital Twin representing physical systems

✔

✔

Dynamically expandable data structure

✔

✔

Freely definable data attributes

✔

✔

Hardware agnostic abstraction layer

✔

✔

Human readable data structure

✔

✔

Local data model

✔

✔

Manual data monitoring and manipulation

✔

✔

Multi Language Support (full Unicode)

✔

✔

Object templates for easy configuration

✔

✔

User defined / domain specific names and descriptors for all data structures and elements

✔

✔

Data redundancy in distributed systems

❌

✔

Prioritized and synchronized TSN data transfer between edges

❌

✔

Encryption for Xentara-to-Xentara connections

❌

✔

Unified data structure across local and remote systems

❌

✔

 

released (v1.0)

planned

Cyclic triggers

✔

✔

Event triggers

✔

✔

Pipelined processing of scheduled tasks

✔

✔

Pipeline monitoring using checkpoints

✔

✔

Complex multi pipeline schedules

✔

✔

Timeout watchdog

❌

✔

Distributed process timing control

❌

✔

 

released (v1.0)

planned

Failure injection

❌

✔

Toggleable simulation state for process values

❌

✔

XiL (HiL, MiL, SiL) test system support via standardized simulation containers (FMU / FMI)

❌

✔

 

released (v1.0)

planned

Direct I/O to data point mapping

✔

✔

Open device integration

✔

✔

Unified device configuration

✔

✔

Unlimited connectivity

✔

✔

Calibration function for inputs

❌

✔

 

released (v1.0)

planned

Data logging (local)

❌

✔

Data logging (remote)

❌

✔

Legacy log file import

❌

✔

 

released (v1.0)

planned

Real-time data processing and communication

(recommended maximum local cycle speed: 100 kHz) 

✔

✔

Local data point access time ~10 nanoseconds

✔

✔

Precision Time Protocol (PTP) support

✔

✔

Synchronization of system clocks between networked systems

✔

✔

 

released (v1.0)

planned

Scalability from embedded boards up to server infrastructures

✔

✔

Error Management

❌

✔

User rights management (individual / role / group level)

❌

✔

Hardened secure core with strong encryption

❌

✔

Low-code / no-code platform

❌

✔

Available Skills

The main functionality of the Xentara core platform can be expanded through additional Skills related to Xentara’s primary uses: connect, compute and control.

  • Connect Skills allow the Xentara core to communicate with various I/O devices, field buses and services.
  • Compute Skills provide in-platform data processing.
  • Control Skills let the platform interface directly with machine controls and provide real-time instructions to underlying systems.
  released (v1.0) planned
Advantech RAW-I/O (TTL) ✔ ✔
Comedi_Calibrate-5.1 ✔ ✔
EtherCAT (IEC 61158) ✔ ✔
Modbus RTU (IEC 61158 CPF15) ✔ ✔
Modbus TCP (IEC 61158 CPD15/1) ✔ ✔
OPC UA (IEC 62541) Client ✔ ✔
Profibus (IEC 61158/IEC 61784) traffic monitoring ✔ ✔
Wago I/O System 750 ✔ ✔
Beckhoff ADS (TwinCAT 2 / TwinCAT 3) ❌ ✔
emBRICK I/O modules ❌ ✔
Ethernet/IP (Standard 2000 +) via gateway ❌ ✔
OPC UA (IEC 62541) Server ❌ ✔
Profibus DP (IEC 61158/IEC 61784) ❌ ✔
Profinet (IEC 61158-1 Version 2.3 +) ❌ ✔
System Health ❌ ✔
CAN 2.0 / CAN FD / CANopen (CiA 301) ❌ ✔
Ethernet/IP (Standard 2000+) native ❌ ✔
SomeIP Stack ❌ ✔
  released (v1.0) planned
Elasticsearch 7.14 ✔ ✔
Functional Mock-up Interface 2.0 + ✔ ✔
InfluxDB ✔ ✔
Microsoft Azure ✔ ✔
MQTT – Standard Mosquito, Azure IoT Hub ✔ ✔
REST interface for cloud service data provision ✔ ✔
Amazon AWS ❌ ✔
MQTT – Sparkplug ❌ ✔
SQL database access (SQL1 upwards to SQL/MDA:2019) ❌ ✔
SOA interface for cloud services ❌ ✔
5G connectivity ❌ ✔

 

released (v1.0)

planned

Data quality indicator

✔

✔

Data input validation

❌

✔

Data timestamping

❌

✔

Programmable data filter

❌

✔

Sensor input preprocessing

❌

✔

 

released (v1.0)

planned

Local Machine Learning for edge devices

❌

✔

Real-time analysis and results feedback across the shop floor

❌

✔

Preemptive process control for production and QA

❌

✔

ARTI

✔

✔

ARTI3

✔

✔

Schneider PLC (IEC61131-3) via Modbus

✔

✔

Beckhoff TwinCAT via ADS

❌

✔

Rockwell Automation PLC (IEC61131-3) via Ethernet/IP

❌

✔

Siemens Simatic S5 RK512

❌

✔

Siemens Simatic S7 (first generation, Profibus, MPI, PPI)

❌

✔

Siemens Simatic S7 (S7-1200 and later, Profinet)

❌

✔

Configuration

 

released (v1.0)

planned

JSON configuration

✔

✔

Automatic hardware discovery (“plug and play”)

❌

✔

Graphical configuration tool

❌

✔

Graphical user interface (data browsing and editing)

❌

✔

 released (v1.0)planned
Powerful C++ Microservice API✔✔
4DIAC IEC61499 PLC development environment❌✔
CCDL / ITE❌✔
Codesys Soft PLC 3.0 +❌✔
Python wrapper❌✔

System Requirements

  • Processor
    • x86-64
    • ARM processor capable of running Linux / Windows
      • MMU controller required
      • 64bit (Windows/Linux): ARMv8-A instruction set required
      • 32bit (Linux only): ARMv7-A with VFPv3-D16 floating point support required
  • Storage
    • 200MB free disk space
  • Operating system
    • Windows 10 64 bit
    • Linux
      • Reference distributions: Debian 11, Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 LTS or similar
      • Please inquire for support of other Linux distributions
  •  Deployment
      • Windows: MSI installer
      • Linux: apt install from online repository
  • Xentara can be deployed in virtualized environments (Docker containers et al.) with limitations (e.g. no hard real-time behavior or hard system timing control)
  • Hard real-time data processing and communication requires real-time capable operating system (Preempt-Patch for Linux)
  • Distributed process timing control requires TSN capable Ethernet adapter and routers / switches

Notes

  • Some skills include sublicensed third-party IP not directly provided by embedded ocean GmbH
  • Please inquire for detailed list of tested and validated hardware
  • Please inquire for detailed list of tested and certified software / protocol versions
  • Performance data based on measurements performed on reference test platform (Intel® Xeon® CPU W3503 @ 2.40GHz)