Abingdon, United Kingdom, May 21 2012 – Isansys Lifecare Limited, the provider of complete real-time physiological patient data services and systems, today announces the introduction of its Patient Status Engine’ the first cloud-based patient digitization and analytic solution for monitoring and predicting the present and future clinical status of patients anytime, anywhere. The introduction of the Patient Status Engine provides the platform for Isansys’ “Vitals as a Service” solution, which is now offered for priority beta deployments in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

The Patient Status Engine is a complete end-to-end system that integrates wireless body-worn sensors with a cloud-based HIPAA/HL7 compliant Electronic Health Record (EHR), to transform real-time and historical continuous vital sign data into clinical status indicators and prediction tools. With the availability of these new cloud-based indicators and tools, healthcare providers can be notified of any change in a patient’s health status as it happens or predict changes that may happen in the future. This can “more effectively and affordably than ever before” address issues of in-hospital patient safety and avoidable deteriorations and significantly reduce hospital admission times. The Patient Status Engine allows healthcare providers to continue 24/7 surveillance of patients even after they have been discharged from hospital. As a networked and cloud-based system, patients and clinicians may be located anywhere. A further benefit is that a quantified record of a patient’s physiological status is established that can be used for audit purposes or to determine the effectiveness and quality of care.

Last month, Isansys announced CE certification for its LifeTouch Patient Surveillance System, comprising the LifeTouch HRV011 intelligent body-worn wireless sensor and associated Patient Gateway “the world’s first cloud-ready medical device of its kind, and the first to be certified as a Class IIa medical device under the European Medical Device Directive (MDD). Today’s Patient Status Engine launch is the extension of the LifeTouch System into the clinical healthcare cloud. The LifeTouch HRV011 sensor performs a key patient digitization function within the Patient Status Engine, and together with other devices allows healthcare providers to collect five vital signs continuously, wirelessly and in real-time – Heart Rate (HR), Respiration Rate (RR), Blood Pressure (BP), Pulse Oximetry (SpO2), and Temperature (T). The system also analyses the ECG signals to provide the essential data for Heart Rate Variability (HRV) techniques and methods. Other sensors such as accelerometers, weight scales and blood glucose sensors can be easily added to the network.

The data from the body worn sensors is transmitted via a patient gateway and LAN or WAN to the cloud-based EHR, which offers a powerful transactional interface to allow multiple and simple configurability and connectivity of incoming and outgoing data. The vital sign data continuously updates the EHR to provide dynamic charting, and is aggregated in the EHR where “apps” run to provide interpreted data and other information to nurses and clinicians (and, eventually, to patients and monitored individuals themselves). A typical “app” is a predictive early warning scores (EWS) algorithm that can be proprietary to the customer or licensed from a third party.

The Patient Status Engine is completely scalable. It can either run in a closed cloud allowing a single hospital, regional healthcare organization or HMO to maintain control over patient data; or it can run in a secure large cloud, for instance as a managed service across a whole country. The aggregated and de-personalized data in the database quickly builds into highly valuable Big Data sets for metadata analytics.

The EHR platform is being provided by Tolven Corp., developers of a unique open source solution for secure healthcare and life science information. By using an open source model, the Tolven platform provides a low cost and very robust approach that challenges many current paradigms in healthcare IT that rely on proprietary and expensive software. The network architecture, integration with the Tolven platform and the secure server hosting has been achieved in collaboration with Fujitsu. Fujitsu’s plans for a managed healthcare data service comprising secure servers, the Tolven platform and end-to-end connectivity provide global scalability and security for the Isansys Patient Status Engine.

Commenting on the announcement, Isansys Lifecare CEO Keith Errey said “this is a clear demonstration of the power of collaboration, the advantages of the open source approach, and the benefits that can now be realised for patients and healthcare providers around the world. We are very pleased to be working with such great teams at Tolven and Fujitsu. Together, we can really change the game and vastly reduce the costs for healthcare payers by combining the open source Tolven platform, Fujitsu’s open, but highly secure, managed service model and our own low cost, technology-agnostic systems and services. With such outstanding supporting platform technologies, we are delighted to offer Isansys’ Vitals as a Service solution for beta deployment to visionary healthcare providers worldwide.”

Rebecca Weir, Isansys Director of Business Development added: “This is a great moment for us. The complete end-to-end system, our Patient Status Engine “demonstrates our commitment to providing the latest technologies and devices to our customers in ways that invert many of the current business models in healthcare, and allow us to offer the benefits of the Patient Status Engine “significantly improved outcomes for patients and cost reductions for healthcare providers” in a simple, affordable service model. We really believe that this will have a fundamental and permanent impact on the way healthcare is structured and practised in the future.”

Members of the media interested in scheduling a briefing with Isansys Lifecare, or arranging a one-to-one media briefing with Isansys at the Wireless Life Sciences Alliance Convergence Summit (May 23rd – 24th, San Diego, California), can do so by contacting Nicky Denovan at nicky [at]evokedset[dot]com.

About Isansys Lifecare Limited (www.isansys.com)

Isansys Lifecare is a new generation healthcare company that provides patient surveillance and monitoring services built on an innovative, low cost and scalable platform

We work with leading healthcare professionals, institutes and policy organizations operating in a wide range of healthcare settings, who want to employ new patient monitoring technologies and methods to improve patient outcomes and reduce costs.

Isansys’ “Vitals as a Service” clinical solution provides continuous real-time information for automated patient surveillance, for early warning scores and track and trigger indicators, and for predicting adverse events. Through its low cost and highly scalable architecture, the LifeTouch-based system offers the opportunity for continuous surveillance of all patients regardless of whether they are in hospital, other care facilities, or at home. For the first time, healthcare providers can not only cost-effectively improve patient safety and enhance clinical outcomes, but also massively reduce costs associated with avoidable patient deterioration, medical errors, readmissions to intensive care wards, and admissions (and readmissions) to hospital.

About Continuous Patient Physiological Monitoring

It is well documented that patients who deteriorate and require admission to critical care or who suffer cardiac arrest, or many other adverse conditions, have abnormalities that are detectable by physiological observations well in advance. Continuous (or nearly continuous) monitoring of multiple vital signs provides the fundamental input for improved patient outcomes and reduced overall costs. In the US alone, remote patient monitoring devices are forecast to reduce healthcare costs by nearly $200 billion during the next 25 years, if more widely used by patients with certain chronic diseases (Source: Center for Technology and Aging Report, May 2010).

About Fujitsu (www.fujitsu.com)

Fujitsu is a leading provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 175,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$47 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009. For more information, please see: www.fujitsu.com.

About Tolven (www.tolvenhealth.com)

Tolven based applications are in use in multiple sites in Europe, North America and Asia. The applications incorporate workflow, healthcare information standards, rules, and terminology management, thereby driving the evolution of complete solutions for comprehensive healthcare data collection, secure data storage, and semantic re-use of that data. The Tolven Platform is able to enforce a spectrum of patient consent functionality that fulfills compliance with existing and evolving standards for security and privacy across the globe. The Tolven electronic health record application set has achieved “complete” certification, for both inpatient and physician office venues, from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (oncchpl.force.com/ehrcert).

Tolven’s architecture facilitates secure exchange of both identified and de-identified clinical information among all relevant stakeholders (patients, clinicians, providers, insurers, pharmacies and researchers). The incorporation of JBoss Rules allows clinical decision support and analytical activities such as quality assurance reporting, epidemiology and clinical research to occur with minimal effort. The adaptive nature of the Tolven Platform has proven to be essential for gaining acceptance in areas where information technology has traditionally been inflexible, expensive to customize and cumbersome.

As the world’s population continues to age, remote health care or telehealth devices are becoming an enormous growth area for the embedded systems industry. Low-cost, ubiquitously connected hardware and its associated services are rapidly growing in popularity, allowing doctors to monitor, diagnose, and treat specific health conditions remotely. Telehealth devices can also be used to provide remote data collection, patient reminders, multimedia content delivery, and wellness coaching by monitoring and adjusting the user’s daily fitness and diet.

For most health care device designs, embedded developers must address a number of common requirements, including a graphical interface and small form factor, patient safety, low-power operation, remote management, secure operation, and universal connectivity. In addition, these devices must be built with long-life support plus the ability to interoperate with other equipment in the field. Although hardware and software development for telehealth can be challenging, the rewards are significant, and manufacturers are rapidly seizing opportunities in the marketplace.

To delve into the latest technologies revolutionizing health care, we interviewed telehealth industry experts in this month’s Strategies section. Alan Boucher, Director of Software Architecture and Engineering at Intel-GE Care Innovations, a joint venture between Intel Corporation and GE Healthcare, explains how embedded technologies such as wireless connectivity, software, and sensors can be used to enable and enhance products in a telehealth environment. Also on the forefront of telehealth technology, Dr. Joseph Kvedar, founder and director of the Center for Connected Health, emphasizes the need for programs that move care from the hospital or doctor’s office into the day-to-day lives of patients by incorporating engagement strategies such as games, social networking, coaching, reminders, incentives, and punishments.

In this month’s Software section we investigate the latest techniques developers can use to optimize code for a variety of embedded applications, including telehealth. John Lockhart from SmartBear Software looks at the advantages of standard and automated peer code review – a process by which team members inspect and review source code to eliminate errors earlier in the development process. Presenting another method to optimize software, Dominic Tavassoli and Jonathon Chard of IBM Rational detail an automated Unified Modeling Language (UML)-based code testing technique that can shorten the development life cycle and reduce costs. In considering how embedded designs are moving to multicore processors,Henk Muller of XMOS presents a unique approach to substitute a parallel software paradigm known as concurrent real-time programming for FPGA and even ASIC technology for a range of industrial and consumer applications.

Besides analyzing software, designers must also evaluate hardware components with each new project to ensure that the design will be compatible with changing requirements and the latest standards. For example, in many applications, display connections are transitioning away from traditional interfaces such as LVDS and VGA toward newer technologies such as DisplayPort. In this month’s Silicon section, Eurotech’s Haritha Treadway describes the cabling and multiple display advantages of DisplayPort I/O-capable interface hardware for embedded projects. As these new display technologies utilize high-resolution images for display and analysis, designers must consider the different approaches to embedded image processing. Allen Rush of Nethra Imaging investigates the use of linear and nonlinear filters to analyze and correct noise, dynamic range, color accuracy, optical artifacts, and other details in high-quality imaging applications.

The telehealth trend promises to influence the technology in many of the Silicon, Software, and Strategy areas covered by Embedded Computing Design, and our goal is to report the latest updates as they occur. Feel free to give us your ideas for future technical articles and online updates to support your design efforts. We are always looking for contributed technical articles, which can be an excellent tool to gain exposure in the embedded computing industry. For example, the August issue is our annual Resource Guide and will feature articles and Q&As from industry experts to help simplify and shorten embedded projects. If you have an idea for a technical article that would be of interest to our readers, please send me a short abstract.

]]> http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/telehealth/2012/05/designing-remote-health-systems-reaps-rewards/feed/ 0 http://www.embedded-computing.com/articles/id/?5637 http://www.embedded-computing.com/articles/id/?5637#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000 Embedded Computing Design, http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/telehealth/?guid=0f766dca35ebd7441ccf49735acbca06

The Center for Connected Health is creating a new model for health care delivery by developing programs to move care from the hospital or doctor’s office into the day-to-day lives of patients. Dr. Kvedar explains how an emphasis on patient engagement affects the design of personal connected health devices that can help providers and patients manage chronic conditions, maintain wellness, and improve adherence and clinical outcomes.

KVEDAR: Our in-depth experience, combined with the resources available at the Center for Connected Health and within the Partners HealthCare network, enables us to deliver expert opinions and help organizations prepare their products and services for integration into the health care delivery system. The Center’s experienced clinicians and technologists are skilled at working seamlessly with patients and providers to determine potential use cases, identify usability challenges and opportunities, and evaluate technology and workflow issues in medical settings as well as in the home. Our work continues to demonstrate how the right technology, in the right patients’ hands, in the right setting can have a profound impact on care and quality of life.

In one example, working with a company developing a medication adherence device, the Connected Health team designed the protocol, recruited more than 120 subjects, and completed the data analysis to evaluate clinical outcomes. This study is currently in publication review. In another case, we assessed a prototype Bluetooth USB device and software platform enabling data upload from the home. Our team provided a thorough and realistic evaluation of the technology’s reliability and usability and identified key factors for further product design.

ECD: What challenges do telehealth system developers face today, both on the technical side in terms of design requirements, as well as the clinical side in regards to care delivery and technology acceptance?

KVEDAR: One challenge system developers face is how to test their product or service in a real-world environment. In other words, how does the developer of an activity monitor, wireless weight scale, or blood pressure cuff have individuals use these products on a test basis in their home or connected with their provider? Working within a large provider network, the Center can bridge that need and put these devices and systems in the patients’ and providers’ hands.

A second significant challenge is the myriad of platforms and Operating Systems (OSs) currently available in the market. Designing a device or program that is suitable for the iPhone, for example, will need to be redesigned for Android, Blackberry, and on and on. Obviously, this requires significant development time and expense. Making all personal health devices plug-and-play so that any sensor or app will work on all platforms, as well as allowing patients and providers to easily and securely share data, are essential requirements for the widespread success of connected health systems. The Continua Health Alliance (www.continuaalliance.org) is creating interoperability standards and guidelines to help streamline the development of these personal health devices and make it seamless for patients and providers to use these technologies.

ECD: Where does security fit in the connected health picture, and how must technology advance to address this and any other area of vulnerability and risk?

KVEDAR: Health care providers are obligated to protect patient privacy and an individual’s health information. E-mail communication is one example of a potential vulnerability. However, there are a number of ways to safeguard against potential security breaches. First, e-mail messages can be encrypted. Providers can also communicate with patients using a secure software platform that has the same functionality as e-mail, but is specific to communication with a health care provider. Secured messaging applications are often part of a patient portal or electronic medical records systems offered by physician practices and hospitals.

ECD: The Center for Connected Health emphasizes patient engagement and supports initiatives promoting disease prevention and management. How should these objectives influence the design of a connected health device?

KVEDAR: That is a very important question. First, the device must be easy for the individual to use. In a recent remote monitoring trial conducted at the Center, we found that for a surprising percentage of diabetes patients, the step of plugging a device into the glucometer and the phone line and then pushing a single button to upload glucose readings was more work than they were willing to do. The technology must be simple and easy to use.

Moreover, we have learned that the most successful technology or product can be personalized to the patient’s experience, goals, or motivation. Patients are far more engaged in their care plan or wellness program when their own personal data is presented back to them – the feedback loop – in an easy-to-understand format. They can track their progress, see how their lifestyle choices are affecting their health, and learn how to best manage their health and wellness.

However, personal connected health data alone is not enough, except for a very small group of highly motivated individuals. Objective data is an important part of the solution, but the success of connected health programs is all about the psychology of engaging participants to motivate them to improve their health. We’re seeing many attempts at engagement strategies, including gamification, social networking, coaching, reminders, incentives, and punishments.

Our friends at Healthrageous (www.healthrageous.com), a health engagement company, offer a good example of a solution specific to an individual’s data, personal habits, and preferences. The company has developed a platform based on dynamic personalization, meaning that each intervention is tailored to meet an individual’s needs (see Figure 1). The goal is to know as much as possible about each individual using machine learning to anticipate the engagement experience that motivates each person to stay on the right track.

Joseph Kvedar, MD, is the founder and director of the Center for Connected Health.

Center for Connected Health jkvedar@partners.org www.connected-health.org

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]]> http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/telehealth/2012/05/harnessing-technology-to-transform-care-qa-with-joseph-kvedar-md-founder-and-director-center-for-connected-health/feed/ 0 http://www.embedded-computing.com/articles/id/?5636 http://www.embedded-computing.com/articles/id/?5636#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 15:00:00 +0000 Embedded Computing Design, http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/telehealth/?guid=b03efa805756922e221e8e56551fa914

Intel Corporation and GE Healthcare came together in 2011 to form a new company that is transforming the world of technology-enabled health care by rethinking the role of the patient in telehealth system design. Alan describes how Care Innovations is creating a new space for embedded computing technologies in virtual care coordination applications.

BOUCHER: Intel-GE Care Innovations creates technology-based solutions that give people confidence to live independently, wherever they are. We are a unique joint venture between Intel Corporation and GE that was formed last year, combining assets and expertise from Intel’s Digital Health Group and GE Healthcare’s Home Health division.

Both Intel and GE Healthcare have a long history of driving innovation, solving hard problems, and creating new markets, with a massive body of research and expertise to back that up. GE’s health care expertise covers medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, and performance improvement/solutions services.

Intel also has a deep understanding of the health care industry. Since Intel began investigating health care in 1999, ethnographic researchers have observed and interacted with more than 1,000 households and 150 hospitals and clinics in 20 countries. Intel also initiated collaborative research projects with the Technology Research for Independent Living Centre, the Center for Aging Services Technologies, and many other organizations.

Today, Care Innovations can cull from this deep body of research in product development and prototypes. Our Care Innovations Connect and Care Innovations Guide products were developed directly out of this research. Current prototypes under investigation are also heavily informed by these extensive studies.

ECD: What telehealth products are you currently pushing to market, and how do embedded technologies enable and enhance these products?

BOUCHER: The Care Innovations Guide (Figure 1) is a next-generation telehealth solution that combines traditional vital signs capture with advanced videoconferencing and customizable multimedia education. It strengthens the connection between health care professionals and patients, and helps make virtual care coordination possible. We also offer Care Innovations QuietCare (Figure 2), a wireless monitoring technology that keeps caregivers informed about resident activity levels, which can help improve (patient) safety and security while allowing for proactive care.

In these products, embedded technologies such as wireless platform interfaces, ZigBee sensor networks, wireless medical peripherals, and software are designed for both wired and wireless patient use, allowing patients to integrate our products into their lifestyles without imposing restrictions or requiring significant changes. Platforms utilizing untethered devices, radio-based sensors, sensor networks, and a variety of transport media offer patients choices in how they can better manage their health care from a personal preference and lifestyle perspective.

Significant advancements in the Continua Health Alliance Bluetooth specifications, low-power Wi-Fi, Bluetooth profiles, and High-Speed Alternate MAC/PHY (AMP) offer us connectivity options and the ability to make design choices across a variety of radio platforms. However, we still face all the challenges around device integration, data acquisition, data integrity, quality, safety, and design assurance with either commercial or embedded platforms and Operating Systems (OSs). Even with the abundance of Bluetooth medical devices available today versus 3-5 years ago, many of the design challenges persist in medical systems development.

ECD: Why does Care Innovations emphasize the need to deliver “human-centered” products and services? What other important technical considerations drive the design of a telehealth device/system?

BOUCHER: At Care Innovations, perhaps surprisingly, we don’t start with technology. Instead, we start with the people who use our products, which makes all of our solutions profoundly human-centered. We’ve spent nearly 12 years living with, studying, observing, and listening to people at all levels of health care and independent living. And we’re including them as active participants in the systems we deliver. From our UX/UI formative modeling to our early design formative testing through to validation testing, we are committed to our patients and institutional customers who use and continue to influence our product design. External focus, quality, and discipline are the cornerstones of our products.

We look closely at user lifestyles when designing our products. For instance, chronically ill patients are not always tethered to their homes. Many of our patients live a more active lifestyle and need to take their devices out of their homes to remain adherent to care protocols and clinical instructions. This requires us to think differently from the core platform out to edge devices, device interactions, data acquisition, and data privacy and security. Concurrently, our clinical customers want to help their patients manage their disease states, which means effectively responding to measurement data while proactively managing patients’ needs, regardless of their location.

These are all inputs to our UX/UI and systems engineering use cases and resulting product requirements. One size, model, or type rarely fits all, and that’s certainly the case with the products that we build for our patients, clinicians, and independent living institutional customers.

ECD: What embedded technology advancements are needed to meet future goals of providing a unified technology platform with interoperable components?

BOUCHER: Building blocks simply need to be better coordinated. With embedded platforms, OS vendors like Wind River have done a good job of building the requisite core software subsystem capabilities to enable innovative embedded medical device development. To a somewhat lesser degree, we’ve seen this emerge with Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile as well. However, it’s still a complex undertaking. Companies like Care Innovations build systems that inevitably land on both embedded and commercial platforms, which patients interact with directly.

Regardless, the demands on resources, platform usage analysis, mobile/embedded platform roadmaps, and design/development trade-offs remain a complex puzzle for platforms built on embedded OSs and more commercially available operating platforms. Trying to navigate primary OS vendor core capabilities, feature/API exposure, embedded radio, and sensor and network interface availability can be the difference between success and failure in the marketplace. Bluetooth radio testing and qualification, device driver and I/O integration with platform middleware, design assurance, and data acquisition and integrity all play a role and are significant factors in development decisions.

Challenges can still arise with radio firmware, radio interface testing, API implementation/granularity, OS support for drivers, radio shims, profile implementations, and protocol and middleware integration at a platform level. Additionally, medical device development teams have compounded responsibilities in the areas of intended use validation, design assurance, quality, system test, verification, and data integrity that are expected of them according to product and medical regulations. Completing missing building blocks for platform developers, fully implementing profiles, reducing integration complexity, and improving design assurance will give medical device vendors an opportunity to focus on new capabilities and design advancements instead of solving other vendors’ core OS, I/O, and subsystem challenges.

Alan Boucher is director of software architecture and engineering at Intel-GE Care Innovations.

Intel-GE Care Innovations www.careinnovations.com

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]]> http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/telehealth/2012/05/people-centered-innovation-driving-the-next-generation-of-telehealth-qa-with-alan-boucher-director-of-software-architecture-and-engineering-intel-ge-care-innovations/feed/ 0 http://www.facebook.com/Telehealth.TechChannel/posts/381429655226296 http://www.facebook.com/Telehealth.TechChannel/posts/381429655226296#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 19:13:27 +0000 Telehealth TechChannel http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/telehealth/?guid=d3fc56dbda5bcdcdf9a4cb4df00ac45a Presentation at Digital Health Summer Summit will findings on opportunities and challenges in the telehealth market.


Frost & Sullivan Research Preview: Top 20 Telehealth Markets
www.marketwatch.com
New analysis highlighting market opportunities for mobile and digital health revealed at the Digital Health Summer Summit.

Tokyo, May 9, 2012 – TDK Corporation has developed the mSATA type SSD (Solid-State Drive) SMG3B series with support for 3 Gbps serial ATA. The products will be available from July 2012.

The SMG3B series drives with mSATA interface measure only about 30 mm x 50 mm and offer storage capacities up to 64 GB. High-speed mSATA implementation achieves actual read access speed of 170 MB per second. The mSATA standard, established by the Serial ATA International Organization (SATA IO), was initially adopted mainly for digital consumer products such as tablet computers and netbooks. Because of its space-saving advantages, the standard is now gaining increased acceptance also for social infrastructure equipment and smart grid applications. Products designed for such uses must fulfill high requirements not only with regard to data reliability but also in terms of endurance, data security, reliability monitoring, and similar aspects.

The SMG3B series uses the TDK original SSD controller GBDriver RS3, featuring powerful error correction expandable to 44-bit ECC. Data reliability has been significantly enhanced thanks to a sophisticated power interruption data preservation algorithm and the auto refresh function. Another special feature is the data randomizer that varies data patterns during writing to reduce the risk of bit errors.

Thanks to the use of high-reliability Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND type flash memory and the global static wear leveling capability of the GBDriver RS3 that allows high-speed distributed writing, the drives achieve a storage life that meets the requirements of industrial equipment characterized by high usage frequency and long service periods.

Data security also has been enhanced. The ATA standard security functions of the SMG3B series allow the user to set a password to counter the risk of data leaks, tampering, or unauthorized copying. AES* 128-bit encryption. used when writing data to the flash memory, makes it impossible to analyze data by reverse engineering. The ATA Trim command allows complete data erasure which is vital when replacing or discarding a drive.

Glossary

- AES: Advanced Encryption Standard. A block encryption method registered as United States Department of Commerce Federal Information Processing Standards FIPS PUB197

Main applications

- Thin-client computers, tablet computers, SATA RAID SSD installations and other IT equipment for cloud computing systems

- Fish finders, GPS plotters, satellite compass systems, NAVTEX, 3D navigation radar, VTS (Vessel Traffic Services) equipment, land-based AIS (Automatic Identification System) equipment, Inmarsat, weather fax, weather satellite image receivers, ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System) equipment and other maritime navigation equipment

- Multi-function printers (MFPs), commercial-use projectors, telephone conferencing systems, electronic blackboards and other office automation equipment

- Karaoke on demand systems, arcade games and other amusement equipment

- Digital signage, electronic billboards, electronic point-of-purchase (POP) displays and other advertising display equipment

- Semiconductor manufacturing equipment, NC machine tools, sequencers, programmable logic controllers, panel computers, embedded CPU boards and other factory automation equipment

- Automated ticket gates, automated ticket vending machines, commuter pass vending machines, train movement management systems, automated air ticket vending machines, automated check-in systems and other railway and transportation services equipment

- Cashless registers and other point-of-sales (POS) equipment, convenience store and kiosk terminals, ATMs and other banking terminals

- Diagnostic imaging systems, blood analysis equipment, medical PCs, electronic patient records systems, DNA microarray systems, automatic biochemistry analyzers, remote medical care devices, automated care devices and other medical equipment and data analysis equipment

- Base station equipment for 4th generation (4G) mobile data communication systems such as LTE-Advanced/WiMAX2 and other communications and broadcasting equipment and information system devices

- Smart electricity meters, power grid infrastructure equipment, automated power equipment control systems, energy management systems, building air conditioning systems and other smart grid equipment

- Biometric authentication systems, entry/exit control systems, security terminals for surveillance cameras and other security equipment

- Earthquake emergency information systems, household fire detectors and other disaster prevention related equipment

Main features and benefits

1. Host Interface

Compliant with Serial ATA Standard Revision 2.6. Compatible with Gen1:1.5 Gbps, and Gen2:3.0 Gbps.

Realizes high-speed access: 170 MB/sec read access, 70 MB/sec. write access.

(64 GB type, measured with Crystal Disk Mark 3.1. Actual speeds depend on the system environment.)

2. Single Level Cell (SLC) NAND Type Flash Memory

3. TDK SSD Controller GBDriver RS3

The product uses the NAND type flash memory controller GBDriver RS3 developed by TDK, offering the following technology features for enhanced reliability.

3.1 Global static wear leveling

TDK’s global static wear leveling algorithm counts the number of times each memory block is erased (programmed) and replaces blocks uniformly. Static blocks such as OS/FAT are also periodically leveled, which drastically improves the lifespan of the installed flash memory. The 64 GB type for example supports approximately 6.3 billion erase cycles. Even at a rate of 10 erases per second, this equates to an expected service life of 20 years.

3.2 Power interruption tolerance algorithm

A proprietary algorithm reduces the risk of collateral data errors such as corruption of data other than the data being written if power is interrupted when writing data.

3.3 Error correction and recovery

8-bit, 15-bit/512 byte, 30-bit, 44-bit/1KB ECC capability together with an auto recovery function correct bit errors automatically when reading data repeatedly (read disturbance errors).

3.4 Data randomizer function

Data patterns are automatically randomized during the write process, to minimize the risk of bit errors due to writing the same data repeatedly.

3.5 Auto-refresh function

While there is no access by the host, internal data are automatically refreshed. This function is paused during access, so there is no delay in response.

3.6 Automated encryption using 128-bit AES

The integrated 128-bit AES encryption function automatically encrypts data when writing to the NAND flash memory, to prevent leaking of and tampering with personal data and confidential information.

3.7 ATA Trim command

The ATA Trim command improves write performance when erasing unneeded data. The command enables complete and secure data erasure which is vital when replacing or discarding a drive.

3.8 Other functions

(a) Total sector number setting function (clipping function)

The number of logical blocks allocated to a data area can be adjusted up or down in individual block units. For example, the number of times data can be written to the flash memory can be increased by reducing the number of logical blocks in the data area. Conversely, in the case of applications that do not require an extended life span, the memory capacity can be maximized by increasing the number of logical blocks in the data area.

(b) Protection function

Incorporation of an ATA standard protection function allows customers to set and remove a password to implement independent authentication and protect important data.

(c) SMART command support

The number of times all memory blocks are erased (programmed) can be obtained using the SMART command, which allows for easy determination of the flash memory status and facilitates appropriate lifespan management.

4. Solution Support

TDK has independently developed and marketed the GBDriver series of NAND Flash memory controllers since 2000 and provides technical support to customers in Japan and overseas backed up by its advanced proprietary technologies. This includes dispatch of field application engineers which is a vital service especially in the embedded systems market, and support for implementation of reliability monitoring functions.

About TDK Corporation

TDK Corporation is a leading electronics company based in Tokyo, Japan. It was established in 1935 to commercialize ferrites, a key material in electronic and magnetic products. TDK’s current product line includes passive components, magnetic application products as well as energy devices, flash memory application devices, and others. TDK today focuses on demanding markets in the areas of information and communication technology and consumer, automotive and industrial electronics. The company has a network of design and manufacturing locations and sales offices in Asia, Europe, and in North and South America. In fiscal 2012, TDK posted total sales of USD 9.9 billion and employed about 79,000 people worldwide.

The Computex Taipei 2012 will be held at Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) and Nangang Exhibition Hall from June 5th to 9th. In the world’s second largest ICT tradeshow, ARBOR technology will introduce our full fleet of embedded solutions including embedded board, medical computing, rugged tablet PC and embedded system.

ARBOR has taken great effort in developing embedded systems for medical market in recent years. According the different usage, we have designed a series of medical computer including mobile clinical assistant, patient infotainment and medical workstation. These products will help to build an eHealthcare circumstance which can solve global nursing shortage as well as provide better healthcare for patients.

Except the medical series, the tablet series is another highlight product line. ARBOR’s rugged tablet PCs are designed for all kinds of application such as logistics/warehousing management, POS, field services, 3DAR and so on. With the anti-dust, waterproof, anti-shock and drop resistance features, our rugged tablet PC series is stronger than other consumer-oriented tablet PCs, which also offers better system stability. Welcome to visit ARBOR at Nangang Exhibition Hall (L0501) to find more.

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About ARBOR

Since founded in 1993, ARBOR Tech. has been specializing in embedded computing and networking solutions to help realize the vision of “Digital Enterprise & Digital Life.” We have been delivering numerous successful projects for our customers with outstanding results in terms of adopting advanced embedded design, severe test & measurement and quick response to market changes. ARBOR provides a full fleet of embedded computing platforms from board to system, which let you cover the needs of networking communication, DVR surveillance, industrial control, process control, transportation control, POS & Kiosk and Tablet PC.

ARBOR is an ISO-9001 certified embedded & networking manufacturer and commits to deliver high quality products with international standard and well-defined production process. Also, ARBOR was awarded the “Taiwan Symbol of Excellence Award” by its products, which verifies its efforts and commitment to embedded computing. As a member of the Intel® Embedded and Communications Alliance, ARBOR realizes your embedded computing vision with the most advanced Intel® embedded computing solutions. ARBOR has intensive operations across the world and deploys embedded computing solutions to every corner wherever you are.

Inquiry Contact: info@arbor.com.tw