Red Hat, a provider of open-source software, and compute technology supplier Intel have jointly developed a new industrial edge platform for industrial control systems. The aim of this new platform is to allow industrial control system vendors and system integrators to use standard IT technologies to access real-time data insights to help manufacturers automate previously manual industrial automation tasks, such as: system development, software deployment and management, cybersecurity risk reduction, prescriptive and predictive maintenance improvements, co-locate deterministic and non-deterministic workloads, and reduce turnaround time.
The two companies are focusing on how this new edge platform is intended to handle manufacturing compute capabilities from real-time shop floor control and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) as well as extend into IT manageability. A central facet of this is the delivery of a real-time kernel that provides lower latency and reduced jitter to help applications run repeatedly with greater reliability.
Both Red Hat and Intel underscore the fact that this new industrial edge platform will be built on open standards and community-driven innovation, driven by thousands of developers globally. Additionally, the companies note that core code transparency and a clear roadmap and release cycle help take the guesswork out of when new releases are available.
As part of the continuous plan for improvement of this platform, Red Hat and Intel are working to integrate Intel-based platforms and Intel Edge Controls for Industrial with current and future versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, starting with collaboration in upstream Linux communities like the Fedora Project and CentOS Stream. This collaboration extends to bringing these controls and platforms to Red Hat Device Edge, Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform and Red Hat OpenShift.
Key features for manufacturers interested in this platform include:
- Integrated real-time capabilities from silicon to software to support industrial automation for predictable performance.
- Advanced management and network automation for system deployment and management without heavy resource use, simplifying industrial network creation and management using open standards-based tools.
- Scalability and flexibility through a software-defined platform approach that facilitates more portable, scalable control and maximizes adaptability.
- Uninterrupted operations supported by high-availability and redundancy attributes built into the platform.
- Simplified AI workload integration with the ability to take an AI workload and run it next to a control workload to reduce hardware complexity and enable AI to more easily improve product quality, system uptime and maintenance.
- Enhanced cybersecurity by removing human error elements with automated patching and updates, an immutable operating system plane and a platform built on hardened, production-tested components.
