National Instruments to launch NI SOM by year-end

The US-based National Instruments Corporation (NI) will launch globally its new product System-on-Module (SOM) by the end of this year, said a senior company official.

"We will globally launch the NI SOM by the end of this year. Currently the lead users of the product are Airbus, Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre (HTIC) and others," Joel Shapiro, leader for marketing-Emerging Markets, told reporters here showcasing the product.

He said the new product, targeted at multiple industries like power, manufacturing, healthcare and others, is being showcased to the world for the first time here.

According to Shapiro, NI SOM is a complete middleware solution that will reshape the market for embedded technology across verticals.

It combines the Xilinx Zynq All Programmable system on a chip (SoC) with supporting components such as memory on a small PCB and features a complete middleware solution and ready-to-go Linux-based real-time operating system (RTOS) already integrated.

The $1.7 billion turnover company's NI SOM gives design teams the customisability of a SOM without the increased time and risk of developing custom software, he said.

"There are around ten lead users for NI SOM now. We got around 100 requests for the products usage but chose only a limited number," Arun Veeramani, senior marketing manager-Embedded Systems, Emerging Markets told IANS.

One of the lead users is the city-based HTIC, a joint initiative of Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IITM) and Department of Bio-Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology.

The HTIC has developed small medical equipment Artsens to measure the arterial stiffness for vascular screening.

"We are in the process of developing the equipment as a hand-held device called Artsen Mobile. By the end this year will have the first prototype," Jayaraj Joseph, systems architect at HTIC, said.