The key selling points for Logic Supply's LGX Extended Temperature AU115 Atom System include the fanless system's enhanced vibration and thermal tolerances and its very compact footprint. The AU115 system, says Logic Supply, offers reliable computing in an operating temperature environment of –20°C to 60°C and is easily mountable, making it ideal for deployment in remote monitoring, outdoor kiosks, data acquisition and networking applications. With no fans or vent openings, the AU115 is protected from exposure to the dust, dirt and grime typically found on factory floors or in mobile environments. The device also conforms to the iMIL-STD-810F standards for vibration and shock, and it can be configured with a solid-state device for storage to extend the lifetime of the system and ensure data integrity.
AdaCore recently announced two major product upgrades—GNAT Pro 7.0 and CodePeer 2.1—both of which support the upcoming Ada 2012 language standard. GNAT Pro is AdaCore's full-featured, multilanguage, flagship development environment complete with libraries, bindings and a range of supplementary tools. Besides the Ada 2012 support, GNAT Pro's key new features include the new GNATtest automatic test framework and numerous enhancements to several existing tools. Meanwhile, CodePeer is AdaCore's advanced static analysis tool that helps developers detect potential runtime and logic errors in Ada programs. By mathematically analyzing every line of software and considering every possible input and every path through the program, CodePeer can be used early in the development life cycle to identify defects when they are much less costly to repair.
It's a positive sign for our revolution to see the collection of basic Linux books continuing to expand and diversify. LJ writer Roderick W. Smith's new title Linux Essentials, published by Sybex, adds a unique twist by adding full-color images to the mix of resources that aid readers in understanding the essentials of Linux. Linux Essentials features a learn-by-doing approach that clearly identifies the concepts to be covered and explores them in a hands-on tutorial format. Topics include installation, desktop configuration, management of files and filesystems, remote administration, security and more. Fedora is the distribution discussed in the book. Linux Essentials is a great way to share the gift of Linux with our new, less-technical friends and family members.
Things done at “Google scale” are mind boggling. Hundreds of millions of lines of code distributed across millions of source files. Billions of build actions prompting millions of automated tests daily. Hundreds of thousands of browser instances daily. Apps released continuously into production for massive worldwide use. Folks, software testing doesn't get any tougher than this. To do all of this right, Google is pioneering the future of testing and automation. Enter the new book How Google Tests Software from author trio James A. Whittaker, Jason Arbon and Jeff Carollo, which seeks to offer mere mortals the chance to learn from the Google experience. The authors distill wisdom from legendary Google Testing leader James Whittaker and other top Google experts to reveal exactly how the Internet giant tests software and offer new best practices anyone can use. Some of these practices include techniques for analyzing risk and planning tests; implementing exploratory, black-box, white-box and acceptance testing; testing “Docs & Mocks”; and much more.
The Portland Group says that its new PGI 2012 line of parallelizing compilers and development tools helps developers leverage the huge performance potential of GPUs better than ever before. PGI 2012, which supports Linux, OS X and Windows, is the Portland Group's first general release to include support for the OpenACC directive-based programming model for NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPUs. The updated PGI Accelerator FORTRAN and C compilers are targeted at scientists and engineers who are not full-time programmers, freeing developers to focus on optimizing their algorithms. The 2012 release is also the company's first to include the fully feature-enabled PGI CUDA C/C++ compiler for multicore x64 CPUs from Intel and AMD. Finally, PGI 2012 includes a number of performance and feature enhancements for multicore x64 processor-based HPC systems.
The only thing not simple about CrossOver XI is “how we pronounce the name of the product”, said CodeWeavers' ever irreverent CEO, Jeremy White, recently about his company's new complete package for running Windows-based apps on Linux or Mac. The boss is unsure whether its customers will pronounce the name “CrossOver Ex-Eye”, or “CrossOver Eleven”, “CrossOver Exy”, or his own favorite, “CrossOver Zigh”. Regardless of what you call it, CrossOver XI combines all previous versions of CodeWeavers' CrossOver software into one simple download, giving “everyone in our universe immediate access to thousands of Windows applications otherwise unavailable without a Microsoft license”, added White. Applications, which number in the thousands, range from Wizard 101, to Microsoft Office 2010 to nostalgia-oozing WordPerfect 3.1.
Deploy the new Ignition 7.4, says maker Inductive Automation, and you'll feel as if you had an extra pair of hands helping you knock out your HMI/SCADA/MES development projects. Inductive Automation bills the Java/Web-based Ignition as the “simplest and most innovative software for HMI, SCADA and MES applications in the automation industry”. Ignition connects to nearly any major SQL database or operating system and features a built-in OPC-UA server with drivers for the most common PLC brands. New in v7.4 are innovations, such as dynamic component templates, user-defined types, scripting with Python 2.5 and project templates. All of the above, says Inductive Automation, carve out repetitive development tasks, leaving more time for innovating, improving testing and securing projects.
SoftIntegration notes that an instructor using its Ch C/C++ interpreter, now in version 7.0, has called it “as close to a perfect teaching environment” he has ever seen. A programmer customer said using Ch is “the fastest way to write and deploy embeddable C/C++ scripting programs across platforms”. Ch 7.0 and Embedded Ch 7.0 are an embeddable C/C++ interpreter for cross-platform scripting, 2-D/3-D plotting, numerical computing, shell programming and embedded scripting. The 7.0 release adds new features to make Ch especially appealing for secondary school and college students to learn computing and math. These include many new math functions and features for plotting, QuickAnimation, ChIDE and Embedded Ch. Embedded Ch allows users to embed Ch into an C/C++ application, such as game, semiconductor ATE, SoC, CAM, IC, PCB, RF, MEMS or LED as a scripting engine. Commercial and academic licenses are available.