Application Areas

The dSPACE SCALEXIO product line comprises highly flexible and modular systems in various form factors for hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and rapid control prototyping (RCP) applications for various industries such as automotive, automation, aerospace, medical, transportation, or research. Its powerful real-time technology and comprehensive bus support are ideally suited for the demanding applications of today and tomorrow, which include assisted, highly automated, and autonomous driving, electromobility, and increasing network communication. 

Key Benefits 

• Scalable to any required processing and I/O requirements
• For laboratory as well as in-vehicle applications
• High-performance processor technology for fast calculation of large and complex simulation models
• Comprehensive, precise, and fast I/O capabilities based on FPGA technology
• IOCNET real-time backbone with low jitter and high bandwidth for best-in-class closed-loop performance
• Use of several third-party simulation environments via Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) support

SCALEXIO provides two types of real-time processing platforms:

• The SCALEXIO Processing Unit is based on an industrial PC that can be used within a SCALEXIO Rack System or as a stand-alone desktop version. It is suited for applications with high computation performance requirements.
• The SCALEXIO D6001 Processor Board is a compact real-time platform and can be integrated directly in a SCALEXIO LabBox or a SCALEXIO AutoBox. The DS6001 is suited for applications that require fast closed-loop rates or high I/O bandwidth. 

Both real-time platforms provide a high bandwidth Ethernet host interface and IOCNET interfaces for I/O extension or multiprocessor coupling. They also have an angular processing unit (APU) functionality for highly precise angle-based I/O simulation, e.g., injection and ignition signals. With these real-time platforms, up to six independent APUs can be used per SCALEXIO processing hardware.

Multicore Support for Large Models 

Depending on the processor, large, complex simulation models can be distributed across several processor cores to ensure that they are computed in real time. A configuration software is used to distribute model parts to the cores and to configure the communication behavior, the simulation hardware, and the model connections.

Multiprocessor Support for Large Systems 

Multiprocessor support means that several SCALEXIO systems can be interconnected to increase computational power. To provide large bandwidths, SCALEXIO processing hardware can be interconnected via IOCNET. You can use ConfigurationDesk to conveniently model a system. 

Host Interface 

Communication with the host PC is carried out via Gigabit Ethernet, so the SCALEXIO system can be used in any company network. When more than two processing hardware components are used in combination with a single host PC, they are interconnected via an Ethernet switch to ensure communication. The IP address for the connection can be assigned via a DHCP server or stored on the SCALEXIO system itself.

SCALEXIO offers three types of I/O boards. All the SCALEXIO I/O hardware shares the following characteristics:

• Task-synchronous signal preprocessing on I/O boards to take some of the load off the real-time processor to ensure highest real-time performance of the SCALEXIO systems
• Connection to the processing unit via an IOCNET interface
• Fully software-configurable
• Easy installation and configuration processes, so very little training effort is necessary

¹⁾ No onboard Failure Insertion Unit (FIU), no connection of real or substitute loads.

²⁾ Does not apply to DS633x boards.