Chinese Researchers Choose McObject’s eXtremeDB For Mission-Critical Power Industry Control System
June 20, 2005 — Scientists at the Jade Control System Research Centre of the North China Electrical Power University (NCEPU) have adopted McObject’s eXtremeDB™ in-memory embedded database for a mission-critical, real-time control application to be used in Chinese power generation plants and relay stations.
eXtremeDB is integrated with a distributed control system (DCS) being developed at the university as a universal industrial control software platform, planned for deployment at energy plants and related facilities in China, said Jersey Wang, president of Beijing Leadingtek Realtime Technology, McObject’s distributor.
Within the DCS application, eXtremeDB manages data to support real-time operations as well as environmental, alarm and system configuration information. Historical data is fed from eXtremeDB to enterprise-class databases such as Oracle and SQL Server.
NCEPU’s developers compared eXtremeDB with competing data management solutions, and chose McObject’s product for its stability, ease of development, and real-time performance.
“For a real-time control system, software stability is directly concerned with process safety. Thus we were impressed with eXtremeDB’s track record and with the stability advantage of using a proven, off-the-shelf database management system over a self-developed solution,” Mr. Pu Han, chief scientist and director of the centre, said.
The DCS is hosted on Windows and also on a commercial real-time operating system (RTOS). When managing real-time data, extremely high performance is required. But the database must be able to log transaction-related “checkpoints” to persistent storage, to ensure recoverability in the event of system failure. When deployed, the application needs to be configurable via a Web client.
“With eXtremeDB’s Transaction Logging, we have been able to ensure the required level of transaction durability in our application. McObject’s eXtremeWS™ embedded Web server, which is tightly integrated with eXtremeDB, supports our configuration needs by providing convenient access to the database via any Web browser,” said Mr. Yongjie Zhai, senior architect and project leader.
“Most importantly, eXtremeDB is intuitive and very easy to use. Its API remains the same across different operating systems and compilers, which is a great benefit for our platform-independent application,” Mr. Zhai said.
About eXtremeDB
With eXtremeDB, McObject offers a highly portable database management system that meets the unique performance requirements and resource constraints of intelligent, connected devices. eXtremeDB provides critical data management features—including transactions, concurrent access, High Availability and a high-level data definition language—while maintaining a tiny code footprint (as little as 50K). As an in-memory database system (IMDS), eXtremeDB delivers the real-time responsiveness demanded by consumer electronics, network infrastructure gear, industrial control, military/aerospace and other embedded systems.
eXtremeDB also provides sophisticated development capabilities, such as support for complex data and varied query methods, a powerful debugging environment including a self-diagnostic API that catches a wide range of common programming errors before they slip into runtime code, and an optional SQL programming interface.
About Beijing Leadingtek Realtime Technology
Beijing Leadingtek Realtime Technology is a major service provider and reseller of embedded development technology based in Beijing, China. The company distributes software including McObject’s eXtremeDB in-memory database and QNX Software System Ltd.’s real-time operating systems to customers among China’s largest industrial, research and consulting organizations, in fields ranging from telecommunications and automation control to transportation, aerospace and security. For more information, see www.leadingtek.com.cn
About McObject
Founded by embedded database and real-time systems experts, McObject offers proven data management technology that makes intelligent devices smarter, more reliable and more cost-effective to develop and maintain. McObject counts among its customers industry leaders such as DaimlerChrysler, EADS, Tyco Thermal Controls, F5 Networks, Genesis Microchip, Motorola and Boeing. McObject, based in Issaquah, WA, is committed to providing innovative technology and first rate services to customers and partners. The company can be reached at +1-425-888-8505, or visit www.mcobject.com.
McObject and eXtremeDB are registered trademarks of McObject LLC. All other company or product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.