Network Switch for Data Acquisition System
The project in a nutshell: Our collaboration with Dewesoft (Slovenia) began with a turnkey project: in partnership with Microchip, we designed and prototyped an industrial network switch based on the ARM Cortex-A53 and Microsemi ICs, including enclosure design and thermal modelling.
Following the success of this project, the cooperation evolved into a dedicated team model. Our engineers — C++ developers, schematic and PCB specialists — became part of Dewesoft’s development team.
Today, the Promwad team is integrated into Dewesoft’s quarterly release cycles, handling bug fixing, bring-up, and new feature development. This partnership allows Dewesoft to scale flexibly, meet tight deadlines, and expand its product portfolio.
Customer Review
We appreciate that professionalism very much
"We are impressed by the speed of the schematic design once the requirements are specified. Even in the cases when the requirements are not fully defined, they are able to suggest a solution and discuss it to come to the final solution quickly. We appreciate that professionalism very much."
— Dominika Oblak, Head of Project Office, Dewesoft (Slovenia).
Client & Challenge
Dewesoft is an international manufacturer of data acquisition systems headquartered in Slovenia, with offices in 16 countries worldwide. The company is rapidly growing and expanding its product line — from modular platforms such as Obsidian and Sirius to educational instruments for universities.
To maintain development speed and launch products on schedule, Dewesoft needed to quickly strengthen its development teams with experienced C++ and hardware engineers. The main challenge was to simultaneously support existing systems while creating new solutions tailored to customer demands worldwide.
How We Fit
Our approach to collaboration is based on full integration and flexibility. We didn't just provide specialists; we created a full-fledged extension of the Dewesoft team. Here's how we built this partnership:
What Changed for the Customer
During the project, Dewesoft achieved the following results:
Why Dedicated Team Works
A dedicated team enables technology companies to keep development on track and achieve business goals faster. This format provides:
Solution
1. Interaction
We formed a dedicated team with a project manager who was responsible for planning and execution of the entire project.
While working on the architectural solution, we communicated with the customer and chip vendors on a daily basis and then switched to weekly updates.
2. Hardware Design
Our team carried out a complex hardware design for an industrial network switch: we designed a single PCB, optimised the memory interfaces, and included the necessary connectors.
The switch has the following features:
- 2 х 10Gbps Ethernet ports and 2 х SFP connectors;
- 16 х 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports and 16 circular connectors with custom power sourcing (PPoE for 12 of 16 ports);
- Ethernet switch with 2x10GbE ports and 16x2.5GbE ports;
- power input and unregulated power out.
The switch is designed on one PCB board with an Ethernet switch IC VSC7546TSN-V/5CC inside. Microsemi created this IC for unmanaged switches and supported the AVB/TSN standards.
The Ethernet PHY IC GPY215B1VI provides the physical layer of all the GbE ports. Each PHY has an SGMII/2.5GBASE-X interface from the switch side and a 4 MDI interface from the connector side. Each of the two 10GbE ports of the switch goes to the SFP connector via the SFI interface.
Block diagram of the switch
Memory interfaces of the switch:
- 512MB DDR4;
- 4GB eMMC flash;
- 128MB SPI NOR flash.
Other interfaces: USB2.0 via USB-Type C connector as command line interface.
3. Industrial Design
Our engineers used complex thermal modelling to ensure optimum performance and reliability of the device. The enclosure has three input airflow fans on the left side, and three output airflow fans on the right side. A special feature is the one-for-all PWM control mechanism, calculated based on the signals of one of the fans' round-per-minute signals.
Power characteristics:
- Input power: +9VDC to +60VDC, overvoltage, undervoltage, overcurrent protected.
- Output PPoE power for 12 ports: +9VDC to +60VDC, overvoltage, undervoltage, and overcurrent protection.
The device operation requirements:
- Ambient temperature: from -20ºC to +60ºC.
- Humidity: from 5% to 90% non-condensing.
- Shock and vibration: vibration sweep sinus (EN 60068-2-6:2008).
- Vibration: random (EN 60721-3-2: 1997 - Class 2M2).
- Shock: EN 60068-2-27:2009, MIL-STD-810D.
- Immunity and emission: EN 61326-1, EN 61000-3-2, EN 61000-3-3.
Our customer selected a hardware platform from another vendor that proved challenging to support. After analysing the technical requirements, we assisted the client in implementing an architectural solution on the Microchip components. This choice ensured guaranteed support from us and facilitated seamless collaboration with our vendor partner.
View of the board under the case
The Ethernet switch software uses Microchip IStaX to manage the Microchip VSC7546TSN industrial switch and MaxLinear GPY212 2.5Gbit/s PHY. The software runs on the internal 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A53 processor of the Microchip VSC7546TSN switch chip.
4. Software Development
The switch is also equipped with NOR for the bootloader and eMMC for the main application. Its software provides the network administrator with web-based software management interface to configure and monitor switches remotely with:
- command line interface (Telnet/SSH);
- web interface (JSON);
- SNMP.
The switch stores its configuration in text files in a human-readable format.
The web interface is divided into different subgroups to solve the following tasks:
- configuration of switch functions;
- monitoring of configured functions using the automatic update function;
- running supported diagnostics.
We used Meinberg PTP Grandmaster and Intel i210 ethernet controller with PPS output to test the development software.
Business Value
The customer gets an industrial network switch, empowering them to enhance productivity and provide high-quality solutions to their partners in support of their industrial networks. The development of this versatile industrial switch has allowed our customer to address precise test and measurement requirements. Due to its robustness, energy efficiency, ease of operation, and personalisation system, the switches integrate with the current product line.
