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CouthIT’s Embedded Software Group specializes in developing high-performance industrial communication software for a wide range of embedded processors and SoCs from leading semiconductor vendors. Leveraging hardware-accelerated networking and communication capabilities available on each platform, CouthIT delivers optimized, production-ready implementations of industry-leading communication protocols. The company also provides platform porting, customization, performance optimization, and system integration services tailored to specific application requirements, helping customers accelerate product development while ensuring robust, scalable, and reliable industrial communication solutions across diverse hardware platforms.
- Firmware and Linux driver development for Industrial Ethernet protocols, including Ethernet MAC, RSTP, Ethernet Switching, HSR, PRP, MRP, DLR, and EtherCAT.
- Linux networking stack enhancements and hardware-accelerated Ethernet driver development for embedded SoCs and network communication subsystems.
- Linux eXpress Data Path (XDP), queuing discipline (Qdisc), and Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) development for high-performance embedded networking applications.
- Linux Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and Pulse Per Second (PPS) implementation supporting Ordinary Clock (OC), Transparent Clock (TC), and Boundary Clock (BC) modes across a wide range of Ethernet network topologies.
- Linux device driver development, optimization, and upstream contributions for embedded platforms.
- Analysis and remediation of Linux Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) to enhance platform security and long-term maintainability.
- Performance optimization, throughput tuning, and latency analysis for real-time networking applications.
- Protocol conformance, interoperability, and compliance testing.
- Functional safety, reliability, and cybersecurity hardening where required.
TI AM65x SOC based Industrial Development Kit with RT Linux was selected by an OEM for their next generation PROFINET TSN compliance test platform (ETS). The AM65x SOC supports up to three instances of Gigabit Industrial Communication Sub-System (ICSSG), each of which can support two Gigabit EMAC ports managed by the Programmable Real-time Units (PRU). CouthIT enhanced the TI PRU ICSSG Dual-Emac firmware with TTS feature to facilitate precise packet transmission (as a packet generator) and reception with precise timestamping (as a packet analyzer) for deterministic, time-critical, and safety related applications. Several challenges were overcome in this project by using innovative solutions. These include the use of Linux XDP sockets for better performance, packet stitching/splitting in the firmware to improve the throughput performance for smaller packet sizes, use of dedicated hardware queue for PROFINET cyclical real-time traffic (time-stamped packets) via PRU ICSSG, use of advanced PRU ICSSG hardware features to ensure packets are transmitted within 50ns of the specified timestamp, support for pre-emption, and feedback packets from the firmware to the application with information on the actual transmit times and other statistics.
TI AM65x SOC based Industrial Development Kit with RT Linux was selected by an OEM for their next generation PROFINET TSN compliance test platform (ETS). The AM65x SOC supports up to three instances of Gigabit Industrial Communication Sub-System (ICSSG), each of which can support two Gigabit EMAC ports managed by the Programmable Real-time Units (PRU). CouthIT enhanced the TI PRU ICSSG Dual-Emac firmware with TTS feature to facilitate precise packet transmission (as a packet generator) and reception with precise timestamping (as a packet analyzer) for deterministic, time-critical, and safety related applications. Several challenges were overcome in this project by using innovative solutions. These include the use of Linux XDP sockets for better performance, packet stitching/splitting in the firmware to improve the throughput performance for smaller packet sizes, use of dedicated hardware queue for PROFINET cyclical real-time traffic (time-stamped packets) via PRU ICSSG, use of advanced PRU ICSSG hardware features to ensure packets are transmitted within 50ns of the specified timestamp, support for pre-emption, and feedback packets from the firmware to the application with information on the actual transmit times and other statistics.
OEM developing the next generation process interface units to be deployed in electrical sub-stations worldwide. These products support industrial communication protocols such as the Ethernet, Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP), High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR), Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) along with the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and are used for electrical sub-station automation. The product is based on the TI AM57xS SOC running RT Linux and uses PRU ICSS dual MAC ports at 100 Mbps line rate. CouthIT contribution includes major refactoring/optimization of the PRU ICSS firmware to achieve real-time performance, refactoring/optimization of Linux drivers to minimize the ARM CPU load and packet latency, refactoring of TI PTP4L by adding new features, improving performance, fault tolerance, and fault recovery. Currently, work is in progress to upstream the PRU ICSSM industrial Ethernet protocol drivers to Linux-next.
OEM developing the next generation process interface units to be deployed in electrical sub-stations worldwide. These products support industrial communication protocols such as the Ethernet, Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP), High-availability Seamless Redundancy (HSR), Parallel Redundancy Protocol (PRP) along with the Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and are used for electrical sub-station automation. The product is based on the TI AM57xS SOC running RT Linux and uses PRU ICSS dual MAC ports at 100 Mbps line rate. CouthIT contribution includes major refactoring/optimization of the PRU ICSS firmware to achieve real-time performance, refactoring/optimization of Linux drivers to minimize the ARM CPU load and packet latency, refactoring of TI PTP4L by adding new features, improving performance, fault tolerance, and fault recovery. Currently, work is in progress to upstream the PRU ICSSM industrial Ethernet protocol drivers to Linux-next.