Missing Link Electronics

Missing Link Electronics (MLE) is a technology company developing and marketing technology solutions for Embedded Systems Realization through pre-validated IP and expert application support and to combine off-the-shelf FPGA devices with open-source software for dependable, configurable embedded system platforms. MLE was founded in 2008 by a group of business experts and technologists. The company has said its expertise is domain-specific architectures I/O connectivity and acceleration of data communication protocols. As well, this opens up FPGA technology for analog applications and the integration and optimization of open-source Linux and Android software stacks.

Customers and partners of MLE include Xilinx, Fraunhofer HHI, Fraunhofer IPMS, Asics, OpenPower, Intel, PCI SIG, Microchip, Elemaster, EMCOMO, ProDesign, Opsero, Trenz Electronic GmbH, Amazon Web Services, and Knowledge Resources.

MLE offers high-performance networking and compute systems and solutions and licensable system stacks for adaptable compute platforms. The company combines system design services with partnerships with FPGA vendors Intel and Xilinx. MLE allows users to bring their own FGPA hardware; they also offer services to help those users identify suitable boards and kits, supporting the design, assembly, and testing of custom hardware.

MLE and their partners in the automotive industry have developed Auto/TSN standards for automotive data over Time-Sensitive Networks, which is an in-vehicle network architecture based on open standards. This solution virtualizes the in-vehicle network infrastructure with an objective to reduce costs, increase scalability, and enable upgradeability for evolving automotive architecture such as electric and autonomous vehicles.

MLE also offers network function accelerators, FACs, NICs, and SmartNICs. An NIC is a Network Interface Card that connects computers over networks, and SmartNIC works to automate software-defined networks on open-source software and further increase the flexibility of standard server CPUs. The SmartNIC not only implements Domain-Specific Architecture for network processing but can also offload host CPUs from running portions of network processing to free up the CPU cores to run other applications, increasing their performance.

MLE also offers solutions for security and trust. These include Open Portable Trusted Execution Environment (OP-TEE)—a small secure operating system which, with authentication and decryption services, is loaded into a secure area of the compute system's memory and then can be requested for the execution of a trusted application.