VME and VPX apps are known for their durable packaging as the harsh environments they typically traverse are par for the course. But what about the processor that powers the application? High reliability is not an option. It's mandatory. To the rescue: e2v's PC8640/8641D and PC8640/8641 "extended-reliability versions" of Freescale's MC8640/8641 32-bit single and dual-e600 core processors. e2v's PC8640/8641D and PC8640/8641 are 32-bit processors, operating at extended temp ranges of -55 ?C to +125 ?C and available in CBGA Hi-TCE 1,023-pin packaging.

Manufactured according to Freescale 90 nm processes, e2v's PC8641(D) offers dual or single e600 cores operating as fast as 1,500 MHz. Meanwhile, the PC8640(D) includes dual or single e600 cores at speeds up to 1,250 MHz. Since behind every fast processor stands a fair amount of memory, e2v's wares feature two memory controllers in 64-bit DDR2 style to enable the cores' bandwidth requirements. The two processors – well-suited for video processing, defense guidance, and cockpit displays – additionally comprise dual I/O ports, a serial point-to-point link, and two eight-lane PCI Express ports.

In today's "instant everything" world, expectations exist for everything from fast food to a fast car wash to a fast lane on the freeway with no delays and no slow drivers. And, of course, computers are no exception to these expectations. In fact, computers might have the most expectations placed on them relevant to the need for speed – and always-on connectivity. Accordingly, MontaVista Software, Inc. and Dell have joined forces, with the former providing its an integrated software stack to facilitate the latter's "Latitude ON" always-on, instant connectivity to the Web, email, calendar, and contacts.

Dell's Latitude ON instant connectivity concept – brought to life in its Latitude E4300, E4200, and Z laptop models measuring 13", 12", and 16" respectively – is accomplished courtesy of MontaVista's Montabello MID-based platform. The platform provides fast startup (instant resume occurs in less than one second) and advanced power management for Latitude ON's multi-day, battery-powered, instant-on connectivity. Latitude ON is facilitated by MontaVista's flavor of the Linux OS, in addition to an ARM processor. Latutide ON offers seamless roaming on 3G and Wi-FI networks courtesy of fully integrated Bluetooth plus Auto VPN. Another perk: The platform enables reading of .pdf, .ppt, .doc, and .xls formats. Instantly connected … fast boot … always ON connectivity … certainly this emerging consumer technology could also benefit troops in the modern battlefield as well.

While some developers are sticking with the tried-and-true Ada programming language, others are modernizing their systems by converting to the C and C++ languages. Though programming language conversions can strike fear in the hearts of many, MapuSoft's new Ada-C/C++ Changer tool can make the task as easy as 1 … 2 … then all done.

Step 1: The Eclipse-based OS PAL (OS Porting and Abstraction Lab) tool is used, almost effortlessly, for the otherwise-laborious tasks of porting and abstracting those hundreds of thousands of lines of code. Within OS PAL, the PAL Compiler works the Ada code and can additionally operate with C/C++ cross-compilers in binary generation for myriad target platforms. Then Step 2 occurs: The OS Abstractor integrates the C/C++ software produced in Step 1, while preserving Ada code structures, files, comments, and variable names to simplify future code maintenance.

Ada C/C++ Changer supports operating systems such as LynxOS, VxWorks 5x and 6x, Linux, Unix, Solaris, Windows CE/VISTA/XP, Nucleus, QNX, and several others. Those wanting to try OS PAL and OS Abstractor, along with MapuSoft's OS Changer (eases pSOS, Nucleus, and VxWorks legacy code reuse on various OSs), can do so at www.mapusoft.com/downloads. Price of download: free.

If one could walk through a store with shelves lined with military embedded systems and their respective “ingredients,” what would set one SBC or Backplane apart from the rest? It’d be power and processor type for sure, or serial fabric accommodation and speed, but what else? I/O, the great differentiator. And it appears that this could’ve been the thought process behind SIE Computing Solutions’ enhanced 5-slot I/O PLUS 3U VPX Full Mesh Backplane. Inside the rather long nomenclature, you probably noticed what the company calls “I/O PLUS.” Enabling fit within a widely spanning VPX application array, I/O PLUS provides two front-edge, high-speed VPX Connectors, along with two interchangeable I/O daughtercards ... So the designer makes the choice of what goes where.

Not only that, the backplane packs a “power”ful punch, delivering more than 200 W for each VPX slot. With the aforestated high-performance enabling power coursing through its proverbial veins and its ability to additionally comply with VPX-REDI, the 5-slot I/O PLUS 3U VPX Full Mesh Backplane is ready for duty in vetronic and also aerospace apps. While tucked inside a VPX application, the backplane accommodates on J1: 10 high-speed differential channels and fat pipes; meanwhile, J2 provides 20 single-ended signals and 16 fat pipes. Will the company make an OpenVPX compatible version? Time will tell.

Are the engineers at Altera perfectionists? We don’t know, but considering their latest attempt to improve upon a good thing, perfectionism could be a distinct possibility. And their most recent FPGA incarnation (or perhaps iteration) proves this point: the newest member of the 40 nm Stratix IV E family, the EP4SE820. Providing a density increase of 53 percent over Altera’s EP4SE530 FPGA, Altera says the device’s 820 K logic elements set an “industry leading” benchmark. Military, wireless, wireline, and storage apps, in addition to ASIC emulation and prototyping, are the beneficiaries.

And though the logic elements are impressive, the story doesn’t stop there. High-end digital apps are also benefitted by the EP4SE820’s 650 K registers and 600 MHz embedded memory (23.1 Mb). As if that weren’t enough, speeding through the EP4SE820 at 550 MHz are 18 x 18 multipliers (960 of them). The device also boasts 1.25 Bbps LVDS and 1,120 I/0s to ease use. However, some might still wonder about FPGAs’ infamous long development timeframes. In the case of the EP4SE820C, compatibility with Altera’s Quartus II design software including “advanced place-and-route algorithms,” among other features, makes shorter FPGA development times a reality.

Why stick with just one when you can explore two ... or three ... or six different designs? Now, engineers – whether designing a VME, VPX, or other form factor system – can use CFdesign 2010, an upgraded version of Blue Ridge Numerics, Inc.’s design study environment, to do just that. Enabling efficient exploration of 1, 2, 3, or even 6 simultaneous design possibilities at the same level of ease, the CAD-enabled CFD design study environment is a real plus for designers who want to figure out – fast and with as little expense as possible – which design to move forward with when many design alternatives are at hand. (And when isn’t that the case?) What-ifs and Pass-fail criteria are always key decision-making motivators, thus CFdesign 2010 enables comparison of these criteria for several different designs. Key features include a design study bar and design review center, scenario cloning, direct modeling of external flow volumes, and direct modeling of mesh refinement regions, among others. Since many engineers aren’t experts in CAD environments and CFD, the environment renders its comparison results in standard engineering-speak. Additionally, this latest upgraded version supports the Intel Core i7 processor, automatically utilizing as many as four cores with the opportunity for additional core use. CFdesign 2010 supports Vista and Windows XP in their 32- and 64-bit flavors.

Though the OpenVPX Industry Working Group propelled VPX (VITA 46) and OpenVPX (VITA 65) into the limelight with unprecedented momentum, sister standard VXS (VITA 41) is still getting its share of attention. Case in point: Concurrent Technologies’ VXZ 541/06x, a dual VXS/VME PMC/XMC processor board in a single-slot 6U style. (Coincidentally, Concurrent Technologies also served as a member of the OpenVPX Industry Working Group.) The VX541/06x sports a speedy, soldered-for-more-reliability 2.26 (SP9300) or 1.86 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (SL9400) processor featuring 45 nm technology. [Intel’s Thermal Design Power (TDP) for the SP9300 reduces power to a mere 25 W while heightening performance.] Additionally, the board’s 8 GB DDR3-1066 SDRAM offers a maximum 16 GBps bandwidth.

What really caught our eye about the VX 541/06x, though, were things like its unique graphics setup, delivering rear-panel dual DVI-D graphics and front-panel dual DVI-I graphics. Meanwhile, support for the VITA 41.3 VXS switches serial specification is also optionally afforded. And this board stands up to rigorous environments, with extended (and commercial) temp flavors in its present and a VITA 47 air-cooled, ruggedized version in its future. Other notable accouterments among myriad others are rear-panel RS-232 and RS-232/422/485 ports, in addition to support for Windows XP and XP Embedded, Linux, QNX, LynxOS, and others.

Though sticking to a double standard is typically thought of as negative, it’s definitely a positive if we’re talking about Themis Computer’s new T2VPX board-level computer – which supports both the VITA 65 (OpenVPX) and VITA 46 (VPX) standards. One thing that sets the T2VPX apart is that it’s in the relatively small group of OpenVPX products announced to date (though we expect OpenVPX to swiftly proliferate the market). Something else that differentiates T2VPX: It utilizes both the Solaris 10 and Linux operating systems. And its processor is yet another differentiator: a Sun UltraSPARC T2 CMT (Chip Multi-Threating) processor at 1.2 GHz.

Putting the pieces together, the T2VPX system architecture comprises a VPX I/O fabric, 64 threads, and up to 8 processor cores. Not too surprisingly, Themis says its rugged T2VPX is designed to outperform systems founded on VME 64. Other highlights include fully buffered 32 GB of DDR2 with ECC, onboard 1.8” SSD/HDD support, optional carrier boards for more I/), and a temperature range of -40 °C to +95 °C.

Sometimes keeping a low profile (literally) can be a good thing, when considering the nooks and crannies of today’s space-constrained military and aerospace systems into which components must sometimes be shoehorned. These systems might be 3U VPX or even OpenVPX, but regardless of the form factor chosen, high density is the new “in” thing. Swissbit AG, apparently in touch with the trend, recently created its DDR3 Ultra Low Profile (ULP) Registered DIMM (RDIMM) memory module. Standing at a mere 17.75 mm (that’s 0.699”), the high-performance DDR3 ULP RDIMM more than meets JEDEC’s height requirements too.

Available in 2 and 4 GB densities, the DDR3 ULP RDIMM is tailored for small blade server and compact server apps in the defense, medical, industrial, and communications realms. At speeds of 800 Mb, 1,066 Mb, or 1,333 Mb, this memory device is ready to perform – and to last. It withstands commercial temp ranges of 0 to +70 °C and an industrial temp range of -40 °C to +85 °C. We think being this dense is just plain smart.

And speaking of OpenVPX ... we chose BittWare’s new GT-3U-VPX (GT3X) hybrid signal processing board for an Editor’s Choice award because it offers just so darn many intriguing combinations: The board is fashioned in a 3U VPX form factor – yet also supports several OpenVPX slot profiles. Then there’s the processing power – Is it generated by DSPs or FPGAs? Well, both. GT3X integrates four ADSP-TS201S TigerSHARC Analog Devices DSPs in addition to a Stratix II GX FPGA from Altera. The result: A powerful “this and that” fast fusion board offering simultaneous off- and on-board data transfers at speeds faster that 2 GBps, thanks to BittWare’s ATLANTiS FrameWork enabling technology, tucked inside the Stratix II. And, like any true VPX board, it’s available on a platform that’s ruggedizable.

Additional plusses of this conduction-cooled, extended temp board – also well-suited for image processing and electronic warfare – include: 19 high-speed SERDES transceivers channels, eight link ports routed from the DSPs (up to 600 MBps), up to 1 GB onboard DDR2-SDRAM, and flash memory of 64 MB to facilitate booting the FPGA and DSPs.

Those who design enclosures, systems, and components for military apps complete their work in a safe, clean, temperature-controlled environment. So ensuring proper operation of said technology is easy. But what happens when their deployed wares are used by soldiers in the harsh desert environments of Iraq or Afghanistan? Since humidity and temperature extremes have been known to cause technology casualties, Measurement Computing has developed its USB-502-LCD relative humidity and temperature logger to thwart Mother Nature’s ability to wreak havoc on mil electronics. How? By featuring alarms for lows and highs, as well as enabling soldiers or civilian technicians in the field to access stored and current temperature and humidity trends so they can protect temperature-sensitive computing equipment.

Capable of logging as much as a year’s worth of data, the USB-502-LCD data logger displays temperature info on its easy-to-read LCD while recording and storing nearly 16,400 each of relative humidity readings (range of 0 to 100% RH) and temperature readings (range of -35 °C to +80 °C). The sleek USB-based device can then graph, print, or export collected data to Excel. Or for in-the-field electronic app protection against temp extremes, soldiers can cycle between minimum and maximum stored values or between current humidity and temperature values. And downloads are a breeze – users can simply view data by inserting the module into the USB port of a PC using software supplied by Measurement Computing. Meanwhile, USB-502-LCD supports Windows Vista/XP/2000.

In today’s tough economy, finding the most bang for your buck is more important than ever. Whether sampling edibles at your favorite restaurant or performing transient analysis in a lab or benign field environment, getting the best offering for the price is part of a satisfactory experience. CyberResearch is following suit with its two new USB data acquisition modules: the UCDAS 02M2 and 04M1. Suited to high-frequency apps, the compact, rugged devices are touted to deliver “the best price/performance ratio,” plus an “unheard-of” 2 ns skew, the company says. Key to the equation are the 02M2’s two 32-bit counter/timers at 20 MHz and 04M1’s four 16-bit counter/timers at speeds up to 20 MHz. Further perpetuating device performance, the 04M1 has four differential analog inputs running as fast as 1.3 MHz, while 02M2 is equipped with two differential analog inputs at up to 2 MHz.

What if a designer needs more than four inputs? Then synchronization of several modules by external clock Connectors or external triggers is a possibility. And that’s not all … both devices’ 32 DIO lines help keep things running like clockwork. Meanwhile, spinoff applications for the two devices include phase-sensitive apps’ simultaneous sampling, high throughput requirements and sensitive modal analysis, and synchronized response/stimulus measurements.

They’re everywhere … and everyone’s using them, from college students to the family next door to business professionals and military personnel. They’re virtually guaranteed to appear in any embedded system, too. You’ve probably even used one in the past week – or at least the past month. What are they? USB drives, and while they’re most often used for temporary data storage, Corsair thinks they have more potential than serving as mere flash-in-the-pan quick-storage devices. Thus, the invention of the company’s Voyager Port, which aims to transform everyday USB 2.0 sticks into part of a data backup solution. The portable Voyager Port does not need any external power supply, and it can back up e-mails, data, PDFs, important documents, presentations, spreadsheets, photos, and whatever else you don’t want to lose track of. When utilized with 64 or 32 GB USB drives, it can even serve as backup for netbooks and notebooks equipped with small primary storage drives; that works via Voyager Port’s Disastry Recovery option, which preserves data ahead of time by taking a system “snapshot.” And it accomplishes all this through its NovaBACKUP 10 “award-winning” data recovery and backup software. Voyager Port is even guaranteed to last a full decade, per the company’s (very) extended warranty.

Solid-State Drives (SSDs) have captured the loyalty of many embedded computing vendors and system users, whether the system is classically VME based or spun in another form factor. SSDs’ main selling point, of course, is their innate fixed and immovable nature, a highly desirable characteristic when storing, reading, or writing data in harsh environments. So we’d imagine it’s this resiliency that motivated Swissbit AG to develop their P-100 and X-100 series of 2.5" SSDs. Far as we can tell, the two primary differences between the series are: P-100 is a Parallel ATA (PATA) interface, while X-100 is a Serial ATA (SATA) interface; second, their data transfer modes’ modus operandi differ: P-100 is up to UDMA4, PI04, and multi-word DMA4, while X-100 operates via SATA 1 at 1.5 Gbps (PIO, DMA). At the same time, similarities between the two series, designed for industrial environments, include their 2 to 8 GB density (though Swissbit makes other SSDs up to 32 GB – see photo); 45 MBps performance speeds; and temperature ranges (commercial 0 to +70 °C and industrial -40 °C to +85 °C). Burst rates for both are approximately 66 MBps, with read sequences up to 38 MBps and write sequences up to 16 MBps. And finally … both have voltage allowances of 5 V +/- 10%.

Everyone’s got a Solid-State Drive (SSD), but not everyone’s got the street cred in rugged components like White Electronic Designs. The company’s new NAND SSD product line (which strangely has no name or number at press time) is designed specifically for “demanding defense and aerospace applications.” Coincidentally ... so is VME! Constructed using SLC NAND flash, which is less dense than MLC but significantly more reliable and less subject to wear-out, the SSDs are available in moderate-for-now densities of 1, 2, and 4 GB. Packaged in a 22 mm x 27 mm Plastic BGA (PBGA), the disk incorporates a 32-bit RISC CPU to act as the storage controller, managing wear leveling, error correction, and power loss data writes. The family of devices can operate on either 3.3 VDC or 5 VDC and supports ATA, PCMCIA 2.1, and CompactFlash (3.0 and 4.0) interfaces. Of course, the SSDs are designed to operate over an extremely wide temperature range.

The world is a noisy place. We’re not talking about teenagers’ cars cranking Usher. We’re referring to all that chaff in the EM spectrum. If you’re in the signals intelligence, beamforming, or direction-finding business, it’s essential to extract the golden wheat (signals) and then process them. Mercury Computer Systems, the company that all but invented coherent processors bolted together by the industry’s then-most popular fabric RACE++, brings us a new VME/VXS (VITA 41) card designed for signal sleuths. The Echotek DCM-V5-VXS digital receiver sports twin FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC) modules equipped with two each of the following ADCs: 16-bit 130 MSps ADC converters, 14-bit 250 MSps ADC converters, or 10-bit 1.5 GSps ADC converters, with other options available. On the basecard, three Xilinx Virtex-5 SX240T or LX330T FPGAs do the heavy lifting, each supported by both DDR-II SDRAM and QDR-II SRAM. Remember when you needed an 80860, PowerPC with AltiVec, or a Cell/BE to do this kind of math? This setup boasts a whopping 3,156 DSP slices. Multiple data paths between the FPGAs, FMC sites, and bidirectional VXS and RACE++ interfaces rattle all that data around. Designers interfacing to legacy Mercury boards will want to note the RACE++ interface, and, of course, the board supports the company’s multinode coherency options. There’s even EchoCore firmware representing a library of FPGA cores, depending on the data processing required. The card set can be ordered without the FMC modules, which is called the SCFE-V5-VXS.

Want dynamic range? Better get a whole lot o’ bits: 14 of them, in fact, and sampled at 400 MHz. Now double this and you’ve just described the front end on Pentek’s Model 7156 Dual Channel Transceiver, residing on a PMC form factor. Based upon the TI ADS5474, the input should be useful for designers needing high-bandwidth channels, wideband data conversion, or multichannel synchronization – in SDR, radar, or other data acquisition applications. As well, there’s a dual FPGA section for IF processing, data reduction, or a handy place to crunch some DSP numbers or implement custom I/O. Both FPGAs are based upon Xilinx Virtex-5 devices, either LXT (logic) or SXT (DSP). [Editor’s note: Xilinx tells us that the “L” stands for logic; that makes sense. But the “S” is for signal, as in DSP; not so obvious.] Output from the PMC consists of twin TI DAC5688 DACs running at 800 MHz. There’s also a 100 MHz 64-bit PCI-X interface, and an XMC gigabit interface. Pentek has thoughtfully routed some of the FPGA’s gigabit LVDS transceiver links to the Connectors for customers who desire to use the Xilinx Aurora protocol, or their serial fabric of choice. Lastly, it must be pointed out that Pentek’s GateFlow library is home to lots of other IP bits, just in case designers need to stuff some other functions into those FPGAs.

Processing analog data quickly is the mission of GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms’ ICS-1556B ADC PMC module. Designed for SDR, radar, sonar, SIGINT, and tactical communications, the four-channel PMC relies on four 14-bit, 400 MHz A/D converters to fire-hose information onto the card at a rate that GE Fanuc claims is “unsurpassed in the industry.” We’ll take their word on that, but we do know that at this rate, data conversion is as close to real time as possible – always desirable in these kinds of applications. This module is brought to us by the GE Fanuc ICS division, which earned its stripes for super-duper high-performance sonar processing cards and algorithms. High rate plus high resolution means that VHF and some UHF spectra can be directly digitized while the onboard Xilinx Virtex-5 SX95T provides powerful data processing of DDC, IF, or other data stream functions. For instance, users can program in wideband digital down conversion, FFT, time sampling, or even barrel shifting for block floating point conversion on received data. GE Fanuc makes this easier via the company’s hardware Development Kit, or the company’s applications engineers can craft custom FPGA cores for customer-specific requirements.

Solid State Drives (SSDs) continue undaunted in their ubiquity when compared against other storage wares, and Extreme Engineering Solutions’ XPort6170 SATA SSD removable module carrier is a prime example. Designed for easy extraction and insertion, the 3U VPX solid state SLC NAND flash module carrier enables program erase cycles of 100,000 or more. Meanwhile, the carrier’s “extremely high-reliability” connector allows 100,000 or more extractions and insertions.

Because storage capacity is so vital to data retrieval and application execution, devices that provide it must last during tough days in faraway, sandy, hot deserts – or freezing temperatures. And the ruggedized XPort6170 is prepared: It complies with MIL-STD-810F’s vibration and shock requirements, and survives a harsh temp range of -40 °C to +85 °C. It can be complemented by Extreme Engineering’s XPort6190 removable SSD storage module, which renders 64 GB storage, 70 MBps sustained write, and 100 MBps sustained read.

An avid and longtime supporter of both VME and PICMG standards, Hybricon is routinely at the forefront of new technology – and their 3U VPX Backplane is a good case in point. While it’s true that VITA 46.0 (VPX) Gen 1 is undergoing some modifications to Gen 2 to accommodate new system management features and address some interoperability enhancements via VITA 65, the market has been consuming VPX boards for several years. Therefore, there’s a need for backplanes for today’s VPX – and tomorrow’s version. This five-slot backplane works with the smaller 3U version of VPX, which is gaining traction in defense applications because it offers high I/O density, serial fabrics, and conduction cooling in a very small (3U) space. Compliant with VITA 46.0, VITA 46.10 (RTM Connectors), VITA 46.3 (Serial RapidIO), and VITA 46.4 (PCIe), the backplane also includes keying and alignment. Additionally, there are geographic address pins, “Reserved for Future Use” (RFU) signal pairs, JTAG connections, and system management signals. It can be ordered with optional JP3 jumper-selectable NVMEM Read Only, along with optional battery backup at JP4.

Whether we're talking Fort Knox, a bank, business or corporation, one's own electronic ID, or, perhaps even the DoD, one topic is on everyone's minds: Security. Consequently, more secure RTOSs and even middleware are taking up quite a bit of space in print magazines and on bloggers' websites. Thus, Real-Time Innovations (RTI) has wisely decided to follow the security trend with its RTI Data Distribution Service middleware – now integrated with Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) to boost security among distributed apps.

The integration – which meets strict commercial and government security specifications such as DoD 8500.2, DCID 6/3 PL4, NIST 800-53, HIPPA, SOX, and PCI – melds RTI Data Distribution Service middleware's network communications with SELinux's Mandatory Access Control (MAC) facilities. So basically, while the middleware is rendering secure data and message exchanges via encryption and authenticating peers, SELinux grants many extra protection levels against application vulnerabilities, misconfiguration, and software errors. One of two primary facilitators is the integration's security policies, systemwide, that allow only applications explicitly provisioned to communicate with one another to do so, even though the apps might have appropriate credentials. Secondly, all files holding configuration info and logs or keys are kept safe from illegitimate access. Is there a downside? A miniscule 2 percent latency increase is reported for SELinux. We think it's worth it; now you decide.

Remember those good ol' school days when the stakes for earning "A" grades seemed so high? Allowances, dates, TV privileges, and everything else vital to a kid's or teen's life hung in the balance. Though the pressure to achieve A's is long gone for most of us, those programming DO-178B Level A avionics software apps are still under it. Now it's not just privileges hanging in the balance, though, but actual human lives. Enter AdaCore's GNAT Pro Traceability Analysis Package for DO-178B, which eases the large Level A object-to-source code verification challenge and helps designers make the most of the Ada language.

One of the primary facets of Level A verification is that of tracing compiler-generated object code directly back to source code. However, for those times when the connection between object and source code is not ostensible, the GNAT Pro Traceability Analysis Package steps in. The package – under the company's GNAT Pro development environment's nomenclature – includes coding standard consistency analysis; analysis of the generated object code's traceability; and extra verification to illustrate the accuracy of generated code that cannot directly be traced to source code. The result is just what any developer needs: less of the ever-tedious verification hassle. Once AdaCore's GNAT Pro Traceability Analysis Package for DO-178B proliferates the market, we're pretty sure we won't be the only ones giving it an A+.

In light of today’s slippery economy, there’s always the question of whether to go with the lower price or the more splurgy, higher-priced choice, hoping it will pay off in the long run. Turns out that in spite of all the recent VPX working group hubbub, Kontron has managed to launch its new VX3020 3U VPX CPU board for those jumping into the “high-end processing performance” end of the diving pool. Powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo LV at 1.5 GHz, the board is ramped up to meet today’s stringent data and signal processing necessities for real-time, net-centric defense and aerospace apps. Also aiding in the board’s processing performance is the Intel 3100 chipset and support for DDR2 SDRAM up to 2 GB.

Plenteous I/O variants bring the Kontron VX3020 into the same realm as cutting-edge laptop PCs, including two software-configurable GbE network interfaces on the rear VPX Backplane connector or the front RJ45 connector, plus 3x SATA-150 interfaces and a smattering of USB 2.0 ports. Additionally, the board can execute PCI-based applications and can support “PCI software backwards compatible PCI Express, which is configurable either as x4 or quad x1 over the backplane.” Crafted with a VITA 47-savvy temperature range of -40 °C to +85 °C, the board is available in rugged conduction-cooled versions.

Typically, before development starts on DSP software – for SIGINT, sonar, radar, or other signal processing code types – decisions have to be made. Perhaps most important is: On which type of target hardware platform will the software be executed? Moreover, not having yet received initial funding – or not having identified, procured, or tested the target hardware platform – can be prohibitive to software development starts, but that doesn’t have to be the case. GE Fanuc’s platform-independent AXISLib-CL Signal and Vector Processing Library, as an extension of GE’s AXIS multiprocessor software development environment, allows software development to commence before target hardware is in hand. Key to the equation is AXISLib-CL’s capability of rapid migration from the modeling stage to the platform deployment phase.

AXISLib-CL enables vector and DSP math algorithms to be created from a suite of functions. AXISLib-CL renders interplatform portability and consistency amongst different vendor implementations, processors, and data types. It comprises a generic C platform and runs on both Freescale and Intel processors. Provided with AXISLib-CL are the VSIPL and AXISLib-RSPL APIs, the latter of which supports portability among OSs such as Linux, VxWorks, Windows, and LynxOS and offers more than 450 image processing functions.

While many individuals seek power, control, and intelligence, North Atlantic Industries has taken action and combined all three intangibles into one tangible form: its iPM intelligent power monitor and control device. The iPM monitors frequency, voltage, DC components, and phase sequences on either delta connected or 1- or 3-phase wye power lines. If any of these metrics reach power levels that differ from preprogrammed limits, the power monitor and control device’s 10 A internal relay will break the connection between power and load. Not only that, a background self-test feature constantly tracks iPM’s own health, providing enhanced reliability.

And the iPM is not just another pretty face amongst embedded products. This thing is built to last: It complies with MIL-STD-810C’s environmental requirements, MIL-STD-704E’s input transient stipulations, and MIL-STD-461’s EMI demands. Additionally, its rugged design makes it highly suitable for airborne, ground, and shipboard applications. The unit operates from -55 °C to +100 °C and includes an 80 to 230 Vrms universal input voltage range, plus a 47 to 800 Hz universal input frequency range. And don’t forget the RS-485 serial interface for real-time data reads.

So you’ve acquired the radar data ... how do you display it? That’s the mission of Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing’s Cougar two-slot VME card set. Designed for military applications, the assembly simplifies the integration of advanced radar image processing and distribution – specifically in deployed embedded systems. Since the boards come from CWCEC, you know they’re available in air- and conduction-cooled versions over a wide temperature range. The all-in-one set performs radar video acquisition, scan conversion, and display. It can even drive multiple displays and be remotely controlled over a network via the provided API. Based upon an Intel Core 2 Duo SBC with Windows or Linux, the SBC supports RVL with an API that allows it to interface with a complete radar or mission computer system. Analog radar or RVP server inputs feed the board, which then can drive an RGB/DVI display at up to 2 K x 2 K with mixed scan-converted radar (such as for symbology overlay). Optional video inputs and a second output display are even included. There are also four PMC/XMC expansion slots (two per LRU) to allow users mix-and-match application capabilities including: radar video input processor, radar video scan converter, high-performance video controller, video mixer, or onboard mass storage for data recorder applications or a moving map database.

Since every military and industrial application needs to be tested before deployment in their respectively intense environments, the equipment used to test those technologies can become nearly as important as the deployed equipment itself. Of course, VME boards always need I/O, and prototyping or testing using only VME boards can be a pricey proposition. Enter Sealevel Systems’ DIO-32.PCIe digital I/O interface adapter, designed to shield sensitive equipment such as PCs from ground loop currents and voltage spikes. Not only that, users of the DIO-32.PCIe need not invest in new software, as standard PCI board software works with PCI Express boards to ease the transition phase. The DIO-32.PCIe chooses to accept its mission – and fulfill it – via its 16 Reed relay outputs (SPST) and 16 optically isolated inputs, valuable in automation and control of switches, sensors, and myriad system types including industrial automation and security control. The “next-generation PCI bus” comes with a PCI Express serial board and is geared for computers featuring x1 PCI Express slots. Meanwhile, the board is vended in two variants: a version rated for 10-30 V and another for 3-13 V. In addition, classic OSs such as Windows XP, 2000, and Vista are supported and users can configure their own input ranges of 2-30 V for maximum flexibility.

Though sister standard VPX (VITA 46) is overshadowing it – and most other VITA standards at the moment – VXS (VITA 41) also has its share of admirers because of its interoperability savvy. Another perhaps-less-emphasized advantage of VXS though – at least in the case of TEK Microsystems’ seven-channel Tarvos-V5 digitizer – is that it can facilitate highly boosted signal processing density with fewer channels. In fact, the digitizer is touted to reduce some systems’ sizes by about 30 percent.

Here’s how the space-saving works: While many antenna-array-processing based signal processing apps mandate distributed signal processing and large channel counts, Tarvos-V5 mixes three Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGAs with six analog input channels, resulting in 1.285 TeraMAC/s of signal processing and up to 2,336 DSP slices. This affords each input channel with 61 percent of the performance of a Xilinx Virtex-5 SX95T, and vastly reduces SWaP in apps such as SIGINT, radar, EW, beamforming, and others. And, in the case of a phased array processor system, TEK Microsystems claims Tarvos-V5’s seven slots can beat the FPGA processing capability of an XMC 10-slot, 20-module system featuring SX95T FPGAs by 40 percent.

Meanwhile, Tarvos-V5’s other mentionables include a Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of 72 dBFS, along with a Spurious Free Dynamic Range (SFDR) higher than 95 dB, a 185 Msps sampling rate, and analog input bandwidth of 700 MHz.

Staying flawlessly on message, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing continues its VPX market onslaught with its new VPX6-1952 VPX SBC, this time with Intel's T9400 Core 2 Duo CPU. Says CWCEC, the board is used in the Integrated Computer System (ICS) of the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program. Intel's Penryn CPU is part of the 45 nm mobile processor family, is on the company's seven-year availability plan, and boasts a maximum TDP of 35 W running at about 1.0 VDC. On CWCEC's SBC, the unit screams along at 2.5 GHz, has a 6 MB cache, and a 1,066 MHz FSB (versus a "mere" 667 MHz on previous versions).

The ever-important chipset is Intel's GM45, which supports up to 8 GB of memory on this 6U VPX board. Elsewhere there are dual GbE ports, 3 serial ports, an astounding 10 USB ports, and even an XMC site with 20 differential and 2 single-ended Backplane-mapped pairs. Though VPX is designed as a platform for myriad gigabit backplane I/O, many C4ISR applications still run on civilian-style x86 processors, with COTS peripherals such as printers, biometric scanners, and flash drives. The VPX6-1952 balances embedded desktop capabilities with custom mezzanine I/O in VPX-equipped chassis.

Developing systems or boards based upon 6U VME, CompactPCI, or VPX? Then you know that trying to debug boards inside a 19-inch rack, ATR box, or shoebox is next to impossible. Never mind the 0.8 Backplane spacing (which allows "zero" access to the boards), but it's also more than difficult to access the chassis backplane or extender cards.

Carlo Gavazzi Computing Solutions has an answer to this paradigm: the 522 Development System. This open-frame design is both compact and portable – allowing designers access to boards – and rugged enough to be transported to the field.

Designed specifically for 6U cards, the chassis features 200 cfm speed-controlled fans designed to cool up to seven cards and rear transition modules. The Development System's standard backplane accommodates one CompactPCI, two VME64x, and five VPX 6U LRUs. Of course, the system is compatible with the applicable VITA and PICMG standards for each type. The system is available with front-mounted test points, LEDs for all DC voltages, and an optional LCD monitoring system for voltage, temperature, and fans.

Developing systems or boards based upon 6U VME, CompactPCI, or VPX? Then you know that trying to debug boards inside a 19-inch rack, ATR box, or shoebox is next to impossible. Never mind the 0.8 Backplane spacing (which allows "zero" access to the boards), but it's also more than difficult to access the chassis backplane or extender cards.

Carlo Gavazzi Computing Solutions has an answer to this paradigm: the 522 Development System. This open-frame design is both compact and portable – allowing designers access to boards – and rugged enough to be transported to the field.

Designed specifically for 6U cards, the chassis features 200 cfm speed-controlled fans designed to cool up to seven cards and rear transition modules. The Development System's standard backplane accommodates one CompactPCI, two VME64x, and five VPX 6U LRUs. Of course, the system is compatible with the applicable VITA and PICMG standards for each type. The system is available with front-mounted test points, LEDs for all DC voltages, and an optional LCD monitoring system for voltage, temperature, and fans.

Many programs and companies appear to have moved on from classic VME, implying that it’s too much hassle to revamp it to compatibility with more modern technologies such as multicore, 45 nm, low-power, or SWaP-efficient accoutrements. However, Themis Computer begs to differ, with its new XV1 SBC. The “classically modern” SBC takes a 6U VME form factor, tucks in an Intel Quad-Core Xeon L5408 processor at 2.13 GHz, and then folds in VITA 41 (VXS)-style dual GbE to form a highly flexible mix of old and new. The XV1 offers 2 GB DDRII, three GbE ports, two XMC/PMC slots, four USB 2.0 ports, two SATA II ports, and an ATI ES1000 onboard video controller as standard, though upgrading to 8 GB DDRII ECC or adding four more GbE ports is also a distinct possibility. Meanwhile, Tsi-148 bridging and XMC/PMC carrier card expansion boost options. Not only that, XV1’s Expansion Sites 1 and 2 lend many choices for SoDIMM, SATA, GbE, and PMC/XMC variables. And finally, this SBC is just tough: It withstands shock of 30 g @ 40 mS, vibration of 0.90 g (rms) at 10-2,000 Hz, and comes in temperature ranges of -5 °C to +55 °C (operating) or -40 °C to +95 °C (nonoperating). The company says the motive behind XV1 is “to bring Quad Core server performance to a 6U VME form factor.” Now who would’ve thought … ?

Pseudo “rivals,” the Ada and Java programming languages can now talk to each other –without requiring a middleman … or middleware, rather. Case in point: AdaCore’s new GNAT Ada-Java Interfacing Suite (GNAT-AJIS) can fully replace slow, painstaking middleware in Ada-Java mixed language application development. Utilizing the suite, Ada developers can add Ada components to Java-based systems, while Java programmers can maximize Ada’s performance and functionality in real-time control. GNAT-AJIS accomplishes this by enabling developers to fold natively- or Java Virtual Machine (JVM)-compiled Ada code into Java applications that have been compiled to the JVM.

The interfacing suite, targeting the Java and Ada communities, achieves its mission with two primary tools. First, a binding generator transforms an Ada package specification (input) into Java classes (output), with methods that correspond natively to Ada subprograms. The binding generator creates needed “glue code” that allows programmers to not bog themselves down in details; meanwhile, the suite’s interfacing utilizes the Java Native Interface (JNI). Second, GNAT-AJIS includes the JGNAT compiler, which serves to compile Ada to the JVM. Of course, die-hards who opt to use middleware for purposes other than Java/Ada interfacing (such as facilitating an application’s distribution) will find that GNAT-AJIS works just fine with middleware as well.

While Intel and AMD are competing for their share of the processor market, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms was smart enough to combine the duo’s wares – and increase processing performance, reduce power consumption, and provide advanced graphics capabilities in one fell swoop. The result: GE’s new V7812 6U VMEbus SBC. The V7812 features Intel’s Quad- or Dual-Core LV Xeon at up to 2.13 GHz to boost performance and reduce power consumption. Meanwhile, Intel’s new 5100 Memory Controller Hub (MCH) chipset offers six PCI Express connections onboard, resulting in high bandwidth. And the V7812’s 4 MB L2 cache doesn’t hurt anything either.

As for AMD, the V7812 – well-suited for graphics-rich applications such as flight simulation control, data encryption, and video compression apps – includes the AMD ATI Radeon M72 graphics module. Since the M72 incorporates 65 nm technology, it too helps keep power consumption low and performance high. M72 also kicks graphics horsepower into high gear with its ATI Radeon E2400 graphics processing unit for HD decoding and high-quality display. V7812’s other features include support for six USB 2.0 ports and up to 4 GB DDR2 ECC SDRAM. As if that weren’t enough, the SBC is also available in VXS (VITA 41).

While many in today’s world seek to increase their own personal or political power, those of us in the high-tech industry know that reduced power is often more desirable. Consequently, among the many low-power systems, components, and storage devices designed to boost performance is ACT/Technico’s Flash PMCStor. The solid-state PMC module, providing up to 128 GB NAND flash, delicately utilizes under 5 W power when in operating mode. However, the conduction- and convection-cooled unit is anything but delicate and is touted to deliver mass storage capabilities within the most rugged military environments.

Designers can tuck the Flash PMCStor into boards featuring PMC sites – or into any SBC in the VME, VPX, VXS, or CompactPCI form factors. Taking advantage of the latest in USB flash disk controllers, the Flash PMCStor offers two memory choices: When it performs in RAID mode as a single drive, FlashPMCStor operates at up to 30 MBps. Conversely, the PMC module can perform as a four-flash-bank array at 15 MBps per array when viewed as separate USB drives. Also provided are write protect, wear leveling, bad block correction, and error detection, along with three fast USB ports: two via the rear PN4 I/O connector and one front-panel type ‘A.’ Flash PMCStor can also support PCI bus clock frequencies all the way up to 66 MHz at either 64 or 32 bits wide in non-Monarch mode.

If your VME equipment operates anywhere near commercial or civilian systems, chances are you’re going to have to deal with FCC EMI/EMC compliance. When systems are designed from the start with EMI as a design criterion, compliance testing can go more smoothly. To do this, designers need test receivers set up and running at the earliest stages of product development. But testers are only one thing; you also need easy-to-use software to automate the process and save time. Designed for use with the company’s R&SESP13 and R&SESP17 receivers, Rohde&Schwarz ES-SCAN software can be operated with a single mouse click, invoking preconfigured test setups aimed at commercial EMC standards.

Typical configurations include antenna transducer factors, peak value recording, and graphical/numeric data display. User-defined thresholds can be set, as well as detected (or suspected) interference frequencies – making measurements in those regions literally push-button easy. Other nice features include marker functions, automatic peak search, automatic data reduction, and multiple types of output reports. The software runs under WinXP, has interface options for National Instruments’ VISA software, and includes USB, Ethernet, or IEEE-488 hardware connections.

With PCI Express now the de facto on- and between-board “bus,” it’s more important than ever to debug signals and protocols. And with now-available high I/O VPX boards, there will be more PCIe lanes than ever traveling around a VME chassis; that’s why it’s critical to make sure those PCIe lanes are working correctly. Mentor Graphics’ PCI Express verification combo consists of the Veloce family of ICE accelerator devices plus the iSolve PCI Express adapter platform. Together, they can verify PCI Express operation, signaling, and I/O connectivity, and even provide real-world PCIe stimulus to in-design VME systems. The typical solution consists of a PCIe-equipped PC, the iSolve adapter, and a Veloce hardware accelerated PCIe ICE.

Together, the platform delivers a 1,000 to 10,000x speed improvement over software-only simulation, which “saves weeks or months of regression time.” The solution can identify and fix corner-case bugs in hardware (processor interfaces, bridges, I/O devices, and board traces), and is compliant to both PCIe 1.1 and 2.0. The platform supports all architectures – endpoint, root complex, switch, and bridge – as well as x1, x2, x4, and x8 lanes. Protocols for memory, I/O, configuration, and message transactions are tested or emulated, and interleaved packets across all lanes can be configured. iSolve is flexible, in that it can be configured either for upstream traffic (toward the root complex) or downstream to the endpoint (with emulation in the opposite direction).

Ok, so you’ve got your 5G iPod, your third-gen iPhone, and a new Core 2 Duo Mac running OS X 10.5. Oh, yes – and you’ve got a target system destined for a 19-inch VME rack. It’d be a real bummer to have to spark up that old Windows XP machine just to verify some source code. Well, you don’t have to. Check out GrammaTech’s CodeSonar 3.1 Enterprise, now available for desktop and server versions of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. You can surely get on your “inner Steve” (Jobs) with this product. Designed to identify complex programming bugs via whole-program, interprocedural analysis, CodeSonar 3.1 intentionally targets code destined for safety-critical applications.

The tool uses an interprocedural, context-, path-, and object-sensitive analysis method. It ç. Infeasible paths are pruned, false positives suppressed, and the results yield anomalies for the programmer to check. The tool works with the existing source and build system, “watches” how you compile code, and “learns” what it needs in order to perform an analysis. CodeSonar can work on the entire program or on partial programs, and is ideal for zeroing in on buffer overruns or format string vulnerabilities – two common exploits in safety-critical systems. There are more than 20 other code checks besides these, and the tool presents results in HTML.

Those of you kicking around the VME market for more than 10 years will recognize the prefix “MVME” as the de facto moniker of VME’s progenitor: Motorola Computer Group. These four letters took the market by storm some 25 years ago, and every other VME vendor always played catch-up to the market-leading products from Moto. Of course, back then Motorola also made the CPUs – now manufactured by Intel and Freescale – so one might expect that MCG had a bit of the inside track. Which brings us to today: The company’s first new MVME7100 product in … well, a while.

Now owned by Emerson Network Power, the MVME7100 uses a dual-core Freescale MPC8641D, high-capacity DDR2 DRAM, up to 8 GB of NAND flash, PCI-X, USB, and 2eSST to complement the VME64 bus. You’ll also find dual memory controllers and a DMA engine capable of scatter-gather, PCIe, local I/O, and a GbE port. The memory is battery-backed, and there are twin PMC sites. In short: It’s all here, in a contemporary SBC design. Ah, shucks. We’ve missed you, “MVME.”

So why is a famous name like M/A-COM making VME-based microwave tuners instead of handheld police radios? Our guess is because “that’s where the money is” (with apologies to bank robber Willie Sutton). VME is ideally suited to rugged, mission-critical systems, and that’s where the M/A-COM TU-6401 low-power SIGINT microwave tuner is aimed. The onboard oscillator is ideal for stand-alone VME systems in beamforming, direction finding, Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), and other EW applications.

The two-slot 6U combo provides outputs at 160 MHz (100 MHz b/w) and 1 GHz (500 MHz b/w) and provides simultaneous narrowband and wideband IF. Input frequencies span 0.5 to 18 GHz in 500 MHz steps with noise rated at 12 dB (typ.). Sweep speed is less than 100 microseconds with a step tune speed under 5 microseconds for any step size. Weighing under 7 pounds and boasting a customizable onboard FPGA, the front-end tuner and digital down converter provides a highly credible entry into the VME radio market.

FPGA vendor Actel has found and exploited an expansive niche in the programmable logic market: space. By making its flash-based RTAX-S FPGA family inherently rad-hard, the IC manufacturer is finding its products installed on flying thingies galore. Since “enough” is never enough, the company just upped the ante by making available MIL-STD-883 Class B versions of the 4,000,000 gate RTAX4000S. Why not Class S, you ask? The device is inherently rad-hard, and has error-corrected onboard memory, obviating the need for the Triple-Module Redundancy (TMR) usually mandated by other FPGA architectures. This can free up to two-thirds of the device’s logic cells for – ahem! – logic.

The RTAX4000S has completed 1,000 hours of High-Temp Operating Life (HTOL) testing and nearly 80,000 total life test hours to date. These impressive numbers are added onto the “qual by similarity” assigned to the more than 2,000,000 device testing hours attributed to the balance of the RTAX-S family. The company continues to beat the heck out of the devices on their way up to full QML Class Q and Class V certifications. It’s no wonder Actel’s devices are taking up more space (the inky black stuff, that is).

Statistics from analysts much smarter than us report that up to 70 percent of design time is consumed in writing, debugging, debugging, and debugging software. You get the idea. So any kind of tool that contracts this iterative process – especially if it can help during the coding part of the process – might be a real money saver. We don’t care if you’re designing VME systems or coding the next PS3 game. The automated source code analysis tool called Insight from Klocwork specifically targets mission-critical systems, making it perfect for VME/VXS/VPX board-based designs. Of particular importance is that this desktop tool is intended for use by the developer during local build, instead of providing an after-the-fact audit build report. Some of the tricks in Insight have spawned patents, including certain static analysis techniques and system-level collaboration to track bug fixes. The list of features is too numerous to describe here, but highlights include: identification and analysis of critical and security bugs (handy in mission-critical systems); IDE-based code analysis (no need to exit your favorite tool); detailed software architecture visualization; user-defined style or path analysis checkers; bug tracking and reporting – locally or team-based. We are impressed with the potential of Klocwork’s Insight. (Tell us if you have any experience with this tool. We’d love to hear from you at cciufo@opensystems-publishing.com.)

While SBCs commonly get noticed on the basis of their processor type and speed, sometimes other capabilities can bring an SBC into the forefront, too. So it is with Themis’ TC2D64 6U VMEbus single board computer. Don’t get us wrong – the SBC does feature the high-performance Intel Core 2 Duo at up to 2.16 GHz, along with the Intel 7520 chipset. But the TC2D64 features so darned much I/O that it’s easy to get distracted.

The I/O, utilizing the ECC memory controller and bandwidth provided by the 7520 chipset, begins with a SATA port, two GbE ports, and two USB 2.0 ports. In addition, an onboard 66 MHz/64-bit PMC slot provides expansion. Then there’s a PCI Express connector that can interface to an optional XMC expansion board featuring two XMC slots for PCI Express XMC modules or PMC modules. Adding the optional RoHS-compliant XMC expansion board then provides even more I/O, including a third GbE port, AC97 audio, and two multiprotocol serial ports. Besides all that, another configuration of the TC2D64 is available and includes an optional PMC carrier card with three slots.

In addition to its remarkable I/O, TC2D64’s other notable plusses include 4 GB ECC memory and the ability to withstand up to 30 gs shock at 20 ms.

Now that all the VPX shouting has died down (somewhat), real-live products are coming to market. My bet’s on 3U VPX for shoebox upgrades because of its handy size and prodigious I/O capabilities. One example of this new breed is GE Fanuc’s rugged SBC310, which uses a dual-core MPC 8641D PowerPC. Humming at 1.0 GHz, the SBC can be fitted with up to 1 GB of SDRAM and even has a PMC or XMC site for a mezzanine card.

I/O includes two 10/100/1000 BASE-T Ethernet ports, two USB 2.0, and a SATA disk interface. The ever-present legacy stuff includes two RS-232 and four GPIO. Backplane connections are via two 4-lane PCIe ports, with plenty of user-defined I/O pins still available; after all, that’s the appeal of VPX.

All good things come to those who wait. Or so it might be in the realm of rugged, deployable DSP boards. When Curtiss-Wright announced their conduction-cooled CHAMP-FX board, we were surprised that they didn’t have such a version all along. We were told that the company wanted to wait until they were actually shipping the product in volume to real customers. There you have it: This board is for real.

Based upon the popular CHAMP 6U VME64x and VXS sized boards, the dual Xilinx Virtex-II Pro-based engine and CHAMPtools-FX Design Kit is intended for applications running -40 °C to +85 °C in IEEE 1101.2 mechanical chassis. Contained in each FPGA are two IBM PowerPC 405 RISC CPUs supported by a total of 512 MB DDR266 SDRAM and 16 MB DDR II fast SRAM. The FPGAs also support four 4-bit, bidirectional RocketIP ports for interboard connectivity, plus two off-board StarFabric interfaces for serial interconnects. There are dual PMC/XMC sites, debug interfaces for ease-of-use, and VHDL IP libraries optimized for wide temperature range circuits (to mitigate race conditions and low-temp PLL problems).

Moving up the product food chain from components and boards to integrated systems is a very common theme among embedded board suppliers. Getting there is another issue. What should a company do? Concurrent Computer Corporation has one solution, the iHawk VME, a commercial platform for mission-critical simulation, data acquisition, industrial, and aerospace applications. iHawk VME systems feature energy-efficient Intel Core multicore technology on a single-shot 6U VME/XS card.

At the heart of each iHawk solution is Concurrent’s RedHawk Linux real-time operating system. Compatible with the popular Red Hat Linux distribution, RedHawk features high I/0 throughput, fast response to external events, and optimized interprocess communications. RedHawk is the ideal Linux environment for complex real-time applications.

iHawk VME systems are ideal for real-time application environments that require ruggedized or special packaging. The systems also support Concurrent’s powerful NightStar development tool set. Users can debug, analyze, monitor, and tune their real-time applications on iHawk systems locally or remotely at application speed. Each tool runs nonintrusively, thus preserving the application’s deterministic behavior. NightStar tools allow developers to graphically view how their applications interact with the Linux kernel.

You might think that few VME boards run Linux, and you’d be right. Linux is reserved mostly for x86-based server products and less frequently for the mission-critical, real-time deployed systems where VME shines brightest. But Concurrent Computer Corporation’s RedHawk Linux RTOS, coupled with the company’s iHawk VME/VXS SBC, is ideal for simulation, data acquisition, industrial, and aerospace applications.

On the hardware side, Intel-based Core processors are mounted to single-slot VME or VXS boards. The magic here isn’t the SBC but the I/O options and flexibility, including: analog and digital I/O, MIL-STD-1553, ARINC 429, IEEE-488, reflective memory SATA, SCSI, EIDE, graphics, GbE, and … need we go on? … USB, RS-232, and GPIO. On the software side, the RedHawk Linux RTOS is based upon Red Hat’s Linux distro and boasts a fast response to external events, optimized IPC, SMP, load balancing, and maximum determinism. Basically, all things you’d expect from a robust RTOS … with a Linux kernel at the core.

Although the x86 architecture isn’t dominant on VME boards, it makes the ideal server platform because it can run Windows, Linux, and Sun Solaris operating systems. This means that pure commercial comms, simulation, and enterprise applications can suddenly get deployed to the front lines. Based upon the AMD 64-bit 1.8 GHz dual core or 2.2 GHz single core Opteron processors, the Themis TOP64D is an ideal deployable, embedded VME server. The single processor slot board includes three GbE ports, a single XMC/PMC slot, and up to 4 GB of DDR memory. But there’s more: A dual processor, two-slot board includes six GbE ports, two Ultra320 SCSI ports, two PMC slots, and 8 GB of DDR memory (4 GB per processor). There’s also an onboard ATI ES 1000 graphics controller plus a VME64x Backplane bus interface. Options include support for VITA 41 (VXS) to take maximum advantage of switched GbE fabrics.

When is a PowerPC SBC not exactly a PowerPC? When it’s based on the Freescale PowerQUICC-II MPC8548. The MEN Micro A17 packs loads of I/O and processing features onboard because of the high integration found in the PowerQUICC, but the integrated e500 core also includes floating point and an MMU – both handy features for mission critical applications that crunch numbers or use partitioned operating systems.

Clocking at 1.5 GHz, the board is designed for rough environment use and operates over a -40 ?C to +85 ?C range, includes soldered-in ECC DDR SDRAM (2 GB), flash disk, and FRAM for program storage. There are also front- and rear-panel I/O choices. Two GbE ports are available at the front, with two more via the optional P0 connector. And speaking of VME, this SBC uses Tundra’s Tsi148 bridge controller for 2eSST – delivering up to 320 MBps over the VMEbus. Two PMC sites are included, and one is XMC-ready for PCIe x1, x2, x4, or x8.

It ain’t sexy like quad DSPs or multicore CPUs, but protecting mission-critical circuits and boards from lightning strikes is absolutely essential. Think of heavy metal vetronics boxes mounted in heavy metal armored vehicles exposed on the battlefield and grounded via heavy metal tank treads. Getting the picture? One big circuit to ground. In true COTS fashion, the Strikesorb Surge Protection Device (SPD) from Raycap was originally designed to protect wind turbine generators from crippling lightning strikes, so it’s heavy duty.

Able to ward off direct strikes up to 200 kA, the unit meets IEC 61643-1 for surge protection devices and the recently updated (2007) UL 1449 2nd edition safety standard. Constructed of a unique single disc of distribution-grade varistor material, the industrial grade design allows it to sustain multiple and successive lightning strikes and power surges without requiring maintenance, even in harsh environments. The high-surge handling capability and ultra-low let-through voltage means the Strikesorb can take a shock while safely dissipating excess energy. This device just might save a fielded VME system that might otherwise go up in smoke or in a flash.

VME systems increasingly rely on fiber interconnects for high-speed signals between boxes or to special-purpose sensors. But how to create the voltages required for some of these specialized optical devices? Behold the Linear Tech LT3482, a fixed frequency, current mode step-up DC/DC converter with a built-in voltage doubler. This device was designed specifically to bias avalanche photodiodes in optical receivers. Feeding only 2.5 V to 16 V to it yields 90 V out with 10 percent relative accuracy over a -40 °C to +85 °C temperature range.

The device’s internal 48 V, 280 mA switch uses a voltage doubler to deliver voltages as high as 90 V at a user-selectable switching frequency of 625 kHz or 1.1 MHz. With only 80 µV of peak-to-peak ripple, the LT3482 is equipped with a 1.235 V internal reference plus an external auxiliary reference voltage, in-operation output voltage adjustment, soft-start, internal compensation, and thermal shutdown.

Anyone remember Smith charts from college? They had something to do with transmission line theory and stubs, both of which relate to “E” and “M” (or was it “B”?) fields. All electrical equipment creates electric and magnetic fields to some degree, especially as high-frequency switched fabrics move well into the radio frequency (and beyond) range. Measuring magnetic fields – especially small ones – is the task of the Extremely Low Field “ELF” gauss meters from Sypris Test & Measurement. Combining multiple functions into one unit, the lightweight self-contained 4100 Series is designed for commercial (and home) use to detect emissions from video terminals, AC power lines, appliances, and yes – VME boards. Available in two units, the 4180 has a switchable axis mode that allows users to display the vector components of the magnetic field where direction and field strength must be determined. The 4190 has all the features of the 4180 but adds analog output, data logging, and extended bandwidth. This unit can display the B field (or is it “M”?) in micro-teslas rather than milli-Gauss. Autocalibration and on-screen prompts make the units user friendly.

A core here, a core there. Everywhere a core-core. We’ve gone multicore crazy in the past 12 months – sort of reminds me of the pet rock fad in the ‘70s. Oddly, in mission-critical VME applications, Intel and AMD processors are less common than the PowerPC. So when Freescale introduced the dual core 8641D, well that’s a core we can be stoked about. GE Fanuc Embedded Systems’ PPC9A 6U VME SBC has got one of these bad boys, plus up to 4 GB of memory.

The 1.3 GHz PPC is also backed up by up to 1 GB of flash and a way to blast data out onto – wait for it – a 2eSST VME Backplane. There are two PMC/XMC sites (PCI-X 133 MHz/eight-lane PCIe) feeding signals to P0 and P2. Also onboard are two GbE (10/100/1000), two USB 2.0, six serial, and 128 KB of NVRAM. Also unique to GE Fanuc boards is the AFIX (Additional Flexible Interface Xtension) site for more I/O including graphics, SCSI, 1553, digital I/O, and more flash). As you can see from the picture, conduction-cooled versions are available for deployed systems.

Intel’s not just putting two cores on a die for bragging rights; the fact is that dual cores are just more efficient than a single CPU such as last year’s favorite: the Pentium M. According to Concurrent, their VX 407/04x SBC uses a 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo T7400, which burns only 34 W compared to 27 W for a 2.0 GHz Pentium M 760 – a savings of nearly 50 percent per core. Socketed on the company’s VME/VXS SBC, the CPU can access up to 4 GB of DDR2-667 SDRAM at up to 10.6 GBps.

Available as either a VME64x board with dual 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports via P2 or with VITA 41.3 VXS switched connections on P0, a third Ethernet port is available via the front panel along with a single 64-bit/66 MHz PMC/XMC connection. Other I/O includes graphics, keyboard/mouse, five USB 2.0 and two RS-232/422 ports. There’s also EIDE, SATA150, stereo in/out, and provisions for an onboard 2.5" EIDE HDD or dual CompactFlash storage. A secondary PMC carrier board is available to provide for two more PMC/XMC sites.

So your new mission-critical computer has one or more Ethernet RJ-45 jacks. Do they work? It’s not always so easy to tell, since the built-in lights only illuminate when there is other operational equipment at the other end of the wire. And with legacy equipment in abundance, what speed of Ethernet do you have? Troubleshooting something so simple can be extremely complex if you’ve got to lug out computers, cables, and hubs or switches, but not with the LinkCheck from Smartronix.

The battery-operated network test tool can be used to test for the presence and speed of either 10 Mb or 100 Mb Ethernet connections. The IEEE 802.3af POE-compliant device uses three daylight-readable LEDs to determine link integrity and speed. We like the simple elegance of this device (and wish they’d send us a few for our own office LAN. Where are the perks?).

Perhaps more than any SBC we’ve seen recently, the XPedite8070 from Extreme Engineering is, well, extreme. It’s not loaded with a Swiss Army knife’s full of I/O like some of our favorite SBCs (sorry, Ben), but it’s more like cramming a blown nitro-methane 426 Hemi into a freaking Chevy Vega. Or a Pinto. Or a Scion xB for you Gen-Xers. Either way: huge performance in a small space.

The 3U VPX-REDI (VITA 46/48) form factor is VME’s future: small size with serial fabrics for gobs of I/O. The dual P.A. Semi PA6T-1682 2.0 GHz PowerPCs are carefully tuned for performance and low power: The whole SBC consumes only 34 W. There’s 2 GB of DDR II (1 GB/core), 32 Mb NOR, and 1 GB NAND flash. As for I/O, there’s PCI Express, 10 GbE, and dual isolated 1 GbE ports. Plus you can customize yours with Linux, VxWorks, or PNE 1.4, and maybe even door decals. Go ahead, floor it – this one’ll snap your head back from the acceleration.

In defense applications, the only component more common than MIL-STD-1553 is wire. That is: 1553 implementations are everywhere. And each 1553 bus needs myriad transformers to accompany MIL-STD-1553 transceivers. Beta Transformer Technology Corporation (a name that doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?) has introduced an itty-bitty low-profile transformer series called the DSS-1000 for use with MIL-STD-1553A and B, MacAir A-5690, A-5232, A-3818, and A-4905. The 16-pin surface mount package measures a slight 0.575" (14.605 mm) by 0.700" (17.780 mm) and allows short and long stub ratios within one package. The package is even available in tape and reel configurations for high-volume applications. The transformers are compatible with +3.3 V, +5 V, +12 V, and +15 V transceivers and operate over the full military temperature range of -55 °C to +130 °C as you’d expect. Also, the devices are screened to MIL-PRF-21038 and MIL-STD-202. (In case you’re wondering, BTTC is a subsidiary of DDC, a company that knows MIL-STD-1553.)

Taking a cue from Intel’s embedded road map, AMD has expanded its embedded offerings to include the new Sempron processor Model 2100+ and the Geode LX 800 @ 0.9 W processor. Both devices are now specifically geared toward harsh environments: the Geode for industrial temperature and the Sempron for fanless operation and high shock/vibration. Extended temp is used in myriad applications beyond the markets where VME is used, including: kiosks, Automotive, wiring closets, and cellular base stations stuck out in rural Texas.

The LX800 Geode is an x86-compatible microcontroller designed to consume only 0.9 W while operating at -40 °C to +85 °C. The device includes the CPU core, plus video and display controllers, memory interface, security engine, and several I/O ports. The Sempron 2100+ is the low-cost version of AMD’s Opteron/Athlon series and runs both 32- and 64-bit software in fanless environments (unfortunately, my attempts at discovering the processor’s actual temperature range were unsuccessful). With the AMD companion M690T chipset and an appropriate S1 socket, the device is rated to withstand 50 g shock and 7 g three-axis vibration while consuming only 9 W at 1.0 GHz (core). It’s unusual for a processor manufacturer to pay attention to shock and vibration, so our hats are off to AMD for this one.

Mission-critical systems shouldn’t fail. But in the real world, problems occur, and it’s nice when a system can notify administrators of state changes. Alternatively, in data logging or other monitoring applications, being notified via e-mail or cell phone when certain conditions occur is a handy feature. Onset Computer’s Alarm and Readout Tool, a plug-in software module for use with the company’s HOBOware Pro software, is capable of notifying users when events happen.

The tool automatically notifies users via cell phone text messages or e-mail when temperature, humidity, and other conditions exceed user-defined limits. The module also enables data from networked HOBO data loggers to be automatically offloaded and stored on a centralized computer. This feature is useful in autonomous or remotely controlled systems, or in large sensor networked systems. HOBOware Pro is the ultimate COTS product and runs on a PC or Mac to provide data logger launch, readout, plotting, and other functions in a handy GUI.

Though you’ll probably deploy a PMC module for fielded systems, lab work is often done with PCI cards in low-cost PCs. Today, with PCI Express slots, data transfers from sensors are faster than ever. That’s the intent behind ADLINK’s DAQe-2200 x1 PCI Express data acquisition cards. The family of cards can sample up to 64 analog channels with input voltages ranging up to 10 V.

The 2204 model is a 12-bit A/D card with 3 MSps (simultaneous); the 2205 is a 16-bit A/D card with 500 KSps (simultaneous); and the 2206 is 16-bit/250 KSps. All boards offer differential mode (making 32 analog channels) to eliminate noise, analog and digital triggering, and a system synchronization bus to “lock together” up to four cards. Scatter-gather is a must-have DMA feature that not only moves data quickly but also offloads the system host. And, there are two 12-bit analog outputs with waveform generation, plus 24 programmable digital I/O lines.

Spotting a trend in I/O bridging, Altera has introduced their Arria GX FPGA family along with the latest version of their Quartus II (version 7.1) development software. The company discovered that every embedded system – from medical imaging device or industrial PLC to military radar or sonar – always has some sort of custom I/O. This I/O talks to the system-specific sensor, comms channel, or proprietary hardware. But elsewhere in the system, designers are routinely adding PCI Express, GbE, or Serial RapidIO.

Voila! The Arria GX is a transceiver-based FPGA ranging from 21,580 to 90,220 Logic Elements (LEs), with up to 4.5 Mb memory and sporting 12 transceivers. Supporting two speeds of 1.25 and 2.5 Gbps, the device can realize PCIe (x1 and x4), GbE, and Serial RapidIO (1x and 4x) protocols. Relying on the company’s proven Stratix II GX transceiver technology in 90 nm (meaning: not “bleeding edge”), the Arria GX is intended to be low cost. A 50K LE device sells for $50 in 25,000 unit volume. For defense applications – in either commercial or extended temperature – the Arria GX is ideal when full-featured FPGAs are either overkill or simply cost too much.

Keeping with our low-cost Editor’s Choice theme this edition, FPGA heavyweight Xilinx is one step closer to putting an FPGA in a cell phone with their Spartan-3A DSP. Sharp-eyed readers will wonder why the defense industry should care about FPGAs in cell phones, but the answer is that when FPGAs are cheap enough and low power enough for cell phones, then they’ll be even more useful in increasingly cost-sensitive (relatively speaking) and portable military systems. Boasting more than 20 GMACS for under $30, with a claimed 50 percent less dynamic power than other comparable reconfigurable DSP devices,the Spartan-3A DSP “platform” family uses a new Xilinx XtremeDSP slice that can be interconnected in creative ways on-chip. The highest-performing family member cranks 2,200 Gbps memory bandwidth, and the chip’s DSP48A slices can realize wide math functions, DSP filters, and complex arithmetic – all at reduced power. The Spartan-3A DSP platform has up to 53,712 logic cells, 2268 Kb of block RAM, and 373 Kb of distributed RAM. Of course, Xilinx’s development tools such as System Generator for DSP and AccelDSP synthesis have been updated for the new family.

If you check out our section on mass storage, it’ll be clear that solid-state storage (usually flash) is coming to a VME chassis near you. Although it’s still between 10x and 50x the price per GB of a magnetic HDD, the media’s robustness is too hard to ignore. But like every other bit of information stored in a system these days, security is just as important as price or capacity. So flash storage vendor SiliconSystems is meeting the security challenge head-on with the SiliconDrive Secure SDK – a development environment designed for embedded designers to add security features to storage.

Designed to work with the company’s flash-based drives, the SDK features an API designed to control: SiKey (ties the drive to a specific host); SiZone (data zones with different parameters); SiSweep (data erasure); SiScrub (erasure followed by a programmed pattern); SiPurge (nonrecoverable erasure); SiProtect (write protection/read-only access); and SiSecure (password required). Ease-of-use features in the SDK include prototype software, the flexibility to include some or all of the security features, and the ability to enable or disable security remotely in field installations. For serious flash memory security freaks (or the truly paranoid), this SDK is a must.

VME designs based on the traditional parallel VMEbus need not feel left behind. New products continue to be introduced that bridge the generations of legacy features with the latest in technology. These new products can breathe new and longer lives into old systems.

The GE Fanuc Embedded Systems EP2A processor node features the latest Discovery V Integrated System Controller with a Power Architecture 7448 processor and DDR2 SDRAM, in combination with a unique and highly flexible set of I/0 features. In addition to standard SBC capabilities such as USB 2.0 and GvE, the EP2A features four fast HDLC-capable serial channels, making this board ideal for many communications-oriented embedded applications.

The EP2A’s I/0 flexiblity comes from its two PMC sites and its AFIX site, the latter supporting a range of useful plug-ons including dual MIL-STD-1553B interfaces, SCSI graphics, and flash memory modules. The AFIX site is also a useful option to add custom functionality at minimum cost and in minimum time.

Available in five air-and conduction-cooled buil levels, the EP2A is fully suppote by comprehensive deployed test software (BIT and BCS) and BSPs for VxWorks, Lynx0S, and INTEGRITY.

We have a never-ending need for more security and encryption as the use of computer technology grows. Finding all the right solutions is an ongoing task. Fortunately, things are getting better, IntellaSys has introduced its new OnSpec xSil26x controller chips with 128-bit, hardware-encrypted security for use with flash memory or IDE/ATAPI hard disk drives using a USB 2.0 interface. The xSil26x’s hardware-embedded encryption/decryption function, fully compliant with the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), combines with two-level software authentication of passwords to prevent unauthorized memory content access.

IntellaSys claims it would take 149 trillion years to determine all possibilities at an attempted recovery rate of one key per second, attributed to the 3.4 x 1,038 possible options the xSil26x’s offer to code keys.

IntellaSys supports its new chip with additional software that provides the end user with convenient features. 0EMs offering a portable USB-to-hard-drive solution, 0nSpec software also enables use of the drive independent of the PC system being used.

It’s settled: Ethernet won the fabric wars. Back when RS-422/485 was the de facto military communications scheme, the thought of using an Ethernet LAN in mission-critical applications was heresy. But the fact is that with its ubiquity and low cost, Ethernet ports are available on most embedded boards and gadgets; trouble is, running any protocol on the wire slows performance down to a crawl. That’s why TCP/IP Offload Engines (TOEs) are required to maintain throughput – especially when implementing the DoD’s mandated IPv6. No one knows this better than Critical I/O, a specialty provider of high-performance interfaces.

The company’s Silicon Stack XGE4032 PMC interface seeks to provide true wire speeds for 1 or 10 GbE links used in radar, data acquisition, mission computers, sonar, FLIR, and video distribution applications. With native IPv6 support, the company reports only a 1 percent CPU overhead versus 99 percent without TOE support. Latency is reduced from 200 microseconds down to 6 microseconds while supporting the following protocols: Ethernet, TCP, UDP, IP, iSCSI, and RDMA. The PMC module is available in both air- and conduction-cooled versions.

Got a challenging PCB-to-PCB, flex cable-to-PCB, or IC-to-PCB connector problem? Sure, regular VME uses DIN Connectors and VPX relies on the MultiGig RT2. But what about for custom mezzanine boards? Inside the chassis? On sensor I/O modules? You might want to jot this one down just in case: Hypertronics’ HyperGrid. The 100,000 mating cycle, solderless, compression-style connector is ideal for space-constrained applications where density and reliability are paramount.

The rugged RC Spring Probe contact technology requires only 10 grams of force per node to maintain connectivity, and the pitch can be as small as 0.25 mm. The design and small mass enable the connector to withstand extreme shock and vibration, while supporting multi-GHz RF signal rates. Contact self-inductance is a mere 0.5 mH, and each contact can tolerate 2.5 A with a DC resistance of 50 milliohms. OD dimensions can range from 0.91 and 2.50 mm in length, and between 0.91 and 2.00 in height.

By now it’s clear to everyone who’s been awake since Y2K that Ethernet is nearly as ubiquitous as extension cords during the holidays. Besides faster Ethernet speeds and TCP/IP offload engines, the IEEE 802.3af Power over Ethernet (PoE) feature is a nifty way to use all that cable to electrify the attached doodads (kind of like an extension cord). The LTC4263 from Linear Technology is an autonomous single-channel Power Sourcing Equipment (PSE) controller with an onboard MOSFET designed to provide isolated 48 V power to connected devices. Key here is the fact that the device provides autonomous operation through all PoE tasks without processor intervention.

An internal sense resistor allows the device to provide precision inrush, current limit, and short circuit control. Advanced detection and power monitoring prevent damage to legacy data-only devices, and power management is possible across multiple ports. Operation only requires 48 V and a handful of passive devices as shown in the figure. The 14-pin device is available in commercial and industrial temperature ranges and is so inexpensive it’s not even worth mentioning here. If you need Power over Ethernet, you need the LTC4263.

VME has long found its way into the harshest applications on the planet (and on Mars, too). These mission-critical systems often include field test equipment that gets bounced, tossed, sloshed, and vibrated around. So it follows that sensor systems that can perform real-world analyses are a natural complement to rugged VME systems. The DT9837 from Data Translation is such a multifunction device designed to attach via USB and perform sound and vibration analysis. With four independent 24-bit Integrated Electronics Piezo Electric sensors synched to a tachometer, data streams can be matched in time for Automotive, acoustics, and even – wait for it – critical sonar applications.

The four 24-bit delta-sigma A/Ds support AC or DC sampling, while the tach in the data stream aids in time synchronization. Each channel supports 52 KHz operation and operates independently of the others. The unit is powered over USB, which implies a simple connection to VME field chassis. Data Translation’s Measure Foundry application development software package allows users to create noise and vibration applications quickly and easily. Additionally, third-party packages like Vibrant Technology’s ME’scope can be used for postprocessing and analysis.

At this month’s Bus&Boards insiders’ conference in Long Beach, California, the fabric interconnect RapidIO was everywhere you looked. It seems that Serial RapidIO is becoming the interconnect of choice for high-performance VME systems, supplemented by PCI Express and GbE. With all three interconnects so prevalent, the need for bridging between them is becoming acute. While PCIe-to-Ethernet bridges are common consumer items straight from desktop PC and server products, Mercury Computer is making it easy to bridge between PCIe and Serial RapidIO with their Serial RapidIO-to-PCIe Intelligent Bridge Core. Available as Verilog HDL in either Synopsis or Synplicity synthesis environments, the core can be implemented in FPGAs, ASICs, ASSPs, or SoC devices. We suspect that for VME systems, the FPGA will prevail.

The core connects a Serial RapidIO port (RapidIO 1.2) operating at up to 3.125 GHz to an x8 PCI Express port (PCI Express 1.1) operating at 2.5 GHz through a nontransparent bridge. The core includes myriad high-level functions pertinent to RapidIO’s value proposition of solving high-speed problems in hardware (while reducing software and processor overhead). Multiple DMA engines, Serial RapidIO mailboxes and interrupts, address mapping, and sophisticated queuing within the intelligent bridge assure high utilization while maintaining maximum port bandwidth. The Verilog HDL targets FPGAs from Altera, Lattice, and Xilinx, and 0.09 micron (or smaller) line width geometries for custom silicon implementations.

Man (and woman) does not live by VME alone. In fact, most developers’ labs have T-frame VME chassis sitting right next to an eviscerated PC with its innards disgorged on a workbench. That’s because programming and interfacing to VME boxes is usually through a PC – and in-development I/O cards are frequently prototyped using PCI cards (because they’re cheap, people). But what to do with PCI cards in a new PCI Express-based PC? Why convert them, of course. Mobility Electronics offers their really hot Magma PCI Expansion Chassis series as one way to add legacy PCI cards to PCIe computers.

Fundamentally a bridge product, just about any type of PCI card can be used – ranging from audio, video, graphics, test and measurement, data acquisition, SCSI, Fibre Channel, SATA, and those unique military interfaces like ARINC 429 and MIL-STD-1553. The chassis’ x1 PCIe connection is compatible with any single PCI Express slot, and the chassis is easily recognized by the host computer via plug-and-play installation. The chassis’ PCI Backplane supports 5 V, universal, and 3.3 V PCI and PCI-X cards and is available in 4U and 2U rack-mount configurations. Backplanes come in configurations of 4, 6, 7, and 13 slots.

VME systems are deployed in all kinds of military environments, and system supply voltages have to feed the VME chassis and all the other electronics and sensors. For military and avionics platforms with 375 Vdc supplies, Vicor’s Maxi module family offers maximum choices. Eight new models bring the total family size to 17 models, with output voltages ranging from 2 to 54 Vdc and power levels from 160 to 600 W.

Input voltage can range from 250 to 425 V, with 375 Vdc nominal and efficiencies up to 89 percent. The new models include: 200 W at 3.3 Vout, 300 W at 5 Vout, and 400 W models at 12, 15, 24, 28, 36, and 48 Vout. All models can withstand a 500 V surge for 100 ms, operate up to 100 °C at full load, and utilize Vicor’s ZCS/ZVS high-frequency switching for low noise and high efficiency. Size is 4.6" x 2.2" x 0.5" (117 x 56 x 12.7 mm). The Maxi family includes inputs of 24, 48, 110, 300, and 375 Vdc.

So what’s a rugged shoebox PC doing in a magazine dedicated to VME? Simple: the other half of our title is “Critical Systems.” The SwitchBack from Black Diamond Advanced Technology is the hot little number that runs Intel’s dual V-twin “quad core show bike” built by the bad boys at Orange County Choppers. It doesn’t get much more mission critical than this, as every ride can be a flirt with death. But the Celeron M-powered SwitchBack can take the punishment.

Running Windows XP, Vista, or Linux, the touchscreen-equipped device has a 5.6" sunlight-readable LCD at 1,024 x 600 (WSVCA), integrated Intel graphics, up to 2 GB of RAM, and a removable HDD up to 120 GB. A built-in QWERTY keyboard and pointing device supplement the touchscreen, and optional Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi, and GPS round out the RF componentry. The standard lithium-polymer battery lasts up to four hours; of course, when installed on the Intel bike, it’ll last until your ARM muscles give out.

Lots has been written about the OCC/Intel bike, but we think the SwitchBack deserves an Editor’s Choice award in VME and Critical Systems magazine … especially because it’s so darned cool.

It seems that COTS suppliers are pretty close on the heels of the latest desktop PC trend: dual-core processors with mammoth amounts of memory. The SVME/DMV-1901 from Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing (“CWCEC” is so much easier to type!) resembles the latest desktop PC available at your favorite big box store. But the key difference is that this one can fly around in a pointy-nosed aircraft or rumble around in the belly of an armored vehicle traversing the desert. Available in flavors from air- to conduction-cooled, and over a wide temperature range, this Intel Core Duo board can run at either 1.67 or 2.0 GHz.

Sporting two PMC/XMC (the PCI Express version of PMC) slots for mezzanine expansion, the single-slot 6U VME board can be equipped with up to 4 GB of ECC DDR2 SDRAM and 4 GB of USB user flash. Dual displays can be driven from the onboard ATI Radeon X300 graphics controller with four-lane PCI Express connectivity. There are two 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports, three USB 2.0 ports, two SATA ports, two SCSI ports (Ultra 320/160), AC ‘97 Audio, and six serial ports in myriad legacy flavors. BSPs abound too, ranging from VxWorks and LynxOS to XPe, Solaris 10, and Linux.

Now that we have your attention turned to deep space, ever wonder if VME is used in space? Sure is: It has 100 percent market share on Mars. And in satellites? Yes running standard interfaces and some that are designed for the rigors of space. One of these is the European Space Agency’s SpaceWire, a serial communications standard intended for communication between satellite components (see ECSS-E-50-12A). SpaceWire “marries IEEE-1355 with LVDS,” says Aeroflex. They ought to know, because their UT200SpWPHY01 (easy for us to say) Physical Layer Transceiver is now QML Q and V qualified.

The device is designed to handle the critical timing issues associated with the SpaceWire Data/Strobe Encoding scheme, and it supports data rates up to 100 Mbps with data/strobe transmit skew less than 400 picoseconds. And since we’re talking about surviving in a radiation environment, the device can withstand up to 300 krad(Si), upsetting charge particle strikes to 40 MeV-cm2/mg, and is SEL immune to greater than 100MeV-cm2/mg. The chip runs on a single 3.3 V supply and even has cold spare on LVDS pins should something ever go wrong. The 28-pin flatpack is tiny: The body consumes only 0.14 in2.

Like all ZTEC oscilloscopes, the ZT4610 family offers traditional oscilloscope features, such as flexible signal conditioning and advanced triggering. Features such as auto-configuration and self-calibration provide quick and easy instrument setup. Powered by a 64-bit processors, the comprehensive on-board analysis library includes typical oscilloscope vertical, horizontal, and frequency measurements. Calculations such as FFT and digital filtering are also provided. Advanced measurement capabilities, including limit and mask testing, peak detect, measurement statistics, and gated measurements, are provided for additional measurement flexibility. Four programmable measurements sets can be used for convenient viewing and storage of frequently used measurements. For those interested in migrating to PXI Express, the ZT4611 for PXI is hybrid slot compatible.

Used to be that rugged VME systems mounted their Power Supply Units (PSUs) in the chassis someplace. But with myriad onboard voltage requirements for higher-draw components, it makes more sense to mount the PSU in a VME slot, directly feeding the Backplane. That’s the intention behind North Atlantic Industries’ 56SQ2 slot-mounted 300 W (full load) PSU. Designed to be fed from a universal single- or three-phase input ranging from 110 to 242 Vac over 47 Hz to 440 Hz, the unit is chock full of useful features including four outputs (plus a fifth for standby).

The 75 percent efficient PSU provides output voltages of + 5 Vdc, +3.3 Vdc, +12 Vdc, and +5 Vdc (standby) with EMI filtering per MIL-STD-461E and input transient protection per MIL-STD-704E. But there’s more to supplying power than, well, just supplying power. The 56SQ2 includes temperature monitoring, continuous short circuit protection and recovery, output current limiting and overvoltage protection, remote error sensing, and even a power fail warning when the input level becomes suspect. A 20 ms hold-up time is also helpful for transients or quick system saves. The device operates from -55 °C to +85 °C at the thermal plane.

The argument rages on: Will the FPGA kill the dedicated DSP processor? Or will DSP-equipped Application-Specific Standard Products (ASSPs) like those found in cell phones keep expensive and power-hungry FPGAs out of the mainstream? Who cares! FPGAs can throw gate-level hardware parallelism at DSP algorithms, while general purpose DSPs use an instruction set to facilitate tasks. With Diamond FPGA from 3L Limited, signal processing tasks can be parceled and optimized to use either type, or both together.

Diamond FPGA builds a single application file by taking DSP and FPGA tasks and automatically combining them with all the necessary support logic. Loading this one file initializes every DSP and FPGA in the system and starts the final application running. The hardware/software codesign environment uses VHDL or high-level EDA tools such as those from Celoxica. Also added to the signal processing mix are Simulink from The MathWorks and System Generator from Xilinx. Diamond FPGA then provides an optimization framework for thread-based functions.

Flash drives are all the rage in embedded systems because the price of the solid-state memory chips has come way down. But on a cost-per-gigabyte basis, no storage media besides paper beats a rotating hard drive. GE Fanuc Embedded Systems knows this and has introduced the PMC-0247 line of serial ATA PMC cards that use 2.5" laptop-style disk drives. Densities are currently 40 or 80 GB, but will probably increase as the portable market adds higher disk densities. The PMC-0247 supports universal signaling and runs on a 3.3 Vdc or 5.0 Vdc PMC site. Designed for use with GE’s own SBCs and PMC carriers, the mezzanine disks include a programmable external flash for BIOS expansion, fast read/write performance, and can even operate on a 32/64-bit, 133 MHz PCI-X interface. The module is available for operation in continuous mode and is compliant with VITA 39 (PCI-X for PMC and Processor PMC). Chances are GE may introduce an XMC version of this product as more SBCs add serial fabrics. GE Fanuc Embedded Systems www.gefanuc.com RSC# 30697

Here’s a new one to us: Cornet Technology Communications, a division of Cornet Technology, has been in the systems integration business for some time, but they’re new to the embedded VME market. Based upon their experience with customer systems, they’re making available the Celero CVME-7410 quad PowerPC single board computer. In addition to a Linux BSP, the company is offering something unique: what they claim is the first VME board to support Wind River’s VxWorks Safety Critical OS platform. This enables designers to develop systems compliant with DO-178B and ARINC-653, used in civil aviation and increasingly required in mission- or safety-critical military systems. The CVME-7410 accommodates two or four 500 MHz MPC7410s, up to 256 MB of SDRAM per processor, and 32 MB of flash per processor. Two 64-bit PMC sites can route I/O to the front panel or the Backplane. I/O includes two RS-232, two RS-232/422/485, eight low-voltage TTL digital lines, and a single 10/100 Ethernet port. Interprocessor communications are based on the Marvell Discovery II, and Tundra’s Universe II bolts up to the VMEbus. The board is air-cooled only and operates from 0 °C to 55 °C, though we met with Cornet at a defense conference and their Safety Critical VxWorks BSP is probably indicative of their future military plans. Cornet Technology Communications www.cornet.com RSC# 30698

Among all the ink we journalists spill writing about PCI Express (PCIe) and RapidIO, sometimes we forget about other serial fabrics such as InfiniBand. This heavyweight serial scheme is ideal for cluster computers, managed infrastructure applications, and systems such as enterprise class servers and storage peripherals. Or, it makes a dandy way to provide high-reliability, high-speed connections between VME chassis or sensors. And if a PC or Intel server is part of your VME system (no, I don’t mean actually resident on the VMEbus itself), then PathScale’s InfiniPath InfiniBand Adapter for PCIe is an ideal way to connect to a blazingly fast InfiniBand fabric. Originally designed for Intel Xeon single- and dual-core servers arranged in clusters, this PCI Express x8 pluggable module is designed to eliminate bottlenecks and latencies that can slow systems down. The InfiniPath uses a HyperMessaging Architecture to deliver a high message rate and effective bandwidth of more than 10 million messages per second. This “10X-MR” rate is “10 times more messages per second than any other cluster interconnect” says the manufacturer, and is designed to scale well and reduce fabric congestion in cluster applications. Surely this kind of performance is destined to bolt up to something like a deployed VME multicomputer in a connectionless software environment. PathScale www.pathscale.com RSC# 30699

The DoD’s Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is a huge program that has boatloads of software at its core. Of primary importance are the SCA core framework and the portable waveforms that must work on myriad equipment while interoperating with older, hard-wired radios. Therefore, writing code for JTRS equipment can be a real nightmare. At least, that’s the problem that Zeligsoft is trying to solve with its Component Enabler (CE) 2.4. This JTRS development tool helps software designers determine the usability of their software components in the field, and verifies compliance against the SCA.

CE 2.4 takes into account the target hardware deployment platform that the JTRS radio will ultimately run on. It also allows designers to write code and then iterate that code to balance the metrics of JTRS compliance, hardware choices, and waveform interoperability. Because of the iteration capability, the product speeds development, aids in the test phase, and ultimately saves costs.

Also available in CE 2.4 are modeling, validation, and runtime analysis capabilities. Multiple application views are intended for teams working on different portions of the overall code set, while keeping track of the overall combined set of software modules. A validation feature links to SCA validation and the latest version of the SCA specs, flagging rule violations. Writing and validating code for a JTRS radio will never be easy, but Zeligsoft’s Component Enabler makes the task easier.

The gazillion gate highly integrated FPGAs from companies ranging from A to X offer performance to spare but come with a heavy power penalty. Although VME boards have ample power budgets of up to 100 W these days, that power has to be dumped into the system somehow. If you can save power, why not do it? That’s the intention of QuickLogic’s QL8150 Eclipse II FPGAs. Designed for light-density logic applications such as handheld devices, they’re also ideal for fixed-function interface controllers on VME basecards, PMC mezzanines, active backplanes, and chassis front panels.

With 188,946 maximum gates and 640 logic cells in a 32 x 32 logic array, this small 8 x 8 mm footprint BGA package uses only 196 fine-pitch balls. Power consumption varies, but think battery powered, and you’re in the right realm. The devices are designed to operate over a -40 °C to +100 °C temperature range, so deployment in conduction-cooled VME chassis should be no problem.

Developing multiprocessor systems ain’t easy – just ask Mercury Computer, a company best known for commercial and military image processing systems. That’s why the company plans to offer a series of COTS-based system starter kits, starting with a RapidIO-based VXS Starter Kit. Based on the company’s recent PowerStream 6100, the kit includes processor, FPGA reconfigurable, interconnect, sensor, and software components – all tied together in a VXS (VITA 41.2) chassis. The Starter Kit includes the PowerStream 6100 VXS chassis, whose equivalent production version Mercury claims “sets a new record” for performance at 761 GFLOPS and 42 GBps sustained fabric throughput. Next in the kit are up to three quad 1 GHz PowerPC 7448 high-compute density boards, two serial RapidIO switch cards, a host/PMC carrier, a 12-channel digital receiver, and a software bundle. The software includes the complete Mercury MCOE environment, consisting of tools, libraries, and middleware. VXS is VME standard that allows serial fabric-enabled boards to coexist in a Backplane with legacy VME 32/64 boards. Mercury Computer Systems www.mc.com RSC# 30679

It used to be that MIL-STD-1553 chips were based upon ASICs. That’s still the case, but with those digital logic caverns commonly known as FPGAs, it’s now possible to implement full 1553 functionality inside of one. Condor Engineering’s FlightCORE-1553 implements the company’s proven 1553 technology in portable intellectual property for use in Altera and Xilinx FPGAs. The IP provides multifunction, simultaneous BC, single RT, and single monitor capabilities. RT mode has been validated per MIL-STD-1553’s Appendix A RT Validation Test Plan. Besides saving board space, implementing 1553 in an FPGA also allows engineers to simulate many more inputs while in the prototype stage, thus getting the product to market faster. The FlightCORE-1553 Get Started Kit includes the IP, example builds, a Bill of Materials (BOM), flexible API software, schematics, and a micro-sized Personality Module. The IP is royalty-free. Condor Engineering www.condoreng.com RSC #25152

There is no denying that many VME applications have a tremendous need for processing and I/0 performance. Packing in all the performance possible has been a design challenge since the dawn of VME. Adding interconnect capability such as Serial Rapaid0 and FPDP only adds to the challenge. The PowerNode5 from Thales is the first dual 64-bit PowerPC970 VME blade server with Backplane Serial Rapid0 and Serial FPDP connectivity.

The PowerNode5 design includes a powerful, reliable Serial RapidI0 switch fabric solution that allows t end user the ability to interconnect computing nodes inside a signal processing system. This Serial Rapid0 technology reduces pin counts while providing a full-duplex capability as well as a low-latency pocket-based interconnect data push. Each PowerNode5 is equipped with a four-port switch allowing a flexible, full-mesh interconnect of up to four PowerNode5s and scalable up to a 16-PowerNode5 machine. The resulting aggregate throughout reaches up to 25.6 G8ps, ideal for demanding signal processing applications found in radar, sonar, and medical imaging applications.

Deployed military systems aren’t all bombs and battles. There remains a fundamental need for comms networks, including Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) with T1 data lines. If VME’s your platform of choice for a conduction-cooled telephone or line card system, then Extreme Engineering’s got a PMC you’re gonna want to check out. The company’s XPort2001 is an intelligent conduction-cooled PMC with four software configurable T1/E1/J1 interfaces controlled by a Freescale MPC8270 450 MHz PowerQUICC II.

Software configurability means that DIP switches aren’t needed for on-the-fly protocol changes. The 256 MB of SDRAM and 64 MB of flash are ample for adding optional SS7 software to configure a system as a telephone switch. Additionally, the XPort2001 offers Asterisk software support through a driver implementing the Zapel interface on Linux. Extreme Engineering says this enables, for example, an ISDN primary rate interface to operate over a traditional T1/E1 connection to an Asterisk-equipped PBX.