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p. 6 Editorâ€™s Foreword Embedded Tech Trends in review

p. 8 VITA News VITA 4.0

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SPRING 2014 | VOLUME 32 NUMBER 1

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On the cover VPX turns 10! These first 10 years have laid down a solid foundation for this technology that is sure to have many more years of growth. As VPX completes its first decade, member companies from around the industry are actively engaged in the development and enhancement of the leading COTS standard for harsh environment deployments, evidenced with Behlman Electronics VPXtra™ 1500CS AC-to-DC COTS power supply.

6 Editor’s Foreword

Jerry Gipper

Embedded Tech Trends in review

»» p. 11

VPX turns 10

7 Primetime Choices

By Jerry Gipper

Four product highlights from the Embedded Tech Trends conference

8 VITA News

Jerry Gipper

VITA 4.0

10 Defining Standards

Jerry Gipper

VITA Technologies Hall of Fame Class of 2014 System management on VPX: Leveraging VITA 46.11 for VPX plug-in modules »» p. 14

By Mark Overgaard, Pigeon Point Systems

Taking the guesswork out of VPX power designs with intelligent extender cards »» p. 18

By Brian Roberts, Dawn VME Products

Advertiser Index 2

Annapolis Micro Systems, Inc. – WILDSTAR OpenVPX ecosystem

Behlman Electronics – Executive speakout on VPXtra 1500CS

Dawn VME Products, Inc. – AC does it

Elma Electronic – Storage solutions

Excalibur Systems, Inc. – 1553couplers.com

Hartmann Elektronik – Executive speakout on VPX power supplies and backplanes

Interface Concept – Advanced electronic solutions

LCR Embedded Systems – Rugged systems engineered for your application

North Atlantic Industries – Rugged SBCs from NAI

North Atlantic Industries – 3U cPCI SBCs

Orion Technologies Inc. – 3U OpenVPX i7 processors

Pentek, Inc. – Critical recording in any arena when you can’t afford to miss a beat

Pigeon Point Systems – VITA 46.11 management solutions available now!

Schroff Pentair – VME, VME64X, and VPX systems...faster

United Electronic Industries – Will your VME I/O system go EOL this year?

VEROTEC Electronics Packaging – Verotec integrated packaging system building components

Wolf Industrial Systems, Inc. – Capture and display together at last: VPX3U-E8860-FGX

Wolf Industrial Systems, Inc. – A new dawn for embedded graphics: XMC-E8860-VO

All registered brands and trademarks within VITA Technologies magazine are the property of their respective owners. ™VPX and its logo is a registered product/trademark of VITA. © 2014 OpenSystems Media © 2014 VITA Technologies enviroink.indd 1

4 | VITA Technologies Spring 2014

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VITA Technologies Editorial/Production Staff Jerry Gipper, Editorial Director jerry.gipper@opensystemsmedia.com Amanda Harvey, Assistant Editor aharvey@opensystemsmedia.com

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OpenSystems Media Editorial/Production Staff John McHale, Editorial Director Military Embedded Systems PC/104 and Small Form Factors jmchale@opensystemsmedia.com Jerry Gipper, Editorial Director VITA Technologies jgipper@opensystemsmedia.com Curt Schwaderer, Editorial Director Embedded Computing Design cschwaderer@opensystemsmedia.com Monique DeVoe, Managing Editor Embedded Computing Design, DSP-FPGA.com mdevoe@opensystemsmedia.com Brandon Lewis, Assistant Managing Editor Embedded Computing Design PICMG Systems & Technology Industrial Embedded Systems blewis@opensystemsmedia.com

Sally Cole, Senior Editor Military Embedded Systems scole@opensystemsmedia.com Lisa Daigle, Assistant Managing Editor Military Embedded Systems PC/104 and Small Form Factors ldaigle@opensystemsmedia.com Amanda Harvey, Assistant Editor Military Embedded Systems, VITA Technologies aharvey@opensystemsmedia.com Rory Dear, Technical Contributor Embedded Computing Design rdear@opensystemsmedia.com Konrad Witte, Senior Web Developer Steph Sweet, Creative Director Dave Diomede, Creative Services Director Joann Toth, Senior Designer

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VITA Technologies Spring 2014 | NA1028 VITA Tech Mar SBC 1/3 Page AF.indd 1

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Editor’s Foreword By Jerry Gipper, Editorial Director @VitaTechnology

jgipper@opensystemsmedia.com

Embedded Tech Trends in review Embedded Tech Trends 2014, the business and technology forum for critical and intelligent embedded systems, just wrapped up in Phoenix. This year 19 sponsor companies and 13 editors and industry analysts gathered for an intensive two days of technology presentations and meetings. Twenty-five presentations were delivered in a very fast paced format that kept everyone on their toes. Each morning session of presentations was followed by a hectic afternoon of one-on-one sponsor/media meetings. The purpose of the event is to bring media and industry thought leaders together to exchange ideas and to network among peers. It is good old fashioned face-to-face networking that is not possible with even the best of online social media networks. Nothing beats spending a few days with such a collection of industry colleagues. I left the event filled with new ideas and industry connections.

PRESENTATIONS

The presentations were in TED Talk format, meaning they were supposed to be about 15 minutes in length, light on bulleted text, and were to be devoid of promotional material.

About half of the presenters stuck to that format while others are still learning the style. Keeping the presentations short allowed much more content to be added to the agenda while keeping the energy level high and the event moving at a fast pace. I kicked off the event with a bit of data on the state of the industry and highlights from the International CES that I attended in January in Las Vegas. Toby Colquhoun, an analyst with IHS Electronics & Media, then presented a high-level rundown on market numbers for VITA and PICMG technologies. Attendees left the conference exhausted from the intensity of the sessions but excited to have exchanged so much information and renewed industry connections. All of the presentations are posted and can be viewed at the Embedded Tech Trends website [www.embeddedtechtrends.com]. The event in 2015 will be held January 19 and 20 at a location to be determined. Be sure to check out sponsorship opportunities and get this event on your marketing calendars.

The remaining presentations covered many industry related topics as indicated by the following titles: ›› The rising importance of signal integrity in VPX Systems ›› New EW architectures based on tight coupling of FPGA and TE Connectivity – Matthew McAlonis CPU processing, OpenVPX Radar & EW platforms Interface Concept – Thierry Wastiaux ›› New direction for Digital Signal Processing Kontron – Glenn Johnson ›› FMCs in defense markets, extending to industrial TechwaY – Patrick Mechin ›› FMCs: Are you measuring the right metrics? 4DSP – Mike Pochkowski ›› VPX approaches to rugged, conduction-cooled software radio applications using Virtex-7 architectures ›› Is ‘open’ delaying the future of cognitive computing? Pentek – Rodger Hosking Mercury Systems – Ian Dunn › › Considerations for bridging storage technologies ›› The compliance challenge Elma Electronic – Ken Grob Elma Electronic – Michael Munroe › › Certification for avionic mission computers ›› Alternative embedded architectures without a central processor CES – Creative Electronic Systems SA – Wayne McGee Alpha Data, Inc. – Adam Smith ›› Bringing server-class performance to mobile military applications ›› Extending the AdvancedTCA standard for higher performance Mercury Systems – Marc Couture footprint Artesyn Embedded Technologies – Rob Persons ›› Rugged MicroTCA poised to take on VPX for mil/aero applications VadaTech – Justin Moll ›› Video processing technologies and challenges for mil/aero applications ›› PICMG update CES – Creative Electronic Systems SA – Alan Simmonds PICMG – Doug Sandy ›› SMARC for low power, low cost, high performance design ›› VITA update ADLINK Technology – Matthias Huber VITA – Jerry Gipper ›› Chassis vendor perspective on the standards market ›› Eliminating the fall-out from Moore’s Law: A profitable alternative LCR Embedded Systems, Inc. – John Long to end-of-life GDCA – Ethan Plotkin ›› Testing for PCIe SSD compatibility and performance Teledyne LeCroy – John Wiedemeier ›› The Next Generation Space Interconnect Standard (NGSIS) – SpaceVPX (VITA 78) ›› Getting rugged with COM Express Air Force Research Laboratory – Patrick Collier MEN Mikro Elektronik GmbH – Michael Planner

6 | VITA Technologies Spring 2014

www.vita-technologies.com

PRIMETIME CHOICES Many of the sponsors of Embedded Tech Trends used this opportunity to roll out new products. I was impressed with the passion that was displayed by the companies making these announcements.

Industry’s first FMC/VPX carrier with optical backplane interface Rarely do you see as much enthusiasm displayed during a product briefing as that exhibited by Rodger Hosking, Vice President of Pentek. He was as thrilled as a grandfather bragging about his first grandchild! His excitement was over the Flexor line of FMC (FPGA Mezzanine Card) carriers and FMC modules: the Model 5973 3U VPX FMC carrier with a Virtex-7 FPGA and the Model 3312 multichannel, high speed data converter FMC. Together they combine the high performance of the Virtex-7 with the flexibility of the FMC data converter, creating a complete radar and software radio solution. The Flexor Model 5973 delivers new levels of I/O performance by incorporating the emerging VITA 66.4 standard for half-size MT optical interconnect, providing 12 optical duplex lanes to the backplane. With the installation of a serial protocol, the VITA 66.4 interface enables gigabit backplane communications between boards independent of the PCIe interface. The Flexor Model 3312 FMC surpasses the speed and density of previous products with four 250 MHz 16-bit A/Ds and two 800 MHz 16-bit D/As. Its high pin-count FMC connector matches the new Virtex-7 FPGA carrier, boosting performance levels and adding flexibility. Pentek, Inc. | www.pentek.com | www.vita-technologies.com/p9916808 | www.vita-technologies.com/p9916807

Ultra high-speed ADC on an FMC When doing analog to digital conversion, high sample rates can be very critical. Adding the capability to the increasingly popular FMC form factor is even better. 4DSP announced the release of two new FMCs for high-speed data acquisition and generation. The FMC160 provides one 12-bit A/D channel at 3.6 Gsps and one 14-bit D/A channel at 5.6 Gsps. The FMC161 provides one 12-bit A/D channel at 3.6 Gsps or two A/D channels at 1.8 Gsps. The FMC160 and FMC161 are based on Texas Instruments’ ADC12D1800 Analog-to-Digital converter plus the FMC160 adds Analog Devices’ AD9129 Digital-to-Analog converter. Both can be used in a conduction-cooled environment. 4DSP LLC | www.4dsp.com | www.vita-technologies.com/p9916810

Feature rich and power efficient It never ceases to amaze how much functionality can be placed on today’s 6U Single Board Computers (SBCs). While the package pin-count continues to grow, the chip count goes down, with increasing functionality going into each new generation of processors and chipsets. Concurrent Technologies’ latest VPX processor board based on the 4th generation Intel Core processor family is part of that trend. The VR E1x/msd is a 6U VPX board featuring either the quad-core Intel Core i7-4700EQ processor or the dual-core Intel Core i5-4400E processor, together with the associated mobile Intel QM87 Express chipset. With up to 32 Gbytes of DRAM and a rich assortment of I/O interfaces, including two PMC/XMC sites, this board is ideal for high-end command and control, surveillance, radar, and image processing systems. Concurrent Technologies | www.gocct.com | www.vita-technologies.com/p9916813

COM Express gets rugged It was no magic, just hard work as the MEN Micro team dealt the cards with the secret of making COM Express rugged. They have been working for some time now to define a new standard for rugged mezzanine cards. The effort was announced as Rugged COM Express. The new VITA 59 standard enables the proven COM Express technology to be used in missioncritical and harsh environments. New mechanical parameters guarantee operation across an extended temperature range, while providing high shock and vibration resistance as well as EMC protection. Rugged COM Express adds PCB wings for mounting the electronics inside a Conduction Cooled Aluminum (CCA) frame. When combined with passive cooling, the CCA technology enables electronics to work in high temperature ranges without the need for high-maintenance fans. MEN Micro, Inc. | www.menmicro.com | www.vita-technologies.com/p9916815 www.vita-technologies.com

VITA Technologies Spring 2014 |

VITA News By Jerry Gipper exec@vita.com

VITA 4.0 Thirty years ago the VMEbus Manufacturers Group, founded in 1982, became the VMEbus International Trade Association, commonly known as VITA. Few organizations in the embedded computing world have the staying power that lasts more than a few years. Even fewer have a legacy that stretches back more than 30 years. VITA is such an organization, staying strong and significant through all those years. Under the guidance of the executive director, Ray Alderman, and his team: technical director John Rynearson and administrator Lollie Wheeler, VITA has become a recognized leader in standards and business development for the critical and intelligent embedded computing industry. A new chapter is being added to the VITA story. In January I became the new executive director of VITA. I am excited to be taking the reins of such a respected and influential organization. The opportunities ahead are limitless as we move into what I call VITA 4.0 (I am the fourth executive director of VITA).

IRS WEBSITE

VITA is registered with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) under Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code for business leagues. I found it helpful to revisit the IRS definition of the VITA registration. From the IRS website: Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code provides for the exemption of business leagues … A business league is an association of persons having some common business interest, the purpose of which is to promote such common interest and not to engage in a regular business of a kind ordinarily carried on for profit. To be exempt, a business league’s activities must be devoted to improving business conditions of one or more lines of business as distinguished from performing particular services for individual persons. No part of a business league’s net earnings may inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual and it may not be organized for profit to engage in an activity ordinarily carried on for profit (even if the business is operated on a cooperative basis or produces only enough income to be s elf-sustaining). The term line of business generally refers either to an entire industry or to all components of an industry within a geographic area. VITA falls right in the sweet spot of the 501(c)(6) definition: VITA is an incorporated, non-profit organization of vendors

8 | VITA Technologies Spring 2014

VITA 4.0 WILL BE EVEN MORE FOCUSED ON INCREASING THE SCOPE AND IMPACT THE ORGANIZATION AND ITS MEMBERS WILL HAVE ON THE CRITICAL AND INTELLIGENT EMBEDDED COMPUTING INDUSTRY.

and users having a common market interest in real-time, modular embedded computing systems for critical and intelligent applications. VITA provides its members with the ability to develop and to promote open technology standards that open new markets. VITA unites its members, manufacturers, and users through the acceptance and implementation of open technology standards that are critical to the success of the members. VITA provides the technical and marketing services of a standards development organization and business development for its members. VITA is a forum for developing accredited standards, discussing options, and promotion of the technology. The scope of VITA is bound by its members to meet the computing needs for systems in critical and intelligent applications. Originally the scope, or line of business, was limited to VMEbus technology only. Over the years, the scope has increased to stay relevant to the changing needs of the industry. VITA 4.0 will be even more focused on increasing the scope and impact the organization and its members will have on the critical and intelligent embedded computing industry. VITA’s mission is to promote the concept of open standards as embodied in the many standards developed or under development within the VITA Standards Organization (VSO). Going into 2014 I do not expect any major, sweeping changes to the mission and objectives of VITA. There will be changes to the staff as John and Lollie have both announced their intentions to retire after many years of dedicated service to VITA. I view this as an opportunity to review some of the business processes and shift assignments to make the organization even more efficient and effective. I will be evaluating and implementing new webbased tools that will make the work of the members easier and more accessible to the membership as a whole. www.vita-technologies.com

Key objectives for 2014 Under the mission, VITA has two key objectives to reach as we go into 2014: Keep the VSO pipeline full of meaningful and beneficial programs for critical and intelligent embedded computing technology. Many current projects have much work remaining to be completed. VPX, for example, has several working groups working on multiple aspects of this popular standard. The VSO will continue efforts to develop small form factor standards that are important to critical and intelligent embedded computing. Efforts to expand into optical standards and technology have already begun and will increase in intensity as the need for faster and bigger data pipes continues to grow. VITA will continue to research new areas for possible standards development projects that should be brought into our standards development process. Increase VITA and VITA member visibility in the critical and intelligent embedded computing markets. Over the years VITA has become recognized as a key standards development organization for critical and intelligent embedded computing technology. We will continue to promote VITA as the place to bring new standards development projects for key technology. The VSO processes, with its ANSI ratification of specifications and ex-ante patent policy, lead in the standards development community.

www.vita-technologies.com

Along with the work done within the working groups of the VSO, we will increase marketing alliance activities to drive interest in the resulting technologies and to grow ecosystems of suppliers. VITA will be researching and creating new marketing services to enable expanding into non-traditional markets. And we intend to expand international visibility and participation through global marketing activities that promote our standards and marketing capabilities. VITA fills a critical void in technology development. The opportunities are numerous, especially as innovation remains one of the best ways to achieve growth in tough economic times. Having both the supply and demand of the market as VITA members is going to make it easier to identify new problems in the market, leading to the development of technology specifications that will solve those problems. I am very confident that the creative minds of our membership will provide the needed stimulus to help VITA thrive and grow as we meet the upcoming challenges. If you are an innovator who is seeking to have an impact on the industry, there is no better time than now to get involved. Don’t sit on the sidelines; visit the VITA website (www.vita.com) now to learn how you can join the efforts. I look forward to your participation. Jerry Gipper • VITA Executive Director • jerry@vita.com

VITA Technologies Spring 2014 |

Defining Standards By Jerry Gipper

VITA Technologies Hall of Fame Class of 2014 There have been a great number of people who have made tremendous contributions to the innovation and advancement of many technologies that have been important to the critical and intelligent embedded computing industry. The intention of the VITA Technologies Hall of Fame is to honor and preserve the memory of the key contributors. Last fall we announced the launch of the VITA Technologies Hall of Fame. John Rynearson, the current technical director of VITA, was the first inductee into the Hall of Fame. With this issue, we are announcing additional inductees. We are also releasing the process for nominating and selecting future inductees. New inductees: Cecil Kaplinksy; Craig MacKenna; John Black; Shlomo Pri-Tal; Wayne Fischer. Our first three inductees – Cecil Kaplinsky, Craig MacKenna, and John Black developed the first draft of the VMEbus specification. Unfortunately we have lost touch with two of these VMEbus pioneers. Cecil, who was at Signetics at the time of the launch of VMEbus, went on to a career of IP development but it appears that he passed away in 1999. Craig was the designer of Mostek’s first VME processor board but has not been heard from in recent years. John authored the VMEbus specification, which was eventually adopted as an IEEE, ANSI, and ISO standard. In 1985 John left Motorola to found his own company (Micrology pbt, Inc) to work with startup companies seeking to offer leadingedge embedded multiprocessing computer systems based on the VMEbus standard. At the same time he and two partners launched a technical publishing company (OpenSystems Publishing, now called OpenSystems Media) to p romote the development of open standards,

10 | VITA Technologies Spring 2014

and to assist start-up companies in introducing products based on those standards. In addition to his partner responsibilities, John served as editor-in-chief of VMEbus Systems (now VITA Technologies) magazine and Real-time Engineering magazine. In 2003 John joined Arizona State University as a Research Scientist to help launch the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing and the iCARE project, which conducts research aimed at the development of assistive technologies for people who are blind. Shlomo Pri-Tal joined Motorola in 1980, and was an originator of the VMEbus architecture. In 1984 Shlomo assumed the chair of the VME Subsystem Bus (VSB) 1096 committee. One year later, he would do the same with the IEEE 1014 VMEbus working group. Shlomo was elected chairman of the VITA Technical Committee in 1987. Shlomo has remained connected to the original Motorola team in one form or another. He is now the CTO of Artesyn Embedded Technologies, which is the latest incarnation of Motorola, Force Computers, and several other embedded technology companies that have merged together over the years. Wayne Fischer was working as Motorola’s 68000 microprocessor expert for Silicon Valley in 1981 and became involved with the VME strategy as part of Motorola’s plans for expanding the new CPU’s market. As Fischer recalls, “VME was a means to an end, not an end unto itself.” Wayne went to Force Computers in 1983. He headed the IEEE working group for the U.S. VMEbus standard, IEEE 1014, gaining final approval in 1987. He fully retired in January of 2000 and moved to Lake Tahoe to enjoy the beauty of the area, remaining active in the local community.

More on each of these inductees can be found at the Hall of Fame website: http://opensystemsmedia.com/ hall-of-fame/vita-technologies

Nomination and selection process We have developed a simple nomination and selection process that is loosely based on the NFL Hall of Fame process. Any “fan” may nominate any qualified individual, team of individuals, company, product, or technology to the VITA Technologies Hall of Fame via the nomination form on the Hall of Fame website. The only restriction is that the nominee must have had a significant impact on the critical and intelligent embedded computing industry. The nominees will be gathered into a ballot at the end of November each year. The ballot will be distributed to the current members of VITA, who will make up the Selection Committee, for online voting. Each member company will have one ballot to select their top choices. To be elected, a finalist must receive at least 80 percent support from the ballot, with at least five, but no more than 10, candidates being elected annually. If less than five candidates get 80 percent of the vote, then the top five vote-getters will be inducted that year. If more than 10 get 80 percent, then only the top 10 vote-getters will be inducted. There is no set number for any class (people, products, companies, etc) of inductees. To assure that older nominees will be considered along with the younger breed, the Seniors Committee, made up of the current VITA Board of Directors, will ensure that at least five candidates active pre-1995 are included on the ballot. This is a great way for the industry to show our appreciation for the contributions made to make this industry such a success. Be sure to submit your nominations. www.vita-technologies.com

MAIN FEATURE

By Jerry Gipper, Editorial Director On January 19, 2004 at the Bus & Board Conference in Long Beach, CA, Dy 4 Systems, Mercury Computer Systems, Radstone Technology, and VISTA Controls jointly announced support for the latest VME standard to address the needs of deployed military systems. The proposal was made to ensure that the next VME specification met the I/O, processing, and power distribution requirements of the military and aerospace market. Within a few months, the effort was branded VPX. The VITA 46 working group was quickly formed to begin development of this new standard. The goal of the VITA 46 working group was to develop a specification that enabled significant highspeed backplane I/O and blade-to-blade communication using a variety of serial switch fabrics, as well as legacy VMEbus or PCI bus protocols, for commercial and military systems. The specification also had to address the use of high-speed connectors in harsh environments. Many other companies joined in the effort to develop the VPX VITA 46 family of specifications. By 2009, the VPX Marketing Alliance was formed to carry on the necessary promotional efforts for VPX and OpenVPX, the architectural framework that defines a VPX system. Dy 4 Systems, Radstone Technology, and VISTA Controls have since been bought by Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions, and Mercury Computer Systems is now Mercury Systems, but the effort expended by these companies to develop VPX products is stronger than ever. The first 10 years have established VPX as the leading embedded computing platform for many defense programs. www.vita-technologies.com

Growth projections VPX revenues were projected by industry analysts to match VME by 2012. This didn’t quite happen, as the cuts and uncertainty on military program spending went on longer than expected and is in fact still ongoing. New data from IHS Electronics & Media shows the crossover more likely to now occur in 2016 (see Figure 1). VPX has established a strong foothold in many defense programs that use high performance and rugged computing platforms. The defense sector represents about 80 percent of the revenue for VME and VPX combined. This could be even higher

The World Market for VME and VPX Boards and Systems Revenues ($M) - 2012 to 2017 Source: IHS Electronics and Media, 2013

600 500 400 300 200 100 0 2012

›

VPX VME

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

Figure 1 | VPX and VME projected revenues from 2012 to 2017. Information courtesy of IHS Electronics & Media. VITA Technologies Spring 2014 |

MAIN FEATURE

VPX Products in VITA Product Directory Source: VITA

400 350

# of Products

for VPX exclusively as the defense sector is the primary market for VPX technology at this time. In the early days of VMEbus it was just the opposite – most of the focus was on industrial and defense had no interest. Over time it will be interesting to see how other market sectors pick up on the VPX technology. Members of VITA are reporting VPX design wins in some transportation and industrial applications that can take advantage of the performance and rugged packaging of VPX.

250 200 150 100 50

The ecosystem The VITA VPX Marketing Alliance is 41 members strong and growing, with new companies joining the alliance on a regular basis. The alliance tracks the number of products in the VITA product directory as illustrated in Figure 2. There has been a steady and consistent increase in the number of products since the first products were introduced in 2007. Figure 2 is not an all-inclusive list, but it is estimated to represent 60 to 70 percent of the products available worldwide. The variety of products span single board computers, signal processing, specialized I/O, backplanes, chassis, and complete integrated systems, ensuring that there are many choices for system designers.

300

›

Figure 2 | This chart displays the number of VPX products in the VITA product directory.

Challenges VPX has moved beyond the hype curve and is now in the ramping stage as programs using VPX-based platforms are starting early deployment. The specification is still being rounded out, with new capabilities being defined each year. The OpenVPX initiative to develop an architectural framework that defines interoperability of VPX components

continues to evolve with new combinations added with each release. The architects working on this specification are starting to see some of the early shortfalls, making adjustments as needed to the framework document. Part of this work is to eliminate unused combinations that never were realized in the real world or that have been supplanted by better options. Continuing to evolve

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12 | VITA Technologies Spring 2014

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the OpenVPX architectural framework will remain a challenge for some time to come. The ecosystem is also researching how to evolve to adopt optical interconnect technology that is emerging on the horizon. The VITA 66 Optical Interconnect on VPX specifications are the first fruits of the working group’s efforts. The first products implementing optical interconnections are just starting to show up in the market. Many technical challenges still remain but with the physical limitations of a copper interconnect, there are not a lot of optimal choices to handle the explosion of data that must be transported in the next generation of critical embedded computing platforms. Fortunately, the fabric wars have settled down and the leaders have been established with Ethernet, PCI Express, Serial RapidIO, and the occasional InfiniBand implementation. There is sure to be new technology, but for now the suppliers are able to focus on product development with any of these fabrics with assurance that they can achieve a return on their investment. The complexity of VPX systems has led to a higher level of integration than what was typically provided by VMEbus suppliers in the past. Even at the board level, many suppliers are offering a more complete solution or are teaming with other suppliers in the chain to increase the level of system integration. The leading suppliers in the industry – for instance, Mercury Systems and CurtissWright Controls Defense Solutions, are offering platforms that are near ready for deployment. Others, such as Elma Electronic or Kontron, offer systems and integration services to help reduce the integration challenge. The recent release of VITA 46.11 VPX System Management promises to make system level products even more robust.

The future A category of computing called High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) is emerging. The use of switched serial fabrics makes it possible to interconnect systems in ways that lend themselves to the challenges of very high performance computing. VPX is establishing itself as a top solution for www.vita-technologies.com

embedded platforms. The packaging density combines with the high performance levels to create some very interesting platforms, especially in signal processing applications that require a high number of computing blades in a rugged package. VPX is expanding into new application areas. VITA 78 SpaceVPX Systems describes an open standard for creating high performance fault tolerant inter operable backplanes and modules to assemble electronic systems for spacecraft and other high availability applications. Such systems will support a wide

variety of use cases across the aerospace community. This standard leverages the OpenVPX standards family and the commercial infrastructure that supports these standards in non-space applications. The first 10 years have laid down a very solid foundation for a technology that is sure to have many years of growth in its future. There is still plenty of work ahead for the VPX ecosystem as both the technology and markets evolve and mature. Happy 10th anniversary VPX!

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VITA Technologies Spring 2014 |

SPECIAL FEATURE

System management on VPX: Leveraging VITA 46.11 for VPX plug-in modules By Mark Overgaard In November 2013, after several years of work, VITA 46.11 was adopted as a Draft Standard for Trial Use in the VPX community. The draft standard defines components, interfaces, mechanisms, and general infrastructure to support the implementation of an interoperable management subsystem within VPX that enables features such as inventory, sensor, and diagnostic management, as well as system configuration and recovery. In the absence of VITA 46.11, such features, if present in VPX systems, would be implemented as part of the application(s), rather than as a standardized layer serving the application(s). VITA 46.11 aims to enable, for the system management aspects of applications, many of the same benefits that COTS hardware has long provided: lower cost and quicker application development and system upgrades. VITA 46.11 addresses two main levels of system management. The lowest level is the individual front-loading plug-in module, where the integrated management entity is called an Intelligent Platform Management Controller (IPMC). The next level up is the overall chassis, including all the modules and other management-visible facilities (such as fan trays) it contains. The management entity at this level is the Chassis Manager, which supervises the chassis and its constituent elements, in addition to representing the chassis to upper layers of management. In VITA 46.11, those upper management layers are represented by a logical System Manager. This article focuses on the IPMC level of VITA 46.11, introducing the functionality and responsibilities of this level. It also covers possible approaches to implementing this level using a generic hardware + firmware component that provides the core of an IPMC, suitable for adaptation to the needs of a particular module and associated application(s).

14 | VITA Technologies Spring 2014

How do the system management levels in VITA 46.11 communicate? Figure 1 shows these levels and the System Manager interface, which is typically implemented over an Ethernet link to the Chassis Manager. Each module in a VITA 46.11 compliant system includes an IPMC, which monitors the operation of that module and represents the management aspects of the module to the Chassis Manager. The main connection between the Chassis Manager and the IPMCs in the chassis is the I2C-based System IPMB (Intelligent Platform Management Bus), which is optionally dual redundant. Figure 1 represents the logical architecture; VITA 46.11 can be applied in any compatible VPX-based system.

How does VITA 46.11 leverage ATCA management (and its IPMI foundation)? The VITA 46.11 working group chose to leverage the management infrastructure in PICMG’s AdvancedTCA (ATCA) architecture rather than start from scratch. This choice accelerated development of

the standard and will hasten availability and maturity of VITA 46.11-compliant products because the management controllers can be derived from corresponding mature ATCA controllers. Effective collaboration with PICMG was a key factor in implementing this approach. PICMG graciously agreed that substantial portions of the VITA 46.11 standard could be derived (with attribution) from the corresponding sections of the ATCA specification. PICMG also agreed to share materials related to its management interoperability testing, which has occurred in dozens of PICMGorganized interoperability workshops, starting in 2002. The VITA 46.11 working group has already started adapting ATCA interoperability test plans for use with VITA 46.11. ATCA’s management layer is based on the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), which is an openly published management architecture that is widely used in the PC and server industries for hardware management (IPMB is www.vita-technologies.com

two tiers of functionality. Tier 1 IPMCs and Chassis Managers have minimal facilities, but can be simpler and less expensive to implement. Tier 2 components deliver more functionality in the management layer, allowing greater reuse of those facilities across applications. In addition, VITA 46.11 omits some aspects of the ATCA architecture that are not relevant to VPX. For instance, VPX modules are not designed to be hot swapped in a live system, so the extensive facilities supporting such operations in ATCA are not needed, simplifying the management layer for VPX.

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Also, VITA 46.11 defines a number of VPX-specific facilities to optimize the management layer for VPX needs. For instance, there is a collection of mandatory sensors that allows that layer to quickly and consistently summarize the overall status of all the modules in a chassis, including their voltage and temperature status. Also, the IPMI commands that are directly leveraged from ATCA have their own set of VSO IPMI command numbers, so that VSO can evolve those commands independently from PICMG, if necessary. Finally, there are some valuable supplementary facilities for ATCA IPMCs that

Figure 1 | Overall architecture for VITA 46.11 system management.

part of the IPMI architecture). Similarly, VITA 46.11 is based on IPMI.

How are VITA 46.11 IPMCs different from ATCA IPMCs? One key difference results from the distinct needs of VPX applications for system management. For some VPX applications, the traditional approach of integrating system management into the application is preferred. Therefore, VITA 46.11 management is optional, unlike the mandatory ATCA management layer.

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IPMI provides a rich infrastructure for defining and monitoring analog and digital sensors in an implementationindependent and consistent way. These facilities allow independently implemented elements of a VPX system from different suppliers (including chassis vendors, module vendors, and system integrators) to be monitored by a single Chassis Manager. That Chassis Manager has a unified view of the state of the chassis and all the analog and digital sensors that its elements include.

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Even among applications that need a separate management layer, the extent and sophistication of the needed layer varies. In response, VITA 46.11 defines www.vita-technologies.com

VITA Technologies Spring 2014 |

SPECIAL FEATURE have not yet been explicitly mapped into a VPX context. One of these is an implementation-independent framework for upgrading the firmware of IPMCs in a system. The framework is defined in a PICMG specification called HPM.1. It can be straightforwardly implemented, as is, in VPX IPMCs. Perhaps the VITA 46.11 working group will do an explicit mapping in the future, but in the meantime, it seems reasonable to take advantage of the existing HPM.1 architecture, which is essentially universally implemented in ATCA IPMCs.

Can VPX IPMCs be connected to an on-module Ethernet plane? Many VITA 46.11-compliant VPX modules will have connections to one or more Ethernet-based communication planes in the chassis. It would be desirable to allow the IPMCs on those modules to connect directly to such planes, complementing their System IPMB connectivity. Fortunately, there is a wellestablished ecosystem and governing

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open specifications that enable an IPMC to share access to Network Controllers (NCs) that interface to an in-chassis Ethernet on behalf of the main payload of a module. This area is not addressed in the current revision of VITA 46.11, but these facilities can potentially be applied in VPX modules where this need exists. One key specification in this area is NC-SI, the Network Controller Sideband Interface specification, which is maintained by the Distributed Management Task Force (www.dmtf.org). If an NC that provides Ethernet connectivity for the main module payload is NC-SIcompliant, the module’s IPMC can make a “sideband interface” connection to the NC using a 10/100 Mbps RMII connection. A PICMG specification called HPM.2 can be used to establish interoperable integration of LAN attach features into a VPX IPMC, enabling IPMC firmware upgrades, serial over LAN, and other applications

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Figure 2 | With standards-based extensions beyond VITA 46.11, a LAN-attached IPMC can share one or more Ethernet-based communication planes with payload CPU(s).

to benefit from the LAN attach connection. Figure 2 shows this arrangement for a LAN-attached IPMC.

Figure 3 | Example generic core of a VITA 46.11 IPMC, suitable for cost-effective adaption to the needs of a specific VPX module.

16 | VITA Technologies Spring 2014

www.vita-technologies.com

How can VPX modules be equipped quickly with compliant, interoperable IPMCs?

including Pigeon Point’s corresponding ATCA solution, BMR-A2F-ATCA.

One key to cost-effective IPMC integration into a VPX module is to start with an existing implementation and integrate a generic IPMC core to match the specific needs of a particular VPX module design. This approach, which is widely and successfully used in the ATCA ecosystem, allows an IPMC implementer to defer to a specialized partner for thorough knowledge of the relevant governing specifications and the corresponding interoperability testing.

Figure 3 provides a block diagram for a SmartFusion-based generic IPMC core. IPMC firmware runs on the integrated Cortex-M3 ARM32 microcontroller while the integrated FPGA fabric customizes the hardware for system management needs and optionally implements boardspecific FPGA logic. The microcontroller subsystem also includes needed interfaces, such as I2C ports, serial ports, and (if relevant to a given module) an Ethernet interface for LAN attach purposes. SmartFusion’s analog subsystem reduces the need for external components to address analog sensing needs.

One example of this class of generic, but adaptable, IPMC cores is the Pigeon Point BMR-A2F-VPX IPMC solution, which is a reference hardware/firmware design based upon the SmartFusion (A2F) intelligent mixed signal FPGA that is already widely used in the ATCA domain. Leveraging the commonality between VPX and ATCA management, multiple VPX module vendors have already been delivering VPX modules that integrate an ATCA-derived IPMC,

The benefits of a system management layer for VPX are gaining increasingly wide recognition. Adopting a proven management solution for that subsystem of a VPX module can save time and money and preserve scarce development resources for value added functionality of the module. With careful implementation choices, VITA 46.11

based system management for VPX can deliver a standardized implementation of the hardware platform management layer that saves development and integration time and improves interoperability. The architecture of this layer also preserves the flexibility for system developers and integrators to decide how to partition the system management function between the standardized layer and their application subsystems. Mark Overgaard is the Founder and CTO of Pigeon Point Systems. He is a leader in the VITA 46.11 working group and actively contributed to the development of VITA 46.11. Within PICMG, he chairs the HPM.x subcommittee and participates in numerous others.

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Pigeon Point Systems 760-757-2304 www.pigeonpoint.com

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VITA Technologies Spring 2014 |

TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

Taking the guesswork out of VPX power designs with intelligent extender cards By Brian Roberts Understanding the power requirements of an individual embedded computing card is an important part of overall systems design. What the card will require from the system power supply and, ideally, how those requirements will vary based on workload, is information that factors into system design decisions. Obviously there must always be sufficient power for all system components, across all required voltages and individual power rails. Determining the power needs is the first step.

The traditional “safe” approach to power design A very traditional engineering approach is to make a best estimate of the power requirements for each card in a system using whatever information is available, usually from vendor spec sheets. It is probably an exaggeration to call this guesswork, but not by much. Next, sum those requirements across all the cards and, finally, apply a safety factor. This “safe” number is then used to define the capacity of the system power supply. During prototype system development and testing some voltages will be monitored, but a detailed evaluation of power consumption is unusual. As long as no problems arise, the initial power supply capacity definition will be retained. While the traditional approach may be perceived as “safe,” there are a number of issues involved in its use. First, overdesign of the power supply is a common result, with the degree of overdesign dependent on individual card estimates,

18 | VITA Technologies Spring 2014

the design engineer’s judgment, and the level of conservatism in the safety factor. Second, an overdesigned power supply will be physically larger and heavier than needed. On large platforms like a naval vessel or manned aircraft, the incremental size and weight may be irrelevant. But on today’s smaller, unmanned platforms, unneeded size and weight has a negative effect on critical mission achievement parameters. And, on these small platforms the overdesign affects not only the computing system’s power design but also the power design for the platform, which must address allocating a limited supply across computing, communication, control, and other platform functions. Moreover, it is possible to underdesign the power supply based on invalid cardlevel estimates. While underdesign will be discovered during prototype testing (assuming system tests match real-world operating demands), changing out the power supply will certainly have a

negative impact on the development schedule. Furthermore, during a system upgrade when a new card is being added or is replacing an older card, it is very difficult to know if the existing power supply will be able to support the change, given a lack of detail on both the current system’s power draw during operation and the power requirements of the new card. While these issues are all widely recognized, the traditional “safe” design approach is still used, under the assumption that a detailed forecast of a system’s power requirements, under actual operating conditions, is simply not achievable. It is assumed simply too difficult to make accurate estimates of the power requirements for the complex, individual card-level system components. This is especially difficult for the current generation of modules built to the VPX standard, because the standard offers designers such a flexible array of voltage levels and power rail implementations. www.vita-technologies.com

The challenges involved in power estimation Beyond the flexibility of the standard, there are a number of other factors that make estimating the power requirements of today’s VPX cards extremely difficult: 1. Most VPX cards have a range of different configuration options in hardware. Processor clock speeds, memory sizes, and I/O interface options can all be selected from a range of choices, resulting in a large number of possible combinations. Card vendors have almost certainly not tested them all; in fact, some configurations may not even be built as prototypes before the first customer order. 2. FPGAs, GPGPUs, and other configurable processing devices can have huge differences in power requirements based on different firmware loads and use profiles. It is simply not possible to know what the power draw will be without knowing how the device will be used during actual operations.

3. Multicore CPUs will display a range of power requirements based on variations in software use across the cores. Again, actual power draw depends on device use during operations.

VPX INTELLIGENT EXTENDER CARDS, WITH BUILT-IN CURRENT AND VOLTAGE MONITORING, ARE NOW BEING USED TO ACCURATELY MEASURE THE POWER USE OF VPX MODULES AS THEY OPERATE IN TEST SYSTEMS.

Power measurement using VPX intelligent extender cards While advances in processing technology have made power requirement estimation increasingly difficult, another technology advance has given system designers the option of dispensing with estimation, and all its inherent problems, by moving to direct measurement of power use. VPX intelligent extender cards, with built-in current and voltage monitoring, are now being used to accurately measure the power use of VPX modules as they operate in test systems. An intelligent extender card attaches to a card-under-test while it is inserted and functioning in a VPX system chassis. The operational firmware and software can be loaded onto the card-under-test and then operations initiated that simulate, as closely as possible, real-world mission situations. The intelligent extender card collects comprehensive data on actual power use while the card-under-test is running as it would in the field. A detailed power profile can then be developed, across a range of firmware and software configurations, and during multiple mission

LCR Embedded System’s complete line of integrated rugged industrial and military systems, from off-the-shelf to fully customized, are ideal for all aspects of mission-critical computing. To learn more about what we can do for you and your application, contact us today. Our integrated systems feature VME, VPX, ATCA and CompactPCI architectures For chassis, backplanes and integrated systems, LCR Electronics is now LCR Embedded Systems.

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www.vita-technologies.com

VITA Technologies Spring 2014 |

TECHNOLOGY FEATURE simulation use cases, giving a very high level of visibility into power demands (see Figure 1). For example, within an Intel Core i7based SBC, the software activity will vary depending on the number of i7 cores being used for different parts of the software deployment model. The effect of the variation in software use on power requirements can be captured and analyzed by a power monitoring extender card. Similarly, a PMC/XMC carrier module can be tested with different PMC/XMC modules so the variations in power draw are understood. Or, an FPGA card can be run with all the various firmware loads that may be required for different stages of a mission. For all these situations, an intelligent card extender with current and voltage measurement will capture the related changes in power requirements.

An available solution Dawn VME Products has brought to market a leading implementation of

this capability in the EXB-7458 VPX 6U Extender Board. Dawn’s embedded Rugged System Health Monitor (RuSH) technology provides the embedded intelligence which enables monitoring of critical system parameters on the cardunder-test, including voltage, current, and control of power shutdown of all VPX voltage rails (see Figure 2). This Dawn extender card fits enclosures designed for either .8" or 1" pitch boards. It can be used to quickly and easily measure and profile the normal current used on each voltage rail (see Table 1). The EXB-7458 will monitor six channels of voltage and six channels of current simultaneously and is designed to support the maximums allowed by the VPX specification. 3U VPX versions of this technology are also available from Dawn. Multiple features are present to enable a testing environment that is both safe and productive (see Table 1). Thresholds can be set to instantly shut off power

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Figure 1 | Dawn EXB-7458 VPX 6U Extender Board.

on any voltage rail should current limits be exceeded by any card-under-test, effectively protecting both the card and system from damage caused by short circuits. Switches and I/O connectors provided for On/Off, System Reset, LCD Display, Fans, and Serial Communications. There is also support for a remote cooling fan.

Summary A comprehensive understanding of the power requirements for individual VPX

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Figure 2 | Dawn EXB-7458 inserted in system under test. 3U & 6U VITA 65 Voltage Rail

VITA 65 Standard Nominal Voltage

VITA 65 Specific Range

VS1

+12 V

(+/– 5%)

VS2

+3.3 V

(3.25 V to 3.45 V)

VS3

+5 V

(+5%/ –2.5%)

3.3 V_AUX

+ 3.3 V

(+/– 5%)

+12 V_AUX

+12 V

(+/– 5%)

–12 V_AUX

–12 V

(+/– 5%)

VBAT

+3.0 V

2.5 V to 3.5 V

Table 1 | VPX monitoring for power requirements using intelligent extender cards.

cards is critical to designing power supplies for VPX systems. Advances in processing technologies and the growing flexibility in configurations have made accurate power estimation virtually impossible. However, intelligent power monitoring extender card technology has replaced estimation with the ability to develop detailed power profiles for cards-under-test while operating in simulations of real-world missions. By replacing estimations with empirical data, intelligent extender cards enable power designs that are both safe and optimized for mission performance. Brian Roberts, Senior Designer at Dawn VME Products, has 22 years of design experience in Silicon Valley developing electronic products for commercial and defense applications. Over this period, he has worked with clients in the areas of system engineering, power supply design, and other printed circuit board based solutions. Brian has been with the team at Dawn VME Products since 2005.

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Dawn VME Products • 510-657-4444 • www.dawnvme.com

www.vita-technologies.com

VITA Technologies Spring 2014 |

ADVERTORIAL

Capture and Display Together at Last: VPX3U-E8860-FGX • 2 HD/3G-SDI video inputs • 2 DVI video inputs • 2 NTSC video inputs • up to 2 HD-SDI video outputs • 6 Digital video outputs (DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI) • 1 Analog video output (RGBHV) • AMD E8860 Adelaar GPU • 768 GFLOPs SP 48 GFLOPs DP

Executive SPEAKOUT

Hartmann Electronic GmbH Hartmann Electronic is an established leader in the design and manufacturing of backplanes and electronic system platforms. With over 35 years of experience in highspeed backplane design and manufacturing, Hartmann offers an extensive range of standard backplanes and system platforms including VPX, VME/VME64x, VXS, CompactPCI/2.16, CompactPCI Serial, CompactPCI PlusIO and others. Our development team, which consists of well qualified and highly motivated engineers, work with extremely powerful CAD software to devise “future-proof” electronic and mechanical solutions for you. A particular area of expertise is the research and simulation of the latest high-speed structures. Hartmann is doing a lot of research work to realize the data transmission for the future. Our latest designs for VPX and OpenVPX backplanes are designed and proved for transmission rates up to 10 Gbaud/s. Along with our backplane expertise, Hartmann designs and develops system platforms. Our offerings range from the new rugged 19" chassis like the Slimline series in 1U, 2U and 4U size. The Slimline series are horizontal chassis with a focus on a robust design with up to 8mm thick sidewalls. We are also designing and manufacturing ATR chassis – both standard and custom. Hartmann has developed a line of VPX power supplies which include a 3U pluggable conduction cooled power supply scalable to 715w according to VITA 62 and a 6U pluggable VPX power supply also scalable up to 1300 W.

• Extended temperature (-40° to +85°C) • MIL-STD-810 40G Shock and Vibration

Hartmann also offers 3U and 6U VPX custom and standard backplanes and power backplanes. Designed and built to your requirements. For all your development needs we offer a wide range of accessories like the Open Frame Chassis for 3 and 6U Boards (air/conduction cooled). For measurement purposes we offer special test boards and cables. For more information, e-mail Jochen.Friedrich@HartmannElectronic.com. Hartmann Electronic GmbH | +49 711 13989-184 www.hartmann-electronic.com

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22 | VITA Technologies Spring 2014

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Executive SPEAKOUT

ADVERTORIAL

VPXtra™ high-power supplies break through another power ceiling with the VPXtra™ 1500CS AC-to-DC Front End By Jerry Hovdestad, Director COTS Engineering, Behlman Electronics

In late 2012, Behlman raised the VPX power bar to 1000 watts with two 6U Open VPX Compliant units: VPXtra™ 1000CD Dualoutput and VPXtra™ 1000CM Multi-output, DC-to-DC COTS power supplies. VPXtra™ 1000CD delivers up to 1000 watts of clean, regulated 12 VDC power and 3.3 VDC auxiliary power with a typical efficiency of 90%, from a wide-range 28 VDC input. The 12 VDC output can be paralleled for higher power and fail-safe redundancy. TheVPXtra™ 1000CM provides five outputs up to 700 watts. It accepts wide-range 28 VDC input and has high-power DC outputs of 12 VDC @ 40 A and 5 VDC @ 24 A, and three auxiliary outputs of 3.3 VDC @ 15 A, –12 VDC @ 2 A and +12 VDC @ 1 A. Now, we are pleased to introduce what may be the VPX industry’s highest-power 6U front-end module: Behlman’s VPXtra™ 1500CS Three-phase AC-to-DC COTS power supply. VPXtra™1500CS is a rugged, highly reliable, conduction-cooled, switch mode unit built for high-end industrial and military applications. Although initially conceived to power Behlman’s VPXtra™ 1000CD and VPXtra™ 1000CM DC-to-DC power supplies, it can be used to power other devices with similar wide-range DC input requirements. It accepts 115/200 VAC, 3-phase input, IAW MIL-STD-704, and delivers 1500 Watts of 33 VDC power. Input current complies with CE101 and MIL-STD-1399. This front-end module has no minimum load requirement and has short circuit protection, as well as over current and thermal protection. Designed and manufactured with Xtra-Cooling™, Xtra-Rugged™ construction and Xtra-High™ Reliability, VPXtra™ 1500CS is the optimum solution to provide a wide-range DC output from a three phase AC source.

A New Dawn for Embedded Graphics: XMC-E8860-VO • 768 GFLOPs SP 48 GFLOPs DP • Tunable power 10 - 40 Watts • up to 2 HD-SDI video outputs • 6 Digital video outputs (DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI) • 1 Analog video output (RGBHV) • Extended temperature (-40° to +85°C) • MIL-STD-810 40G shock and vibration • Front I/O, Rear I/O or Combination • Rear I/O XMC X16 or PMC P14

VPXtra™1500CS FEATURES • Open VPX VITA 62 compliant • 6U VPX, 1.0" pitch single slot • Three-phase AC input, 47-440 Hz • High-power DC output: 33 V/46 A • Auxiliary DC output: 3.3 V/0.2 A • Low noise & ripple • Input-output isolation • Excellent load regulation • Over Current, Over Voltage and Over Temperature protection • Efficiency of 90% (typical) • High power density • Conduction cooled at card edge • Conformal coating on PWB • External EMI filter required to meet MIL-STD-461F CE-102 • ENABLE*, INHIBIT* controls per VITA 62 • Output voltage FAIL* signal • LED indication Complete specifications: http://goo.gl/nQFROP Data sheet: http://goo.gl/I5JNPc Behlman Electronics Inc. | 631-435-0410 | www.behlman.com www.vita-technologies.com

WOLF Industrial Systems Inc. http://wolf.ca

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VITA Technologies Spring 2014 |

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