VITA Technologies Spring 2015 E-MAG

p. 6 Editor’s Foreword Super buzz at CES, ETT

p. 8 VITA News Bicycle Shop furnishes technology incubator

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INTEGRATED COMBAT SYSTEMS (ICS) Orbit Electronics Group’s Integrated Combat Systems (ICS) has announced the availability of two new 6U VME System Health Monitors, two 6U VPX System Health Monitors, and a Rear Transition Module (RTM) for each.

BEHLMAN ELECTRONICS Orbit Power Group’s VPXtra™ 500M 3U COTS DC-toDC power unit has joined the world-famous family of 6U Behlman VPXtra™ Power Supplies. This 3U power supply is a rugged, highly reliable, conduction cooled, switch mode unit. It is VITA 62, Open VPX compliant, and delivers 550 Watts of DC power via six outputs.

The 12V, 3.3V, and 5V main outputs can be paralleled for higher power. VPXtra™ 500M accepts 18- to 36-VDC input, compliant with MIL-STD-704, and can supply highpower DC output. They require no minimum load and provide overvoltage and short circuit protection, as well as overcurrent and thermal protection.

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VME HMC-B

These six products join the over 135 standard and customized VME and VPX products shown on Orbit’s web portal at www.vmevpx.com. They are among the most advanced such components available today. All 6U System Health Monitors feature a unique, proprietary feature-rich GUI; Ethernet, USB and/or RS 232 interfaces; set-up; data logging; field upgradable firmware; and data password protection.

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SPRING 2015 | VOLUME 33 NUMBER 1

@VitaTechnology

On the cover The Spring issue of VITA Technologies features articles from Editorial Director Jerry Gipper on the recent CES and ETT conferences; an update on ARM processors; expanding standards for software defined radios; and more! The featured product on the cover is a VPX Backplane Cabling System from Meritec.

DEPARTMENTS Super buzz at CES, ETT

By Jerry Gipper, Editorial Director

»» p. 6

6 Editor’s Foreword

Jerry Gipper

Super buzz at CES, ETT

8 VITA News

Staff, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions

Bicycle Shop furnishes technology incubator

10 VITA Standards Update

Jerry Gipper

VITA Standards Organization activity updates

12 Defining Standards

Jerry Gipper

Patent policy proposal stirs the pot of business versus innovation interests ARMed and ready »» p. 14

By Jerry Gipper, Editorial Director

22 Primetime Choices Advertiser Index

Standards for software defined radios expand »» p. 18

By Jerry Gipper, Editorial Director

3 Annapolis Micro Systems, Inc. – WILDSTAR OpenVPX ecosystem 2 Behlman Electronics – New higher 3U power 16 Elma Electronic – Reliable. Rugged. Has to work. Elma’s VPX platforms are all that – and more.

5 Interface Concept – Build your own VPX system!

17 Meritec – VPX backplane cabling system 9 North Atlantic Industries – Rugged SBCs from NAI 2 Orbit Power Group and Orbit Electronics Group – New higher 3U power; new higher 6U health monitoring performance 24 Pentek, Inc. – Critical recording in any arena when you can’t afford to miss a beat!

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

21 Themis Computer – Scale up and scale out – RES HD servers 7 VadaTech Inc. – Psst ... Can you keep a secret?

20 VEROTEC Electronics Packaging – TecSYS development platforms

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. © 2015 OpenSystems Media © 2015 VITA Technologies enviroink.indd 1

4 | VITA Technologies Spring 2015

10/1/08 10:44:38 AM

www.vita-technologies.com

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

Jennifer Hesse, Managing Editor jhesse@opensystemsmedia.com Steph Sweet, Creative Director ssweet@opensystemsmedia.com

Sales Group Tom Varcie, Sales Manager tvarcie@opensystemsmedia.com (586) 415-6500 Shannon E. Alo-Mendosa Strategic Account Manager shannona@opensystemsmedia.com (978) 501-9116 Rebecca Barker, Strategic Account Manager rbarker@opensystemsmedia.com (281) 724-8021 Eric Henry, Strategic Account Manager ehenry@opensystemsmedia.com (541) 760-5361 Kathleen Wackowski, Strategic Account Manager kwackowski@opensystemsmedia.com (978) 888-7367 Asia-Pacific Sales Elvi Lee, Account Manager elvi@aceforum.com.tw

Regional Sales Managers Barbara Quinlan, Southwest bquinlan@opensystemsmedia.com (480) 236-8818 Denis Seger, Southern California dseger@opensystemsmedia.com (760) 518-5222 Sydele Starr, Northern California sstarr@opensystemsmedia.com (775) 299-4148 Europe Sales James Rhoades-Brown james.rhoadesbrown@husonmedia.com

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Brandon Lewis, Assistant Managing Editor Embedded Computing Design Industrial Embedded Systems PICMG Systems & Technology blewis@opensystemsmedia.com Lisa Daigle, Assistant Managing Editor Military Embedded Systems PC/104 and Small Form Factors ldaigle@opensystemsmedia.com Sally Cole, Senior Editor Military Embedded Systems scole@opensystemsmedia.com Rory Dear, Technical Contributor Embedded Computing Design rdear@opensystemsmedia.com Konrad Witte, Senior Web Developer Dave Diomede, Creative Services Director Joann Toth, Senior Designer

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Emily Verhoeks, Financial Assistant Headquarters – ARIZONA: 16626 E. Avenue of the Fountains, Ste. 201 Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Tel: (480) 967-5581 MICHIGAN: 30233 Jefferson St. Clair Shores, MI 48082 Tel: (586) 415-6500

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Subscriptions opensystemsmedia.com/subscriptions ISSN: Print 1941-3807, ISSN Online 1550-0403 VITA Technologies is published four times a year (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter) by OpenSystems Media, 16626 E. Ave of the Fountains, Ste 201, Fountain Hills, AZ 85268. VITA Technologies is free to qualified engineers or management dealing with or considering open-system technologies.

For others, paid subscription rates inside the US and Canada are $45/year. For first-class delivery outside the US and Canada, subscriptions are $60/year (advance payment in US funds required). Periodicals postage paid at Scottsdale, AZ, and at additional mailing offices.

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www.interfaceconcept.com +33 (0)2 98 57 30 30 VITA Technologies Spring 2015 |

5

Editor’s Foreword

By Jerry Gipper, Editorial Director @VitaTechnology

jgipper@opensystemsmedia.com

Super buzz at CES, ETT January is always a very busy time. CES is going on in Las Vegas. Embedded Tech Trends follows less than two weeks later.

I began the year with my annual trek to Vegas to see for myself what was new in consumer electronics. The show was bigger than ever with over 2.2 million square feet of exhibition space, way too much to see in the time available! I did my best by getting any early start on Sunday.

All I can say is I sure hope that the retailers like Best Buy and Fry’s Electronics do a great job of filtering out the chaff. There were a lot of products at CES that should never see the light of day. In today’s world of Kickstarter financing, there are a lot of dreams that might be better off if we never saw them again. That said, there was still plenty to catch my eye.

The curved 4K HD TVs were everywhere – makes me glad I bought mine last year. 3D printing has hit the big time with products of all kinds on display.

Be careful what you eat in the future because it may not look like anything you are familiar with today! Printing food was not what I had in mind when I saw my first 3D printer at CES four years ago.

Activity tracking was everywhere (I had 36,000 steps on my FitBit on Tuesday!); soon any mobile device – from watches to tablets will be able to monitor your habits. Smart appliances are getting more practical and useful. Computers of any type have almost disappeared from the halls. Wearables are where the action is now.

Next up was Embedded Tech Trends in Phoenix, Arizona (www.embeddedtechtrends.com) where I was the host. This event is a business and technology forum focused on the critical and intelligent embedded systems industry. Sponsors and media representatives gathered to

6 | VITA Technologies Spring 2015

›

Figure 1 | Jerry Gipper presenting at the Embedded Tech Trends conference in Phoenix, Arizona.

exchange thoughts that we will all get a chance to read about in the coming year. The theme this year was “Kickoff to Super Technologies,” coinciding with the Super Bowl frenzy in the Phoenix area. No NFL football players were spotted but you could feel their presence.

Fourteen sponsors participated in Embedded Tech Trends, meeting with leading media representatives, including yours truly. The list of companies is as follows: ›› ›› ›› ›› ›› ›› ›› ›› ›› ›› ›› ›› ›› ››

ADLINK Technology Artesyn Embedded Technologies CES – Creative Electronic Systems SA Concurrent Technologies Plc Curtiss-Wright Elma Electronic, Inc. LCR Embedded Systems, Inc. MEN Mikro Elektronik GmbH Mercury Systems Pentek, Inc. TechwaY TE Connectivity Teledyne LeCroy VadaTech

The agenda was packed with 21 presentations over the two-day event. The format is much like a TED Talk with short presentations at a very quick pace. Topics included: www.vita-technologies.com

EMBEDDED TECH TRENDS IS A BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY FORUM FOCUSED ON THE CRITICAL AND INTELLIGENT EMBEDDED SYSTEMS INDUSTRY.

›› Embedded Market Update with IHS ›› Making the Cloud Tactical ›› Safe Communication for Inflight Systems ›› SWaP and Modularity: Extending VPX Concepts into Smaller Scale Using VNX ›› Communications Technology for Defense and First Responders ›› Advances in Digitizers Power Mil/Aero and High-Energy Physics Applications ›› How to Do Protocol Testing from SSDs to IoT ›› Impact of High Speed Serial Links (HSS) in Embedded Computing ›› VPX Optical Interfaces: Standards, Protocols, and Applications ›› Creating Better Access Networks for Improved Data Analytics ›› Critical Global Market Challenges: RoHS and Trusted Computing ›› Creating High Performance Clusters for Embedded Use ›› Looking Toward Next Generation VPX Optical Solutions ›› Open RF Plumbing: A Novel Approach to Overcome Decades of “Closed” Design and Integration Practices ›› Distributed Computing Goes Safety 3U-VPX Mission Computers ›› Ensuring Product Integrity with Truly Open Solutions ›› MTCS – Modular Train Control System ›› Update on SpaceVPX (VITA 78) and Introduction to Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) ›› CERDEC C4ISR/EW Hardware/ Software Convergence ›› Path to the Fleet ›› RapidIO Overview www.vita-technologies.com

I wrapped up the event with a quick update on VITA activities. The afternoon time was reserved for media-sponsor meetings to discuss new products, strategies, and editorial opportunities. Everyone left feeling a bit overwhelmed but satisfied.

All of the presentations have been posted at the Embedded Tech Trends website: http://www.embeddedtechtrends.com/2015/2015-Presentations.htm.

Next stop for me will be the Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference and Exposition in Los Angeles on March 22-26 to learn more about how optical fiber may impact the critical embedded computing industry (www.ofcconference.org).

Jerry Gipper jgipper@opensystemsmedia.com

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VITA Technologies Spring 2015 |

7

VITA News

By Staff, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions

Bicycle Shop furnishes technology incubator Inspired by the legacy of innovation and celebrated history of its famous founders, the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions has formed the Curtiss-Wright Bicycle Shop, an internal incubator for first-phase exploration of n ­ ext-generation marketleading technologies.

Named for the historic bicycle shops where the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss first launched many of their legendary inventions, the Bicycle Shop provides the resources for evaluating and proving new embedded defense and aerospace technologies before they are brought to market. For these projects, the Bicycle Shop’s resources can enable rapid, focused development and analysis to ensure that new rugged system technologies have achieved the technical maturity and deliver the product integrity demanded by critical applications.

The Bicycle Shop provides the organization and infrastructure to deliver proven and trustworthy next-generation Open Architecture solutions to our customers and partners.

Modeled on renowned research and development centers such as Skunk Works, Lockheed Martin’s center for Advanced Development Programs, the Bicycle Shop serves as Defense Solutions’ incubator and laboratory for the exploration of next-generation market-leading technologies.

A far-reaching charter The Bicycle Shop’s research and development charter goes far beyond nurturing and evaluating new technologies.

These technologies must also conform to key industry standards that form the foundation of COTS Open Architecture system design. Curtiss-Wright is helping define and evolve these important standards through participation and support of industry consortia such as VITA and the U.S. Army’s VICTORY initiative. The Bicycle Shop serves as stewards of these

8 | VITA Technologies Spring 2015

open standards while exploring ways to optimize the performance and product integrity of open standard-compliant system elements.

Disruptive vs. sustaining innovation The focus of the Bicycle Shop will be on what we identify as either “disruptive innovation” or “discontinuous sustaining innovation.” Those technology advances that represent traditional product evolution won’t qualify as Bicycle Shop projects. A disruptive innovation is one that helps create a new market and value network. This type of innovation will eventually disrupt an existing market and value network and displace an earlier incumbent technology. We also recognize two types of sustaining innovations, continuous and discontinuous.

A sustaining innovation does not create new markets or value networks. Instead, it evolves the existing status quo with better value, which enables COTS vendors to compete against each other’s sustaining improvements. Continuous innovations are those that are simply evolutionary. Discontinuous innovations, those that are transformational or revolutionary, join disruptive innovations as ideal Bicycle Shop projects.

Projects in progress While now being announced to the market for the first time, the Bicycle Shop was initiated internally as a stealth project more than two years ago. Its inaugural efforts have already borne fruit. For example, one of the first Bicycle Shop project technologies brought to market was Curtiss-Wright’s Fabric40 10 Gbps backplane and interconnect solution. Fabric40, fully compliant with existing VITA standards, delivers the highest-speed system fabric performance to a full range of rugged modules, backplanes, and enclosures, enabling system designers to easily and rapidly integrate and deploy HPEC super computer-quality processing for the most demanding C4ISR applications.

Examples of current and ongoing Bicycle Shop projects include: ›› Module-based fluid flow-through cooling ›› Direct digital manufacturing to cost-effectively leverage and integrate 3D printing into the manufacturing process ›› Network bridging technologies to enhance VICTORY and network-centric computing with support for both legacy and contemporary data communications interface standards and the development of ultra small form factor solutions for SWaP-C sensitive platforms.

Investigating a new technology?

The Bicycle Shop ensures that new technologies are evaluated and demonstrated before they are included in product development. This reduces development and schedule risk for our customers and removes the burden that might be placed on them by vendors with less deep resources who provide them with new, but unverified, nextgeneration technologies.

Customers are welcome to suggest new technologies for the Bicycle Shop to consider investigating. This provides us with valuable market input for new areas to explore, though in some cases we will already be working on that particular technology. Bicycle Shop projects enable customers to leverage our efforts and perhaps reduce their own, while working to ensure that their solutions are mature before going to market.

Vendors are encouraged to check out www.cwcdefense.com/about-us/bicycleshop.html to suggest or inquire about current or potential projects. We are also interested in pursuing joint Bicycle Shop projects with our customers; a bicycle built for two. www.vita-technologies.com

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VITA Standards Update

By Jerry Gipper jgipper@opensystemsmedia.com

VITA Standards Organization activity updates The January VITA Standards Organization (VSO) meeting immediately followed Embedded Tech Trends in Phoenix, Arizona.

Over 30 people were in attendance to participate in status updates and several working group discussions. This update is based on the results of this meeting. Visit the VITA website (www.vita.com) for details on upcoming VSO meetings.

ANSI accreditation Accredited as an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) developer and a submitter of Industry Trade Agreements to the IEC, the VSO provides its members with the ability to develop and to promote open technology standards. The VSO meets every two months to address embedded bus and board industry standards issues.

VSO study and working group activities Standards within the VSO may be initiated through the formation of a study group and developed by a working group. A study group requires the sponsorship of one VITA member, and a working group requires sponsorship of at least three VITA members.

Work in progress Several working groups have current project work underway; the following roundup summarizes those projects.

VITA 17.x: Front Panel Data Port (FPDP) Objective: This standard defines a multi-drop synchronous ­parallel non-addressable bus connection between multiple boards in a single chassis. Extension specifications define protocols for specific use cases.

Status: ANSI/VITA 17.1 was opened up for minor edits and is now going through the process for re-accreditation. A VITA 17.3 working group was recently formed to incorporate the Interlaken protocol for packet transfers scaling from 10 Gb/s to 100 Gb/s.

VITA 46.11: System Management on VPX Objective: This standard defines a system management architecture for VPX systems.

equipment in a wide range of applications. The VRT protocol provides a variety of formatting options that allow the transport layer to be optimized for each application. The ANSI/VITA 49.1 VITA Radio Link Layer (VRL) standard specifies an optional encapsulation protocol for VITA-49.0 (VRT) packets.

Status: The working group has reopened ANSI/VITA 49.1 for revision. The VITA 49.2 working group is preparing a draft for control packet and spectrum analyzer packet specifications.

VITA 57.4: FMC Objective: The goal of this project is to develop a next generation specification calling for a new set of connectors to support higher speed serial interfaces.

Status: The working group has reviewed connector options and is working on a draft specification.

ANSI/VITA 65: OpenVPX Architectural Framework for VPX Objective: The OpenVPX architectural framework specification is a living document that is continuously being updated with new profile information and corrections.

Status: The working group is currently receiving input on new profiles for the next edition. A proposal was presented to enable the working group to incorporate profiles into the specification faster and more effectively.

VITA 66: Optical Interconnect on VPX – Half Width MT Objective: The VITA 66 base standard defines physical features of a stand-alone compliant blind mate Optical Interconnect for use in VPX systems. This standard defines a Half Width MT style contact variant.

Status: Currently in “VITA Draft Standard for Trial Use” status.

Input from the first round of interoperability testing is being incorporated into the specification with plans to move to ANSI ballot in April 2015.

Status: The working group has submitted VITA 66.4 for ANSI balloting, the final step to an approved specification

ANSI/VITA 49.x: VITA Radio Transport (VRT)

Objective: This specification details the configuration and interconnect within the structure of VITA 67.0, enabling a 6U VPX interface containing multi-position blind mate analog connectors with up to four SMPM contacts.

Objective: The VITA Radio Transport (VRT) standard defines a transport-layer protocol designed to promote interoperability between RF (radio frequency) receivers and signal ­processing

10 | VITA Technologies Spring 2015

VITA 67.3: VPX: Coaxial Interconnect, 6U, Four Position SMPM Configuration

www.vita-technologies.com

VITA 78-NGSIS: SpaceVPX Systems THIS UPDATE IS BASED ON THE RESULTS OF THE JANUARY VSO MEETING. VISIT THE VITA WEBSITE (WWW.VITA.COM) FOR DETAILS ON UPCOMING VSO MEETINGS.

Objective: This document describes an open standard for creating high-performance, fault tolerant, interoperable ­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.

Status: Completed ANSI ballot and will be released to the public in February 2015.

Status: The working group has started on the draft specification.

VITA 68: VPX: Compliance Channel Objective: This standard defines a VPX compliance channel including common backplane performance criteria required to support multiple fabric types across a range of defined baud rates. This allows backplane developers to design a backplane that supports required bit error rates (BER) for multiple fabric types. This also allows module developers to design plug-in modules that are interoperable with other modules when used with a compliant backplane.

Participating in these working groups is a great way to influence the direction of the next generations of technology important to the critical embedded computing industry.

Contact VITA if you are interested in participating in any of these working groups, and for details on upcoming VSO meetings.

Copies of all specifications reaching ANSI recognition are available from the VITA website. For a more complete list of VITA specs and their status, go to www.vita.com/ Specifications.

Status: The working group has developed a simulated model and is now collecting actual performance data to help refine the models.

www.vita.com

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VITA Technologies Spring 2015 |

11

Defining Standards

By Jerry Gipper

Patent policy proposal stirs the pot of business versus innovation interests On February 2, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it will not challenge a proposal by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) to update the IEEE Standards Association’s (IEEE-SA) patent policy.

That policy governs the incorporation of patented technology in IEEE standards and explains the terms under which holders of patents essential to IEEE standards commit to make licenses available for use in implementing IEEE standards.

While I am not a legal authority, I thought it would be interesting to hear from industry pundits on what they thought of the proposed update. Most comments blame this policy update on past issues with patents in various wireless standards that are developed through the IEEE-SA. Issues have arisen over Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms. This is an age-old challenge that has no easy definition, but the IEEE is trying lay down some ground rules to get a step closer.

The IEEE had submitted a business review letter on September 30, 2014, asking for a statement on the intentions of the DOJ’s antitrust enforcement of a proposed update to the IEEE-SA’s patent policy.

“Specifically, the DOJ and a few companies with uncomfortably close ties to the White House are pressuring the IEEE to change its current patent policy to shift power away from innovators – imposing price caps and weakening patent enforcement rights of all innovators who contribute to IEEE standards.”

But what was the update the IEEE-SA was asking the DOJ to review? The IEEE claims that the purpose of the policy revision was to provide greater clarity on issues that have divided Standard Essential Patent (SEP) owners and standards implementers in recent years.

Four key elements were included in the policy update: ›› Greater clarity on the meaning of “Reasonable” rate; the value of a patent. ›› Greater clarity on nondiscrimination (through definition of “compliant implementation”); distinguishing between suppliers and end users. ›› Greater clarity of availability of “prohibitive orders”; preventing threats of withholding patent licensee after submitting patent letter of assurance. ›› Greater clarity on permissible demands for reciprocal licenses; preventing licensing without reciprocal licenses on own essential patent claims on same standard.

12 | VITA Technologies Spring 2015

Rather than try to analyze or reproduce the comments of some of the pundits, I will summarize their positions and leave it for you to make your own interpretation.

Erik Telford, acting president at the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity, posted his concerns that the Obama administration, with its regulate-rather-thaninvestigate approach, was trying pressure the IEEE to change its policy:

He ends his comments with this question: “Why [would] the DOJ involve itself in a technical organization’s internal rule-making process? Did I mention the DOJ isn’t saying anything public about this, either?” His post went up before the DOJ released its letter to the IEEE. Patent licensing professional Alex Fasell goes into more detail in his analysis of the update to the IEEE patent policy, and I recommend reviewing his blog post to consider his perspective: “The Standardization Setting Organizations (SSO) IPR policies set the delicate basis for achieving a long-term balance between incentive for innovation and incentive for implementation. This balance is for the common good of technological innovation, a healthy marketplace for implementers, and ultimately consumer choice. However, it seems to me that in the new draft patent policy for IEEE, shorter-term business interests of implementers may have been allowed to take on rather more weight than they should have. To my knowledge, no obvious market need has been demonstrated for any of the changes proposed. Nor is there any legal mandate for them and in fact, some changes even tend to run contrary with U.S. Federal Circuit opinion.”

Ray Alderman, VITA chairman of the board and self-proclaimed ex ante pundit, had this to offer: “I think it basically says that (1) once an SEP holder declares their patent to a committee and offers RAND licensing, if something goes wrong for some reason, that patent holder CANNOT ask a court for an injunction against the implementers using their patented technology without a license. The patent holder must negotiate and resolve the problems with the potential licensees in good faith. (VITA’s policies already have this provision: disputes go to arbitration.) “(2) It says that an SEP holder CANNOT ask for fees and royalties for the patent being put in the standard that are greater than if the patent was NOT being put www.vita-technologies.com

in the standard. In other words, an SEP holder cannot benefit from the power of the patent being in the standard as leverage to demand higher royalties and fees from licensees (how they intend to establish those two numbers is not stated). Also, an SEP holder CANNOT get an injunction to coerce the licensees to pay higher fees and royalties than the patent would demand if it were not included in the standard.

“VITA’s policies do NOT have this provision. But what we do have is ‘mandatory disclosure of maximum fees, royalty rates, and terms’ ex ante, before the fact. That way, implementers can see what their costs are at the beginning, before they invest in compliant products. The IEEE has ‘voluntary disclosure’ of the rates and terms, and only two companies (out of 40 disclosures) have voluntarily disclosed their rates and fees on the front end (they waited until implementers had invested in compliant products, and THEN announced rates, which were obviously higher than anticipated and based on the value of the patent being put in the standard rather than standing alone).

circumvented much earlier in the process. The area I continue to struggle with is the definition of FRAND. Minds much greater than mine have attempted to put together clear definitions to no avail. I do not believe that a better definition will stifle innovation, as some pundits claim. As long as business is at stake and lawyers exist, an acceptable definition will be difficult to construct.

References [1] Full text of the redlined policy, Draft 39, http://grouper.ieee.org/groups/pp-dialog/ drafts_comments/SBBylaws_100614_redline_current.pdf [2] Business review request letter from the IEEE, September 30, 2014, http://www.justice.gov/ atr/public/busreview/request-letters/311483.pdf [3] U.S. Department of Justice response, February 2, 2015, http://www.justice.gov/atr/public/ busreview/311470.htm [4] U.S. Department of Justice press release, February 2, 2015, http://www.justice.gov/atr/ public/press_releases/2015/311475.htm [5] “On the draft IEEE patent policy,” Alex Fasell, December 29, 2014, http://patentperspectives.blogspot.com/2014/12/on-new-draft-ieee-patent-policy.html [6] “Obama’s Government Takeover of WiFi,” Erik Telford, RedState, January 30, 2015, http://www.redstate.com/diary/eriktelford/2015/01/30/obamas-government-takeov

“What the IEEE has done is try to plug up the holes in their ‘voluntary’ disclosure policies. If they had just adopted VITA’s policies of ‘mandatory ex ante disclosure,’ none of these changes here would be needed (but, I suppose they could not get the members to support mandatory disclosure). And they seem to have created a new Frankenstein: How do they value a patent both before and after it has been put into a standard?”

Summary On December 6, 2014, the IEEE Board of Governors voted 9-3 to approve the update, without modification, contingent upon receipt of a favorable business review letter from the DOJ and review by the IEEE Board of Directors.

The IEEE Board is expected to vote on the update at its regularly scheduled meeting in February 2015. By the time you read this, the vote may be tallied.

I agree with Ray that if the IEEE had a stronger position on ex ante patent disclosure upfront, many issues could be www.vita-technologies.com

VITA Technologies Spring 2015 |

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MAIN FEATURE

ARMed and ready

By Jerry Gipper, Editorial Director ARM processors have traditionally been used as cores in intelligent peripherals. They are finally starting to show up on traditional single board computers (SBCs) as either the primary processor or in an FPGA with an integrated ARM core. Size, weight, and power (SWaP) criteria have driven choices in the past but what other factors are now being considered when choosing a processor?

VMEbus, introduced in 1981, was architecturally based on the Motorola 68000 processor bus and, as a result, all of the processor boards of those early days used 68000 processors. Over time, other processors were used, including Intel x86 and Sun Microsystems SPARC. Even Motorola moved on with the introduction of the 88000 RISC and PowerPC architecture processors. VMEbus has since morphed into VPX, a switched fabric architecture that is processor agnostic.

Today the processor of choice is usually something from the Intel family, often the 4th generation Intel Core processor family series. Intelligent peripheral chips that are ARM-based have been around for several years, and are widely used in computing platforms. Over the past 2-3 years, we at VITA Technologies have started to notice critical embedded and intelligent computing products, in particular SBCs and computers-on-modules (COMs) with host processors that are ARM-based. In our annual Business

14 | VITA Technologies Spring 2015

Barometer feature in this past Winter issue, we made note of this change as early as 2013, but in 2014, ARM finally made a strong showing. Today there are a number of suppliers using ARM processors with products in multiple form factors, mostly small form factor sizes.

ARM roadmap ARM processors come in many configurations from many licensees. The ARM Cortex architecture is available in three series – A, R, and M, each targeted at specific applications (see Table 1).

Nearly every processor supplier has ARM-based processor families in their product lineup (see Table 2). Each has added their own special features and interfaces to the ARM core to differentiate their products. Applicationspecific processors based on ARM cores present a whole new wealth of choices for board developers, as many of the higher performance alternatives are excellent candidates for critical embedded computing platforms. Even

FPGA suppliers have ARM core options available. ARM supports this FPGA strategy by developing processors for FPGA fabrics, enabling users to rapidly reach markets while maintaining compatibility with traditional ARM devices.

The fabric independent nature of these processors enables board developers to choose the target device that is right for their application rather than be locked to a specific semiconductor vendor or architecture.

Why ARM processors Many designers choose an ARM processor to address one or more of the SWaP parameters that challenge their design (see Figure 1). ARM processors are recognized as being very power efficient while still delivering on performance, especially 64-bit, multi-core processors. But what other influences lead one to choose an ARM processor?

VITAÂ Technologies asked embedded computer vendors why they chose an ARM processor and what they see in store for their ARM-based products. www.vita-technologies.com

Dirk Finstel, CEO EMEA and Executive Vice President of the Global Module Computer Product Segment at LiPPERT ADLINK Technology GmbH pointed out three reasons why an ARM processor is attractive to their designers.

ARM Cortex-A Series – High performance application processors for feature rich operating systems

1. As x86 processors haven’t been available in a range below 1-2 W TDP (thermal design point), ARM processors are the best fit to offer the best computing performance and lowest power consumption.

As an entry-level product offering to build mobile embedded devices offering a rich I/O set, ARM cores are a mandatory requirement for our customers.

2. As the majority of future embedded devices will be battery powered and connected to the Internet, with modest computing performance, ADLINK wants to be part of this Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem offering those products. The low power needs of the ARM architecture makes this possible.

3. Our customers coming from microcontrollers and low performance ARM devices are looking for higher performance, more memory, and high-speed I/O interfaces such as USB 2.0, PCIe, SATA, and LCD display cores. As most of them don’t have experience using complex operating systems like Windows Embedded Compact 7, VxWorks, or Linux, this opens a new market for ADLINK in which we haven’t participated in previously.

ARM Cortex-R Series – Exceptional performance for real-time applications

ADLINK primarily implements the Cortex-A series using a variety of processor cores tuned to the specific needs of the product lines. Entry-level products up to about 600 MHz use Cortex A8, moving to the Cortex A9 to get a performance boost up to 1.2 GHz, and single to quad cores. The Cortex A15 boosts that another 40 percent. The highest-end products benefit from the larger memory addressing capability of the Cortex A57 64-bit ARM processor.

ADLINK’s strategy is to use the Cortex M-series processors in co-processor controller roles for board management www.vita-technologies.com

Cortex-A processors deliver exceptional 32-bit performance for high-end computing, with the Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 processors delivering combined 32-bit and 64-bit performance, enabling next-generation mobile, networking, and server products. The processors are available in single-core and multi-core varieties, delivering up to four processing units with the ability to integrate NEON multimedia processing blocks and advanced Floating Point execution units.

Cortex Real-time Embedded processors were developed for deeply embedded real-time applications where the need for low power and good interrupt behavior are balanced with exceptional performance and strong compatibility with existing platforms.

ARM Cortex-M Series – Cost-sensitive embedded processors for deterministic microcontroller applications Cortex-M series processors were developed primarily for the microcontroller domain where the need for fast, highly deterministic interrupt management is coupled with the desire for extremely low gate count and the lowest possible power consumption.

›

Table 1 | ARM processor series.

7

›

Figure 1 | ARM Cortex processor roadmap. Courtesy of ARM, 2H 2014, Expiration Q1 2015

Supplier

Products

ARM Cortex

Freescale

i.MX Applications Processors

ARM Cortex-A8/A9, ARM9, ARM11 cores

QorIQ Processing Platforms

Power Architecture and ARM Cortex-A7/A9/A53/A57 cores

AMD

Project SkyBridge

A57

Nvidia

Tegra K1

A15

Qualcom

Snapdragon 810

Quad-core ARM Cortex A57 and quad-core A53

Xilinx

Zynq-7000

Dual A9

›

Table 2 | Sampling of ARM technology-based solutions.

VITA Technologies Spring 2015 |

15

MAIN FEATURE where they can act as control units for the primary processors to manage power sequence control, data acquisition units to gather temperature and voltage information, mean-time between failure (MTBF) real-time calculations, and forensic analysis.

Products that operate on batteries and have high computing performance needs will stick with the Cortex A-series processors. Intelligent peripherals with ARM cores embedded in FPGAs will be used for security cards as they offer the best performance at low gate counts and with a rich software ecosystem. ADLINK develops products over a very large spectrum of computing platforms, including COMs and handheld and tablet products where the performance of the Cortex A-series make a perfect fit.

Curtiss-Wright has made recent announcements of products that use ARM processors. Gregory Sikkens, Product Marketing Manager for ARM SBCs at Curtiss-Wright mentioned that they use the Freescale i.MX6, which has dual ARM Cortex A9 cores.

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“The device’s high degree of I/O integration, low power, low cost, and suitable performance make it very attractive for upgrades thanks to the flexibility of Freescale’s family of pin-compatible ARM devices,” stated Sikkens. “It enables easy upgrade to a quad core device for those applications and customers who prefer more cores.” The Freescale i.MX6 is used in the Curtiss-Wright Digital Beachhead Ethernet Switch and Vehicle Management Computer which is used in VICTORY “appliance” type applications.

Used in single board computer products is the Freescale Layerscape LS1020A, which is a dual ARM Cortex A7 core processor. Sikkens likes this processor because “This device is part of the QorIQ family that includes some of the Power Architecture devices that are used on our other SBCs, which provides a range of devices that share a familiar complement of I/O and features such as the Freescale security engine.” One key feature that is important to his customer base is that Freescale has ECC/ parity across all the device’s memory and memory interfaces, including the cache; this is a Freescale enhancement that is not an available feature of the ARM core. Another reason is the availability of the device – it offered the ­earliest scheduled release with the right mix of features and performance to provide an ARM-based SBC that is I/O and pin compatible to existing CurtissWright Power Architecture and Intel SBCs, while providing an upgrade path to higher performance devices as they become available.

The Curtiss-Wright first generation strategy for ARM processors is to use Freescale’s QorIQ Cortex devices mainly as the primary processor on rugged single board computers designed for use in demanding applications such as mission computers. They will also use the i.MX6 type of processors, which are ideal for use in “appliance” type applications as part of a complete system solution where a feature-rich I/O subsystem is required.

“We are seeing interest in the VPX3-1701 3U ARM-based SBC hosting a graphics mezzanine, such as our XMC-715 module, which enables us to provide a complete

16 | VITA Technologies Spring 2015

www.vita-technologies.com

MANY DESIGNERS CHOOSE AN ARM PROCESSOR TO ADDRESS ONE OR MORE OF THE SWAP PARAMETERS THAT CHALLENGE THEIR DESIGN. ARM PROCESSORS ARE

›

RECOGNIZED AS BEING VERY POWER EFFICIENT Figure 2 | The VPX3-1701 is the first release in Curtiss-Wright’s ARM SBC product roadmap.

WHILE STILL DELIVERING ON PERFORMANCE.

single slot graphics solution at less than 30 watts maximum power,” says Sikkens (see Figure 2).

application-specific components with very diverse I/O and features are on the market.

New application-specific capabilities are being added constantly. This means that an SBC designer has many more choices, more appropriate than ever before to a specific application. The choice of the right ARM processors can help differentiate products in a very competitive SBC market.

Summary The reasons for implementing an ARM processor are widely varied. Besides the need to improve SWaP metrics for which ARM is exceptional, there are other reasons. The fact that there are hundreds of ARM licensees means that all types of Supplier

A search of the VITA product directory turns up several ARM processor-based products (see Table 3). The list continues to grow quickly as new products are introduced each month. The list is not at all inclusive – you can be sure there are many more products on the shelf today that are “ARMed and ready.”

VPX SBC

VITA 73 SFF

VME SBC

ADLINK Technology, Inc.

COM

COM Express

√

Aitech Defense Systems Curtiss-Wright

√ √

MEN Mikro Elektronik

√

North Atlantic Industries

√

PCI Systems

›

Custom

√

Table 3 | Sample of ARM-based suppliers.

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For the latest technical information and updates on VMEbus, VPX, OpenVPX, VXS, and other VITA standards.

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VITA Technologies Spring 2015 |

17

SPECIAL FEATURE

Standards for software defined radios expand

By Jerry Gipper, Editorial Director VITA 49 started an effort to develop interoperability standards for software defined radios (SDRs). The initial effort met with great success and is now expanding to add additional capability for a complete radio/sensor system. This article looks at what is under development by the VITA 49 working group.

The single biggest challenge in radio technology is radio frequency (RF) spectrum utilization. Only a finite amount of RF spectrum is available – it is highly regulated, a lot of it is not usable, and what is available may be full of all kinds of users. Widespread use of wireless connectivity for any intelligent device is driving up demand even more for that limited bandwidth, making the RF spectrum even more crowded. An SDR makes it somewhat easier to maximize available bandwidth, making it possible to select appropriate spectrum based on the mission and environment.

SDR is a radio communication system where components that have been typically implemented in hardware (e.g. mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators/ demodulators, detectors, etc.) are instead implemented by means of soft­ware on a computer or embedded system. While the concept of SDR is not new, the rapidly evolving capabilities of digital electronics render practical many

18 | VITA Technologies Spring 2015

processes that used to be only theoretically possible.

SDRs have gained traction in many military and commercial radio applications, especially in applications where many services must use common communication channels or changing mission needs require the communication network to be dynamically reconfigured.

and signal processing equipment in a wide range of applications. The VRT framework provides a variety of formatting options that allow the transport layer to be optimized for each application. The framework defines interoperable sensor architectures that are link independent.

Target applications for VITA 49 enabled SDRs include:

VITA 49 overview VITA members recognized the limitations of existing SDRs as they related to interoperability between radios and sensors. Several years ago the VITA 49 VITA Radio Transport (VRT) working group was formed to define a framework for SDRs, making them more open and interoperable. Out of that working group emerged two specifications.

ANSI/VITA 49.0, the VRT protocol standard defines a transport-layer protocol or framework designed to promote interoperability between RF receivers

›› ›› ›› ››

Spectral Monitoring and Scanning SIGINT and Tactical Information Communications and COMINT Radar and EW Countermeasures

The protocol is made up of three ­components. VRT IF (intermediate frequency) data packets capture payload data, time stamps, channel, and signal ID. The data formats are very flexible to accommodate a wide range of equipment and they support extremely precise time stamping needed for maximum accuracy. www.vita-technologies.com

ANTENNA PLATFORM Antenna Control

RF TUNER

RF Tuner Control

DIGITAL DOWN CONVERTER

A/D CONVERTER A/D Control

DDC Control

IF data, ID, time stamp

VRT IF Data Packetizer VRT Information Stream

DDC tuning, bandwidth, etc.

A/D sample rate, triggering, overload, etc.

RF tuning, bandwidth, gain, phase lock, etc.

To VRT Receiver

VRT Context Packetizers

Antenna azimuth, angle, polarization, location, altitude, speed, heading, etc.

›

Figure 1 | VITA 49.0 – VITA Radio Transport Protocol.

VRT context packets report all operational parameter values of the radio equipment. A standardized methodology allows the protocol to support a wide range of standard and unique parameters implemented in RF receivers.

The third component is the VRT information stream. It contains the first two components of IF data packets and context packets. This enables a RF receiver to associate data and context streams appropriately for different applications.

VITA 49.0 does not support control of hardware or radio transmit operations (see Figure 1). ANSI/VITA 49.1, the VITA Radio Link Layer (VRL) standard, specifies an optional encapsulation protocol for VITA-49.0 VRT packets. There are two motivations behind this encapsulation. The first motivation is to provide link-layer functionality, such as framing and error checking, when it is needed.

The prime example of the need for the VRL protocol is that of a digital recording device that receives a raw bit stream, writes it to disk, and then plays it back later. When playing back the recordings of VRT packets, it is desirable to be able to find packet boundaries from any arbitrary starting point in the recording.

Since the VRT protocol alone does not support framing capability, VRL – or some equivalent – is needed.

The second motivation for the VRL standard is the desire to be able to recognize VRT packets when they are carried over a link layer that does not specify the www.vita-technologies.com

›

Figure 2 | Proposed VITA 49.2 packets.

protocol of the payload. For example, a link may carry a mixture of packets, some VRT, and some of other types. The VRT packets might be routed at the receive end to a processing engine by some hardware that routes received packets based on payload type. This application would require unambiguous identification of VRT payloads.

Some link protocols provide no method to indicate that a VRT packet is contained.

Thus some unique identifier is needed for this purpose. In such cases, the VRL protocol serves to identify the VRT protocol as the payload.

Future enhancements Originally, the VITA 49.0 VRT protocol was defined for interoperability between radio receivers and signal processing equipment but now it is seeing implementations for digitized signal sample streams for software radio systems with a need to support interoperability between signal processing equipment and radio transmitters. Further efforts have recently begun to take VITA 49 to the next level to support additional use cases.

The VITA 49.2 working group has started working on transmit and control extensions to meet the expanded objectives of VRT (see Figure 2). The original work remains VITA Technologies Spring 2015 |

19

SPECIAL FEATURE

Data Packets Stimulus Packets

Context Packets VRT Receiver Control Packets System Capabilities Packets Spectrum Packets

›

VRT Processing and Control System

Context Packets Control Packets

VRT Transmitter System

Capabilities Packets

Figure 3 | VITA 49.2 – Transmit and control extensions.

valid but new protocols for complete receive and transmit systems, plus control systems are being proposed and developed.

Functional objectives for VITA 49 are now expanding:

›› Stream tagging for identification, content, format, and operational parameters ›› Monitor status of receiver and transmitter equipment ›› Control operation of receiver and transmitter equipment

›› Precision time stamping for beamforming, antenna array processing ›› Synchronization across channels and sites

Top of the priority list are a device control packet and spectrum survey control packet. The device control packet would send operational control parameters to

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radio equipment with acknowledgement. These additions make it possible for active operation of the radio to be interoperable. The proposed packet fields would include: ›› Controller/Controlee Unique Identifier ›› Message ID ›› Control/Ack Indicator ›› Control Indicator ›› Control Fields

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The spectrum survey control packets provide various control fields; center frequency, span, sweep rate, start/stop frequency, and resolution bandwidth critical to controlling a spectrum analyzer. The working group is currently evaluating two different proposals for this packet type.

According to Robert Normoyle at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the Office of Naval Research (ONR) initiated a Joint Open Architecture Spectrum Infrastructure (JOASI) effort. Lead by APL, the team consists of 11 prominent organizations that are industry experts on communication, electronic warfare (EW) systems, and RF spectrum standards. This group developed an EW Ontology comprised of an integrated set of spectrum standards that will enable efficient, cooperative, and non-interfering use of the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) domain.

JOASI’s ontology conveys system commands, status, capabilities, observations, and policies that can be used during battle operations.

If you are interested in learning more or would like to participate in the VITA 49 working group, contact VITA for more information: www.vita.com.

References 1. “Software-Defined Radio Handbook,” Rodger Hosking, Pentek, www.pentek.com 2. “Introduction to VRT and Data Packet Structure,” Matt Lamanque, ThinkRF, www.thinkrf.com/blog3/ 3. “VPX Optical Interfaces: Standards, Protocols, & Applications,” Embedded Tech Trends presentation by Rodger Hosking, Pentek, www.embeddedtechtrends.com 4. “VITA 49: VITA Radio Transport (VRT), A Spectrum Language for Software Defined Radios,” VITA Standard Organization presentation by Robert Normoyle, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)

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This effort is introducing additional transmit and control extensions that are under consideration: ›› Capabilities Packets that announce configurable assets of each device and parameter ranges ›› Transmitter Context Packets that deliver operational status and parameters of transmitters ›› Spectrum Packets that deliver limited spectral data for monitoring and scanning

Conclusion VITA 49 extensions enhance the total SDR system architecture (see Figure 3).

The first wave of enhancements help to eliminate stove-pipe architectures that emerge when there are no suitable standards and enhanced interoperability between components when multiple invested parties are involved in the development of a standard specification.

Additional technological enhancements will address standards for multi-channel phase coherent architectures and transport protocols for multi-function SDR architectures. www.vita-technologies.com

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VITA Technologies Spring 2015 |

21

PRIMETIME CHOICES

Ethernet switch and SBC in one module claims VICTORY Small, modular computing is forcing a new look at system architectures.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation’s VPX3-671 module is a great example. Curtiss-Wright claims that the VPX3-671 Ethernet Switch and single board computer (SBC) is the industry’s first single-slot commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) module solution for integrating the essential networking elements needed to implement the U.S. Army’s VICTORY standard. The lightweight, rugged, and compact VPX3-671 provides a line replaceable module (LRM) that features a core subset of advanced network switch and computing resources approach for implementing VICTORY, the U.S. Army’s mandated approach for modernizing ground vehicle networks. System integrators can quickly and cost-effectively embed the networking and vehicle management processing capabilities needed to modernize today’s tactical ground vehicles. The VPX3-671 delivers a fully-featured 12-port managed Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) switch that is tested to be compliant with the VICTORY specification as an Infrastructure Switch. Flipping the architectural model, the VPX3-671’s 1.2 GHz Freescale QorIQ dual-core P2020-based general purpose SBC is optional and is installed as a daughtercard.

Curtiss-Wright Corporation • www.curtisswrightds.com • www.vita-technologies.com/p372599

Parallel computing gets rugged Graphics and video processing are key elements of many critical embedded systems. The Tech Source Condor GR2 3U VPX is a new rugged 3U VPX form factor graphics/video card with general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) capability, developed specifically for supporting the CUDA parallel computing programming model and the OpenCL programming language. The new card is based on the leading-edge NVIDIA GeForce GTX-850M processor – offering 640 shader units clocked at 876 MHz and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory – and uses NVIDIA’s Maxwell GPU architecture. The Condor GR2 3U VPX graphics/video card is designed for very high performance parallel computing in rugged environments such as avionics, manned and unmanned video streaming, radar, sonar, image analysis, and security/surveillance applications.

Selwyn L. Henriques, president and CEO of Tech Source commented, “Our new CUDA-powered VPX card delivers very high GPGPU performance with processing speeds of over 1 teraflop per second, dramatically improving power efficiency, control logic partitioning, workload balancing, clock-gating granularity, and instruction scheduling.”

Tech Source • www.techsource.com • www.vita-technologies.com/p372602

A true single board computer for VME VME single board computers are now truly a single board. The VP B1x/msd, a 6U VME board based on a 4th generation Intel Core i7/i5 processor from Concurrent Technologies is a prime example. The VP B1x/msd include a processor and an Intel HD Graphics 4600, which has 20 execution units and can support three simultaneous display outputs. A front or rear VGA port is provided for backwards compatibility with previous boards. Up to two DVI-D interfaces and a DisplayPort connection are available as options for applications needing high-resolution digital display support. A 2.5-inch drive can be accommodated on-board for hard or solid state disks. Other solid state storage options include a CFast slot and a Flash disk module site to provide a choice for reliable program and data storage. One or two XMC/PMC sites are available for local I/O expansion. Other enhancements include USB3 connectivity for high-speed interfacing and setup operations.

Concurrent Technologies • www.gocct.com • www.vita-technologies.com/p372600

22 | VITA Technologies Spring 2015

www.vita-technologies.com

PRIMETIME CHOICES

Rugged recording in a portable package Front Panel Data Port (FPDP) is very popular in signal processing platforms.

Pentek leverages FPDP in the Talon Model RTR 2736A multi-channel Serial FPDP (sFPDP) rugged portable recorder, suitable for military and aerospace, radar, and communications applications. The RTR 2736A is capable of capturing up to eight Serial FPDP data streams in real time to solid state drives (SSD). It fully complies with the VITA 17.1 specification and additionally supports sFPDP baud rates up to 4.25 Gbaud, making it an ideal upgrade to existing systems. The Talon portable chassis features a portable, lightweight, briefcase style housing measuring only 16.0" W x 6.9" D x 13.0" H and weighing just less than 30 pounds. It also supports AC and DC power options. This rugged work-station is reinforced with shock-absorbing rubber corners and an impact-resistant protective glass for its high resolution 17" LCD monitor. Hot swappable solid-state drives exhibit high immunity to shock and vibration for full operation in ground vehicles, ships, and aircraft.

Pentek • www.pentek.com • www.vita-technologies.com/p372601

Customize times two Performance and maximum customization all in one 6U VPX slot looks pretty impressive. The Interface Concept IC-FEP-VPX6b is designed to meet the most demanding needs of embedded high performance signal and image computing applications. Two Xilinx Virtex-7 FPGAs and one Freescale QorIQ T1042 or T2081 e5500 quad-core processor provide the flexibility and performance. Two FMC slots, one per FPGA, notch up the ability to customize the board. A PCIe advanced switch allows versatile coupling between the multicore processor, the two FPGAs, and the fabric links of the P1 VPX connector. The QorIQ provides the usual external interfaces: Ethernet, Serial, and USB ports. Moreover, one eUSB slot enables an optional SSD module.

Other Fabric Links of the VPX backplane are directly connected to the FPGA’s GTH transceivers. Moreover, the two FPGAs are directly interconnected via 8 GTH lanes and 35 LVDS signals.

Interface Concept • www.interfaceconcept.com • www.vita-technologies.com/p372609

Breakout flexibility and performance Another way to gain the greatest design flexibility is with a very modular architecture and host processor that is designed to be customized. The North Atlantic Industries (NAI) 6U VME 64ARM1 single board computer (SBC) powered by the latest high-speed ARM Cortex-A9 dual core processor is that architecture. Built on NAI’s Custom-On-Standard Architecture (COSA), these SBCs are designed to support a multitude of mil/aero applications that require high-density, highly configurable I/O, and communication functions. Pre-existing, fully tested functions can be selected quickly and easily to meet system requirements. Furthermore, each I/O function has its own dedicated processing, thereby unburdening the SBC from unnecessary data management overhead – delivering size, weight, and power (SWaP) efficiencies and reduced overall system costs.

Six high-performance function module slots enable system integrators to choose from a selection of 40+ field-proven I/O and communication functions.

North Atlantic Industries • www.naii.com • www.vita-technologies.com/p372610

www.vita-technologies.com

VITA Technologies Spring 2015 |

23

Critical Recording in Any Arena When You Can’t Afford to Miss a Beat!

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Call 201-818-5900 or go to www.pentek.com/go/mestalon for your FREE High-Speed Recording Systems Handbook and Talon Recording Systems Catalog.

Pentek, Inc., One Park Way, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 • Phone: 201.818.5900 • Fax: 201.818.5904 • e-mail:info@pentek.com • www.pentek.com Worldwide Distribution & Support, Copyright © 2013 Pentek, Inc. Pentek, Talon and SystemFlow are trademarks of Pentek, Inc. Other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.