SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
Cockpit Display Collaboration Representing a collaborative FACE effort, Core Avionics & Industrial, CurtissWright Defense Solutions, ENSCO Avionics, and Lynx Software Technologies early this year joined forces to demonstrate the first FACE aligned cockpit display application at the Army Aviation FACE Technical Interchange Meeting in Huntsville, AL. The integrated demonstration stack leveraged key offerings by each of the contributing companies including ENSCO Avionics’ IData Tool Suite with IDataMap; Core Avionics & Industrial’s safety critical OpenGL Driver; Lynx Software Technologies’ LynxOS-178 real-time operating system and the VPX3131 3U VPX SBC and XMC-715 graphics controller both from Curtiss-Wright. The collaborating companies provided a demonstration of the FACE architecture using all of the FACE segments. The two user applications contained in the Portable Component Segment represent interchangeable software components from different suppliers. These applications when linked into the FACE architecture communicated with the IData RunTime in the Graphics services section of the Platform Specific Services segment via the Transport Services Segment. The IData RunTime Library application receives data via UDP from the TCP/IP stack from the LynxOS-178 RTOS. This data was supplied by another application (X-Plane) running external to the FACE stack and supplying air data. The cockpit display was then rendered through the I/O services segment via a Core Avionics & Industrial safety critical OpenGL driver. The entire FACE stack was run on Curtiss-Wright hardware, including their SBC and Graphic subsystem.
FACE-Compatible Display Compatibility to FACE is also reaching into the display market. In April display vendor IEE showcased a new FACE compatible architecture display product at the Quad-A show. The “Portable Components Segment” of the FACE Architecture is designed to be independent of the lower level hardware and software Input/Output (I/O) functions that are typically unique to each avionics device. The IEE 6- x 8-inch FACE compatible display can be used as an avionics platform on almost any aircraft, offers common aircraft data interfaces, runs an operational
flight program (OFP) designed to FACE guidelines, and is ready to host FACE-compatible apps that meet a customer’s system requirements. These features create lifecycle management efficiencies and facilitate platform-to-platform portability. The portability of the FACE apps makes the addition of avionics functions, such as moving maps, a quick integration. The FACE compatible display will receive data in the FACE payload data format from Enabling Technology and Innovation’s (ETI) Avionics Simulation Environment (link is external) (ASE). The ASE product provides dynamic aircraft data to OFPs over Ethernet and MIL-STD-1553 data buses. Abaco Systems Huntsville, AL (866) 652-2226 www.abaco.com CoreAVI Tampa, FL (813) 990-0603 www.coreavi.com Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions Ashburn, VA. (703) 779-7800. www.cwcdefense.com ENSCO Avionics Endicott, NY (607) 786-9000 www.ensco.com IEE Van Nuys, CA (818) 787-0311 www.ieeinc.com Lynx Software Technologies San José, CA (408) 979-3900 www.lynx.com Rockwell Collins Cedar Rapids, IA (319) 295-1000 www.rockwellcollins.com
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COTS Journal | June 2016
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