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The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

An RTC Group Publication

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CONTENTS

COTS (kots), n. 1. Commercial off-the-shelf. Ter-minology popularized in 1994 within U.S. DoD by SECDEF Wm. Perrys Perry Memo that changed military industry purchasing and design guidelines, making Mil-Specs acceptable only by waiver. COTS is generally defined for technology, goods and services as: a) using commercial business practices and specifi-cations, b) not developed under government funding, c) offered for sale to the general market, d) still must meet the program ORD. 2. Commercial business practices include the accepted practice of customer-paid minor modification to standard COTS products to meet the customers unique requirements.

Ant. When applied to the procurement of electronics for the U.S. Military, COTS is a pro-curement philosophy and does not imply commer-cial, office environment or any other durability grade. E.g., rad-hard components designed and offered for sale to the general market are COTS if they were developed by the company and not under government funding.

The Journal of Military Electronics & ComputingThe Journal of Military Electronics & ComputingThe Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

Departments

Digital subscriptions available: cotsjournalonline.com

Coming in JulySee Page 48

6 Publishers Notebook Best Year Ever?... Maybe for Some

8 The Inside Track

44 COTS Products

50 Editorial Economics of Spectrum Allocation

TECHNOLOGY FOCUSPC/104 and PC/104-Family Boards

36 PC/104 Nurtures a Niche Where Legacy and Performance Collide Jeff Child

38 PC/104 and PC/104-Family Boards Roundup

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENTDisplays and Panel PCs for Net-Centric Systems

30 Displays and Panel PCs Help Connect the Networked Military Jeff Child

TECH RECONMilitary Vehicle Computing and Comms Part 2

24 VICTORY Standard Eliminates Costly Vehicle Redundancies David Jedynak, Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions

SPECIAL FEATUREI/O System Options: 1553, Ethernet and More

10 Ethernet and 1553 Share a Long Path of System I/O Legacy Clarence Peckham

20 Mil Spec Point-to-Point Interfaces Work to Live alongside Ethernet Denes Molnar and Don Anderson, Sabtech Industries

June 2013 Volume 15 Number 6

I/O System Options: 1553, Ethernet and More10

On The Cover: The AC-130U Gunship is designed to avoid any single point of failure for mission-critical systems. It has a fully integrated 1553 computer architecture that speeds up troubleshooting and enables a way to track component performance throughout the systems life cycle. The Spooky (U-model) is the third generation of C-130 gunships. The AC-130U employs a synthetic aperture strike radar for long-range and adverse weather target detection and identification. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Julianne Showalter/Released)

COTS Journal | June 20134

PublisherPRESIDENT John Reardon, [email protected]

PUBLISHER Pete Yeatman, [email protected]

EditorialEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jeff Child, [email protected]

SENIOR EDITOR Clarence Peckham, [email protected]

MANAGING EDITOR/ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Sandra Sillion, [email protected]

COPY EDITOR Rochelle Cohn

Art/Production ART DIRECTOR Kirsten Wyatt, [email protected]

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Michael Farina, [email protected]

LEAD WEB DEVELOPER Justin Herter, [email protected]

Advertising WESTERN REGIONAL SALES MANAGER Stacy Mannik, [email protected] (949) 226-2024

MIDWEST REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGER Mark Dunaway, [email protected] (949) 226-2023

EASTERN REGIONAL SALES MANAGER Shandi Ricciotti, [email protected] (949) 573-7660

BILLING Cindy Muir, [email protected] (949) 226-2000

COTS Journal

HOME OFFICE

The RTC Group, 905 Calle Amanecer, Suite 250, San Clemente, CA 92673 Phone: (949) 226-2000 Fax: (949) 226-2050, www.rtcgroup.com

EDITORIAL OFFICE

Jeff Child, Editor-in-Chief 20A Northwest Blvd., PMB#137, Nashua, NH 03063 Phone: (603) 429-8301

Published by THE RTC GROUPCopyright 2013, The RTC Group. Printed in the United States. All rights reserved. All related graphics are trademarks of The RTC Group. All other brand and product names are the property of their holders.

The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

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NOTEBOOKPublishers

Pete Yeatman, PublisherCOTS Journal

Sometimes we can get caught up in trying to view things on too large a scale. We tend to see the Military Budget as a forest, and the forest has been hit by the sequestration blight. What we need to do is take a closer look at our industry under that forest canopy. For the last six weeks Ive been calling dozens of companies and users of our industrys products, try-ing to get an actual feel of what is going on.

The Administration sent Congress a proposed 2014 Defense Budget of $526.6 billion before a $52 billion deduction for se-questration, leaving a net of $474.6 billion. Secretary of Defense Hagel acknowledged that there will be significant adverse effects on 2014 military programs such as: energy conservation, civilian employees, training, equipment and facility maintenance, con-tract efficiencies, deployments, training and so on. And now the politics start on how to deal with the forest. Andto extend the tree metaphordo you cut F-35s? Plant more M1s? Trim the branches off other platforms?

Down here under the forest canopy, in the military indus-trial electronics market, things are far from gloomy. In fact, there are many quietly doing very well. Getting someone to talk to you, even off the record, in a company under $100 million is easier than with the larger companies with tight control over media contact. With that in mind, its necessary to extrapolate whats happening higher up the food chain from the people that will talk to you.

Things are different from the 90s, when primes bought and sold one another or traded divisions from different military technology segments with each other. Today there really arent many opportunities to repeat that process in this downturn. However, they are taking a page from history and consolidating their internal focus on their strengths, and slowly allowing areas to dissipate if they are cost heavy and return limited. Primes are focusing instead on the unique talent and expertise they provide to existing programs and their target military market segment. Expanding on entrenched programs has a greater probability of success than new, large blue sky programs that have a limited probability of receiving funding. Also evaporating is the primes funding of the internal teams and organizations necessary to de-velop the smaller electronic elements. More on that later. Con-trol of the deliverable and platform integration are now at the center of every primes focus.

The black cloud of sequestration has restricted military pro-gram managers to focusing on smaller purchases for existing pro-grams or funding-limited but essential improvements. Even tak-ing into account seasonal movement for orders and RFPs, many suppliers are noting a significant increase in both. And some com-

panies are even stating that this will be a record year. You only need to look at the stock markets to see that sequestration has not had a major effect on large primes stock value. That tells you that they prepared early on for sequestration and mil budget re-ductions. Whether large or small, officially everyone seems to be keeping their mouths shut about how well the industry is or isnt doing. Those that are not doing as well as they would like dont want to scare off potential opportunities, and those that are doing really well dont want to let their competition know.

Recently there has been moaning coming out of the DoD that the technology gap between our military and those that would do us harm has been rapidly narrowing. They would like to see pri-vate industry become more involved in developing technology and products to keep our military in a leadership position. The catch to all of this is that the government doesnt really want to tell anyone what if any brass ring will be at the end of any involvement. The government will only go so far as to make vague road maps that have no guaranteed funding or direction that companies can base their corporate future on. Its also not in the position to offer much if any IR&D funding as well as saying that overall funding for all new programs will decline. Its hard to believe that private compa-nies are not falling all over themselves to privately fund research programs that they can give the government for consideration if it eventually chooses to go in that direction and fund a program.

Our industry needs to keep doing what it has been doing for over 20 years. That is to take standard commercial technology and modify it to suit either a range of military programs or specific programs that have a reasonable prospect of success. At almost every level companies are expected to put skin in the game. The key here is how much and with whom. Pick your programs and partners carefully; and remember, like with the stock market, go-ing for something that may have the potential of a high return will be high risk. After cutting through all the hype that people provide when talking about their company, almost two-thirds of the companies I spoke with are doing better than they expected or very well during the current downturn. Not a single one of those companies stated that they went all in on high risk programs.

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8 COTS Journal | June 20138

INSIDE TRACKThe

RGB Spectrums Recorders Support THAAD Program

Over the past few years, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has been conducting flight tests on the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems intercept and destroy capability. To analyze the mis-sile systems performance and effectiveness, the MDA uses RGB Spectrums state-of-the-art DGy recording systems. THAAD is a U. S. Army missile defense system that destroys short, me-dium and intermediate ballistic missiles while in f light using a hit-to-kill approach (Figure 2). A THAAD missile carries no warhead but relies on the kinetic energy of the impact to eliminate its target. THAAD is part of the U.S.s Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS)

The RGB Spectrum DGy systems use advanced JPEG2000 compression to deliver visu-

ally lossless recording with the ability to reproduce intricate details. DGy codecs offer the unique advantage of recording every frame and the entire vis-ible color gamut to preserve the THAAD systems complex sym-bologies for post-test analysis. During low-endo-atmospheric live-fire missile tests, the DGy systems record test parameters, including telemetry measure-

PICMG Enhances CompactPCI Express Specification

PICMG has announced a new revision and upgrade to the CompactPCI Express spec-ification, Revision 2. The new revision to the CompactPCI Express specification adds 5 gigabits per second transfer rate and 8 gigabits per second transfer rate PCI Express operation. This provides up to four times the band-width while maintaining full backward compatibility with previous CompactPCI and CompactPCI Express prod-ucts. Also, this specification goes to great lengths to define how a products PCI Express signaling is validated to ensure interoperability.

The revision of CompactPCI Express, like the first release of the specifica-tion, focuses on interoper-ability at both the interface

and product level but with the additional benefit of dramati-cally increasing performance. This will allow rapid adop-tion in instrumentation and control applications where performance and interoper-ability are critical. The PXI standard, which currently builds on top of CompactPCI and CompactPCI Express, will see immediate benefit from this new revision. Founded in 1994 as the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group, PICMG is a consor-tium of over 250 companies that collaboratively develop open specifications for high-performance telecommunica-tions, military and industrial computing applications.

PICMG Wakefield, MA. (781) 246-9318. [www.picmg.org].

Figure 2

To analyze the THAAD systems performance and effectiveness, the MDA uses RGB Spectrums DGy recording systems.

Last month Lockheed Martins second-generation Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system achieved its fourth intercept. During the test, U.S. Navy sailors aboard USS Lake Erie (CG-70) used the Aegis BMD Weapon System.

Figure 1

Mercury Systems confirmed it had received $6.9 million in follow-on orders from Lockheed Martin for high-performance signal process-ing subsystems as part of the U.S. Navys Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) upgrade program (Figure 1). The orders were booked in the com-panys fiscal 2013 third quarter and are expected to be shipped within its fiscal 2013 fourth quarter.

Current Aegis BMD hardware includes the SM-3 Block-1a missile and other improvements to the Aegis Weapons System. Future develop-ment of the Aegis BMD system includes Launch on Remote capability, upgraded SM-3 avionics and hardware, and an upgraded Aegis Weapon System. In 2012 Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense was merged with Aegis Open Architecture and delivers the benefits of both platforms.

Mercury Systems Chelmsford, MA. (978) 967-1401. [www.mrcy.com].

Mercury Systems Supplies Signal Processing Subsystems for U.S. Navy Aegis BMD Program

9INSIDE TRACK

June 2013 | COTS Journal 9

ments, missile trajectory and intercept data, radar and other test variables. The recordings are then replayed in post-test reviews to analyze the perfor-mance, capabilities and efficacy of the missile system.

RGB Spectrum Alameda, CA. (510) 814-7000. [www.rgb.com].

B-52 Bomber Gets Major Communications Upgrade

Boeing is providing an upgraded communications system for U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers so aircrews can send and receive information via satellite links, allowing crews to change mission plans and retarget weapons in f light and better interact with aircraft and ground forces. To date, mission information has been uploaded to a B-52 only before a f light, not during. The upgrade, one of the largest improvements to the venerable bomber f leet, will therefore significantly improve B-52 effectiveness and f lexibility (Figure 3).

The upgrade will be done through a new $76 million Combat Network Communica-tions Technology (CONECT) contract that covers low rate initial production of the first CONECT kits, along with spare parts and maintenance and service at Tinker Air Force Base, OK. System installation will begin during the latter part of 2014. Other improvements will include a state-of-the-art com-puting network with worksta-tions at each crew position and an integrated digital interphone with increased capacity; it will enable crew members to talk to one another on headsets with noise-canceling technology.

Boeing Integrated Defense Systems St. Louis, MO. (314) 232-0232. [www.boeing.com].

Navy Taps Curtiss-Wright for Gear in Integrated Topside Program

Curtiss-Wright Controls announced that it has received a contract from Northrop Grumman to provide an inte-grated embedded Digital Radio

Frequency Memory (DRFM) system for use in the U.S. Navys InTop (Integrated Topside) program. Under the contract, Curtiss-Wright Controls will supply rugged COTS single board computers and other embedded modules to Northrop Grumman. The initial contract is valued in excess of $1 million. The projected value of future contracts is estimated to be in excess of $50 million. Shipments of units, which commenced in the second quarter of 2012, are scheduled to continue through the second quarter of 2013.

Curtiss-Wrights DRFM technology, which integrates seamlessly with Northrop Grummans system architecture, is based on modules including the Curtiss-Wright Controls De-fense Solutions business groups VPX6-185, VPX6-1957, VPX6-215, XMC-FPGA05D, FusionXF, RS485-MOD2, Champ-DRFM and CHAMP-AV8 products. InTop combines Electronic Warfare (EW), Radar, Infor-mation Operations (IO) and Communications capabilities. Its integrated, multifunctional, multibeam topside aperture con-struct features a modular, open radio frequency (RF) architec-ture; software-defined function-ality; and synchronization and optimization of RF functions for electromagnetic interference (EMI) mitigation.

Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions Ashburn, VA. (703) 779-7800. [www.cwcdefense.com].

Northrop Grumman Demos SABR Fifth Gen Fighter Radar Capabilities

Northrop Grumman Scal-able Agile Beam Radar (SABR) designed for the F-16 fighter aircraft recently demonstrated

its autonomous, all-environment precision targeting capability, which will enhance the aircrafts mission capabilities (Figure 4). The capability, known as Auto Target Cueing (ATC), uses high-definition synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images to locate and prioritize targets of interest and display them to the pilot. The ac-tive electronically scanned array (AESA) radar architecture allows it to carry out this function while performing other tasks at the same time.

SABR is designed to be an

affordable, multifunction AESA radar designed specifically for F-16 retrofit. SABR provides longer detection and tracking ranges, high-resolution SAR maps for all-environment preci-sion targeting, interleaved mode operations for greater situational awareness and greater reliabil-ity. Northrop Grumman has nearly four decades of F-16 radar development and integration ex-perience, and has delivered more than 6,000 fire control radars to U.S. and international air forces. The company also supplies the AESA fire control radars for the F-16 Block 60, F-22 and F-35 aircraft.

Northrop Grumman Los Angeles, CA. (310) 553-6262. [www.northropgrumman.com].

Figure 3

The latest upgrade is one of the largest improvements to the B-52 bomber fleet and it will significantly improve B-52 effectiveness and flexibility.

Figure 4

Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) is a multifunction AESA radar designed specifically for F-16 retrofit.


SPECIAL FEATUREI/O System Options: 1553, Ethernet and More


The year 1973 was a good year for data bus introductions. In early 1973 MIL-STD-1553 was introduced by the United States Air Force as a data bus for the F-16 Falcon fighter aircraft. Later that year Dr. Robert Metcalfe of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) introduced the first Ether-net implementation that was defined as a method of connecting computers into a network.

Clarence PeckhamSenior Editor

MIL-STD-1553B and Ethernet have a long history of usage as data buses for many applications. After forty years, where do they stand as solutions for military applications?

Ethernet and 1553 Share a Long Path of System I/O Legacy

Figure 1

The Fire Scout unmanned platform is an example of a modern design that utilizes Ethernet and MIL-STD-1553 as part of the system implementation.


SPECIAL FEATURE

Evolution of 1553 and EthernetSince its inception in 1973 and in

subsequent revisions during the ensuing years, MIL-STD-1553 has evolved into the predominant, internationally accepted networking standard for the integration of military platforms. Today, the standard has expanded beyond its traditional domain of U.S. Air Force and Navy aircraft to en-compass applications for combat vehicles, ships, satellites, missiles and the Interna-tional Space Station Program, as well as

advanced commercial avionic applications. Once considered primarily a military data bus standard, MIL-STD-1553 has caught the attention of commercial aircraft manu-facturers who seek to capitalize upon the standards inherent reliability, robustness, maturity and superior EMI performance.

MIL-STD-1553B, which superseded the earlier 1975 specification MIL-STD-1553A, was published in 1978. The basic difference between the 1553A and 1553B revisions is that in the latter, the options are

defined rather than being left for the user to define as required. It was found that when the standard did not define an item, there was no coordination in its use. The primary goal of the 1553B update was to provide flexibility without creating new designs for each new user. This was accomplished by specifying the electrical interfaces explicitly so that electrical compatibility between de-signs by different manufacturers could be assured. Only seven change notices to the standard have been published since 1978, which makes MIL-STD-1553B a very stable specification. The MIL-STD-1553 standard is now maintained by both the U.S. DoD and the Aerospace branch of the Society of Automotive Engineers.

Ethernet, on the other hand, was de-veloped at Xerox PARC between 1973 and 1974. It was inspired by ALOHAnet, which Robert Metcalfe had studied as part of his PhD dissertation. The idea was first docu-mented in a memo that Metcalfe wrote on May 22, 1973, where he named it after the disproven luminiferous ether as an omni-present, completely passive medium for the propagation of electromagnetic waves.

Metcalfe left Xerox in June 1979 to form 3Com. He convinced Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Intel and Xerox to work together to promote Ethernet as a standard. The so-called DIX standard, for Digital/Intel/Xerox specified 10 Mbit/s Ethernet with 48-bit destination and source addresses and a global 16-bit EtherType type field. It was published on September 30, 1980 as The Ethernet, A Local Area Network: Data Link Layer and Physical Layer Specifica-tions. Version 2 was published in November 1982 and defines what has become known as

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Figure 2

The GBX410 3U VPX Switch is available in air-cooled and conduction-cooled versions. Its 16 ports can be expanded to 24 using the 10 Gbit/s port.

2013 GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc. All rights reserved.All other brands or names are property of their respective holders.

GE Intelligent Platforms

Delivering on your promises takes more than the latest technologyGE has announced a range of single board computers that take advantage of the latest 4th Generation Intel Core i7 processors. More processing power. More 3D graphics capability. More I/O flexibility. But all within the same power envelope as before for optimum SWaP.

Its not just about the processor technology, though, or about perhaps the industrys broadest range of supporting technologies. Its about the company behind the technology. Its about working with a company with the resource, talent and commitment to help customers bring in programs on time and on budget and a company with a multi-decade track record of helping customers achieve the lowest lifetime cost of ownership.

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2013 GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc. All rights reserved. All other brands or names are property of their respective holders.

Untitled-4 1 5/31/13 9:45 AM


SPECIAL FEATURE

Ethernet II. Formal standardization efforts proceeded at the same time.

Ethernet initially competed with two largely proprietary systems, Token Ring and Token Bus. Because Ethernet was able to adapt to market realities and shift to inexpensive and ubiquitous twisted pair wiring, these proprietary protocols soon found themselves competing in a market inundated by Ethernet products, and by the end of the 1980s Ethernet was clearly the dominant network technology.

Since then Ethernet technology has evolved to meet new bandwidth and mar-ket requirements. In addition to computers, Ethernet is now used to interconnect appli-ances and other personal devices. It is used in industrial applications and is quickly replac-ing legacy data transmission systems in the worlds telecommunications networks. From a humble start in 1973 with a data rate of 2.94 Mbit/s, Ethernet has reached the point where 40 Gbits/s is now the upper data rate.

Standards ConvergeMIL-STD-1553 was developed origi-

nally for aviation applications, but as time progressed the standard has been accepted for all types of military applica-tions including land vehicles. In addition, MIL-STD-1553 interfaces are being used on both civilian aviation platforms as well as industrial applications. Any appli-cation that needs reliable, deterministic and redundant data communications at a

Convergence of Ethernet and ARINC 429 - AFDXMany commercial aircraft use the ARINC 429 standard buses. This standard

was developed in 1977 and is widely used today, as it has proven to be highly reliable in safety-critical applications. This data bus topology can be found on a variety of aircraft from Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier CSeries, including the Airbus A330, A340, A380, Boeing B737, B747, B757, B767 and the upcoming A350, Bombardier CSeries CS100 and CS300.To read this complete sidebar, go to this article on www.cotsjournalonline.com.

Untitled-5 1 3/28/13 1:34 PM

Figure 3

The Alta Data Technology Enet-1553 appliance does conversion of MIL-STD-1553 messages into Ethernet packets in a small package.

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Untitled-4 1 4/15/13 9:42 AM


SPECIAL FEATURE

pedestrian 1 Mbit/s rate is a candidate for a MIL-STD-1553 solution.

Ethernet, a network developed to in-terconnect multiple computers together and to common resources such as print-ers and storage, has migrated to applica-tions in industrial as well as military ap-plications. Ethernetwith its superior performanceis well suited for image and signal processing applications where large amounts of data must be shared with multiple consumers.

Now both Ethernet and 1553 are being used in many common platforms. An exam-ple is the Fire Scout UAV shown in Figure 1. There have also been several attempts to uti-lize newer bus technologies such as Firewire (IEEE 1394) and FibreChannel. However none have been successful in major programs.

Appliances, Aggregators or Data Converters?

Ethernet usage ranges from simple interface cards, switches and the lat-

est crop of productsEthernet Data Converters. An example of the current switch technology for COTS applications is shown in Figure 2. The GE GBX410 VPX 3U was released in late 2011 and is currently used on several COTS applica-tions, says Richard Spiesman, product manager at GE Intelligent Platforms.

With sixteen ports of 10/100/1000 BaseT ports plus two 10 Gbit/s ports for expansion, the GBX410 provides plenty of performance for any COTS applications. The challenge for system architects is to fully utilize the bandwidth initiatives such as VICTORY, which are defining ap-plication interfaces that will utilize the bandwidth, said Spiesman.

Since there are multiple MIL-STD -1553 buses and Ethernet on a platform, it only makes sense that converter boxes that would transport MIL-STD-1553 messages over Ethernet would emerge. An example from Alta Data Technology is shown in Fig-ure 3. This small box, no bigger than some MIL STD 1553 bus couplers, can be used to send and receive MIL-STD-1553 data over Ethernet. The challenge is to fit the MIL-STD-1553 4-12uS command-response pro-tocol into an Ethernet packet network, says Richard Wade, CTO of Alta DT.

A solution that eliminates one layer of process delays is to embed a real-time, thin-server directly in the 1553 FPGA protocol engine to replace the traditional PCI host interface. At Alta Data Tech-nologies, we recently released this design in the eNet-1553 appliance, said Wade. The eNet-1553 uses the thin-server IP/UDP protocol engine as the backplane

Figure 4

The RAR15 XMC interface card provides not only MIL-STD-1553 but also ARINC 429 and discrete I/O. The card can replace three cards in some applications.

Untitled-18 1 5/2/12 2:03:25 PM

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Untitled-1 1 6/27/12 10:14 AM


SPECIAL FEATURE

interface and can provide memory packet accesses at nearly the same rate as PCI backplanes. This thin-server approach bypasses at least one layer of IP stack and PCI backplane translations saving half of the total round trip transmission time.

MIL-STD-1553 Keeps on GoingAs one of the oldest and most stable

standards, MIL-STD-1553 has evolved with technology. Current 1553 interface boards utilize everything from custom

ASIC solutions to FPGA designs that can be modified to provide the required features. Figure 4 is an example of one of the lat-est designs that combines MIL-STD-1553 with more features The RAR15-XMC provides up to four channels of 1553 plus ten receive and eight transmit channels of ARINC 429 and 0-12 discrete I/O signals on an XMC card, said Benton Daniels, Avionics business unit leader at GE Intel-ligent platforms. As system designers are looking at upgrading existing platforms or

developing new platforms, they are look-ing for better SWAP solutions and reduc-tion in card count.

The Eurobus A350 is an example of the crossover of MIL-STD-1553 from military to commercial applications. Due to its proven reliability and deterministic operation, MIL-STD-1553 is being used to implement flight controls in the A350. By implementing remote input output (RIU) boxes with a MIL-STD-1553 inter-face, the amount of wire can be reduced and reliability improved.

Another Forty Years?Since current military platforms have

a long life, with both the F-16 and B-52 still flying, and many subsystems have MIL-STD-1553 interfaces, the future of MIL-STD-1553 is pretty much assured. Since Ethernet is being used extensively in telecom applications, which is driving 40G technology, the same can be said for Ether-net. Whether COTS applications embrace 10G or 40G Ethernet technology remains to be seen, but the solutions available for the system designer will continue to evolve.

Using FPGA SoC technologies from Xilinx or Altera, it is possible today to have a dual ARM A9 processor with MIL-STD-1553, ARINC 429 and 10/100/1000 Base T Ethernet on a single chip solution. Whether such a solution will be available soon remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: neither bus standard is going to be replaced anytime in the near future.

Alta Data TechnologiesGoleta, CA.(505) 994-3111.[www.altadt.com].

Altera Corp.San Jose, CA.(408)544-7000.[www.altera.com].

GE Intelligent PlatformsCharlottesville, VA. (800) 368-2738.[defense.ge-ip.com].

XilinxSan Jose, CA.(408) 559-7778.[www.xilinx.com].

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SPECIAL FEATURE

The point-to-point interfaces used to communicate between legacy systems used in many of the ma-jor military systems deployed today have become increasingly unsupportable. En-gineers and maintenance crews who have designed and maintained these systems, some of which were developed back in the 1960s, have moved on creating a lack of training or tribal knowledge that has not been passed on to the current genera-tion. This problem is becoming worse as military budgets are shrinking and legacy systems and ships are being used well be-yond expected life.

As modern COTS systems are being deployed into fleets around the world, they often have requirements to com-municate with existing legacy systems. Modern systems often use copper or fiber-based Ethernet to communicate over networks, which are inherently incompatible with the legacy point-to-point interfaces.

NTDS Complex and BroadAs an example, consider MIL-STD-

1397C, which is a standard that describes a point-to-point interface called Navy Tactical Data System (NTDS). This in-terface is used to communicate between

different computers and also with their peripherals throughout a ship. The defi-nition of this interface is very complex with both parallel types (A, B, C & H) and serial types (D & E) defined. The types vary in voltage levels, transmission rate and capabilities.

All of the NTDS types share certain characteristics though, one of them being that two different word types are defined:

command and data. There is also no de-fined limitation of the amount of infor-mation that can be received, since the transmitter can send information as long as the receiver indicates it is ready to ac-cept it. Another is synchronous commu-nication such that when the transmitter has information to send, it cannot do so until the receiver has indicated that it is ready to receive it.

Denes Molnar, Engineering ManagerDon Anderson, DirectorSabtech Industries

Legacy point-to-point military interface technologies are getting harder to accommodate. Conversion strategies help keep pace in the Packet-Switched Ethernet era.

Mil Spec Point-to-Point Interfaces Work to Live alongside Ethernet

I/O System Options: 1553, Ethernet and More

IEEE 802.3 Standard Frame

Preamble7 bytes

Start of Frame1 byte

DestinationAddress6 bytes

SourceAddress6 bytes

Type2 bytes

Data46 - 1500

bytes

NTDS Type E Control Frame

Sync1 bit

Data Ready1 bit

CommandReady1 bit

ID1 bit

NTDS Type E Information Frame

Sync1 bit

Type1 bit

Information32 bits

Parity(Optional)

1 bit

Frame CheckSequence4 bytes

Figure 1

For serial types, there are two types of frames, one for controlling when and what type of information is transmitted. The other frame handles the actual transmission of information.

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Untitled-4 1 8/3/11 9:53:42 AM


SPECIAL FEATURE

In order to support this style of communication, for parallel types, cer-tain dedicated handshake lines are used to indicate the receiver is ready to accept information and for acknowledgement of receipt of that information. For serial types, there are two types of frames, one for controlling when and what type of information is transmitted, and another for actual transmission of information (Figure 1).

NTDS and Ethernet DifferencesNTDS differs from Ethernet since

it is by nature asynchronous such that it does not wait for the receiving sys-tem to request information before it is sent. It is also electrically different in transmission method, has a defined bit order, built-in addressing, a bounded packet size and CRC. In an Ethernet packet switched networking system, it is possible to communicate over a single cable with protocols such as TCP and UDP, utilizing cost-effective

switches to communicate with many other devices and applications.

Because of the differences in low-level communication methods and strat-egies, the two different interfaces are by their very nature incompatible. There-fore, to allow for a modern COTS system to communicate with a legacy-based sys-tem, one strategy is to modify the original legacy system. Unfortunately, this may be out of the question since many systems do not allow for any native expansion or are proprietary in nature such that it is dif-ficult to obtain the original engineering documentation on the system in order to effectively accomplish this.

A second strategy is to add a legacy interface card to the modern COTS sys-

tem. These solutions are generally still currently available for many current hardware architectures, but this may not be desirable because many COTS systems designers strive for or are mandated for the system to be equipped with only open architecture communication interfaces such as Ethernet. This may also require the system to be modified once again when the legacy system on the other end is replaced.

Independent Converter ApproachIn order to avoid issues inherent with

the first two strategies, another strategy is to use a completely independent con-verter box. This box is usually located near the legacy system and is specifically designed to convert from the legacy in-terface to Ethernet as a stopgap measure to essentially add an Ethernet interface without modification to the original leg-acy system.

As with any Ethernet-based de-vice, an added benefit of a converter

such as this is that the converter may be configured to allow multiple receiv-ers on the network to obtain the in-formation or share the converter. The converter box may also be equipped with additional Ethernet interfaces in order to easily add redundant capabil-ity to the system where none was pres-ent before.

This type of converter can also be used in situations where the new system is required to obtain data from existing legacy systems without replacing either of them. In this case, the converter can be equipped with a tap version of the legacy interface where any information passed across the interface can be passed on to interested systems on the network.

Managing Ethernet TrafficThe converter box would contain a

combination of hardware and software that is able to convert the Ethernet traf-fic into the legacy format and back. It usually contains some type of program-mable device such as an FPGA to handle the real time handshaking requirements of the legacy protocol. This is especially useful because there are cases where the legacy equipment does not conform en-tirely to the original legacy specification and minor modifications are required in order to be able to communicate prop-erly. In this case, changes can be made to work with the system without changing any hardware components. It may also allow for code modifications to be run on the converter that may, for example, handle messages that require real-time response or just ignore or handle mes-sages that are not vital or necessary to pass on (Figure 2).

Eventually, the other side of the leg-acy system will be replaced and at that time the converter box is removed from the system entirely. One instance where this would not be possible are cases where Ethernet cabling is not available between the two devices and therefore another converter box could be added to the other sideessentially bridging the Ethernet network across the legacy interface cabling.

Because Ethernet only defines the lowest level of transmission, additional protocol layers are used to add more and more capabilities. Legacy interfaces also define one additional protocol layer that uses the lower level interface for transmis-sion. These higher-level legacy protocols are usually very system specific and are unique to the legacy equipment of which they communicate. To allow for this lay-ering, one can create a low-level software interface and routines to mimic the be-havior and characteristics of the original low-level interface across the Ethernet in-terface to the converter.

This low-level interface can then be reused across multiple different sys-tems. In designing the low-level interface though, it is normally not feasible, effi-cient, or desirable to transmit the lowest level handshake states or control frames across the network. Instead, one can de-

PowerNet Electronics

EmbeddedComputingPlatform

MIL-STD-1397Interface

Gigabit EthernetInterfaceLegacy Device Network

Figure 2

A converter box would contain a combination of hardware and software that is able to convert the Ethernet traffic into the legacy format and back.


SPECIAL FEATURE

sign the software to transmit single words or messages across as Ethernet packets. An upper level software layer can then be created upon it that is specific to each in-dividual protocol that takes into account the unique timing, message types and error conditions and is able to act upon them in an appropriate way.

Accommodating LegacyThere are times when it makes sense

to use legacy software to reduce cost of development. In other cases an existing system requires that the legacy interface be removed and replaced with Ethernet. In both cases an additional software module can be written in order to redi-rect legacy calls from the legacy driver or equipment and redirect them across the Ethernet-based network using the low-level software interface. This must be well thought out in certain cases since at the time some of these legacy systems were created, many of the origi-nal devices were mapped directly into memory and this has to be dealt with carefully if the original legacy software is to remain unchanged.

A remaining challenge then becomes how to communicate with the converter in a generic way such that when the con-verter is removed, it still is possible to easily communicate with the future re-placement system. One possible method of doing this is to create a software service or component that can be used in place of the converter box that is able to be installed on the replacement equipment after the legacy equipment is removed al-lowing for seamless transition to the new system without changing the first system that was modified.

Example SolutionAn example of this type of con-

verter and associated software pack-age is the Sabtech PowerNet (Figure 3). This COTS converter contains both the hardware and software that are neces-sary to perform the translation with an FPGA that handles the real-time hand-shaking. User code can be uploaded to the converter and a translation module is available in order to redirect certain code destined for a legacy device to Eth-ernet. A bridge module is also available

that can seamlessly connect two existing legacy systems over Ethernet.

These same techniques and methods can be applied to other legacy interfaces such as Airborne Tactical Data Systems (ATDS) and 1553. Although these have different characteristics, the conversion

to Ethernet-based interfaces can be ac-complished in a similar fashion.

Sabtech IndustriesYorba Linda, CA.(714) 692-3800.[www.sabtech.com].

Figure 3

The PowerNet NTDS / Ethernet converter contains both the hardware and software that are necessary to perform the translation with an FPGA that handles the real-time handshaking.

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Untitled-3 1 1/31/13 9:46 AM


TECH RECON

The Vehicle Integration for C4ISR/EW Interoperability (VICTORY) initiative has as its main goal the reduction of SWAP-C on ground vehicles. VICTORY takes aim at the current issues such as redundant functionality, net-working and interoperability by defining an approach for commonality through Gigabit Ethernet networking, standard connectors and well-defined electrical interfaces. The effort, jointly undertaken by a combination of participants from government, industry and academia, was begun in May 2010 with a first goal of de-fining a deployable 1.0 specification the following summer. Having met that goal, progress has continued apace.

The spec is now at 1.4 and continu-ing to evolve, and we are now beginning to see VICTORY requirements called out in a number of acquisition programs. The initiative is developing a framework for integrating electronic mission equipment including C4ISR and Electronic Warfare (EW) systems on ground platforms. The framework includes an architecture, a standard specification and reference de-signs. The architecture includes defini-tions of common terminology, systems, components and interfaces. The specifi-cation provides technical specifications

for the systems, components and inter-faces identified in the architecture.

Data Bus-Centric ApproachThe VICTORY technical approach

includes a data bus-centric design, sharable hardware components, open standard physical and logical interfaces and a shared set of data bus services. It also supports shared hardware and soft-ware information assurance (IA) compo-nents. The shared hardware components

enable the deployment of software ad-ditions without adding additional hard-ware. The standard physical and logical interfaces enable system and C4ISR/EW components to communicate with each other. The shared hardware and software IA components allow systems integrators to build security designs to protect and control access to information.

Through the definition of standard databus and standard interfaces that re-side on the edge of deployable equip-

David Jedynak, Manager, Advanced SolutionsCurtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions

Providing an open standard for physical and logical interfaces between system and C4ISR/EW components, the VICTORY standard is quashing the inefficient legacy of stovepipe military vehicle electronics.

VICTORY Standard Eliminates Costly Vehicle Redundancies

Military Vehicle Computing and Comms Part 2

MTS

GPSGPS

Shared Services

FBCB2

MTS

Threat Reports

Video Display

EW Interface

Audio Alarms

Etc...

GPS

FBCB2

Bolt On Mission Equipment IntegrationVICTORY Data Bus enables interoperability across

C4ISR/EW and platform systems

Figure 1

Todays ground vehicles typically have separate user interfaces, displays and hardware. The goal of VICTORY is to place the vehicles C4ISR/EW systems onto a standard Ethernet databus to enable them to communicate with each other in a modern networked fashion.

Before After

Untitled-5 1 1/7/13 3:50 PM


TECH RECON

ment and subsystems, the VICTORY ini-tiative promises to help resolve U.S. Army vehicle system integration challenges. Today, ground vehicles typically carry disparate stovepiped systems that are unable to communicate with each other to automate and coordinate responses or share data. Imagine if on your desk you had to use an older PC for word process-ing, another more modern computer for your spreadsheet, and a third little appli-ance to access your email. And on top of that you needed three different phones depending on who you were calling. That is todays environment in military ground vehicles on which systems are essentially siloed and unable to interoperate.

Combining Interface FunctionalityThe various systems found on todays

ground vehicles typically have separate user interfaces, displays and hardware. For example, if the vehicle has three dif-ferent systems that require GPS, there will frequently be three individual and redundant GPS receivers present, adding to SWAP-C pressure in the vehicle. The goal and promised benefit of VICTORY is that it places the vehicles C4ISR/EW sys-tems onto a standard Ethernet databus to enable them to communicate with each other in a modern networked fashion (Figure 1).

Once networked via standardized in-terfaces, the vehicles hardware can share data such as time and position informa-tion. In one example of how VICTORY can improve mission efficacy, consider a vehicles acoustic shot detection system application. The vehicle has a battle com-mand application that can show the loca-tion of adversaries and allies. There is also a remote weapon station with its own sys-tem with its own interface, and displays where the detected shot came from.

Slow Manual OperationsToday, a user in the ground vehicle

will have to physically turn from one system to the other to manually type and enter the data from the threat de-tection system into their battle com-mand system to login the contact infor-mation. Another system operator will then have to access that data for use on the remote weapon station, which has its own separate interface, so that the vehicles weapons can be turned toward the location of the detected threat. VIC-TORY makes it possible for all of the data to be shared automatically. The acoustic shot detection system would publish its message as a standard VIC-TORY-compliant message with a time-stamp and accuracy data. That report then gets instantly published over the

Figure 2

Digital Beachhead is designed as an integrated VICTORY backbone solution that features GbE switching and routing, along with VICTORY data bus, and management and shared services.

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TECH RECON

databus. The VICTORY-compliant bat-tle command software receives the data and displays it on the map system while the remote weapon station, which has received a VICTORY management mes-sage, prompts its slew-to-cue mode to immediately point its weapon at the threat. With VICTORY, all of this ac-tivity happens automatically over the databus because all of these systems are joined on the network.

Curtiss-Wrights Digital Beachhead is the industrys first low-cost rugged COTS solution designed specifically to bring the benefits of VICTORY includ-ing digital networking and advanced pro-cessing services to todays ground combat vehicles. Digital Beachhead is designed as an integrated VICTORY backbone so-lution that features GbE switching and routing, along with VICTORY data bus, and management and shared services

(such as shared GPS data), to quickly and easily integrate the VICTORY ar-chitecture into any vehicle. The low-cost unit also integrates a powerful Vehicle Management computer with the HUMS/CBM+ system health services that vehicle system designers have been demanding for both new and legacy vehicles, and provides everything needed to implement the VICTORY databus onto the vehicle (Figure 2).

Management Computer SolutionIn addition to dramatically simpli-

fying and lowering the cost of modern-izing a combat vehicle with a modern digital network and VICTORY-com-pliant architecture, Digital Beachhead also features a complete vehicle manage-ment computer system. A single Digi-tal Beachhead unit makes it possible to quickly integrate a modern vehicle con-trol system into a ground vehicle that previously had no embedded onboard electronics. Digital Beachheads system computer runs the vehicles health man-agement (HUMS/CBM+) software as well as monitors the vehicles primary systems. Digital Beachhead comes pre-installed with Curtiss-Wright Controls Vehicle Management Framework (VMF) software that significantly eases the pro-cess of defining vehicle operations for use by the CBM+ and other in-system vehicle management services.

The VICTORY initiative is helping to create a revolution in subsystem design for performance-hungry but space-con-strained ground vehicles. It makes it pos-sible to eliminate redundant GPS units, video displays, keyboards etc., because data and assets previously stovepiped will be shared over the common digital net-work. VICTORY also helps ease interop-erability across ground vehicle platforms. As VICTORY helps make ground combat vehicles more network-centric, the result will be greater real-time exploitation of shared data, mitigated SWaP constraints and significantly reduced costs.

Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense SolutionsAshburn, VA.(703) 779-7800.[www.cwcdefense.com].

Untitled-4 1 3/28/13 1:32 PM

Untitled-3 1 5/29/13 9:31 AM


SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

Despite the ever tightening mili-tary budgets affecting todays ongoing programs, the move to more advanced display technologies continues to be strong. There are two main reasons for that. On the one hand theres a fundamental shift in technol-ogy network-centric operations. Mean-while, theres an acknowledgement that a reduced military will need to increase its situational awareness capabilities, and that sharing and display of information feeds into that trend.

Often in the form of large displays and panel PCs, this is where the warfighter gets the complex situational awareness datamaps, video, images and textinterfaced directly to military weapons platforms on networks. On the panel PC side, theres a growing base of product solutionssome designed for industrial usethat provide military system inte-grators a complete PC embedded within a flat panel. These can be simply connected to a keyboard or used as touchpad panels if that feature is available.

Leveraging cutting-edge graphics chips developed for the demanding gam-ing market, military graphics subsystems are now able to offer complex video and graphics functionality in highly inte-

grated board-level solutions. Command and Control systems have embraced these capabilities and now rank among the

most demanding users of these advanced graphics technologies. Meanwhile, evolu-tion toward a networked military means

Jeff ChildEditor-in-Chief

With net-centric operations and situational awareness at the top of military requirements, vendors of rugged displays and panel PCs are enabling sophisticated video and graphics everywhere.

Displays and Panel PCs Help Connect the Networked Military

Displays and Panel PCs for Net-Centric Systems

Figure 1

Editor-in-Chief Jeff Child talks to a spokesman for Orbit Electronics at AUSA in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Orbit makes ruggedized color AMLCD and Electroluminescent Flat Panel Displays for militarized defense electronics and aerospace applications.

Untitled-5 1 4/23/13 3:53 PM


SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

that every vehicle, every aircraft, every ship, every UAV and every soldier on the ground should have the capability to share data, voice and even video with al-most any level of the DoDs operation.

Orbit Electronics for example de-velops and manufactures a wide array of ruggedized color AMLCD and Electrolu-minescent Flat Panel Displays for milita-rized defense electronics, aerospace, air traffic control, severe environment and industrial applications (Figure 1). Ac-

cording to Orbit, the displays offer clar-ity, contrast, accurate color and unifor-mity in even the most extreme airborne, shipboard, wheeled/tracked vehicle and handheld environments, while providing the utmost reliability and economical op-eration.

Intelligent System SolutionsExemplifying this trend of sophis-

ticated displays everywhere, earlier this spring the Naval Surface Warfare Cen-

ter tapped Z Microsystems to supply its Intelligent Display Series for use in the Small Tactical Unmanned Aerial Sys-tem (STUAS RQ-21A) program on board amphibious ships (LHD, LHA and LPD classes). This program provides ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Recon-naissance) support for the United States Marine Corp using the Integrator UAV supplied by Insitu Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing. The Z Microsystems Intelligent Display Series (IDS) of flat panel displays offer real-time enhanced video (RTEV) capabilities to improve critical tactical surveillance missions. The LCD display panels use a high-powered FPGA to ap-ply image enhancement algorithms to incoming video streams without adding latency. A sophisticated image enhance-ment algorithm brings out detail in im-ages degraded by poor visibility or atmo-spheric interference. Operators can turn image functions on or off with the click of a button.

Panel PCs for Rugged SystemsPanel PCs are an important part of

the militarys move toward net-centric operations. As the need to share infor-mation across the militarys networks grows, so does the demand for display panel solutions at many of the nodes in that network. Feeding such needs, Kon-trons Panel PC familycalled V Panel Expressis now available with the Intel Core i7 dual-core processor. Compared to its predecessors, this version offers

Figure 2

Designed for the popular 3x3 display configuration found in many control rooms, the MediaWall 4500 provides robust 24/7 operation with up to 30 graphic and video windows.

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SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

nearly double the performance and is ideally suited for industrial high-perfor-mance applications. The Panel PC follows a 100% passive cooling concept, whereby the unit needs neither a fan nor a fan filter to be replaced and is therefore completely maintenance free.

Optimal shock, vibration and tem-perature resistance are all standard fea-tures of the Panel PC family. The same is true for its high level of protection against electromagnetic interference, which is

often found in industrial environments emitted from electric motors. The V Panel Express is scalable from 12.1 inches to 19 inches, serving the increased demand for larger display sizes. The front panel is made of stainless steel and offers IP65 protection against dust and water spray. The resistive touch display, with LED backlight, enables reliable operation even when working with gloves and pens is re-quired. Optionally, the front panel can be designed to cater to customers specifica-

tions, including individual branding.The Kontron V Panel Express, with

long-term availability of up to five years, supports the Intel Core i7-2655 dual-core processor with 2.2 GHz (2.9 GHz in turbo mode) and up to 8 Gbytes of DDR3 mem-ory. The integrated range of interfaces suitable for industrial deployment in-cludes 5x USB (1x front, 4x rear), 1x LAN 10/100, 1x LAN 10/100/1000, 2x RS-232 and 1x DVI-I.

Wall Solutions for DefenseThe U.S. military has made its tran-

sition from paper maps to video displays that combine complex data, video and images. Serving such needs, in January RGB Spectrum released a new configura-tion of its MediaWall 4500 line of display wall processors (Figure 2). Designed for the popular 3x3 display configuration found in many control rooms, the Medi-aWall 4500 3x3 includes all of the features of the MediaWall, including robust 24/7 operation with up to 30 graphic and video windows. The family of processors allows images to be displayed anywhere, any size, within or across screens, in correct aspect ratio or stretched to fit, in whole or zoomed to emphasize details. Input al-ternatives include RGB/DVI, HD/3G-SDI and analog video modules. An HDCP op-tion allows the display of protected con-tent.

The MediaWall 4500 line of proces-sors provides buyers with a system that can be sized according to requirements, result-ing in an attractive price point. All Me-diaWall processors have a custom, high-performance architecture rather than a PC, with faster updates, more display flex-ibility, robustness and security. Real-time display of inputs is guaranteed under all conditions, without dropped frames.

Video Distribution SystemsEarlier this spring, Curtiss-Wright

Controls Defense rolled out a rugged mission display for airborne platforms. Comprised of a video display with touch-screen, it is designed for the most de-manding helicopter and fixed wing appli-cations. Featuring a wide array of digital and analog inputs, the AVDU5500 easily connects to the markets leading electro-optical turrets, either directly or via any

Todays high speed systems need lots of data storage space, so lets get serious: Elmas storage products offer the performance and flexibility to meet your rapidly expanding storage needs.

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SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

Low Profile from

.18"ht.

Audio TransformersImpedance Levels 10 ohms to 250k ohms,Power Levels to 3 Watts, Frequency Response3db 20Hz to 250Hz. All units manufacturedand tested to MIL-PRF-27. QPL Units available.

Power & EMI InductorsIdeal for Noise, Spike and Power FilteringApplications in Power Supplies, DC-DCConverters and Switching Regulators

Pulse Transformers10 Nanoseconds to 100 Microseconds. ET Rating to 150 Volt Microsecond,Manufactured and tested to MIL-PRF-21038.

Multiplex Data BusPulse TransformersPlug-In units meet the requirements of QPL-MIL-PRF 21038/27. Surface units are electrical equivalents of QPL-MIL-PRF 21038/27.

DC-DC ConverterTransformersInput voltages of 5V, 12V, 24V And 48V.Standard Output Voltages to 300V (Specialvoltages can be supplied). Can be used as selfsaturating or linear switching applications. Allunits manufactured and tested to MIL-PRF-27.

400Hz/800Hz PowerTransformers0.4 Watts to 150 Watts. Secondary Voltages 5Vto 300V. Units manufactured to MIL-PRF-27Grade 5, Class S (Class V, 1550C available).

Surface Mount

(and Plug In)

Transformers an

d

Inductors

See Picos full Ca

talog immediate

ly

www.picoelect

ronics.com

Delivery-Stoc

k to one week

for sample qua

ntities

Call toll free 800-431-1064in NY call 914-738-1400

Fax 914-738-8225PICOElectronics, Inc.143 Sparks Ave. Pelham, N.Y. 10803

E Mail: [email protected]

Untitled-1 1 5/17/13 9:48 AM

of Curtiss-Wrights Skyquest VMS video distribution units. The AVDU5500 com-bines an array of video viewing options and visibility features (Figure 3). For ex-ample, the popular built in quad screen option enables operators to view up to four independent live video images si-multaneously from any of the multiple video sources sent to the display. The AVDU5500 uses advanced optical bond-ing techniques to ensure maximum vis-ibility in bright sunshine conditions and improved ruggedness.

As standard, the AVDU5500 utilizes a dual LED backlight for Night Vision Goggle (NVG) filtering purposes. When required, the display can be switched into NVG mode, which switches off the standard white backlight and turns on the NVG filtered backlighting, conform-ing to MIL-STD-3009 NVIS B. This gives the user full color, high brightness im-agery usable with direct sunlight during daylight operations, as well as perfectly filtered imagery for NVG operations at night. All other display bezel lighting is also NVG filtered as standard.

The AVDU5500 is designed to pro-vide airborne operators with the greatest amount of flexibility and control. The dis-

plays five-wire resistive touchscreen can be customized to operate with any of todays leading digital moving maps. A wide array of I/O options, including USB, Ethernet and RS-422/232, enable the AVDU5500 to interface with peripheral equipment. Its eight hard bezel keys, located at the bottom of the display, control core display functions such as power on/off, brightness and channel selection.

Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense SolutionsAshburn, VA.(613) 254-5112.[www.cwcdefense.com].

KontronPoway, CA.(888) 294-4558.[www.kontron.com].

RGB SpectrumAlameda, CA.(510) 814-7000.[www.rgb.com].

Z MicrosystemsSan Diego, CA.(858) 831-7000.[www.zmicro.com].

Figure 3

The AVDU5500 from Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Systems easily connects to electro-optical turrets, either directly or via any of Curtiss-Wrights Skyquest VMS video distribution units.


TECHNOLOGY FOCUS

With its 20th anniversary celebrated last year, the in-credibly highly successful PC/104 standard gets to claim credit for opening the door to the embedded stackable computing concept. It began with the ISA bus and over the years has grown to include the latest inno-vations in desktop computing tech-nologies with PCI and PCI Express. Today, the PC/104 form factor and all of its follow-on variants continue to hold an established position in mili-tary embedded systems. PC/104and its wider family of form factors including PC/104-Plus, PCI-104 and EPIChas a clear success story in le-veraging many technologies from the PC infrastructure.

The PC/104 Consortiums most recent efforts have revolved around crafting a detailed, consolidated and consistent stackable PCI Express roadmap, starting with the adoption

of the PCI/104-Express and PCIe/104 specifications. In February of this year, the PC/104 Consortium an-nounced that the PCI/104-Express and PCIe/104 Specificationwith provisions for PCI Express Genera-tion 2 and Generation 3was ap-proved by member vote. The purpose of the additions and enhancements to the specification were to align it with performance improvements to PCI Express 3.0. Transfer rates of up to 2 Gbytes/s, 8 Gbytes/s, 16 Gbytes/s and 32 Gbytes/s are now possible on its x1, x4, x8 and x16 links. The con-nector technology and footprint are preserved in the specification. Layout examples for the different PCI Express links, USB 3.0 and SATA were added to assist developers.

Over the past several months, prod-ucts based on this revision of the specifi-cation were already rolling out as PC/104

vendors took advantage of the higher per-formance interconnect capability with PCI Express Gen 2 or Gen 3. This opens up new possibilities for data-intensive applications with fewer required PCI Ex-press links.

The Roundup on the following pages showcases some representative examples of PC/104, PC/104-Plus, PCI/104-Express and EPIC single board computer prod-ucts. Many of these vendors offer both PC/104 and EPIC families of products. However, for the purposes of this Product Roundup, vendors were asked to include just one of their PC/104 or PC/104-re-lated products.

PC/104 enjoys a rich legacy as a trusted option for space-constrained military systems. As an example, PC/104 is used in the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) system, a 7-foot long, 7-inch diameter f light ve-hicle carried on F-16 (Figure 1) and other fighter aircraft. It is capable of f lying at just under Mach 1 in forma-tions and paths typical of real aircraft. MALD contains circuitry to emulate the radar signatures of fighter aircraft. When a fighter pilot launches one or more of these decoys, enemy radar sees what looks like a number of attack planes in places where in fact there are none. According to Diamond Systems, PC/104 was chosen for the avionics because it was the only open-standard bus available that was small enough to fit in the vehicle and rugged enough to endure the extreme environmental requirements of battle. Diamond Sys-tems analog I/O boards are used in the system.

Jeff ChildEditor-in-Chief

In an era where compatible upgrades are critical and compute density a priority, PC/104 is perfectly positioned to solve the needs of space-constrained military systems.

PC/104 Nurtures a Niche Where Legacy and Performance Collide

PC/104 and PC/104-Family Boards

Figure 1

PC/104 is used in the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) systems on board F-16s and other aircraft. Shown here, an F-16 Fighting Falcon touches down at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.

with advanced CPU chip-sets employing sleepmodes and active power management. Also, the unit can operate in a +85C ambienttemperature environment using normal convection coolingand no fan. The outputs are +5V@10A, +3.3V@10A, +12V@3A, -12V@500mA, and +5VSTBY@2A. Each output

PD Power Supply PC/104 Module for PoE ApplicationsWinSystems PPM-PS397-POE-1 is an isolated 25W, 802.3af-compliant, Power over Ethernet (PoE) module. It powers a PC/104-Plus single board computer stack from DC power extracted from the CAT5 cable. It is designed for use in areas where other power is unavailable and to reduce the wiring costs for installations.

EBX

EPIC

PC/104

Call 817-274-7553 or Visit WinSystems.com/AtomM

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Ask about our eval program

High-Performance Atom SBCs Small & Fanless 'PSZPVSOFYUEFTJHOTFMFDUSVHHFE8JO4ZTUFNTTJOHMFCPBSEDPNQVUFSTQPXFSFEXJUITJOHMFPSEVBMDPSF*OUFM"UPNQSPDFTTPST

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(PUP8JO4ZTUFNT4#$(VJEFBUwww.WinSystems.com/SBCsM

ATX-compatible DC/DC Power Supply offers Wide Input Range and -40 to +85C OperationWinSystems PPM-DC-ATX is a PC/104-Plus DC/DC power supply for PC/104, EPIC, and EBX single board computers (SBCs) that support ATX power controls. It features a wide voltage input range from 10 to 50 volts, which allows the unit to operate with 12, 24, or 48 volt battery-operated or distributed DC power V\VWHPV,WJHQHUDWHVYHUHJXODWHG'&output voltages from one common DC in-put, plus supports the software controlledshutdown and power monitoring for SBCs

is short short circuit protected and current limited. A minimum load is not needed to bring the supply into regulation. When power is applied to the board,YH/('VZLOOLOOXPLQDWH providing a visual status that power is available.

WinSystems, Inc. (817) 274-7553 WinSystems.com/PPM-DC-ATXM

The PPM-PS397-POE-1 accepts 42-57VDC and converts it to three isolated outputs: [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Each output is short circuit protected and current limited. A minimum load is not needed to bring the supply into regulation.

:LQ6\VWHPVDOVRRIIHUVWKLVERDUGFRQJured for PC/104 and standalone systems.

No fans or heat sinks are required to meet its extended operating temperature range of -40 to +85C.

WinSystems, Inc. (817) 274-7553WinSystems.com/PPM-PS397-POE-M

Embedded Boards :,16


TECHNOLOGY FOCUS:

Board Serves Up Ultra Low Power SoC CPU

The emergence of complete systems on chips has brought direct benefits to small form factor boards like PC/104. Advantech offers a cost-effective System on Chip (SoC) PC/104 CPU module driven by the ultra low power DM&P Vortex86DX 1.0 GHz processor with 256 Mbytes of DDR2 SDRAM memory on board. PCM-3343 has the standard dimensions of 96 x 90 mm in a fanless PC/104 architecture, supporting rich graphic output including VGA and 24-bit LVDS or TTL up to 1024 x 768 resolution. PCM-3343 delivers ultra low power consumption of less than 5W under full load, and extended temperature support between -40 and 85C. It is well suited for

those applications that need only basic CPU performance, but very low power consumption at an attractive price.

PCM-3343 supports USB hot plugging to replace FDDs, as well as having an optional 4 Mbytes of external SPI flash for boot disk and small storage, which makes this total solution even more cost-effective. Advantech also provides a ruggedized package service that includes conformal coating and Industrial-grade compact flashSQFlash. The conformal coating service is offered to protect the PCB and components from dust, moisture, fungus, corrosion and vibration. APIs are included for configuring I2C, watchdog timer, panel backlight on/off, brightness control and GPIOall through a user friendly GUI to make it easier and simpler to configure and integrate into applications. PCM-3343 is designed with ample I/O ports and storage, including three RS-232, one RS-422/485, one IDE, four USB 2.0 and two 10/100 LAN ports, plus a single CompactFlash socket and 16-bit GPIO.

Advantech

Irvine, CA.

(800) 866-6008.

[www.advantech.com].

PCIe/104 SBC Serves Up 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N2600 Dual Core CPU

Reducing size, weight and power (SWaP) in military embedded systems has to start with embedded computing technology thats in line with such goals. With that in mind, ADL Embedded Solutions offers the ADLN2000PC PCIe/104 SBC. The ADLN2000PC features the Intel Atom N2600 processor with integrated HD graphics engine and memory controller functions. The processor interfaces to the ICH9M-E, which is also used on the ADLD25PC, but provides the PCIe/104 I/O bandwidth necessary to enable performance-

based rugged, portable or thermally constrained applications. The ADLN2000PC has an Intel rated Thermal Design Power (TDP) maximum of only 3.5W, yet has enhanced graphics including dual-channel video capability at full 1080P with full MPEG2 (VLD/iDCT/MC) and HW decode/acceleration for MPEG4 (AVC/H.264).

In addition to the wide range of rugged, extended temperature or harsh environment applications in which the ADLN2000PC can excel, it also supports a healthy set of features. The ADLN2000PC has two Gbit/s LAN ports and dual independent display capability with VGA, LVDS, DisplayPort and HDMI/DVI ports available. The ADLN2000PC also has two RS-232 COM ports, 2x SATA with RAID support, and 8x USB 2.0 are also supported on board, with an additional two SATA 3G and two USB 2.0 ports available on the down-stacking Type 2 PCIe/104 connector. The ADLN2000PC can optionally be expanded by adding the PCIe mini-card Socket, which includes the additional USB 2.0 ports and can be used for Wi-Fi, DDC-1553, CAN bus, Ethernet or other functions.

Advanced Digital Logic

San Diego, CA.

(858) 490-0597.

[www.adl-usa.com].

PC/104 SBC Boosts Performance for Legacy Systems

The CoreModule1-86DX2 is a PC/104 single board computer with a DMP Vortex86-DX2 single chip solution and an attractive performance to power ratio. The board comprises all peripherals needed for an embedded PC on a small 3.775 by 4.050-inch printed circuit board. The CoreModule1-86DX2 enables a performance boost for legacy PC/104 systems that continue to use a real ISA bus.

The CoreModule1-86DX2 integrates a powerful yet efficient DMP Vortex86DX2 with graphic controller and audio controller together with an additional Gigabit Ethernet

controller to form a complete PC, with all the standard peripherals already on board. Two Ethernet ports (1x Gbit and 1x 100 Mbit), four RS-232/RS-422/RS-485 serial ports, one USB 2.0 host controller and one USB 1.1 host controller handle the communication with external devices. There are PS/2 connectors for keyboard and mouse. A first generation SATA interface allows the connection of hard disk or CD drives. Applications that require non-moving storage can use the MicroSD-Card slot or the bootable flash. The CoreModule1-86DX2 runs DOS, Windows XP/7 and Linux operating systems and is powered by a 5V-only supply. System expansion can easily be realized over the PC/104, Mini-PCI-Express and I2C bus connectors.

ADLINK Technology

San Jose, CA.

(408) 360-0200.

[www.adlinktech.com].

PC/104 and PC/104-Family Boards

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PC/104 AND PC/104-FAMILY BOARDS ROUNDUP

PC/104-Plus SBC Sports AMD Embedded G-Series CPU

Many military embedded systems are truly embedded in the

cots journal june 2013

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