COTS Journal, February 2021 by RTC Media

February 2021, Volume 23 – Number 2 • cotsjournalonline.com

The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

JOURNAL

Open Standards Across Military Platforms Boresighting Technology – A Backbone For Targeting Systems

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The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing JOURNAL

COTS (kots), n. 1. Commercial off-the-shelf. Terminology popularized in 1994 within U.S. DoD by SECDEF Wm. Perry’s “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 specifications, 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 customer’s unique requirements. —Ant. When applied to the procurement of electronics for he U.S. Military, COTS is a procurement philosophy and does not imply commercial, 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.

SPECIAL FEATURES 16

By Pratish Shah, General Manager of Aitech USA

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT 20

DEPARTMENTS

Open Standards Across Military Platforms

Boresighting Technology – A Backbone For Targeting Systems

Publisher’s Note Artificial Intelligence (AI) should prove to be the most powerful influential change to our military since the Atomic Bomb

The Inside Track

By Itai Vishnia, PLX Inc

COT’S PICKS 26

Editor’s Choice for February

COTS Journal | February 2021

The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

JOURNAL EDITORIAL

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

John Reardon, Publisher

Artificial Intelligence (AI) should prove to be the most powerful and influential change to our military since the

Atomic Bomb

As we see the promise of AI to enrich the human experience by expanding our knowledge and increasing our human experience through innovation. This has

been recognized by our advisories and has created a threat that we may not have anticipated. The race to harness this power by Russia and China is being done to overcome the strength of the United States. The country that fields the most advance AI solutions will be able to overtake those that believe the old ways will prevail. This revolution will impact all facets of society, from the way we are marketed to how our homes are built. Although we have not yet really understood the impact of AI, Congress has been asked to fund AI within the defense budget in the amount of $32 billion. The amount is substantial enough to understand that many recent breakthroughs have had an impact. Recently a Top Gun pilot in a simulated dogfight with an F-14 flight simulator found that the AI-driven simulator significantly outperformed the human.

IBM’s concept of quantum volume tries to measure quantum computing progress in ways beyond counting qubits 6

COTS Journal | February 2021

The Chinese and the Russians have adopted cyber warfare activities that exploit our strategic vulnerabilities. This deepening threat occurs through malware, disinformation as well as the piracy of our intellectual technology. It can’t be a surprise that this threat is increasing and the best way to counter it, is to advance our own AI initiative. To use AI to better understand and detect threats whether in the real world or the virtual world.

The challenge that we are grappling with is overcoming entrenched organizational and cultural barriers.

In a recent book review, Defence of Europe, Oxford University Press by General John R Allen USMC, LieutGeneral Ben Holges, and Professor Julian LindleyFrench, the book describes a conflict that occurs in 2029 that employs AI to destabilize the West. It is based around a pandemic, several disinformation campaigns, destabilization of our economies, and power grids all the way through to advance military tactics that are a compendium of a highly orchestrated battle plan. Somehow the book is too close to the present circumstances and will give the reader moment of pause.

of the ubiquitous AI functions that we are exposed to daily through our cell phones may seem clever, convincing leaders that our defenses will be deployed in data centers and not on military bases will be a tough one. As Space Force develops the ability to beam energy to a stranded satellite, or the Army develops nuclear pellets to fuel vehicles, much of what we believe about AI seems to be nothing more than science fiction. But just as electricity changed the world, so will AI.

The challenge that we are grappling with is overcoming entrenched organizational and cultural barriers. As many COTS Journal | February 2021

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Collins Aerospace’s TCTS Inc. II Air Combat Training System completes successful first flight on a U.S. Navy F/A-18E at Naval Air Station Patuxent River Marks critical program development milestone for next-generation combat training Brings significant advancements in training capabilities to the US Navy and US Air Force

The U.S. Navy completed the successful first flight of the TCTS Inc. II Air Combat Training program on an operational F/A-18E/F Hornet. Developed and built by Collins Aerospace Systems and teammate Leonardo DRS, TCTS Inc. II is a scalable and flexible open architecture system that enables highly secure air combat between Department of the Navy and Air Force aircraft, both 4th and 5th generation platforms. It is also designed to encompass multiple functions that make more efficient use of size, weight, and power while bringing new

COTS Journal | February 2021

operational capabilities to the given platform. Designed to allow pilots to train as they fight,’ TCTS II securely connects the aircraft to the training space (other aircraft, ground, sensors, and threats) for a realistic training experience. This capability significantly improves training realism in simulated, highly contested combat environments. TCTS II also features Synthetic Inject to Live (SITL) capabilities which connect the live aircraft with synthetic sensors and threats to training in a more realistic environment. TCTS II also collects relevant data to rapidly develop new tactics, techniques, and procedures within a matter of weeks instead of months or years. With the ability to host operational capabilities, it can help

connect the battlespace with the ability to run training and tactical waveforms. “TCTS Inc. II is a massive leap in technology and training realism, and the first flight we witnessed at Pax River brings this program to life,” said Heather Robertson, vice president, and general manager, Integrated Solutions for Collins Aerospace. “US Navy and US Air Force pilots will be able to train as they’ve never been able to train before with secure cross-service air combat training and joint Live, Virtual, and Constructive-enabled capabilities. When it comes to redefining the future of training, this program certainly delivers, and I can’t wait to see its full potential realized.”

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Mercury Systems Delivers 1,000th Apache Ethernet Routing Device to Boeing

“We’re proud of our work with Boeing and honored to be part of the Apache program,” said Dr. Amela Wilson, Mercury’s senior vice president and general manager, Mission. “Our dedicated workforce, coupled with our close supplier relationship with Boeing, has been the catalyst for success on this

project. We look forward to continuing our support of the defense avionics industry by delivering leading-edge technologies that are secure, reliable, and purpose-built to perform with absolute precision in extreme environments, under the most intense conditions.”

L3Harris Technologies Demonstrates Antenna Technology for US Space Force Satellite Communications

satellite contacts. Traditional parabolic or radio antennas can contact only one satellite at a time.

L3Harris Technologies has completed a technology demonstration, under a Defense Innovation Unit prototype contract, for the U.S. Space Force satellite communication system to improve communications with the agency’s growing number of satellites.

The MBMM system’s all-digital architecture established 16 simultaneous contacts during the demonstration. The system can scale up to support hundreds of concurrent satellite connections from a single phased array antenna system, reducing the physical footprint needed for ground antennas and lowering the infrastructure cost per satellite contact.

Zoiss, President, Space and Airborne Systems, L3Harris. “This successful demonstration from L3Harris readies our nation with a capable and affordable advanced satellite communications approach today for the further proliferation of satellites in the near future.”

Mercury Systems Inc. has achieved a significant milestone with the delivery of the 1,000th ethernet routing device (ERD) to Boeing. The ERD is a rugged line-replaceable unit (LRU) designed for aviation applications where extreme temperature, shock, and vibration are prevalent. It provides key networking capabilities to the AH-64E Apache helicopter. The high quality and reliable performance of the ERDs help support Boeing’s Apache aircraft, sustaining this successful long-term program. This latest milestone continues Mercury’s more than 35 years of serving the major defense prime contractor outsourcing needs by developing trusted and secure, lower-cost, flexible, and easily upgradeable systems and platforms.

L3Harris developed a Multi-Band Multi-Mission (MBMM) phased array ground antenna system and integrated it with the Space Force’s Satellite Communication Network system to demonstrate multiple simultaneous

“L3Harris developed an all-digital phased array antenna technology to meet the enormous ground system capacity demands created by the increasing number of satellite missions,” said Ed

The L3Harris demonstration successfully confirmed live contacts with Space Force satellites across multiple orbital regimes at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado. “The MBMM demonstrations were a complete success that showcased the advancements in phased array technology and relevance for satellite command and control with live DOD systems. It has reinvigorated interest in the MBMM program as a key part of the overall space architecture,” said Col. Wallace “Rhett” Turnbull III, Director, Cross Mission Ground and Communications Enterprise, Space and Missile Systems Center. “Capabilities like those recently demonstrated may play an important role in meeting the growing demand for satellite control capacity by providing more affordable and resilient access to Space Force satellite systems.” L3Harris performed the successful demonstration with support from Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. and Mercury Systems. COTS Journal | February 2021

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Security and Defense Contractor QinetiQ Selects AdaCore’s Mentorship Service to Upgrade to the Latest Version of the SPARK Technology AdaCore’s Mentorship Service and SPARK Pro Selected for Modernization of QinetiQ’s Trials Control System (TCS) Software

AdaCore announced that QinetiQ has selected the AdaCore Mentorship Service to leverage its existing critical software platform investment, and address software tool obsolescence by modernizing the development environment for its Trials Control System (TCS). TCS is a command and control system designed specifically for the training, test, and evaluation of military equipment. The upgrade from legacy SPARK to the latest version of the technology, SPARK 2014, was central to sustaining the safety-critical software development capability required by TCS. SPARK is a language and toolset that brings mathematics-based confidence to software verification. The latest version of

COTS Journal | February 2021

SPARK provides QinetiQ with the foundation for a sound formal verification framework and static analysis toolset. One of the key features of the SPARK technology is the ability to be able to express contracts; i.e., behavioral properties that must be implemented correctly by the developer and can be checked by the verification toolset. The Mentorship Service provides QinetiQ with hands-on guidance from AdaCore’s formal software verification experts through customized on-site training, virtual project meetings, and extensive follow-up support. Following a successful engagement, QinetiQ extended their use of the Mentorship Service. QinetiQ has also selected a multiyear subscription contract for AdaCore’s software development tools, including GNAT Pro and SPARK Pro. “As the Lead Engineer of the QinetiQ TCS product, I can thoroughly recommend AdaCore’s Mentorship Service. Faced with the complexities of upgrading a code-base dating from 2004 and comprising several hundred

thousand lines of code, I was keen to engage early on with AdaCore,” said Michael Smith, Technical Lead of Software Engineering at QinetiQ. “The Mentorship Service has proved extremely beneficial and excellent value for money. More importantly, the flexibility offered, enthusiasm and considerable expertise provided by Yannick Moy and his team have ensured that this complex upgrade remains on track and has greatly reduced the technical risks.” “As the mentor on this project, I provided my expertise in program proof to help QinetiQ’s engineers speed up the migration process,” said Yannick Moy, SPARK Product Manager and Lead of Static Analysis at AdaCore. “As users of legacy SPARK, QinetiQ will reap even more value from migrating to the newest SPARK technology, thanks to the strong program proof guarantees that this latest version provides. The mentorship also helped the team to prove more subtle properties of code manipulating floating-point values, which are typically a challenge.”

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NH90 helicopter sale to Germany strengthens GKN Aerospace’s defense portfolio

NHIndustries and NAHEMA, acting as the Contracting Authority on behalf of the German Bundeswehr, have signed the contract for the procurement of 31 NH90 helicopters for ship-

borne operations. The contract brings the total order book to 597 rotorcraft. The purchase of the helicopters strengthens GKN Aerospace’s leadership position in the defense industry today and reinforces its strategic focus on the market for the future. The contract also means the continuation of hundreds of high skilled jobs in the Netherlands.

GKN Aerospace’s Fokker business began participating in the very successful NH90 program in the 1990s as one of the founding partners of NHIndustries, together with Airbus Helicopters and Leonardo. GKN Aerospace designed and manufactures the following state-of-the-art lightweight composite solutions for every NH90 helicopter in the world. - Empennage, - Cabin door, - Landing Gear, - Intermediate gearbox - Standard parts Michiel van der Maat, Vice President Countries and Campaigns for GKN Aerospace’s Defence business said: “We are proud of our continued involvement in the successful NH90 program. Our participation in NHIndustries allows us to strengthen key relationships with our partners and enables the exchange of expertise and know-how in advanced rotorcraft. GKN Aerospace has been a leader in aerostructures and lightweight technologies for many years and these advanced technologies have made us a great fit within this long-term collaboration and at the forefront of the defense industry.“

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Northrop Grumman Marks Five Years of B-21 Progress with Two Aircraft in Flow

In just over two years since completing Critical Design Review (CDR), Northrop Grumman has brought its digital design of the B-21 Raider to life, with two test aircraft in production today.

The Rise of the Raider is a story that began in February 2016 when Northrop Grumman initiated the design and build work for the B-21, and the program has progressed rapidly in the years following. Within three years, the B-21’s design was proven stable and mature through a successful CDR completed in November 2018 at Northrop Grumman’s Manned Aircraft Design Center of Excellence in Melbourne, Florida. Northrop Grumman Marks Five Years of B-21 Progress with Two Aircraft in Flow Today, the first B-21 test article is “really starting to look like a bomber,” said Randall Walden, director of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, in an interview with Air Force Magazine in January 2021. Walden also confirmed the production of two B-21 aircraft at Northrop Grumman’s Aircraft Integration

COTS Journal | February 2021

Center of Excellence in Palmdale, California. Infrastructure investments have yielded significant benefits in the design and assembly of the B-21 Raider. Northrop Grumman’s highly skilled workforce leverages cutting-edge technologies—including highly immersive virtual environments, and both augmented and virtual reality—to drive innovation in digital engineering and advanced manufacturing to build a producible, sustainable, and maintainable 21st-century bomber. “Our early and continued investment in infrastructure, design maturation, risk reduction, and our workforce has been a significant driver of progress on our first two aircraft on the production line in Palmdale,” said Steve Sullivan, vice president, and general manager, strike division, Northrop Grumman. “As a result, we are well-positioned for low-rate initial production following key milestones in 2022 and beyond.” An example of the impact of these infrastructure and employee investments was a recent systems integration demonstration that further matured B-21 hardware and software

integration, recently praised by the Air Force. These efforts are instrumental to the Raider’s rapid development. “We’re not getting something experimental,” said Dr. Will Roper, the former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, in a January 2021 Aviation Week interview. “We expect to get a representation of the full production [aircraft] to first flight. It is being designed for production innovation, for maintainability and sustainability, upfront and back.” As the program continues to prepare for the Rise of the Raider, Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force are continuing their steadfast collaboration to provide the longrange penetrating strike aircraft the nation needs. “The B-21 Raider is the product of a proud partnership between Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air Force,” Sullivan said. “We are committed to delivering the world’s most capable, technologically advanced bomber that will equip our warfighters with every strategic advantage against our adversaries.”

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Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital to Acquire Cubic for $70.00 Per Share All-Cash Transaction Valued at Approximately $2.8 Billion, Including Assumption of Debt

Cubic Corporation announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement (the “Agreement”) with an affiliate of Veritas Capital (“Veritas”), under which Veritas and Evergreen Coast Capital Corporation (“Evergreen”), an affiliate of

Elliott Investment Management L.P. (“Elliott”), will acquire Cubic for $70.00 per share in cash. Under the terms of the Agreement, Cubic shareholders will receive $70.00 in cash for each share of Cubic’s common stock they currently hold, representing a premium of approximately 58% to Cubic’s unaffected closing stock price on September 18, 2020, the last trading day before the Company discloses third-party interest in potentially acquiring Cubic. The all-cash transaction will be valued at approximately $2.8 billion, including the assumption of debt. Following the closing of the transaction, the Company will remain based in San Diego, California. The transaction is expected to be seamless for customers and employees across Cubic’s businesses. Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) Selects Immervision InnovationLab to Develop a Computer Vision Wide Angle Camera for the Blue UAS Framework Project Technology will enable the advanced low light vision for small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS) for commercial and defense applications.

Immervision announced it has received an award from the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), part of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) for a Blue UAS Framework effort The Immervision InnovationLab team is developing a wide-angle computer vision camera for small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUAS), enabling advanced low-light vision for the Blue UAS Framework effort which provides affordable, trusted, high performing, and interoperable UAS drone technologies for commercial and defense applications.

tronics for over 20 years. We look forward to working with the DIU to deliver secured, highly advanced sUAS camera for the U.S. Department of Defense’s applications.” Immervision has been involved in vision system designs for highly complex applications such as aerospace cameras, stratospheric balloons as well as commercial applications from video surveillance, action cameras, IoT to mobile phones. Immervision’s technology provides a wide-angle field with edge-to-edge augmented resolution, controlled distortion, and withstands extreme conditions.

“We are honored that the Defense Innovation Unit has chosen Immervision’s InnovationLab to create this innovative wide-angle computer vision camera optimized for drones in low light vision and autonomous flight,” said Alessandro Gasparini, Executive Vice President, Operations and Chief Commercial Officer of Immervision. “Immervision’s technology has been widely adopted in aerospace, surveillance systems, and for consumer elecCOTS Journal | February 2021

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SiFive Licenses Flex Logix eFPGA for Lower Power Communications SoC

EFLX eFPGA enables the development of communications ICs that are smaller, lighter and consume lower power than using traditional FPGA

Flex Logix® Technologies, Inc. announced that OpenFive has licensed the EFLX® eFPGA for use in a low power communications SoC, powerful and flexible enough to be used in the data center and edge applications, for a mutual customer of OpenFive and Flex Logix. eFPGA for Communications Applications Communications systems today are major users of FPGAs for flexibility and reconfigurability for customization and real-time

Abaco Wins New Contract for Electronic Warfare Analysis System Abaco Systems announces a multi-million-dollar design win for sixty units of the VP430 radiofrequency system-on-chip RFSoC, direct RF processing system, which will be used on a counter fire target acquisition radar upgrade. This new generation of counter fire sensor increases the ability to respond to newly identified threats and changing missions which enables more efficient countermeasures.

updating of protocols and algorithms. Flex Logix’s EFLX eFPGA allows systems to be smaller, lighter, and lower power by integrating the FPGA into the application-specific integrated circuit/system-on-a-chip (ASIC/SoC) compared to the traditional method of using an external FPGA. “We are proud to work with OpenFive and our joint customer who extensively evaluated Flex Logix’s technology,” said Geoff Tate, CEO of Flex Logix. “Because our eFPGA can deliver significant improvements in performance, power, and reconfigurability, we are seeing more opportunities to work with a premier custom silicon solution provider such as OpenFive. Customers can benefit greatly from having RTL configurability in their ASICs.”

carrier card results in a reduction in space requirements and optimized thermal transfer while increasing the mean time between failure (MTBF). The VP430 reduces RF signal chain complexity, maximizes input/output channel density, utilizing a flexible and secure processing powerhouse, and offloading data more efficiently.

“We’re honored to have Flex Logix as an eFPGA partner, not only because their EFLX eFPGA offers density, performance, and the ability to do large arrays, but also because the company has achieved many customer tapeouts in various applications including aerospace, communications ASICs and low power MCUs,” said Shafy Eltoukhy, CEO of OpenFive. “Flex Logix’s eFPGA offerings are also easy to integrate across most process nodes, enabling OpenFive to deliver domain-specific custom silicon solutions with differentiated IP that are optimized for power, performance, and area.” their best technology solutions. This program is expected to be delivered over three years, meeting the customer’s needs for price, schedule, and functionality.

Abaco’s engineering team worked closely with the customer to ensure that the VP430 will meet the system’s technical design requirements and provided a proposal that was selected over other embedded systems providers. In this fast-changing defense industry, our expert engineers support our customers so they can focus on other core system elements to deliver

Pete Thompson, Vice President of Product Management at Abaco Systems, Inc. said, “At Abaco, it is always our goal to provide innovative solutions to our customers which will ensure their success given their need for advanced configurations. Our team is proud to deliver the VP430 as an answer to our customers’ demand in an electronic warfare application in addition to the other military and commercial uses that it services. Providing access to our engineering resources enables our customers’ expertise to thrive on our products.”

Leonardo DRS Awarded more than $600 Million to Provide Mission Equipment Packages for the

board Multi-Mission Hemispheric Radar (MHR) to provide persistent 360 degrees of aerial surveillance, identification of friend or foe, and other mission essential technologies.

“The rapid prototyping effort set the conditions for a very successful production program and we are excited to get started on production deliveries.”

Leonardo DRS, Inc. announced it has received an initial contract award for 28 Initial Maneuver Short-Range Air Defense (IM-SHORAD) Mission Equipment Packages (MEP) from General Dynamics Land Systems (GD) in support of the U.S. Army’s recent IM-SHORAD production award. The award received on December 2nd, 2020, is the first of a five-year contract valued at more than $600 million.

This production contract award marks the successful completion of an aggressive prototype program that delivered nine prototypes and completed government testing in just two years.

Leonardo DRS will begin delivering the MEPs to General Dynamics for final integration onto purpose-built Strykers next year.

Abaco’s conduction-cooled, rugged, chipdown, RF processing board is built on a 3U VPX form factor. Mounting the RFSoC directly on a

The centerpiece of the MEP is Moog’s Reconfigurable Integrated-weapons Platform (RIwP®) turret with multiple kinetic effectors including the XM914 30mm cannon and M240 7.62mm machine gun, along with Stinger and Longbow HELLFIRE missiles. The MEP also includes an on14

COTS Journal | February 2021

“Leonardo DRS is excited to work with General Dynamics Land Systems and its Mission Equipment Package partners to deliver this important air defense capability to our warfighters,” said Aaron Hankins, Senior Vice President and General Manager for the Leonardo DRS Land Systems business.

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Developing advanced military GPS receivers and chips

A soldier uses a handheld GPS device to determine his location. M-Code receiver and next-gen ASIC will enable secure and reliable military GPS capabilities. BAE Systems received a $247 million contract from the U.S. Space Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center to design and manufacture an advanced military GPS receiver and next-generation semiconductor. The technology will provide positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) capabilities to warfighters so they can execute missions in challenging electromagnetic environments. The Military GPS User Equipment In-

U.S. Army Selects Lockheed Martin To Integrate And Test Combat Vehicle Protection System Company-developed kits are headed soon to Abrams, Bradley, Stryker, and Armored MultiPurpose Vehicles to begin trials

Lockheed Martin will soon begin supporting formal integration and testing of the U.S. Army’s combat vehicle protection system intended to keep warfighters safer and more secure from battlefield threats. Under the terms of a recent contract,

crement 2 Miniature Serial Interface program will provide improved capabilities for size-constrained and power-constrained military GPS applications, including precision-guided munitions and battery-powered handheld devices. The program will focus on the certification of an advanced application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and the development of an ultra-small, low-power GPS module. Both products will work with the next-generation military M-Code signal technology, which provides reliable GPS data with anti-jamming and anti-spoofing capabilities to protect against electronic warfare threats. “This program enables us to further develop our core M-Code technology to deliver high-performance, next-generation GPS ca-

the company will provide its Modular Active Protection System (MAPS) base kit, which includes an open-architecture processor that integrates vehicle sensors and countermeasures in a common framework to detect, track and defeat rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank guided missiles. “Lockheed Martin partnered with the U.S. Army in 2014 to develop MAPS as a safe and secure vehicle defense system that protects warfighters from a variety of anti-armor threats,” said David Rohall, program manager for Advanced Ground Vehicle Systems at Lockheed Martin. “Since then, the MAPS base kit has proven itself in multiple live-fire demonstrations. We’re ready to support integration and testing on a variety of Army combat vehicles, the final step before the Army makes a formal decision on fielding this capability.” Under the 36-month contract, Lockheed Martin will deliver five production-ready base kits with an option for up to 20, and support Army integration and testing on Abrams, Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle, Bradley, and Stryker vehicles. The contract also covers developing base kit support for vehicle protection capabilities beyond active protection, such as underbelly blast protection. Lockheed Martin’s MAPS base kit supports the rapid integration of MAPS-compliant sensors and countermeasures. It is designed to protect current combat vehicles and support future vehicle protection system capabilities.

pabilities,” said Greg Wild, director of Navigation and Sensor Systems at BAE Systems. “Our M-Code receiver and next-gen ASIC will enable secure and reliable military GPS capabilities in a broader range of platforms.” BAE Systems’ Precision Strike business has 45 years of military GPS experience and more than 1.5 million GPS devices on over 280 platforms around the world. The company is currently producing M-Code GPS receivers in multiple form factors, including the lowest power, smallest form factor M-Code solution available on the market today. Additional prototypes are in development for ground, weapons, and airborne mission applications, and the company’s M-Code GPS products are available to U.S. allies via Foreign Military Sales.

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SPECIAL FEATURE

Open Standards Across Military Platforms By Pratish Shah, General Manager of Aitech USA The fundamentals of defense systems are changing. Technology shifts are happening at an unprecedented pace, putting us leaps and bounds ahead of where we have come from, and the electronics and components critical to modern warfare need to keep up with these advancements. More than ever before, common hardware standards are providing military and defense organizations with streamlined system development and communication, resulting in cost-efficiencies across the board and a unified network of partners working towards a common goal. This article explores some

of the up-and-coming as well as time-tested standards that are shaping the future of military communications platforms. (Figure 1) VPX & VME Origins with VITA Founded in 1984, VITA is an incorporated, non-profit organization of suppliers and users who share a common market interest in critical embedded systems with a mission that focuses on promoting the concept of open technology for critical embedded computing as embodied in the many standards developed or under development within VITA. VITA governs both the VME and VPX specifications.

As the precursor to VPX, the VME standard had a large following in the military and defense electronics community. When system requirements mandated some upgrades to the standard’s offerings, VPX was developed as a migration from legacy systems to a more modern architecture that matched the needs of computing systems. Celebrating its 10th year as an approved standard, VPX has also undergone several enhancements and updates that make it a solid, and relevant, platform for many rugged applications today. Collaboration within Organizations VPX was chosen as the base specification

Figure 1: Open standards help to streamline military computing requirements for better interoperability and faster technology advancements 16

COTS Journal | February 2021

As stated in January 2019 with the Modular Open Systems Approaches for our Weapon Systems is a Warfighting Imperative memo, the SOSA initiative is the de facto platform required for the development of new military technologies.

for the more recent Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) open standards initiative put forth by three branches of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which are now collectively managed by The Open Group Sensor open Systems Architecture™ (SOSA) standards, currently in development. As stated in January 2019 with the Modular

Open Systems Approaches for our Weapon Systems is a Warfighting Imperative memo, the SOSA initiative is the de facto platform required for the development of new military technologies. In the past year and a half, it has forged ahead to reshape the future of military defense systems. In this memo, the US Army, Navy and Air Force committed to a common, open standards approach to de-

veloping weapons systems to facilitate more rapid development of technologies and to allow for economies of scale across the different defense organizations. To date, more than 100 industry-leading companies are members of the SOSA Consortium, building an ecosystem designed to foster growth and innovation throughout the military and defense community. SOSA Overview Building systems to a common platform is not a concept new to military and defense. As noted, SOSA relies heavily on VPX, an already established, and proven, standard used throughout military systems. But what makes SOSA unique is the deep level of involvement, from the DoD down to the connector manufacturers. This thread runs through the Army, Navy and Air Force, not only system-to-system, but across technology platforms, communication boundaries and layers of electronics development. Being at the forefront of a standard’s development is exciting for both member companies and the end users who will benefit. Once implemented, systems and boards developed in alignment with the SOSA Technical Standard will help reduce a number of chalCOTS Journal | February 2021

Figure 2: The SOSA aligned U-C8770 from Aitech is helping to build the open standards ecosystem

lenges that have plagued designers of military embedded systems for years: • Development time as well as time to market • Cost in development and maintenance • Integration and interoperability issues • System sustainability and scalability The SOSA Consortium truly facilitates technology reuse and enables the expansion of a credible MOSA ecosystem and many manufacturers are building products that address today’s industry open standards. (Figure 2) Software Integration Through the FACE Standard SOSA is utilizing The Open Group Future Airborne Capability Environment Consortium (FACE) standard to address some software requirements. FACE is an open software environment that promotes application interoperability and portability with enhanced requirements for exchanging data among FACE components and emphasis on defining common application programming interfaces (APIs). The FACE Technical Standard enables developers to create and deploy a wide catalog of applications for use across the entire spectrum of military aviation systems through a common operating environment. 18

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By integrating several proven industry standards, including ARINC 729, OpenGL and POSIX, the FACE initiative broadens the effectiveness of integrated systems, ensuring systems are safe, secure and reliable, as well as provides a pathway for system to remain compatible in the future. Software can be built using a set of defined components that enable better integration, more cost-effective upgrades and faster timeto-market, yet maintain a modular structure to allow for easy integration with pre-existing system. Collaboration Between Government and Industry Many DoD platforms, from communications, C5ISR, SINGINT, EW and more, used throughout air, ground and sea platforms can better focus on enhancing the functionality of our defense systems, while manufacturers can focus on providing the innovation that accelerates the capabilities for improving system functionality. Development of open standards ensure that we are building to a common platform that

will deliver practical applications of MOSA directives with real benefits to government programs. Companies like Aitech, for example, have been working with open standards for several decades to support the common mission of developing products that help the military to build equipment that improves homeland security, and ultimately saves lives. The communities established within open standards organizations, like The SOSA and FACE Consortia as well as the VITA community, enable technology innovations and advancement that better the industry. Standards Role in Military Electronics While the underlying needs of open standards in general are very similar, those developed for military applications do entail different requirements, mainly because “military” is a very broad segment with lots of vastly different application needs. Then layer in the various departments – Army, Navy, Air Force, etc. – each with their own silos of technologies. It’s a worldwide problem, notes Jerry Gipper, Executive Director at VITA, as most nations with militaries tend to have similar departments, but using open standards is a good solution to pull some of the diversity together.

“As initiatives like The SOSA Consortium continue to progress, the industry will learn how to collaborate faster, because even though the right stakeholders have been coming together, we still need to improve on the speed of collaboration. This is very challenging in the defense industry where we have been building walls for decades.” He also points out that technology change in military electronics is very slow because of the long lifecycles of various applications, but performance improvements are the key drivers; everyone always expect performance boosts, whether it be processing power, bandwidth, or networking. The continued growth and evolution of open standards proves that this infrastructure is not only wanted, but needed in military applications. As system intelligence evolves being able to focus on technology advancements, instead of tedious issues or interoperability and time to market, will help facilitate better and far more cost-effective military embedded systems.

COTS Journal | February 2021

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

Boresighting Technology – A Backbone For Targeting Systems By Itai Vishnia, PLX Inc. Boresighting technology is a critical element of targeting systems that can perform in harsh environments focused on combat and battlefield conditions, deep space and other demanding requirements, while maintaining near-perfect accuracy. This technology has evolved over several decades with an emphasis on continuous innovation and pushing the boundaries of optical alignment systems, culminating in today’s focus on In-Flight Boresighting. Boresighting refers to the procedure of aligning hardware line-of-sight to an aiming device or to the co-alignment of two or more optical axes, such as a laser and an imaging system. In Defense and Aerospace terms, this can apply to applications such as weaponry,

from small rifles to artillery, tank and aircraft fire control systems or long-range cameras and laser/receivers mounted on satellites and unmanned vehicles. This capability provides the means to verify the alignment of the hardware’s optical axis and the aiming device with sub-arcsecond accuracy. In this application, the camera and the laser can be mounted on a turret that enables viewing in all possible coordinates in space. For the purpose of boresighting, the turret has a pre-determined position that enables the laser and the camera system to view the laser target through the boresighting system. The camera, focusing on a cross hair, must display the focused dot from the laser on the

cross hair. Mechanical adjustment is required to tip and tilt the laser to bring the laser dot to the center of the cross hair. Alternatively, this can be accomplished electronically. The camera captures a larger field of view than is displayed. The camera readout is adjusted to bring the laser dot to the center of the display. This boresighting is accomplished by utilizing PLX’s Lateral Transfer Hollow Retroreflector (LTHR ™) and Lateral Transfer Hollow Periscope (LTHP ™), which are devices allowing two lines-of-sight to be viewed together, precision aligned and rendered invariant with respect to environmental conditions. Case Studies (putting this into practice): To support In-Flight Boresighting, PLX in cooperation with Lockheed Martin developed a Boresighting system for the Apache Attack Helicopter (AH-64D and AH-64E). Deliveries for the Apache (AH-64D) began in 2005 after an extensive development phase. The Boresighting system is designed to allow simultaneous viewing of multiple lines-of-sight. The module uses two LTHR ™ assemblies configured in a rugged housing that provides up to one arc second parallelism under the most adverse conditions. The unit operates with extreme stability, even when subjected to the harshest levels of vibration and shock experienced in helicopter flight and battlefield conditions. To date, approximately two thousand units of this modernized boresighting system have been delivered. What makes this Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (M-TADS/PNVS) system unique is that the pilot and targeting systems can operate simultaneously, where the targeting system is divided into two parts - Modernized Night Sensor Assembly (M-NSA) and Modernized Day Sensor (M-DSA).

Figure 1 - This is a schematic showing a long-range camera, such as an IR camera, which must be perfectly aligned to a laser designator. 20

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Inflight boresighting allows in-situ, real-time calibration of the fire control system to overcome any mechanical errors due to drift of the cameras in the vehicle. This enhances the accuracy of the fire-control sys-

tem and considerably reduces the repair cycle. Secondly, the boresighting module never needs to be removed for its own recalibration. This is a key advantage of PLX assemblies resulting in a static system that does not require maintenance and has a fixed sub-arc second accuracy. The PLX boresighting system provides a unique method for co-aligning several optical axes, namely, the laser designator, the visible day camera, the night sensor FLIR system and the collimator that transposes the reticle. This allows for an integrated high precision system for boresighting that is not achievable with other extant systems. This boresighting approach is adaptable to all types of fire control systems. General Dynamics Land Systems: PLX’s custom designed Hollow Retroreflector (HR ™) is a critical component for the primary gunner’s sight of the M1A1 and M1A2 battle command tanks.

Figure 2 - This schematic illustrates the same concept as Figure 1, but instead utilizing an invariant and highly stable Lateral Transfer Hollow Retroreflector (LTHR ™).

The Retroreflector employs dielectric coatings to attenuate harmful infrared radiation and is designed to operate over a temperature range of -40°C to +77°C. PLX has been the sole source supplier for this instrument since the inception of the M1 program more than 30 years ago with an emphasis on Life-Cycle supportability, maintainability and sustainability. TOW Missile ITAS & Bradley IBAS: PLX’s Lateral Transfer Hollow Retroreflectors (LTHR ™) have been deployed on the Army’s TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-Guided) weapon system family of missiles and TOW fire control systems including: ITAS (Improved Target Acquisition System), IBAS (Improved Bradley Acquisition Subsystem), T2SS (TOW 2 Subsystem), and M220 Ground TOW. PLX was approached by Texas Instruments (TI) to develop a boresight instrument for use on the TOW missile fire control. The project was later transitioned to Raytheon and DRS Technologies

Figure 3 - Image of the Apache Attack Helicopter AH-64D/E, in which PLX worked on the Boresighting system with Lockheed Martin.

with PLX continuing to actively support these critical platforms. The target instrument would have to increase the accuracy of the system, while adhering to limited weight and space requirements. To achieve the low weight, TI’s original concept was to make the unit from beryllium, although PLX proposed an alternative utilizing its proprietary light-weighting techniques. This was accepted and the instrument was produced from aluminum at roughly 25% less cost than the COTS Journal | February 2021

original TI design. The LTHRs in these systems function as image-transfer optical devices, allowing automatic boresight compensation for the sub-system. The ITAS and IBAS LTHRs must relay the image without distortion and accurately reflect the boresight reference direction for line-of-sight corrections in both active positions. The use of PLX LTHRs with first-surface mirrors is necessary for operation at both wavelengths. NASA Atlas Program (LIDAR): PLX’s LTHRs are utilized, as part of, the Alignment Monitoring and Control System (AMCS) of NASA’s satellite mission for measuring the earth’s ice sheet elevation, sea ice thickness, land topography, vegetation characteristics, and cloud layer. NASA chose PLX due to its patented technology, and the inability to achieve greater accuracy, stability, and resistance to harsh environments with an in-house developed solution within the project timeline. The ATLAS program is a powerful example of how PLX LTHRs can be put into practice for in-situ, in-flight alignment of multiple optical axis telescopes, LRS (Laser reference system /star-tracker), and for the ground laser system. As PLX advances its technology base – with an emphasis on miniaturization and a smaller footprint envelope – it is gearing-up to provide optics solutions to meet the demands of Unmanned Vehicle Platforms – a natural fit for its capabilities. A current area being investigated is a laser tracking rangefinder, based on high speed scanning of a laser to track a target’s position and range by its reflections. This will provide ultra-low latency tracking of fast-moving targets providing accurate tracking information. PLX is also developing systems for free space optical communications, ultra-stable laser delay lines, and critical elements for atomic clocks. Itai Vishnia is the CEO of PLX inc. An expert in Opto-mechanical engineering. Itai holds 27 patents and has authored numerous technical papers, some of which can be found on the PLX website. During his time at PLX, Itai has been responsible for the introduction of multiple PLX innovations including upgrading Telescope Alignment in space, modernized Boresighting military technology, state of the art interferometers and the Monolithic Optical structure Technology™ (M.O.S.T™). For more information visit www. PLX.com

COTS Journal | February 2021

February 2021

COT’S PICKS

Pentek Ships Quartz RFSoC Rugged Small Form Factor Subsystem Ideal for Custom Integrations • Pentek Quartz Architecture with Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC FPGA • Eight wideband RF/IF A/D and D/A converters • Conduction-cooled and ideal for integration into custom enclosures • Navigator Design Suite for streamlined software and IP development

Pentek, Inc. introduced additions to the Quartz® RFSoC Architecture family, the Model 6350S and Model 6353S (Gen 3 RFSoC), eight-channel A/D, and D/A converter subsystems in rugged small form factor package. Based on Pentek QuartzXM eXpress modules that utilize the Xilinx Zynq® UltraScale+ RFSoC FPGA, the Model 6350S and Model 6353S are very suitable for SIGINT and COMINT, military communications, EW countermeasures, radar transceiver, test and measurement, SATCOM, LiDAR, 5G and LTE wireless applications. “Our Quartz RFSoC customers continue to come up with requests for challenging packaging options for our QuartzXM eXpress modules. Pentek is now shipping the Model 6350S and Model 6353S to fill the gap between our module solutions and our fully enclosed system solutions,” said Bob Sgandurra, director of Product Management of Pentek. He added, “The small size of these subsystems enables customers to install our Quartz RFSoC technology within their existing enclosures.” Designed for Platform Integration The Model 6350S and Model 6353S are complete self-contained RF converter and processing subsystems in a small mounting frame. Requiring only a single 12V power supply, the subsystems can be integrated as a component in a larger sys-

tem with minimal design effort. All analog I/O and control and communication interfaces are easily accessible with industry-standard connectors, simplifying connections to other system components. The bottom surface of the subsystem provides an efficient thermal interface enabling conduction cooling and allowing fan-less operation in most installations.

pendent tuning and interpolations of 1x, 2x, 4x, and 8x. All A/Ds and D/As are transformer-coupled to wideband coax cable connectors.

Optimized for SWaP (size, weight, and power), the Model 6350S and Model 6353S are very small in size, measuring 1.5” H x 4.6” W x 6.7” D and weighing just under 30 oz. Intended for use in customer-provided enclosures, the subsystems are ideal for deployment in challenging and harsh environments.

Fast Data Interface The Model 6350S and Model 6353S support eight 28 Gb/sec full-duplex lanes using RFSoC GTY gigabit serial ports. With the built-in 100 GigE UDP interface or installation of a user-provided serial protocol, this interface delivers a high-speed gigabit data streaming path between the Model 6350S or Model 6353S and other identical subsystems, optical transceivers, data storage, or other processing systems.

The Quartz Architecture Difference The Pentek Quartz architecture embodies a streamlined approach to FPGA products, simplifying the design for reduced power and cost, while still providing some of the highest performance FPGA resources available today. Supported by Pentek’s Navigator™ Design Suite tools, Quartz products offer users an efficient path for developing and deploying software and FPGA IP for data and signal processing. The Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ RFSoC Processor integrates eight RF-class A/D and D/A converters into the Zynq FPGA fabric along with quad ARM Cortex-A53 and dual ARM Cortex-R5 processors, creating a multichannel data conversion and processing solution on a single chip. Data Conversion The front end of the Model 6350S (Gen 1 RFSoC) accepts analog IF or RF inputs up to 4 GHz on eight coax connectors with transformer-coupling to eight 4 GSPS 12-bit A/D converters, delivering either real or complex DDC samples. Additional IP-based decimation filters, provide overall DDC decimation from 2 to 128. Eight D/A converters accept baseband real or complex data streams from the FPGA’s programmable logic. Each 6.4 GSPS 14bit D/A includes a digital upconverter with inde-

The Model 6353S (Gen 3 RFSoC) boosts the input signal bandwidth to 6 GHz using a 5 GSPS 14-bit A/D with additional decimation settings. The D/A rate increases from 6.4 to 10 GSPS.

Factory Installed IP Speeds Development The Model 635xS subsystems are pre-loaded with a suite of Pentek IP modules to provide data capture, timing, interface, and processing solutions for many common applications. Modules include DMA engines, DDR4 memory controllers, test signal and metadata generators, data packing, and flow control. Navigator Design Suite for Streamlined IP Development Pentek’s Navigator Design Suite includes Navigator FDK (FPGA Design Kit) for custom IP and Navigator BSP (Board Support Package) for creating host software applications. The Navigator FDK includes the board’s entire FPGA design as a block diagram that can be graphically edited in Xilinx’s Vivado tool suite, with full source code and documentation. Developers can integrate their IP along with the factory-installed functions or use the Navigator kit to replace the IP with their own. The Navigator FDK Library is fully AXI-4 compliant, providing a well-defined interface for developing custom IP or integrating IP from other sources. The Navigator BSP supports Xilinx’s PetaLinux on the ARM processors. Users can work efficiently using high-level API functions, or gain full access to the underlying libraries including source code. Pentek provides numerous examples to assist in the development of new applications. Pentek, Inc., www.pentek.com

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February 2021

COT’S PICKS

BittWare Launches IA-840F with Intel® Agilex™ FPGA and Support for oneAPI™ Unified Software Programming Environment

BittWare, a Molex company, unveiled the IA-840F, the company’s first Intel® Agilex™-based FPGA card designed to deliver significant performance-per-watt improvements for next-generation data center, networking, and edge compute workloads. Agilex FPGAs deliver up to 40% higher performance or up to 40% lower power, depending on application requirements. BittWare maximized I/O features using the Agilex chip’s unique tiling architecture with dual QSFP-DDs (4× 100G), PCIe Gen4 x16, and three MCIO expansion ports for diverse applications. BittWare also announced support for Intel oneAPI™, which enables an abstracted development flow for dramatically simplified code reuse across multiple architectures. “Modern data center workloads are incredibly diverse, requiring customers to implement a mix of scalar, vector, matrix, and spatial architectures,” said Craig Petrie, vice president of marketing for BittWare. “The IA-840F ensures that customers can quickly and easily exploit the advanced features of the Intel Agilex FPGA. For those customers who prefer to develop FPGA applications at an abstracted level, we are including support for oneAPI. This new unified software programming environment allows customers to program the Agilex FPGA from a single code base with native high-level language performance across architectures.” The new IA-84F offers enterprise-class fea-

tures and capabilities, including: • Support for Intel oneAPI unified software programming environment • HDL developer toolkit: API, PCIe drivers, application example designs, and diagnostic self-test • Sophisticated Board Management Controller (BMC) • Choice of thermal cooling options: Passive, active, or liquid • Multiple expansion ports for additional PCIe, storage, or network I/O • To streamline cross-architecture development, oneAPI includes a direct programming language, Data-Parallel C++, and a set of libraries for API-based programming. Data-Parallel C++ is based on C++ and incorporates SYCL from the Khronos Group. This dramatically simplifies code re-use across multiple architectures while facilitating custom tuning for accelerators. “Intel Agilex FPGAs and cross-platform tools including the one API toolkit are leading the way to enable easier access to these newest FPGAs and their tremendous capabilities - including eASIC integration, HBM integration, BFLOAT16, optimized tensor compute blocks, Compute Express Link (CXL), and 112 Gbps transceiver data rates for high-speed 1Ghz compute and 400Gbps+ connectivity solutions,” said Patrick Dorsey, VP Product, Programmable Solutions Group at Intel. “The highly customizable and heterogenous Agilex platform and one API tools enable products like the new IA-840F accelerator card from BittWare to drive innovation from the edge to the cloud.”

BittWare www.bittware.com

COTS Journal | February 2020

February 2021

COT’S PICKS Pixus Offers Versatile Alarm Card for Fan and Voltage Monitoring and Control Pixus Technologies offers an alarm card that can be used in various OpenVPX, VME/VME64x, CompactPCI, cPCI Serial, and other open standard architecture chassis platforms. The Pixus micro alarm card provides the system with basic monitoring and control functions including; voltage levels, power supply health, temperature, and fan monitoring/control. The board monitors the four common power rails in Eurocard-based systems of 5V, 3.3V, 12V, and -12V. It also provides for the monitoring and control of up to four fans and the monitoring of two temperature sensors. Other features include a local bi-color LED and header for remote LEDs, an alarm cancel push button, and a USB interface. Pixus offers high-performance OpenVPX and other open standard architecture backplanes, chassis platforms, and specialty products. The company

COTS Journal | February 2021

also provides customizable faceplates, ejector handles, card guides, and other components. Pixus Technologies https://pixustechnologies.com

February 2021

COT’S PICKS Epiq Solutions Announces Sidekiq™ VPX400, a Multi-Channel 3U VPX RF Transceiver Solution Aligned to SOSA™ Technical Standards to Enable Rapid Development of Converged SIGINT/EW/ C5ISR Platforms Modular design reduces slot count and uses software-defined radio (SDR) technology that allows rapid adaptability and quick response to emerging RF threats. Epiq Solutions, an engineering firm developing cutting-edge RF tools for detailed insight into RF environments and wireless threats, today introduced the Sidekiq™ VPX400, a SOSA™-aligned RF transceiver solution designed to support the rapid development of converged SIGINT/EW platforms. The Sidekiq VPX400 provides a complete antenna-to-bits, multi-channel, phase-coherent RF transceiver solution in a single 3U VPX form factor. This high-performance transceiver solution includes both software and FPGA reference designs that support version 2.4 of the Modular Open RF Architecture (MORA) specification, simplifying system integration into any MORA-compliant system. VITA 49.2 is also supported for command, control, and streaming over 10 or 40-gigabit ethernet to the VPX backplane. With a foundation in modular open system architecture, low SWaP, and flexibility, Sidekiq VPX400 is an ideal choice for expanding system capa-

WIN Enterprises Announces 1U Rackmount Networking Server with 2nd Gen AMD EPYC 7002 Rome Series Processor WIN Enterprises, Inc. announces the PL8204B. The server is powered by the AMD® 7nm Rome EPYC™ 7002 Series Processor. AMD EPYC™ is the first x86-architecture server processor to support PCIe 4.0. The device is a 1U rackmount network server with a single 2nd Gen AMD EPYC 7002 (Rome) Series Processor with support for DDR4 memo-

bilities and functional agility in space-constrained C 5 I S R , SIGINT, and EW systems platforms while streamlining system engineering efforts and related costs.

Leveraging Epiq Solutions’ proven Sidekiq X4 RF transceiver and utilizing two Analog Devices ADRV9009 RFICs, the Sidekiq VPX400 has a wide RF tuning range up to 6 GHz, with the flexibility to be configured for either 4-channel phase-coherent operation at 200 MHz instantaneous bandwidth (IBW) or two independently tunable channels at 400 MHz IBW for a total of 800 MHz IBW. Other key features of Sidekiq VPX400 include: • Integrated Xilinx Kintex Ultrascale KU115 FPGA for high performance, cost-effective signal processing, and backplane I/O • Integrated Zynq Ultrascale+ MPSoC ZU7EV running Linux for executing the MORA device layer software locally • OpenVPX slot profiles include: • SLT3-PAY-1F1U1S1S1U1U2F1H-14.6.11-n (“-4” for a SOSA aligned option) ry up to 3200MHz, 2x USB3.0, 2x 1GbE RJ45, 1x Console port, mSATA, 2x M.2 22110, PCIe x16 slot. In addition, it features a redundant PSU (Power Supply Units). The AMD 7002 EPYC processor features a hybrid multi-die architecture allocating eight dies for processing cores, and a single I/O die to support security and communications functions. Features of the PL-8204B Server; • Supports 2nd Gen AMD® EPYC™ 7002 (Rome) processors, LGA4094

• SLT3-PAY-1F1U1S1S1U1U4F1J-14.6.13-n • Supports VITA 67.3 for backplane RF I/O • Supports 10/40 GbE and PCIe • Typical operation consumes less than 30W of power • Available in conduction cooled housing for deployment, or air-cooled housing for development “Epiq Solutions is thrilled to continue delivering highly integrated, cost-effective multi-channel software-defined radios with a modular open system architecture at their foundation,” stated John Orlando, CEO, and co-founder at Epiq Solutions. “Our SDR portfolio and application software will continue to expand in this coming year, providing the flexibility and rapid response needed to keep up with the evolving RF threat landscape.” Epiq Solutions https://epiqsolutions.com/

• 8-channel DDR4 ECC Registered 3200MHz memory, with up to 512 GB • 2x Full-height PCIe Gen4 x16 slots • 3x riser cards for PCIe x16 expansion slot (2 in front) • 2 x 2.5”HDD/SSD, 2 x M.2 22 80/22110 & • 1 x m-SATA • Supports optional IPMI card for VGA The PL-8204B Server will be further modified by WIN Enterprises based on any of the customer’s unique requirements. WIN Enterprises, Inc. www.win-ent.com

COTS Journal | February 2021

February 2021

COT’S PICKS 4th Generation PC/104 SBC Extends Product Lifecycles ATHENA IV includes integrated data acquisition and COM architecture

Diamond Systems has introduced ATHENA IV, a wide-temperature, COM-based SBC with integrated data acquisition and PC/104 I/O expansion. This combination of features makes the compact 4.2” x 4.5” board appealing to a wide range of embedded computing applications. Summary of product highlights • 4th generation, backward compatible for product life extension • COM-based design for long life & performance scalability, with multiple processor options • Integrated data acquisition with autocalibration and Universal Driver software support • PC/104 socket for versatile rugged I/O expansion • Designed for rugged applications, previous generations have been used in military vehicles, railway, agriculture, and industrial control applications

As its name implies, Athena IV is the 4th generation in the Athena series of SBCs from Diamond, an extremely popular platform that has been serving long-life applications in military, transportation, agriculture, and industrial industries since 2004. Athena IV maintains backward compatibility in terms of form factor, features, and I/O connectors with previous generations of the product, while incorporating the newest technologies to enable long-term applications to stay current with the state of the art as well as to attain increased CPU performance.

COTS Journal | February 2021

Customers using previous generations of Athena can easily upgrade to Athena IV with dramatically reduced re-engineering effort, compared to migrating to an entirely different SBC. In addition, embedded systems using competitor PC/104 SBCs approaching the end of life can migrate to the Athena platform to extend their product lifetimes practically indefinitely, due to its use of COM architecture. A COM-based SBC consists of 3 layers: the COM, or computer-on-module, containing the processor and associated circuitry; a carrier board, containing additional I/O, power supply, and I/O connectors; and a thermal solution, consisting of either a heat sink or heat spreader (which also serves as a mounting plate). The COM-based design of Athena IV offers a valuable range of benefits: The use of interchangeable COMs with identical I/O features but different CPUs enables a single system design to address a range of applications by selecting the ideal combination of price, performance, and power consumption. When one COM reaches the end of life, it can be easily swapped out

for a newer one, extending the product’s lifecycle for the duration of the new COM. The dual board design allows for greater feature density; as an example, Athena IV adds a second Gigabit Ethernet port, a USB 3.0 port, and onboard M.2 flash storage to the list of features found on Athena III. Since most new CPUs reach the market in COM format 1 to 2 years earlier than as a traditional SBC, a customer using a COM-based SBC can upgrade to the latest processor much earlier

and more easily than by waiting for a true SBC to be available and having to redesign the mechanicals of his system around the new physical shape. Athena IV incorporates a full-fledged precision data acquisition (DAQ) subsystem with analog I/O and digital I/O features, saving the size and weight of a second I/O board for applications requiring DAQ. The analog circuitry features programmable input ranges, 150KHz sampling rate, and Diamond’s signature autocalibration, which enables the circuit to be calibrated under software control at any time to maintain accuracy over the life of the system. All I/O features are supported by Diamond’s Universal Driver programming library, which includes sample code, executables, and a novel GUI control panel that can be used for quick bring-up, application modeling, and even system debugging. For applications requiring additional I/O, Athena IV offers the industry-leading PC/104 expansion socket, enabling it to be used with hundreds of I/O boards from companies all over the world. PC/104 today still offers the industry’s most appealing solution for I/O expansion due to its wide vendor base, rugged board interconnection

method, long product life, and ideal size that allows a greater amount of I/O and more rugged I/O connector options than minicards. The -40/+85oC operating temperature range (tested and guaranteed) as well as the 50% thicker PCB round out Athena IV’s benefits package and make it an excellent choice for rugged environments involving temperature and shock/vibration extremes. Diamond Systems www.diamondsystems.com

February 2021

COT’S PICKS Latest SOSA Aligned Backplanes from Elma Feature 6 or 8 Slots, Each with 25 GB Throughput

As The Open Group® Sensor Open Standards Architecture™ or SOSA™ initiative continues to move towards completion, Elma Electronic Inc. has added two 3U backplanes to its growing family of products aligned to Snapshot 3 of the SOSA Technical Standard. Available populated with or without VITA 67.3 connectors for timing and RF connectivity, the 6-slot and 8-slot backplanes provide the foundation for complex, high-speed signal processing systems.

es, radial clocks, and expansion. All data paths support high-speed signals. Either used as configured or customized to meet specific system needs, the SOSA-aligned backplanes offer considerable design flexibility. The extensible, modular design enables a wide range of slot counts and connection configurations.

Elma’s products aligned to the SOSA technical standard strive to follow the defense industry’s hardware and software convergence initiatives per the DoD’s convergence initiative as laid out in the Modular Opens Systems Approach (MOSA) mandate. Elma Electronic Inc. www.elma.com/en/

Ram Rajan, Sr. VP of Engineering for Elma Electronic Inc., noted, “When using these new backplanes, designers can develop systems aligned to SOSA for high-performance mission-critical applications requiring lower lifecycle costs and rapid technology insertion. We see them applied to several applications including mission, weapons and navigation control, threat detection, surveillance and target tracking and display as well as sensor-based systems and process and environmental monitoring.” The backplanes incorporate the latest for precision network timing plus slot profiles for SBCs, switch-

Videotel Digital’s HyperSound Directional Speakers Now Offer Improved Sound Quality and a Touchless Audio Solution Videotel Digital in addition to reliable and affordable industry-grade digital signage interactive media players, looping DVD players, and directional sound speakers, today announced that their line of HyperSound Directional Speakers now has improved sound quality.

Lisa Schneider, Videotel Digital’s EVP of Marketing and Sales said, ”The modifications to HyperSound’s directional speakers now make it possible to consider audio for digital signage installations that may have previously been unable to use sound due to ambient noise.” She added,

“This solution works best when paired with Videotel Digital’s touch-less sensors, which automatically trigger content when a viewer approaches the screen.” Videotel Digital www.videoteldigital.com

HyperSound’s sound quality has always been crystal clear, but the new enhancements allow the sound to be played at lower levels with exceptional clarity, which means users can create even tighter sound zones without ambient distraction – now comes with NEW custom-mount ceiling brackets. Videotel Digital carries HyperSound’s HSS 3000, a sleek and lightweight ultrasonic, parametric speaker that eliminates traditional sound noise and provides highly directional sound-tight zones, without sound bleed, creating a 3D audio effect within a highly focused area of just one percent at three meters to engage listeners without ambient distraction. COTS Journal | February 2021

February 2021

COT’S PICKS Next Generation of Industry-Leading 3U VPX FPGA Board Designed to Align With SOSA™ Technical Standard

Abaco Systems, Inc. announces the VP831 as the next generation of our VP889, the industryleading 3U VPX FPGA board now with 100G Ethernet on a design that is aligned with Sensor Open Systems Architecture™ (SOSA) technical standard. This release provides our customers with an upgrade path to the latest technology, providing more bandwidth and increased processing capabilities at lower power and size, ready to perform in the harshest of environments. The VP831 is built on our decades of experience with high-performance digital and analog systems to deliver quality in a system you can trust.

is built to perform in the harshest of environments. It comes with a fully-featured openboard support package giving customers a high-level reference design example to simplify integration of application-specific IP and reduce risks of program integration. This product delivers on the promise of a migration path from the VP881 to the VP889. By adhering to industry standards, users can upgrade their systems without a full system redesign, including future technology not yet available on the market.

With upgrades to the underlying technology including embedded ARM cores within the Zynq Ultrascale+ system-on-chip, which reduces power consumption, size, and cost, as well as brings advanced security to the forefront. The VP831

Serving as a SOSA™ standard-aligned variant of the VP889, the VP831 is the most capable embedded FPGA computing solution in a 3U VPX form factor, bringing flexible, powerful, rugged sensor processing and I/O technology. Military and

COTS Journal | February 2021

aerospace, and commercial programs require the latest in I/O and signal processing technology at an affordable cost and with predictable timelines. With the latest FPGA chipset, configurable serial interface options, and embedded multiprocessor system-on-chip (MPSoC), the VP831 demonstrates Abaco’s commitment to delivering rugged COTS hardware thus helping our customers overcome their most demanding application challenges. Abaco Systems, Inc. www.abaco.com

February 2021

COT’S PICKS Anritsu Adds Options to Field Master Pro™ RTSA to Address Military and Government Requirements

Anritsu Company introduces options for its Field Master Pro™ MS2090A handheld real-time spectrum analyzer (RTSA) that address the requirements of military and government applications. A new pulse analyzer option enables measurement of extremely narrow pulses, even at very low power, for installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of defense radar systems, while a second option allows the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability to be removed from the RTSA, so it supports designated secure laboratory and field environments. Pulse Analyzer for Pulse Profiling The Field Master Pro Option 421 offers the ability to automatically measure pulses as narrow as 30 ns (typical), per IEEE 181-2011. With the option installed in the MS2090A, aerospace and defense engineers and technicians can conduct accurate power measurements (i.e. average, peak, peak-wave, wave, pulse), pulse characteristics, and first and second transition characteristics without the need for tedious, time-consuming setup processes. The MS2090A’s industry-leading 110 MHz real-time analysis bandwidth and -100 dBm noise floor eliminate the need for an external power sensor for pulse measurements for user benefits. A reduction in the total cost of ownership is realized, and measurements can be made on signals 60 dBm to 70 dBm lower than external sensors. Additionally, power sensors are broadband compared to the MS2090A’s frequency-selective receiv-

er, which allows users to filter out pulses, interference, and noise beyond the band of the signal of interest. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Removal To address secure operating environment requirements, Option 6 has been introduced to permanently eliminate the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities in the Field Master Pro MS2090A. The Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip is physically removed from the instrument motherboard, so wireless transmission capability cannot be activated via software at any point. Designed for Military and Government Applications The options complement the MS2090A’s existing support for military and government environments. The Field Master Pro has RTSA tools to accurately measure the amplitude of a single spectrum event as short as 2 µs and detect a single event as minimal as 5 ns, for more accurate detection of signals that are short in duration or hop in frequency. Additionally, the MS2090A is compatible with the COMINT Consulting Krypto1000 Wideband Signal Analysis and Decoding Suite with IQ data to create a best-in-class field portable solution that effectively addresses the needs of the military and intelligence communities. The MS2090A performs capture and streaming of up to 110 MHz of IQ bandwidth across a full 54 GHz, providing a broader range of RF IQ data for post-processing to deliver a deeper view of SIGINT and/or COMINT activity. Anritsu Company www.anritsu.com/en-us/

COTS Journal | February 2021

February 2021

COT’S PICKS EIZO Releases Rugged XMC Graphics/ GPGPU Card with Field Programmable Configuration of Analog and Digital Outputs

EIZO’s Condor NVP2009AxX supports four field customizable video output combinations of DisplayPort++, 3G-SDI, CVBS, and VGA to provide flexibility and simplify inventory management for highend surveillance and mission computing. The NVIDIA Quadro P2000 (chip down GP107) design features single-ended or differential signaling, H.265/H.264 hardware encode/decode capability, comes in conduction-cooled and air-cooled variants, and delivers up to 2.3 TFLOPS of processing power. EIZO Rugged Solutions Inc., a provider of ruggedized graphics and video products, has released the Condor NVP2009AxX – an XMC graphics and GPGPU card that supports various combinations of analog and digital outputs. The new high-performance graphics card based on the NVIDIA® Quadro® P2000 GPU (chipdown GP107) supports four field customizable video output combinations of DisplayPort++, 3G-SDI, CVBS (NTSC/PAL/SECAM), and VGA (STANAG 3350, RS-170, RS-343) to provide flexibility and simplify inventory management for high-end surveillance customers. With multiple I/O configurations, the card can support a range of video resolutions up to 4K and custom resolutions under VGA configurations. It can be factory configured to customer specifications and/or field programmed to support com-

TE Connectivity introduces MIL-SPECqualified protective covers for 38999 series IV connectors TE Connectivity is introducing its DEUTSCH 38999 series IV metal protective connector covers. TE is one of the first MIL-SPEC-qualified suppliers to offer these protective covers, which gives aerospace and defense customers an alter32

COTS Journal | February 2021

plex, multi-video needs after deployment. The analog CVBS (NTSC/PAL/SECAM) and VGA (STANAG, RS-170, RS-343) video outputs can be configured to support single-ended or differential signaling. Differential signaling is a key enhancement over traditional single-ended signaling to minimize system-induced signal noise. Supporting both signal types is critical for situations where modern and legacy interfaces coexist on a platform. 3G-SDI and DisplayPort video outputs are also available for interfacing with modern digital equipment. Selwyn L. Henriques, president and CEO of EIZO Rugged Solutions, commented, “Our latest XMC graphics and GPGPU card offers our SWaP-conscious customers a ‘mix and match’ solution, supporting both analog and digital outputs. The card’s novel design means that customers developing high-performance surveillance and

mission applications can use the same hardware (single SKU) on multiple programs, thereby simplifying and improving inventory management.” The MIL-STD-810 compliant Condor NVP2009AxX supports CUDA® and OpenCL® based GPGPU computing, AI processing, deep learning, and H.265 (HEVC) / H.264 encoding & decoding. The card performs low latency computing for GPGPU applications such as unmanned systems, C5ISR, situational awareness, signal intelligence (SIGINT), and data science projects. The product is available in both, conduction-cooled and air-cooled variants have 4 GB GDDR5 graphics memory and delivers up to 2.3 TFLOPS of CUDA processing power. The Condor NVP2009AxX’s rear XMC pin-out is compatible with VPX systems that follow VITA 46.9 x12d+x8d+24s. Aitech Systems https://aitechsystems.com

native to more expensive commercial versions.

conditions for the connector.

TE’s metal protective connector covers are designed to help protect connectors in their unmated condition from debris and fluids like rain, sand, jet fuels, hydraulic fluids, dust, and other substances that can damage the connector. Available in five plating configurations and eight shell sizes, these covers offer a rugged, lightweight way of creating environmentally sealed

“Because we are offering these covers through our channel partners, customers can purchase them in smaller quantities and expect shorter lead times,” said Scott Miller, product manager for TE’s Aerospace, Defense and Marine division. www.elma.com TE Connectivity www.te.com/usa-en/home.html

February 2021

COT’S PICKS

Texas Instruments makes highreliability products immediately available for purchase on TI.com

TI opens its inventory of thousands of spacegrade and military-grade products to help aerospace and defense electronics companies meet the growing demand Texas Instruments announced that it is making most of its high-reliability (HiRel) semiconductor products immediately available for online purchase on TI.com, helping aerospace and defense companies quickly get the authentic TI products they need for their next-generation space-grade and military-grade designs. Engineers and purchasing managers can now access TI’s inventory of thousands of HiRel products on TI.com, including radiation-hardened and radiation-tolerant products in the qualified manufacturers’ list (QML) plastic, ceramic or metallic packages used in space, avionics, and defense system designs. Additionally, purchasers now have multiple options to select the date and lot codes before placing an order. “Increasingly, customers are developing highly sophisticated satellites and other advanced electronics that must operate in harsh conditions, and our customers expect shorter

supplier lead times to meet mission-critical project timelines,” said Gary Reichmuth, general manager for aerospace and defense systems at Texas Instruments. “With the vast inventory of our HiRel products available on TI.com, supported with lot selection options and associated documentation, customers will be able to obtain HiRel products and get to production faster than with other semiconductor suppliers.” TI’s long history in aerospace and defense electronics For over 60 years, TI integrated circuits have been used in many spacecraft and defense electronics in the United States, Europe, and other regions. TI has a long track record of manufacturing HiRel products, helping assure a steady supply of parts to customers who develop space, commercial and military applications. More than half of TI’s manufacturing sites are QML-certified, enabling the company to quickly qualify, manufacture and ship high-quality, reliable analog and embedded processing products. Product innovation Two of TI’s newest HiRel space products include DC/DC buck converters intended to help customers meet key power management challenges of different satellite mission profiles. The TPS7H4001-SP provides industry-leading power density for full QML-V, radiation-hardness-as-

sured satellite applications, and the TPS7H4010SEP offers the widest voltage range for the shorter missions of low-earth-orbit satellites. In addition to power management, aerospace companies can purchase other TI devices on TI.com, such as the LMX2615-SP 40-MHz to 15-GHz wideband radio frequency synthesizer with phase synchronization and the new LMK04832-SP ultra-low noise clock jitter cleaner. Both of these clock and timing devices support the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council ( JEDEC) JESD204B standard and help to reduce design complexity and weight while increasing system stability in satellite systems. Instant access to QML ceramic package material information Traditionally, one of the biggest barriers to obtaining QML-V and QML-Q products has been accessing material content information for ceramic packaging before purchasing those products. To help solve this challenge, TI has added a quality, reliability, and packaging data download feature on TI.com, as well as details about the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS); registration, evaluation, authorization, and restriction of chemicals (REACH); and green status. Texas Instruments , www.ti.com

COTS Journal | February 2020

February 2021

COT’S PICKS Crystal Group Rolls Out New ForceEnhancing Solutions at TechNet Cyber

Crystal Group, a leading U.S. designer and manufacturer of rugged computing and networking solutions, announced today at TechNet Cyber the launch of new tactical-edge capabilities for advanced computing on the move. This includes the 180-lb. Mobile Operating Base (MOB) Lite and the rugged Network Attached Storage (NAS), both approved by NSA’s Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) program and compliant with mission-critical Department of Defense cybersecurity requirements. “As the military’s operational domains continue to evolve, so do the threats warfighters face—especially amorphous cyber threats. Security, including cybersecurity, is non-negotiable; that’s why Crystal Group is constantly working to field solutions that defend against emerging threats and vulnerabilities,” said Jim Shaw, executive vice president of Engineering at Crystal Group. “Our engineering expertise, combined with our ecosystem of industry partners, helps provide our troops with integrated capabilities that get the mission accomplished safely and securely.” Crystal Group’s latest offerings being unveiled at TechNet Cyber focus on delivering rugged, cyber-secure, forward-deployed operational capabil-

GigaIO Introduces the Industry’s First PCIe 4.0 Fully Managed Accelerator Pooling Appliance for the Composable Data Center Pool GPUs and FPGAs, and compose them at native PCIe latency for the ultimate in data center agility, performance, and cost savings GigaIO Networks, the creators of the next-generation data center network architecture and connectivity solutions, today announced their new Hydra product line, the industry’s first fully managed PCI Express (PCIe) Gen 4.0 Pooling Appliance, a high-performance expansion chassis for the disaggregating and pooling of PCIe accelerator devices. Using the off-the-shelf Ready-To-Run composition software of their choice, data center managers can transform previously static resource silos into elastic, shareable resource pools, and liberate expensive stranded resources such as accelerators from the legacy servers imprisoning them. The resulting software-defined infrastructure delivers cloud-like flexibility and agility, while drastically slashing TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) and 34

COTS Journal | February 2021

ities that can be customized according to specific requirements. These solutions are designed for demanding deployment environments, using Crystal Group’s proven systems architecture and methodology to tackle the complexities of multidomain operations and near-peer adversaries with multilayered capabilities. - Mobile Operating Base Lite: Engineered for austere, forward-deployed environments with little or no infrastructure, this base-on-the-move comprises two 4U transit cases, three rugged servers running virtualization software, and a 24-port network switch. MOB Lite can be operational in minutes with a generator, providing rugged, hyperconverged infrastructure when time and resilience are critical. Custom configurations eliminate separate systems while still offering up to 120TB storage for classified data according to NIST, NIAP, and CSfC standards; near-zero latency for end-to-end data encryption; scalable capacity; and drives that can be instantly sanitized onsite or remotely. - Rugged Network Attached Storage: This compact, 10G Ethernet NAS meets the strict cybersecurity requirements of CSfC, Common Criteria, NIAP, FIPS 14-2, NIST critical infrastructure, and DOD data-at-rest. The ultra-secure NAS easily integrates with Crystal Group’s full product family and modular elements and works with existing solutions and system needs—bringing cybersecurity and high-powered delivering blazing performance to their users. GigaIO’s open standards approach to disaggregation and composability with Redfish APIs and off-theshelf software delivers freedom from vendor lockin and removes a significant barrier to widespread adoption of composable infrastructure. Disaggregated Composable Infrastructure (DCI), made possible by-products such as Hydra, removes the bottlenecks to making changes to legacy IT infrastructure which prevents businesses from entering new market opportunities. It also increases financial efficacy by balancing CapEx and OpEx spending and facilitates the deployment of AI and advanced analytics to optimize customer value. With its composability and utilization optimization capabilities, this accelerator appliance advances GigaIO’s vision for composable technology as the future of the software-defined data center architecture. The GigaIO Accelerator Pooling Appliance is the industry’s highest-performing PCIe accelerator expansion chassis fully supporting the PCIe 4.0 specification with up to 1Tb/sec bandwidth into and out of the box. It delivers advanced pro-

Bob Haag Vice President of Sales and Marketing compute capacity to the tactical edge. “MOB Lite is a great representation of one of Crystal Group’s entire-system solutions, while NAS represents another of our uniquely designed and manufactured, highly-secure storage solutions that solve very complex problems,” said Todd Prouty, manager of Business Development at Crystal Group. “We understand today’s environment of persistent, continuous cyberattacks. Highlighting our full product family of combinable elements at TechNet Cyber demonstrates how we can tailor our solutions to meet mission-specific needs.” With more than 10 billion hours of military operational service, Crystal Group’s products demonstrate proven reliability and high performance on more than 600 military programs. Designed to withstand punishing theater environments and deliver critical cyber protection, Crystal Group anticipates and eliminates common risks and restrictions via custom compute systems fortified to withstand extreme temperatures, shock, vibration, sea spray, and salt fog. Crystal Group Inc/ www.crystalrugged.com

visioning and monitoring of compute accelerators and next-gen NVMe assets, supporting up to 8 double-width PCIe 4.0 x16 accelerator cards and 4 PCIe 4.0 x16 low-profile cards. This flexible expansion platform enables users to add any PCIe 4.0 compliant application accelerators, GPUs (including the new NVIDIA A100), FPGAs, DPUs, IPUs, thin-NVMe-servers, and specialty AI chips. GigaIO’s advanced Redfish® API interface provides an industry-first capability with management software that enables appliance provisioning as well as discovery, inventory, port configuration, diagnostics, monitoring, fault detection, utilization auditing, and performance onitoring. Administrators can provision devices, redeploy them and configure PCIe ports in seconds without service interruptions. Hydra also enables centralized analytics such as device utilization and performance and provides a fault summary by continuously monitoring errors to quickly resolve problems and improve reliability. GigaIO Networks Inc. https://gigaio.com/w

Compa

COTS COTS

ADVERTISERS

Company Page # Website Alphi Technology Corporation .................................. 4 ............................................ www.AlphiTech.com Annapolis Micro Systems ........................................ 30

........................................ www.annapmicro.com

Fairview Microwave ............................................... .

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IFC

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MPL ......................................................................

30 ..................................................... www.mpl.com

Neonode .................................................................

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OSS ........................................................................ 22/BC .................................. www.onestopsystems.com

Index

PICO Electronics, Inc ............................................. 13/25 ................................... www.picoelectronics.com Pixus Technologies .................................................

IBC

.............................. www.pixustechnologies.com

Sealevel .................................................................

.............................................. www.sealevel.com

SECO ......................................................................

............................................. www.seco.com/en

Versalogic ..............................................................

........................................... www.versalogic.com

COTS Journal (ISSN#1526-4653) is published monthly at; 3180 Sitio Sendero, Carlsbad, CA. 92009. Periodicals Class postage paid at San Clemente and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to COTS Journal, 3180 Sitio Sendero, Carlsbad, CA. 92009.

COTS Journal, February 2021

Articles inside

Editor’s Choice for January

Converging on the Future of Battlefield IT