July 2022, Volume 24 – Number 7 • cotsjournalonline.com
The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing
JOURNAL
Utilizing low latency, high-performance solutions to increase Battlefield Mobility Multiphase Synchronization: Controlling Conducted Noise in a Military-Grade DC-DC Switching Power Supply
The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing 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.
JOURNAL
—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
Utilizing low latency, high-performance solutions to increase Battlefield Mobility By John Reardon, COTS Journal
SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT 20
DEPARTMENTS 6 8
Publisher’s Note Aerodynamics Mandates That Belugas Cannot Fly. The Inside Track
Multiphase Synchronization: Controlling Conducted Noise in a Military-Grade DC-DC Switching Power Supply By Marco Giudici, Guest Editor
COT’S PICKS 24
Editor’s Choice for July
Cover Image Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, looks over the instrument panel of an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System alongside a member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Grafenwoehr, Germany, Jun. 12, 2022.
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The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing
JOURNAL EDITORIAL
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PUBLISHER’S NOTE
John Reardon, Publisher
Aerodynamics Mandates That Belugas Cannot Fly EuroLink Systems has developed a breakthrough family of mini-drones deemed Beluga that is configurable and posable to meet the demands of various Industries, target applications and challenging environmental conditions Eurolink Systems, an Italian Company providing highend industries with advanced technologies, smart applications and close support services took on the challenge to design/develop a breakthrough drone platform destined to set Industry standards. The Beluga whale, a dominant factor in the ocean, has weight of roughly 1.6 tons, although its speed, grace and sinuous movement are unrivaled. The Beluga mini-drone is the first member of a heterogeneous family of Uncrewed Solutions designed and produced in Italy. 6
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This endeavor began in 2018 with key design drivers in mind: • To achieve new levels of performance, in terms of, aerodynamic, endurance, speed, platform stability metrics and dependable encrypted communications; • To offer a wide range of customization for payload, sensors, navigation and identification components, like transponders; • To operate over a wide temperature range; • To take off and land in the water; • To set standards for silent system operation within its class of drones ;
A key design factor was to achieve “the most silent platform in this mini-drone category.”
• To provide on-board computational power hosting Artificial Intelligence algorithms to support Beluga situation awareness, autonomous decision-support and/ or to function in a heterogeneous swarm in a nodal or network configuration; • To avoid utilizing Chinese electronic components, which makes the Beluga compliant with current US interests and guidelines. All of this is accomplished by leveraging Italian culture and ingenuity resulting in the Beluga’s unique aerodynamic design and elegance – a clear example of the combination of art and science. After a thorough analysis of component types and specifications available within the US and Canadian markets, the company performed an extensive test program to validate the overall performance of the selected components on a standard, commercially available, multirotor structure before extending this to the Beluga platform. Based on the test results, it was determined to design a breakthrough platform capable of meeting the key design drivers. The Italian DNA helped the design process by utilizing a powerful approach established by Leonardo da Vinci: Biomimicry. Mother nature had already designed a structure able to support the key design drivers for the new drone platform family: the Beluga whale. In fact, the large Beluga head with distinctive intelligence is used to host the electronics and on-board processing capabilities. Additionally, the shape of the beluga whale has been adopted to deliver aerodynamic benefits and proven by simulation and wind chamber tests to deliver unprecedented efficiency and performance. Furthermore, based on a requirement from a tender for the North European Army, the platform has been designed with a cargo bay that allows the Beluga to provide “fast service” at 69 mph transporting blood, plasma, vaccine in an operative theater in BVLOS flight. The cargo bay version is another payload to be used on the same Beluga drone. Beluga has uniquely addressed the noise problem
consistent with most drone platforms. From real-world, experience with Armies employing operative tethers - drones of this class are often detected by dogs from the sound and spectrum of blade/propeller technology. A key design factor was to achieve “the most silent platform in this mini-drone category.” With the support of University Niccolò Cusano of Rome, Italy and an extensive study on techniques to reduce drone noise, this was accomplished. In today’s environment, noise is an issue for Urban Warfare, Combat environments, Situation Analysis, Intelligence/Reconnaissance, Urban Air Mobility, U-Space, etc., although the team addressed this challenge for a range of situations including UAM flights. Again, mother nature/biomimicry applied: by allowing us to imitate the “night owl” able to catch the prey thanks to silent flight capability. The secret of the night owl is represented by the soft coating on the belly of the wing, a comb of stiff feathers at the leading edge of the wing and a fringe of flexible filaments at the trailing edge of the wing feathers. EuroLink developed a “digital twin” of that model, which has been translated to the Beluga platform. Although Aerodynamics mandates that the Beluga cannot fly – Eurolink has managed to make this dream come true and bring a powerful and unique family of mini-drones to meet Industry’s demands.
“Instead of reinventing the wheel, we set out to see how mother nature has solved the problem,” says Lapiana. In nature, large birds of prey like owls fly silently through the air in order to approach unnoticed: and Eurolink’s scientists took owls as a model for developing a unique propeller design that reduces the sound of drone flight. COTS Journal | July 2022
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Industrial Plants Are Inspected by Skypersonic Drone Piloted From Across the Atlantic Ocean Via Cellphone Connection – A World First Relying only on an internet connection from a normal cellphone, industrial drone company Skypersonic — part of publicly traded drone company Red Cat Holdings (NASDAQ: RCAT) — visually inspected the interior of a fully operational utility plant in Turin, Italy, using a drone controlled from Orlando, Fla., 4,800 miles away. The Orlando-based pilot — Drew Camden, president of Red Cat subsidiary Rotor Riot — had no advance knowledge of the Iren district heating-network plant in Turin through which he piloted the Skypersonic “Skycopter” drone. This special drone can be piloted without the aid of GPS, a fundamental system for piloting conventional drones outdoors but that is not available indoors, under bridges, in tunnels, and other enclosed spaces. Pilot Camden had never visited the Italian plant, nor seen any drawings or photos of the floor plan or the layout of the many staircases, stacks, ducts, conduit, joists, and other obstacles through which he guided the Skycopter from across the Atlantic Ocean. All he could go by was the video feed from the drone, which allowed him — thanks to Skypersonic’s technology minimizing signal lag across oceanic distances — to see and react to the building’s interior in near-real-time, with a reception lag, or “latency,” of only 68 milliseconds, i.e., less than a tenth of a second. “We learned much from this historic flight controlled from an ocean away, which is our third trans-Atlantic flight,” said Giuseppe Santangelo, Skypersonic CEO. “Most importantly, we learned that an internet connection via a mobile phone in the vicinity of the drone is all that is needed to remotely pilot a drone from virtually anywhere – in fact, up to 8,000 miles away. The previous two flights had relied on a more sophisticated, non-mobile internet connection. 8
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We also learned that it is possible to navigate a very dense and complex interior environment from another continent using this easily configurable set-up.” This demonstration in the Iren plant was promoted by the Turin House of Emerging Technologies with the collaboration of the University of Turin. Iren is the leading multi-utility company in northwest Italy in the fields of electricity,
erecting scaffolding and hoisting personnel in the air – as well as being immeasurably safer, of course. These time- and money-saving benefits are exponentially greater when the drone pilot – always the most expensive component of using drones – never needs to leave his office to inspect any building virtually anywhere in the world. Travel expenses are eliminated and because no travel is involved, the pilot’s time commitment drops from days to hours, which also means that a pilot can conduct several inspections on the same day with drones operating thousands of miles away while remaining in the same place.” Santangelo said that the invention of Skypersonic’s remote-piloting technology was prompted by the travel restrictions imposed by the COVID pandemic:
gas, thermal energy for district heating, energy efficiency, and the management of integrated water, environmental and technological services. Santangelo noted that the possibilities are enormous for this advanced yet easy-to-use and extremely portable remote-piloting technology: “We had already proven, through a two-year inspection program with General Motors, that using drones flown by on-site pilots to inspect industrial facilities brings significant savings in time and money over the traditional method of
“Pre-COVID, our normal procedure was to send a pilot to a customer to train them in using the Skycopter for interior inspections. But the lockdowns imposed by COVID made this impossible, so we had to come up with an alternative and I tasked our software engineers to develop a way to remotely pilot drones over the internet. When this was accomplished, our customers were able to begin practicing flying their new drone before it even arrived by remotely flying a similar drone located in our offices in Detroit or Turin. The customer needs just a radio controller connected to the internet and our remote piloting software. And then when the customer receives their drone, our pilot in Detroit or Turin can show them how to fly it by taking over control of the drone from thousands of miles away. The necessities imposed by COVID have created a new world of opportunities and fundamentally transformed our business model. In fact, ‘Remotely Flying Drones AnywhereTM’ has become the core business strategy for Red Cat Holdings’ enterprise segment, of which Skypersonic is a part.”
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The evolution never ends: PICMG announces new MicroTCA specifications
high-bandwidth backplane interconnects. The latest update of the specs happened as recently as 2020.
PICMG announces that the MicroTCA Working Group is working on the next generation of the MTCA architecture specifications initially launched in 2006. Efforts target improvements for time-sensitive and high bandwidth applications such as in high-energy physics. Current work includes accommodations for the next generation of CPUs and FPGAs that will natively support PCIe gen 5. Future applications in the industry require this higher bandwidth i.e. for image processing, signal detection, and data acquisition. As current CPU speeds are limited by 80 W per slot power limit the support of more power for faster CPUs is on the task list as well. Future applications will also require other kinds of high- and low-speed fabrics paired with more flexibility in system design. The science market segment for high frame rate Megapixel detectors of the actual photon experiments requires even higher throughput. Thus, all these demands are scheduled to become part of the new releases of these successful specifications. With all these improvements MicroTCA continues to be a proactive specification with significant updates to support
“I am more than happy that the MicroTCA Working Group is so pro-actively addressing the recent demands. The new spec will find its way into many different vertical markets due to the flexibility of MicroTCA!”, says Heiko Koerte, VP and Director Sales & Marketing of N.A.T., “Applications in industrial automation, medical, telecommunication, and networking, aerospace, and transportation will not only benefit from these new features but also from how easily MicroTCA can be adapted to the exact needs. More than 16.500 MCHs just from N.A.T and many more I/O and compute cards delivered to the field speak for themselves. The wide spread of MicroTCA makes it both a technically and commercially attractive solution!”. About MicroTCA MicroTCA® is a modular, open standard for building high-performance, backplane-based switched fabric computer systems in a small form factor. MicroTCA has become the de facto standard for precision timing and synchroniza-
tion equipment at world-renowned particle accelerators CERN, DESY, ESS, XFEL, KEK, SLAC, and others. Its architecture and features are also consistent with the Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) being adopted as part of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) electronic media acquisition policy. Originally designed for edge telecom and networking use cases, the core MTCA.0 base specification defines the mechanical and electrical characteristics of a MicroTCA backplane, card cage, power subsystem, cooling, and system management. Since being ratified in 2011, the MTCA Base specification has been revised to support 10GBASE-KR and 40GBASE-KR4 Ethernet fabrics and spawned four additional sub-specifications adapted for data acquisition, control, and telemetry in markets such as high-energy physics, avionics, defense, mobile infrastructure, and others.
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GDIT Supercomputers, Ranked in the Top 50 Fastest Computers in the World, Begin Running NOAA’s Operational Forecast Models
program and support next-generation weather forecasting models. Dogwood and Cactus are currently ranked No. 49 and 50 fastest in the world by TOP500.
Twin supercomputers provide three times the computing capacity to support advanced weather modeling for NOAA
“These supercomputers are a game-changer for NOAA,” said Ken Graham, director of NOAA’s National Weather Service. “With enhanced computing and storage capacity, we can deploy higher-resolution models to better capture smallscale features like severe thunderstorms, more realistic model physics to better capture the formation of clouds, precipitation, and a larger number of individual model simulations to better quantify model certainty. The result is even better forecasts and warnings.”
General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), a business unit of General Dynamics, announced that NOAA’s National Weather Service will begin running its operational weather, water, climate, and space weather forecast models on GDIT’s twin supercomputers. Meteorologists will produce weather forecast products using output from these model runs. These forecasts are critical for public safety and every economic sector in the U.S., including agriculture, transportation, urban planning, air quality monitoring, and the management of emergency response, energy, and natural resources. They also inform space weather impacts on communications, electrical power grids, and satellite operations. The identical supercomputers, named Dogwood and Cactus, are architected, deployed, operated, and maintained by GDIT. They significantly upgrade the computing capacity, storage, and interconnect speed of NOAA’s Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System (WCOSS)
Space Force to Use ViaLite’s Wideband Links for Satellite Backhaul With their ability to operate simultaneously across the L and S-bands, Wideband fiber optic links from ViaLite are to be used in the backhaul network for the US Space Force’s new satellite mesh network. The Force’s initial Tranche 0 constellation will be made up of 20 transport satellites, which will send data to defense-based assets on a space-based mesh network, and eight tracking satellites tasked with sensing, command and control, and data transport. The L and S-band Wideband cards supplied, housed in 3U rack chassis units, are designed to provide wide dynamic range performance for operation in mission-critical military aerospace applications and environments. The 10
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To provide greater reliability, the supercomputers are located in opposite parts of the country – Dogwood in Virginia, and Cactus in Arizona – with one serving as the primary operational supercomputer and the other as the backup system. The two supercomputers are identical to ensure rapid failover if the primary production role needs to move from one site to another. Each supercomputing system operates at a speed of 12.1 petaflops, approximately three times the capacity of the previous systems used by NOAA. They ingest billions of observations per day provided by sensors on the ground, ocean buoys, weather balloons, and weather satellites. NOAA’s environmental data serves as the basis of links can be easily and dynamically adjusted to further optimize performance when live, on the spot, and ‘in-field’ functional changes are required. ViaLite Monitoring and Control modules were also selected, allowing for full management of the RF over fiber system, along with Timing and Reference Links to deliver 10 MHz
all-weather forecasts in the United States. “Timely and accurate weather forecasts protect every American citizen, every segment of the economy and play an increasingly important role in emergency preparedness and response to severe weather events,” said Kevin Connell, GDIT vice president, and general manager for Science and Engineering. “With triple, the computing capacity of NOAA’s current system, GDIT’s WCOSS supercomputers will enable future upgrades to the National Weather Service’s models that are essential for accurate and timely forecasts and warnings to protect life and property and enhance the American economy. We are proud to support NOAA on this mission-critical program.” As the largest high-performance computing (HPC) systems integrator for the federal government, GDIT and its High-Performance Computing Center of Excellence support complex programs across the civilian, health, defense, and intelligence sectors. In addition to WCOSS, GDIT currently operates supercomputing environments for NOAA Research and Development; a High-End Scientific Computing portfolio of modeling and visualization tools for the Environmental Protection Agency; and the HPC Modernization Office User Productivity Enhancement and Training program for the Department of Defense.
reference signals through to the equipment. Commenting on the US Space Force partnership, ViaLite Director of Sales Craig Somach said: “We continue to greatly appreciate these kinds of partnerships and recognition of ViaLite product excellence compared with competitorbrands, as well as recognition of our unrivaled team member design-in support.”
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BAE Systems and Royal Navy provide a first look at autonomous sea boats of the future
BAE Systems and the Royal Navy announced a £3.2 million autonomous boat contract that will increase the Navy’s capabilities while protecting sailors’ lives. The autonomous capabilities of BAE Systems’ Pacific 24 (P24) Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB), a staple in the Royal Navy surface fleet, could significantly enhance the Royal Navy’s ability to protect its sailors at reach, as the upgraded sea boat can execute its missions without crew and be run from a warship.
celerator program, Navy X, which aims to deliver new technology into the hands of sailors and marines at pace. Commencing the trials of the crewless Pacific 24 boat is an important stepping stone in the Royal Navy’s development of its autonomous capability to ensure our fleet remains at the forefront of military innovation and technology, ready to meet the evolving threats of modern warfare.
Such missions could include anti-piracy operations, border control, persistent intelligence gathering, maritime security, and force protection, all while keeping a sailor safe from harm.
Minister for Defence Procurement Jeremy Quin said: “Commencing the trials of the crewless Pacific 24 boat is an important stepping stone in the Royal Navy’s development of its autonomous capability to ensure our fleet remains at the forefront of military innovation and technology, ready to meet the evolving threats of modern warfare.”
The autonomous P24 has been procured under the Royal Navy’s autonomy and lethality ac-
Brooke Hoskins, Products & Training Services Director at BAE Systems, said: “It’s fantastic
to see the Royal Navy’s first autonomous Pacific 24 enter the water during this challenging time. This milestone has been a goal since we demonstrated the autonomous capabilities of this sea boat last year. “It is a key step in supporting Navy X, turning what was originally an innovative research and development experiment into a fielded capability for the Royal Navy. The success of these trials could determine whether the Royal Navy decides to upgrade or procure an entire fleet of such craft. This could include their adoption of future classes of warships, such as the Type 26 or Type 31 frigate.
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Mercury Systems Receives $10M Contract Award for Airborne Radio Modernization Program
Mercury Systems Inc. announced it received a $10 million award to provide an innovative pilot controller interface for a leading prime contractor’s airborne radio modernization program. The radio system, built specifically for missions that depend on the beyond-line-of-sight range, requires the space-efficient, affordable and modular communications connection that Mercury’s processing solution delivers.
Why It Matters As more and more data require processing and management, simplifying the communications control interface helps aircrews make mission-critical decisions more quickly and with confidence. “Our customer depends on Mercury to help them solve their most safety-critical processing challenges,” said Jay Abendroth, vice president, of Mercury Mission. “In delivering
Lightly (YCS21) secures a $3m seed round to clean up data for machine learning
rected into manually cleaning datasets or how data quality is disregarded and the model becomes the main focus.
Swiss YC-backed startup Lightly closes a $3m seed round led by Wingman Ventures to solve data challenges in machine learning. The round will propel their presence to Silicon Valley, where they plan to open an office in 2022.
The Swiss startup has taken an unprecedented approach to solve this data challenge. Their open-source framework with over 2k stars on GitHub has caught the attention of many industry leaders, such as Facebook’s Head of AI, Jerome Pesenti, who tweeted about it.
Machine learning is like software that is updated with data instead of code. Tech startup Lightly has taken on the mission to drive quality data into machine learning models to generate better outcomes. Lightly’s data curation tool enables machine learning teams to save time and money on data selection and labeling, whilst at the same time improving the performance of models.
Lightly is a significant tool for a variety of reasons. It tackles the challenge of biased data, attempting to make AI more ethical, for instance. Additionally, it powers machine learning models with recent data ensuring they remain relevant. Lightly manages such data changes by
Matthias Heller, co-founder of Lightly commented: “Most companies that use AI need to label data. But, the amount of data produced in a single day cannot be labeled in a million years. That’s why it is so important to wisely choose what data to label and put into a machine learning model. That’s where Lightly steps in. We deploy self-learning algorithms that tell data teams which 1% of their data is the most valuable. With our approach, companies see their labeling costs decrease by up to 90%, while their AI model can improve by 20%.” Lightly was founded in 2020 by co-founders Matthias Heller and Igor Susmelj, former ETH and Harvard students, who worked in autonomous driving and research on computer vision and deep learning. They witnessed firsthand how many engineers’ efforts are excessively di12
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Matthiase Heller, left, and Igor Susmelj, right
a communications management solution that is space-efficient, reliable, and upgradeable, we are proud to play a role in supporting our customer’s desire to ensure pilot and mission safety.”
intelligently adding novel data to datasets, also referred to as data drift management. As machine learning becomes prominent in an increasing amount of industries, its use must scale accordingly. Pioneering in the field by automating data pipelines, Lightly makes data management easy by integrating other data preparation tools and offering a centralized platform. This supports the trend toward data-centric AI, a concept elaborated by Andrew Ng. In Andrew’s words: “Data is food for AI”. Lightly is used by Fortune 500 companies and startups in autonomous driving, robotics, and video analytics. It plans to increase headcount and expand to the US.
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SlingShot Satellite Communications adds capability to UK Peacekeeping Mission in Mali
Spectra Group, a specialist provider of secure voice, data, and satellite communications systems, in partnership with Inmarsat, is enabling strategic communications for the UK peacekeeping mission in Mali (Op Newcombe) with its award-winning SlingShot satellite communications system. Winner of the Queen’s Award for Innovation in 2019, the SlingShot system is not only low in size, weight, and power but revolutionary, because it can be integrated with current in-service UHF and VHF tactical communications systems. So, with minimal training and investment, you can extend the radio range from 30 km to 1000(+) km and deliver true Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) and Communications on the Move (COTM) on all platforms and in all conditions with one system.
air platforms with real-time COTM, rather than having to be static, as experienced with traditional TACSAT systems. These capabilities combine to provide a “battle-winning” strategic enabler for UK forces deployed in support of UK Defence objectives, while also showcasing British innovation and technology to global defense markets. A soldier deployed in Mali said “Operations in Mali are extremely demanding due to the harsh climate, insurgent threat and large distances to be covered over difficult terrain. Providing secure and reliable communications in such circumstances would normally be a significant challenge. However, using
SlingShot to convert existing tactical radios into long-range secure sat comms for voice and data has given us the confidence to focus on delivering our primary mission.” Simon Davies, CEO of Spectra Group, said, “We are immensely proud that SlingShot is described by our users as a battle-winning capability, and in how successful it has been in solving the communications challenges faced by both specialists and regular forces. It is truly plug and play, converting any in-service tactical radio system into a BLOS and COTM satellite communications system, with minimal training, so that users can fully focus on the task at hand.”
Op Newcombe is the UK contribution to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and is in support of UK Defence Priority Outcome 3 – Enhance global security through persistent engagement and response to crises. Since October 2020, the United Kingdom has deployed a long-range reconnaissance task group, using the Supacat Jackal 2 reconnaissance vehicle, to provide detailed reconnaissance information to the UN mission, enhance security for the Mali population, and deter insurgent activity. SlingShot was developed for and is used by specialist forces globally and is operationally proven in conventional scenarios. As such, it is well suited to the demands of long-range reconnaissance in Mali, where personnel are deployed in remote locations. The use of such innovative technology as SlingShot also perfectly aligns with the UK’s Defence Strategic Enabler Objective 2 – Use of Innovation, Technology, and Data. In addition to robust BLOS voice capability, SlingShot has sufficient bandwidth to carry critical data to support essential applications such as Situational Awareness tools; GPS tracking; reporting, and other data messaging without the need for a groundbased line-of-sight re-broadcasting architecture. Finally, SlingShot’s omnidirectional antennas provide manpack, land, sea, and COTS Journal | July 2022
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Boeing Delivers 150th P-8 Maritime Patrol Aircraft
The newest Boeing P-8 maritime patrol, reconnaissance aircraft took to the skies over Puget Sound bringing the total number of P-8s delivered to 150. The 150th multi-mission P-8 will be operated by Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) One based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. “There are now 150 P-8s around the
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world delivering confidence and an unmatched capability to our global customers,” said Stu Voboril, vice president and program manager, P-8 Programs. “Our focus has been, and will be, on delivering the world’s best maritime patrol aircraft.” Amassing more than 450,000 mishap-free flight hours, the global P-8 fleet includes 112 aircraft delivered to the U.S. Navy, 12 to Australia, 12 to India, nine to the United Kingdom, and five to Norway. The aircraft is designed for anti-submarine warfare; an-
ti-surface warfare; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and search and rescue. The 150 P-8s in service do not include six test aircraft provided to the U.S. Navy during the initial stages of the program. Boeing tested those aircraft during development to assess capabilities and performance. As the development of system enhancements and new technology continues, the test aircraft perform a critical role in ensuring Boeing provides state-of-the-art capabilities to global P-8 customers.
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Nexperia and KYOCERA AVX Components Salzburg agree to Partnership for Gallium Nitride Automotive Power Modules
Nexperia has announced a partnership covering gallium nitride (GaN) automotive power modules with KYOCERA AVX Components (Salzburg) GmbH, a leading international supplier of advanced electronic components for the automotive industry. This partnership agreement is the next step in the long-lasting close relationship between both companies and will focus on power components to jointly develop GaN applications for electric vehicles (EV). As passenger vehicles become increasingly electrified, the demand for power semiconductors to provide efficient power conversion at increasingly higher power densities also grows. High voltage Power GaN FETs, when combined with innovative packaging technologies, can address the requirements for better efficiency, higher power density, and reduced system cost. GaN power devices not only offer superior performance in these applications but now also provide the reliability, robustness, and manufacturability expected of a mainstream technology serving a broad range of applications across multiple market segments. Nexperia manufactures GaN devices in its facil-
ities using mature mass production techniques which have been proven to meet the highest reliability requirements for devices to achieve AEC-Q101 certification. Thomas Rinschede, Deputy Vice President of Sensing and Control Division at KYOCERA AVX Components (Salzburg) GmbH, states: “We are very pleased to finally turn our successful and long-lasting relationship into a real partnership to strengthen KYOCERA AVX’s strategy to provide high-quality automotive compliant modules. Nexperia is a trusted and reliable partner who can deliver high-performance GaN and has shown a strong record in producing devices for the automotive market.” Carlos Castro, Vice President, and General Manager of GaN Nexperia, comments: “GaN devices bring many benefits to EV applications including increased power density, improved efficiency, and lower overall system cost. However, optimized packaging technology is required to more fully realize the benefits of GaN devices, especially in high-power systems. Nexperia recognizes the advanced technology offering and leading position that KYOCERA AVX holds in the automotive industry and believes that this collaboration in the development of GaN automotive power modules will enable both companies to deliver superior EV power systems solutions to our customers.”
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SPECIAL FEATURE
Utilizing low latency, high-performance solutions to increase Battlefield Mobility By John Reardon, COTS Journal
Low latency, high-performance solutions are fielded by One Stop Systems (OSS) using the best commercial technologies available. As the mobility of the military, in an ever-increasingly complex battlefield, emerges the need to bring advanced systems to the Edge is clear. The spectacle of advanced weapons stalling a superior fighting force, as evident in Ukraine, is driving the need to build a cohesive, autonomous, and semi-autonomous strategy for the United States. Moving commercial solutions and hardware to the edge has become imperative. This shift for tactical and combat vehicles is based on a compendium of communications and mixed signals to create an asymmetrical Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution that outstrips the enemy’s ability to react.
The Need David Raun, CEO of OSS, has presented a vision that takes advances from the commercial sector and by addressing environmental concerns, moves them to the edge. These advances in making deterministic solutions for a mobile military are based on providing high-performance, transportable solutions. The challenge of placing the most advanced systems in a forward edge location draws on the company’s long history of rugged and semirugged solutions. Raun understood from the beginning that high performance was the key to addressing the demands of a highly connected battlefield. This has led the company to invest heavily in transporting huge datasets using PCIe. PCIe Gen 5 versus Gen 4 The release of PCIe Gen 5.0, twice the speed of its predecessor at 32GT/Sec, was immediately recognized as a solution that would address the copious amounts of data dealt with on the front line. As corresponding storage and processing solutions begin to come to market such as Intel’s Alder Lake, or Samsung’s storage PM1743, the advantages of this 2x speed increase have had a huge impact on system design. The advantage of being downward compatible with Gen 4 would allow hybrid systems that could employ both Gen 4 and Gen 5, further assisting its deployment to the edge. PCIe offers high throughput as well as a small form factor, with scalable link widths of ×1, ×2, ×4, ×8, and ×16 lanes. PCIe is based upon a point-to-point bus topology between a root complex (system/host) and an endpoint (addin card) that supports full-duplex packet-based communications. The Complexities of Implementing Gen 5 The speed which can be achieved by PCIe Gen 5 is not for the faint of heart as it demands advanced skills to harness in a rugged and reliable solution. With over a decade of being the first to market for production solutions that incorporate PCIe, OSS has released their Gen 5
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Image 1: PCIe Gen 5 versus Gen 4
PCIe Standards released over the years: PCIe Generations PCIe 1.0 PCIe 2.0 PCIe 3.0 PCIe 4.0 PCIe 5.0
Bandwidth 8GB/s 16GB/s 32GB/s 64GB/s 128GB/s
cable and host adapter that enables connections between servers and peripherals. The transfer rates peak at 128 GB/Sec for a full-duplex solution. Signal integrity running data at 32 GHz for up to two meters on a passive interconnect has set this solution apart from others. The OSS cable solution offers power control by supporting reset signals to downline expansion chassis. The advances that the Army and others are placing on having an abundance of clean
Giga transfer 2.5GT/s 5GT/s 8GT/s 16GT/s 32GT/s
Frequency 2.5GHz 5GHz 8GHz 16GHz 32GHz
power within a vehicle in support of gun turrets, charging remote command centers, and drones, have led to placing power-hungry systems with advanced compute power within transportables throughout the battlefield. Examples such as the ISV (Infantry Squad Vehicle) and the JTLV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicle) have provided this opportunity, allowing sufficient power to be made available. The idea of greater available power amplifies the difficulties associated with limited space.
Image 3: Beyond the technology employed in the cable, the ability to control thermal implications created by size-sensitive packaging is required. OSS has embarked on meeting the applicational needs and maintaining the same thermal envelope as previously deployed Gen 4 solutions. This trick of doubling the throughput and potentially the storage and compute power, and at the same time conforming to the physical size constraints of the application, has enabled OSS to address the applications we face head-on.
Image 2:
By taking an advanced solution and extending it out to an expansion chassis, OSS has enabled a bifurcation of resources to maximize the SWaP potential of a transportable system. This makes solutions that extend Gen 5 to expansion chassis ideal for high bandwidth, low latency, HPEC applications such as video processing, C4ISR, AI, and RF. In a recent application where there was a need to increase the sensitivity of a fire control RADAR system, it was decided that multiband, differential RADAR would be employed. The data rates created by the need for increased resolution challenged the prior generation of interconnects. But using an RF SOC from Xilinx combined with PCIe Gen 5 has made this type of solution a reality. The need to channel this data effectively and convey the relevant information to a fire COTS Journal | July 2022
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control system is just one example of how PCIe Gen 5 will impact future designs. This ability to support disaggregated solutions using advanced processing and storage opens several new avenues for performance-constrained systems. Is PCIe Gen 5 right for you? GNU Radio offers a broad array of tools for controlling and visualizing the signal performance of an RF system. With this software suite, you can visualize the signal in various ways to ensure that you are transmitting or receiving the correct signal. Moreover, GNU Radio allows you to perform a wide range of operations such as pulse shaping and developing modulation and demodulation schemes. By utilizing constellation diagrams, you can assess signals to ensure that modulation scheme errors are minimal and deterministic.
There is no immediate requirement to upgrade, as Gen 3 and 4 solutions will continue to make up the bulk of the market for years to come.
In applications where speed is not the primary concern, PCIe Gen 5 can benefit the system design by using fewer lanes and offering more bandwidth. Gen 5 in no way makes Gen 4 solutions obsolete, and as it is downward compatible with Gen 4, Gen 5 will afford you the horsepower to address dynamic applications. There is no immediate requirement to upgrade, as Gen 3 and 4 solutions will continue to make up the bulk of the market for years to come. But it is safe to say that the most demanding solutions will be looking to the array of Gen 5 solutions that are coming to market. As Gen 5 is in its infancy, with the product supporting it just now coming to market; it will only be those that are pushing the performance curve that will do a hard shift. It is more our belief that Gen 5 will slowly migrate into systems to affirm that speed advantages are taken advantage of as solutions come to market. The Future As Gen 4 is still offered predominately, and Gen 5 is just now coming to market, the idea of discussing Gen 6 seems a bit silly but arriving just 3 years after the introduction of Gen 5, Gen 6 offers raw data rates of up to 64 GT/s and 256 GB/s x16 lanes. The new standard uses pulse amplitude modulation level 4 (PAM 4) signaling along with forward-looking error correction. As with previous Generations, Gen 6 will be backward capable with prior generations. It is not expected that Gen 6 will reach the broad market until sometime in 2026, with early adopters in Q4, 2025. OSS continues to show its leadership and commitment to PCIe, and we would expect that they will keep to their history of being first in the market with advanced solutions.
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COTS Journal | July 2022
SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
Multiphase Synchronization: Controlling Conducted Noise in a Military-Grade DC-DC Switching Power Supply By Marco Giudici, Guest Editor Reducing noise generated on the input lines of DC-DC converters is necessary to meet stringent Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) standards in military applications. When connecting the input of DC-DC converters in parallel to the same bus, the task becomes more difficult. In this article, Christian Jonglas, technical support manager at GAIA Converter, discusses the issue and explains how the multiphase synchronization of a DC-DC switching power supply can result in significant reductions in noise levels. Switching Mode Power Supplies (SMPS) are preferred to linear types due to their efficiency and consequently their lightweight. However, across all of the possible conversion topologies, SMPSs generate differential mode (DM) and/or common-mode (CM) electrical noise on inputs and outputs, and electromag-
netic radiation at some level, due to fast transitions of switching transistors and diodes.
ers with ‘discontinuous’ input current such as ‘buck’ or isolated forward types.
DM noise appears across the line and return connections and CM noise is from the line and return together to the ground (Figure 1). When there is a requirement to meet a specification for noise, whether conducted or radiated, it is advantageous to minimize DM first, as this is a source of radiation on leads and also factors into CM measurements. In addition, a standard Line Impedance Stabilisation Network (LISN), used for CM measurement, registers a combination of CM and DM signals. For military-grade DC-DC converters, the Electro Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) limits to be met are listed in Table 1.
Boost converters have continuous input current at higher power although they can be operated in a discontinuous mode at lower powers. In all cases, the current waveform into the switch combines a square and sawtooth or triangular waveform. A capacitor internal to the converter (at its input) levels out the waveform to approximate DC, sourced from the supply.
Table 1 - Military EMC limits
Standard
Parameter
Frequency Range
Max. level
Mil-STD 461 Mil-STD 461 Mil-STD 461 Mil-STD 461 DO160
CE101 CE102 RE101 RE102 Cond. noise power line Rad. noise
10hz to 150khz 10khz to 100Mhz 10hz to 100Mhz z 10kHz to 100Ghz 150kHz to 152Mhz
110 dBµA 94 dBµV 180 dBpT 102 dBµV/m 73dBµV
100Mhz to 6Ghz
102 dBµV/m
DO160
Different Switching Topologies, Different Input Current Waveforms The level of DM noise on the input of a DCDC converter is measured as current with a specified series blocking inductor or voltage into 50 ohms, AC coupled onto the power lines. The amplitude varies with the switching topology and is generally highest for convertFormula 1 Figure 1 - Differential and Common Mode noise 20
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The maximum residual ripple and noise are what is set by the EMC standard limit lines. If the input current is decomposed into a square and sawtooth/triangle elements, their timing, and amplitudes, Fourier analysis can predict
the spectrum of harmonics and their amplitudes. This analysis is key to developing an effective conducted emission filter design to apply attenuation as required. For example, with a triangle current waveform typical of a flyback converter in discontinuous mode, the current I sin(n), the amplitude of the sine wave representing the nth harmonic of the current waveform into the switch is:
Where Ip is the peak current of the sawtooth and D is the duty cycle. The DC-DC input capacitor forms a single-pole filter, an extra preceding inductor forms a double pole filter and a further upstream capacitor forms a three-pole Pi-filter, with -20dB, - 40dB, and -60dB respectively per decade attenuation with frequency. The attenuation can then be evaluated at the harmonic frequencies to ensure that the current I sin(n) is reduced sufficiently with the minimum level of filtering. The conducted emission filter design must also meet the ‘Middlebrook criteria’ [1] for stability; the output impedance of the filter must be lower than the input impedance of the DC-DC converter at the filter self-resonant frequency. The filter must anyway be rated for the DC current passed with a good margin before saturation and damped to avoid ringing and possible overvoltage and ‘peaking’ of noise. Damping is either achieved with an additional RC network or the filter capacitors are chosen to have high enough ESR to have the same effect. As a ‘rule of thumb,’ CD should be >5 x CIN and a starting point for RD is SQRT(L/CIN) Connecting DC-DC Converters in Parallel When connecting DC-DC converters in parallel, the differential noise produced becomes
harder to predict. If the converters are nominally operating at the same frequency, the current noise at the fundamental switching frequency I is given by:
es causing full cancellation or addition when the phase is 0° or multiples of 360°. To ensure cancellation, synchronization can be applied so that the fundamental repetition rate of each
Formula 2
Where mn is the amplitude of converter n and Øn is the phase difference in switching between converter n and converter 1. In the simple case of all amplitudes being equal at value M, the total noise I can vary from 0 to nM, corresponding to random phase differenc-
converter is identical, with each separated in phase such that the noise current from the fundamental is canceled. This is implemented by a phase delay between each converter cycle start point, of 2π/n. The phase shift required is shown for up to six converters in Table 2.
Table 2 - Phase shift required in synchronized switching frequency in DC-DCs, for fundamental noise cancellation
Number of converters in the architecture 2 3 4 5 6
Phase shift for fundamental noise cancellation π (2 ∙ π) 2 π 2 (2 ∙ π) 5 π 3
The filter must anyway be rated for the DC current passed with a good margin before saturation and damped to avoid ringing and possible overvoltage and ‘peaking’ of noise.
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How to Achieve 20dB Attenuation For two converters, a phase shift of 180° or π radians is equivalent to an inverted synchronization signal and is easy to implement logically. Other phase shifts might be most easily generated in a microcontroller or simple logic network. The waveforms for four converters are shown in Figure 2. A resulting EMI plot of four converters synchronized this way and loaded at 80W total is shown in Figure 3, with the fundamental attenuated compared with no synchronization. Full cancellation does not occur due to tolerances and the small differences in loading between the converters. An additional benefit of the phased synchronization technique is reduced stress on input capacitors due to the lower ripple current. This aids reliability and boosts efficiency by reducing losses in the input capacitor’s Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR). In this example, the fundamental noise at 300kHz is reduced below the CE102 limit line by over 20dB with no extra filtering. Harmonics, however, are still high and in fact, some will add with phased synchronization. This is because, for example, with a π/2 fundamental phase shift, this is equivalent to shifting the fourth harmonic by 2π or a complete cycle, causing the addition of signals. At higher harmonics, the tolerance of the phase shift also
Figure 3 - Four DC-DC converters with phased synchronization
has a larger effect on cancellation. However, filtering harmonics is relatively easy as L and C values each can reduce by a factor of 4 for the fourth harmonic, compared with the fun-
damental, for the same attenuation. Real-World Figures Demonstrate Noise Attenuation As a real-life demonstrator of the effectiveness of the phased synchronization technique, GAIA Converter designed a board with six of their DC-DC converters, one front end one filter in different configurations providing single and bi-polar outputs from a nominal 24 /28Vdc input at a total of 120W (Figure 4 on next page). The board includes the logic to perform 180° (π) synchronization of two separate groups of converters as well as the ability to synchronize and phase four converters at π/2. The DC-DC converters include isolated and non-isolated types including the MPSGS14ED, a military-grade Point of Load converter that features fast output tracking, a constant current function, and wide -36% to +700% voltage trimming.
Figure 2 - Four DC-DC converters with phased synchronization 22
COTS Journal | July 2022
The board also includes GAIA Converter’s LHUG150N ‘Active Input Bus Conditioner’ which provides +/-100V transient protection, reverse polarity protection, power and inrush limiting, and a novel 50ms to 200ms holdup function utilizing a small capacitor whose voltage is boosted up to 60V irrespective of input voltage and is switched-in to the input when an interruption occurs. The board complies with military and avionic standards MIL-STD-704, DO160, MIL-STD-461, and
Figure 4 - The Gaia reference design demonstrating phased synchronization
MIL-STD-1275 and meets CE102 emissions limits with a margin of better than 20dB (Figure 5). This is achieved with the phased synchronization function along with a low-profile EMC filter type FGDS-12-100 which is just a 1” x 1.2” footprint, occupying only 5% of the board area.
Conclusion When paralleling DC-DC converter inputs, synchronization is a valuable tool to make EMI signatures consistent so that analytical methods may be used to design filters for EMI standards compliance. Additionally, the phasing of synchronization signals appropriately can result in the cancellation of noise currents, particularly
at the fundamental frequency, which can be the hardest to filter. The result can be a dramatic reduction in the size, weight, and cost of EMI filter networks. References [1] R. D. Middlebrook, “Input filter considerations in design and application of switching regulators” in Proc. IEEE IAS Annual Meeting 1976, pp. 366-382.
Figure 5 - EMI plot from the Gaia reference design showing 20dB margin to the CE102 limit line
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July 2022
COT’S PICKS EdgeCortix Announces Sakura AI Coprocessor Delivering Industry-Leading Low-Latency and Energy-Efficiency
EdgeCortix® Inc., the innovative fabless semiconductor design company with a software-first approach, focused on delivering class-leading compute efficiency and latency for edge artificial intelligence (AI) inference; unveiled the architecture, performance metrics, and delivery timing for its new industry-leading, energy-efficient, AI inference co-processor. Fig: EdgeCortix SAKURA chip die photo along with AI inference efficiency comparison to the leading GPU for edge use-cases, on the Yolov3 object detection benchmark. Current leading GPU SoC at 32 TOPS and 30W TDP vs EdgeCortix SAKURA at 40 TOPS and 10W TDP. SAKURA delivers over 10X power-efficiency advantage. All data normalized to the baseline of Yolov3 608x608 and with batch size 1. EdgeCortix officially introduced its flagship energy-efficient AI co-processor (accelerator), branded SAKURA™. Designed entirely in their Tokyo-based development center, the company announced that SAKURA is produced by TSMC on the popular 12nm FinFET technology and will be available as low-power PCI-E based development boards to participating companies of the EdgeCortix Early Access Program (EAP) in July of 2022.
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“SAKURA is revolutionary from both a technical and competitive perspective, delivering well over 10X performance/watt advantage compared to current AI inference solutions based on traditional graphics processing units (GPUs), especially for real-time edge applications.”, said Sakyasingha Dasgupta, CEO, and Founder of EdgeCortix, “After validating our AI processor architecture design with multiple field-programmable gate array (FPGA) customers in production, we designed SAKURA as a co-processor that can be plugged in alongside a host processor in nearly all existing systems to significantly accelerate AI inference. Using our patented runtime-reconfigurable interconnect technology, SAKURA is inherently more flexible than traditional processors and can achieve near-optimal compute utilization in contrast to most AI processors that have been developed over the last 40+ years.” SAKURA is powered by a 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS), single-core Dynamic Neural Accelerator® (DNA) Intellectual Property (IP), which is EdgeCortix’s proprietary neural processing engine with a built-in reconfigurable data path connecting all compute engines. DNA enables the new SAKURA AI co-processor to run multiple deep neural network models together, with ultra-low latency, while preserving exceptional TOPS utilization. This unique attribute is key to enhancing the processing speed, energy efficiency, and longevity of the system-onchip, providing exceptional total cost of ownership benefits. The DNA IP is specifically optimized for
inference with streaming and high-resolution data. Key industrial segments where the SAKURA performance profile is ideally suited to include transportation / autonomous vehicles, defense, security, 5G communications, augmented & virtual reality, smart manufacturing, smart cities, smart retail and robotics, and all markets that require low power, low latency AI inference. The company announced that SAKURA will also be available to customers for purchase in multiple hardware form factors, and the underlying IP can be licensed in conjunction with EdgeCortix’s software stack for customers designing their proprietary semiconductors. Key SAKURA features include: • Up to 40 TOPS (single-chip version) and 200 TOPS (multi-chip version). • PCI-e Device TDP @ 10W-15W. • Typical model power consumption ~5W. • 2x64 LPDDR4x – 16 GB. • PCIe Gen 3 up to 16 GB/s bandwidth. • Two form factors – Dual M.2 and Low-profile PCIe. • The DNA processing engine within SAKURA delivers: Edgecortix, Inc. www.edgecortix.com
July 2022
COT’S PICKS McObject Announces Availability of eXtremeDB/rt for QNX Neutrino RTOS
McObject® announces the release of eXtremeDB/rt database management system (DBMS) for the QNX® Neutrino® RTOS from BlackBerry. eXtremeDB/rt is the first and only commercial off-theshelf (COTS) real-time database management system suitable for hard real-time embedded systems. A hard real-time database system is one that is time cognizant: It is aware of processing deadlines and offers transaction schedulers that enforce those deadlines and are adaptable to varying workloads (e.g., works equally well with periodic and aperiodic tasks) and changing deadlines and task priorities. eXtremeDB/rt is an innovative evolution of database system capability that has the potential to greatly simplify data management in complex real-time embedded systems such as Advanced Driver Assis-
Elma Releases NVIDIA-based board for Advanced AI Computing Solutions Elma Electronic now offers an embedded single board computing (SBC) engine leveraging the integrated deep learning capabilities and rich I/O of the NVIDIA® Jetson AGX Xavier™. The 3U CPCI Serial-based JetKit-3010 delivers artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled video inspection, analysis, object detection, and recognition capabilities to system developers building advanced technologies to develop, test, and manufacture smarter and more reliable systems in markets such as automotive, agriculture or industrial automation.
tance Systems (ADAS). Developers that, up to now, have had no alternative to a ‘roll your solution to data management in real-time systems should be interested in the guaranteed reliability and faster time-tomarket offered by this new kind of database system. eXtremeDB/rt will be of particular interest to developers of autonomous systems (air, sea, and ground), aerospace and defense systems, industrial control systems, robotics, and medical devices. eXtremeDB/rt is available for QNX Neutrino RTOS 7.1 with Aarch64 (ARM64), ARMv7, and x86-64 target systems. “Real-time performance can benefit embedded software developers in many market segments including autonomous systems, industrial control, robotics, and medical devices,” said Romain Saha, Strategic Alliances Director at BlackBerry QNX: “McObject builds upon many years of QNX support by
yet cost-effective, method to develop applications requiring pattern recognition, environment recognition, or situation analysis. Elma Electronic’s JetKit-3010 combines the flexibility of an 8-core ARM processor with the compute performance of 512 NVIDIA CUDA cores and 64 Tensor cores to provide compute density, energy efficiency and AI inferencing capabilities that are a quantum jump in intelligent machine processing. The JetKit-3010 can be packaged as a standalone small form factor platform or integrated as a multi-function SBC in an existing CPCI system
bringing eXtremeDB/rt to the latest version of the QNX Software Development Platform.” “QNX’s penetration into the ADAS and Safety-Critical markets makes them an ideal partner. Neutrino RTOS has a long and rich history and is a perfect fit for the types of applications we expect people to develop with eXtremeDB/rt,” said Andrei Gorine, McObject Chief Technical Officer. eXtremeDB/rt was designed for use in resource-constrained, mission-critical embedded systems. Its small footprint and frugal use of memory and CPU make it uniquely qualified for these applications. Find eXtremeDB in millions of embedded systems, in deployments ranging from satellite systems to locomotive control, worldwide. McObject® www.mcobject.com
platform. It provides a rich set of features, including I/O available via the front panel or backplane: M.2 NVME, HDMI, 4x USB, 2x Gigabit Ethernet, and x8 PCIe ports. The display controller supports high resolution imaging 3840 x 2160 at 60 Hz (up to 36 bpp) via HDMI, and multi-stream HD video and JPEG support for most encode and decode video standards. A dedicated programmable ARM Cortex A9 audio processor provides a multi-channel, high-definition audio (HDA) path via the HDMI interface. Elma Electronic www.elma.com
Holger Heidenblut, Business Development Manager, of Elma, noted, “Our new JetKit-3010 contributes a game-changing compute engine to applications converging in AI and advanced graphics, like object detection and inspection, intelligent video analytics, robotics, and autonomous driving. And because it’s CompactPCI Serial, it can be integrated with a range of boards available from a multi-vendor ecosystem to enable system platforms tailored to the specific design requirements.” Before the open standards-based JetKit-3010, research and development with AI components required extremely powerful and specialized hardware, much of which is purpose-built and expensive. The unique combination of the NVIDIA module in a CompactPCI Serial architecture is a powerful, COTS Journal | July 2022
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July 2022
COT’S PICKS New HPx-310 Radar Output Card from Cambridge Pixel for Powerful Frontend Testing Ahead of Deployment HPx-310 allows integrators to perform substantial testing of radar tracking or display applications ahead of final deployment and sign-off. Cambridge Pixel has launched a new HPx-310 radar output card designed to help developers perform end-to-end testing of their systems in the laboratory ahead of deployment with a radar. The HPx-310 replaces the HPx-300 card, providing a solution to the generation of radar signals for system testing, simulation, or interface network radar with legacy equipment expecting analog radar signals. The HPx-310 retains compatibility with the HPx-300 card providing a x1 PCIe interface for the transfer of radar video and conversion into video, trigger, and azimuth signals. The card can be used in conjunction with Cambridge Pixel’s Windows-based SPx Radar Simula-
Mercury’s data recorder to help monitor global warming The company selected by Ball Aerospace for methane emissions monitoring program The company selected by Ball Aerospace for methane emissions monitoring program Mercury Systems, Inc. announced it was selected by Ball Aerospace to enhance the data recording and storage performance for MethaneSAT, the methane monitoring satellite being
tor software allowing complex scenarios of moving targets to be defined and then converted into radar signals for direct input to radar processing or display equipment. Where there is a need to interface network streams of radar into legacy radar signals, the HPx-310 hardware is a key component of the solution. For example, ASTERIX CAT-240 video can be input to the HPx-310 card for output as radar signals. Long-distance distribution of radar signals can also be achieved with an HPx-410 radar input card, network streaming module, and HPx-310 to convert back to radar signals. The HPx-310 card is highly configurable in terms of radar signals, with options for single-ended, differential, and configurable voltages up to 30V. The card is available with a board support library for Windows or Linux and is supported by Cambridge Pixel SPx product family. Commenting on the release, David Johnson, Cambridge Pixel’s Managing Director said: “The HPx-310 has been developed to help users test their new tracking or display systems with live data in a laboratory environment before deploydeveloped by a subsidiary of the non-profit Environmental Defense Fund. With MethaneSAT, nations and companies will be able to identify, manage and reduce methane emissions and help slow the rate at which the Earth is warming. Mercury’s data storage technology delivers the high performance and sustainability required to operate successfully in space’s harsh, radiation-intense environment. Ball’s MethaneSAT spectrometer will incorporate Mercury’s RH3440 3U VPX high-density solid-state data recorder (SSDR), allowing the state-of-the-art
ment with a radar. The HPx-310 generates a wide range of signal types, allowing for rigorous testing to take place at the front end of the chain, and taking away the risk of any last-minute bugs or data flow issues.” Cambridge Pixel’s new HPx-310 card is part of a family of radar acquisition and processing components that provide systems integrators with a powerful toolkit to build server and client display systems. The company’s highly-acclaimed SPx suite of software libraries and applications provides developers with flexible, ready-to-run technology modules for radar visualization, radar video distribution, radar simulation, plot extraction, and target tracking. Cambridge Pixel’s solutions are used by the world’s air forces and navies, as well as a multitude of companies such as Toshiba, Blighter Surveillance Systems, Tellumat, Indra, Airbus, Raytheon, L3 Harris, and many others. Cambridge Pixel https://cambridgepixel.com/
satellite to gather critical data needed to solve environmental sustainability issues. The digital recorder is optimized for size, weight, and power (SWaP) and is radiation tolerant – crucial for a successful space mission. Moreover, since data will be generated at a rate much higher than can be telemetered, Mercury’s “store-andforward” features allow delayed data transmission to ground stations while maintaining data integrity until the data can be transmitted. The fastest way to slow climate change is by reducing methane emissions, a powerful climate pollutant. Data from MethaneSAT, supported by Mercury’s high-density SSDR, will help do just that. “Mercury is honored to work with Ball Aerospace and MethaneSAT on this unique mission to monitor methane emissions from space,” said Tom Smelker, vice president and general manager, Mercury Microsystems. “We look forward to equipping the Ball Aerospace spectrometer and MethaneSAT with a reliable, high-performance, and radiation-tolerant data storage solution, all in support of our vision: to make the world a safer, more secure place for all.” Mercury Systems, Inc. www.mrcy.com
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COTS Journal | July 2022
July 2022
COT’S PICKS MTI Instruments’ WiFi-Enabled 1520 Portable Signal Simulator/Calibrator Brings Enhanced Functionality, Laboratory-Grade Accuracy Directly to Flightline and Test-Cell
MTI Instruments introduces the 1520 Signal Simulator and Calibrator offering market-leading WiFi connectivity, ergonomic and visualization features, and up to 10 hours of battery life. Designed to support MTI Instruments’ proven jet engine vibration measurement and balancing systems, the portable signal simulator brings laboratory-grade accuracy directly onto the flight line and to the test cell. The unit features a rugged, two-handed controller for glove-friendly operation and a color touchscreen for viewing high-precision graphical waveforms. Unlike other simulators/calibrators, the 1520 needs just one technician to set up signal simulations at a location and then, via wireless login, conduct the test while observing and adjusting values.
MicroSys Electronics extends the scalability of its NXP S32G vehicle network processor-based System-onModules MicroSys Electronics officially announced support for the new NXP® Semiconductors S32G3 vehicle network processor, thereby extending the scalability of the NXP S32G-based miriac® System-on-Modules family with massively higher real-time data processing power for mixed-critical safety applications. The new miriac® MPX-S32G399A System-on-Module surpasses its NXP S32G2-based predecessor with 2.5 times more applications processing performance thanks to the new NXP S32G3 processor. Major improvements are eight Arm® Cortex®-A53 cores instead of only four, as well as four Arm Cortex-M7 dual-core lockstep pairs instead of three. OEMs utilizing this new miriac® SoM from the NXP® Gold Partner MicroSys benefit not only from more processor bandwidth for their safety-critical applications but also from the System-on-Modules inherent instant access to prototyping and extended connectivity for their dedicated use cases as well as comprehensive software support and safety documentations mandatory for certifications. The new System-on-Module offers multiple native CAN interfaces, as well as comprehensive FlexRay®, LIN, and Ethernet support including TSN. Target markets are real-time connected vehicles, mobile machinery, and automotive test
The 1520 adds functionality and versatility to MTI Instruments’ existing, well-respected handheld 1510A Signal Simulator. The key features of the new 1520 Signal Simulator and Calibrator include: • WiFi Capability – Wireless login and control of full functionality enables fast and easy testing of hard-to-reach sensors and devices at the flight line and test-cell • Portable, Rugged – Ergonomic design includes glove-friendly buttons as well as a color touchscreen • High-Precision Waveforms – Custom, sine, square, triangle, pulse, tachometer, and sawtooth waveforms from 0.1Hz to 100kHz n 0.1 Hz increments • Long Battery Life – Operates up to 10 hours on a single charge • Bridge Circuit Simulation – Easy to command microvolts to simulate strain gauges • Standards Compliant – Comes with NIST-traceable calibration certificate • Cost-Effective – Delivers high-precision
laboratory-grade functionality at a competitive price “Our new 1520 has upgraded features that jet maintenance technicians have been waiting for in a portable signal simulator and calibrator: Wireless capability and ergonomic design that can be used with gloves, excellent waveform visualization – and up to 10 hours of battery life,” said Moshe Binyamin, President, and CEO of MTI Instruments. “Thanks to the unit’s WiFi feature, many routine flightline sensor test procedures can be performed by a single technician. MTI Instruments makes it easy for technicians to bring laboratory-grade test equipment onto the flightline and into the field where maintenance and testing are taking place.” MTI Instruments Inc. https://mtiinstruments.com/
and measurement equipment. Further applications include data loggers, edge gateways, and fail-safe programmable logic controllers (PLCs). The NXP S32G vehicle network processor is targeted for ASIL D safety applications in OEM and Tier-1 automotive applications. MicroSys Electronics extends its application areas to SIL certifications for any market where functional safety standards analog to IEC 61508 are required, including railway technology (EN 50155), aviation (DO-160), stationary and mobile machinery (ISO 13849), as well as manufacturing robots (ISO 10218), control systems (IEC 62061), and drive systems (IEC 61800‑5‑2). Approvals in the aviation context (DO-254/DO-160) can be supported with manufacturer documentation. The feature set in detail The new miriac® MPX-S32G399A SoM from MicroSys Electronics features the S32G3’s eight Arm Cortex-A53 cores with Arm Neon™ technology organized in two clusters for applications and services. For real-time tasks, the S32G3 has also four dual-core lockstep Arm Cortex-M7 pairs for which MicroSys offers support for dedicated FreeRTOS™ implementations besides NXP’s standard automotive support. Clustered and operated in lockstep mode, the set of heterogeneous cores of the S32G3 can support ASIL-D applications or any other functional safety standard comparable to IEC 61508. In terms of memory, the new SoM integrates 4 GB of soldered LPDDR4
RAM at 3200 MT/s, up to 32 GB eMMC non-volatile memory, and 64 MB QuadSPI flash. External SD card storage can be multiplexed with the onboard eMMC. Regarding connectivity, the new SoM offers an extensive range of generic and communication interfaces including 4x SerDes interfaces configurable as PCIe Gen3 2x1 or 2x2, 3x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet plus 3x Gigabit Ethernet, 18x CAN FD bus, 2x FlexRay, and 4x LIN. 14x GPIOs, 12x analog inputs (ADC), 4x FlexSPI, 2x UART, 1x USB and 4x I2C complete the interface range. For trace and debug tasks, the SoM supports Aurora and JTAG interfaces. A comprehensive board support package including bootloader configuration and all required Linux drivers rounds off the feature set. MicroSys Electronics www.microsys.de
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July 2022
COT’S PICKS NVIDIA Adds Liquid-Cooled GPUs for Sustainable, Efficient Computing
A liquid-cooled NVIDIA A100 PCIe GPU is the first in a line of GPUs for mainstream servers responding to customer demand for high-performance, green data centers. In the worldwide effort to halt climate change, Zac Smith is part of a growing movement to build data centers that deliver both high performance and energy efficiency. He’s head of the edge infrastructure at Equinix, a global service provider that manages more than 240 data centers and is committed to becoming the first in its sector to be climate neutral. “We have 10,000 customers counting on us for help with this journey. They demand more data and more intelligence, often with AI, and they want it in a sustainable way,” said Smith, a Julliard grad who got into tech in the early 2000s building websites for fellow musicians in New York City. Marking Progress in Efficiency As of April, Equinix has issued $4.9 billion in green bonds. They’re investment-grade instruments Equinix will apply to reducing environmental impact through optimizing power usage effectiveness (PUE), an industry metric of how much of the energy a data center uses goes directly to computing tasks. Data center operators are trying to shave that ratio ever
Galvion introduces the new Nerv Centr® Hub Application to the UK Galvion is excited to be introducing its new Nerv Centr® Hub Application. Developed to support their recently launched Man-Worn Power and Data capabilities, the Hub Application offers users the ability to monitor real-time power usage to more effectively plan for future missions. Galvin’s new Hub Application, along with the full suite of Nerv Centr® power and data provision and management solutions, and next-generation Batlskin® head systems. Missions depend on charged equipment more than ever before, and the complexity of sustaining soldiers on the battlefield expands and shifts with every new technology. Radios, NVGs, GPS, smartphones, laptops, drones, and other surveillance equipment all demand significant power, and the ability to manage that power efficiently is mission-critical. The new Nerv Centr® Hub Application is designed specifically to make the job of real-time power management for the modern operator much easier. Simple to use, with an intuitive, easy-to-under28
COTS Journal | July 2022
closer to the ideal of 1.0 PUE. Equinix facilities have an average of 1.48 PUE today with its best new data centers hitting less than 1.2.
Equinix drives data center efficiency with liquid-cooled GPUs Equinix is making steady progress in the energy efficiency of its data centers as measured by PUE. In another step forward, Equinix opened in January a dedicated facility to pursue advances in energy efficiency. One part of that work focuses on liquid cooling. Born in the mainframe era, liquid cooling is maturing in the age of AI. It’s now widely used inside the world’s fastest supercomputers in a modern form called direct-chip cooling. Liquid cooling is the next step in accelerated computing for NVIDIA GPUs that already deliver up to 20x better energy efficiency on AI inference and high-performance computing jobs than CPUs.
comprehensive approach to sustainable cooling and heat capture. The GPUs are sampling now and will be generally available this summer. Saving Water and Power “This marks the first liquid-cooled GPU introduced to our lab, and that’s exciting for us because our customers are hungry for sustainable ways to harness AI,” said Smith. Data center operators aim to eliminate chillers that evaporate millions of gallons of water a year to cool the air inside data centers. Liquid cooling promises systems that recycle small amounts of fluids in closed systems focused on key hot spots. “We’ll turn a waste into an asset,” he said.
Efficiency Through Acceleration If you switched all the CPU-only servers running AI and HPC worldwide to GPU-accelerated systems, you could save a whopping 11 trillion watt-hours of energy a year. That’s like saving the energy more than 1.5 million homes consume in a year. NVIDIA adds to its sustainability efforts with the release of our first data center PCIe GPU using direct-chip cooling.
Same Performance, Less Power In separate tests, both Equinix and NVIDIA found a data center using liquid cooling could run the same workloads as an air-cooled facility while using about 30 percent less energy. NVIDIA estimates the liquid-cooled data center could hit 1.15 PUE, far below 1.6 for its air-cooled cousin. Liquid-cooled data centers can pack twice as much computing into the same space, too. That’s because the A100 GPUs use just one PCIe slot; air-cooled A100 GPUs fill two.
Equinix is qualifying the A100 80GB PCIe Liquid-Cooled GPU for use in its data centers as part of a
NVIDIA www.nvidia.com
stand user interface, the application allows the user to monitor and analyze power usage. Some features in Live Power mode include estimated remaining run time based on attached power and devices, low power alert, and voltmeter to enable optimal solar blanket positioning. The Application also allows for after-mission Power Analysis which offers a more detailed understanding of power usage and allows for comparisons to be made across users. Mission data can then be included in the Power Modelling tool, which analyses historical and modeled power usage to predict future mission needs and enable more precise logistic and support planning. This minimizes battery burden and maximizes run times and efficiency. The Nerv Centr® Hub Application will be available as an enhanced feature for Galvin’s 4-port Power & Data Hub (PDH-4) and will be Android and ATAK compatible.
the user. As technology evolves, we must provide value-add capabilities beyond the simple hardware. This Application sits alongside our existing Man-Worn Power & Data product range and will offer real operational advantages to JTACs, communication specialists, and tactical leaders, allowing lighter logistic loads and substantiated, accurate power planning for future missions.”
Peter Rafferty, Galvin’s UK President said: “We first demonstrated our new Hub Application to the US market at SOFIC a few weeks ago but exhibiting at Eurosatory allows us to introduce the Hub Application to our customers on this side of the Atlantic. We have been actively growing Galvion’s Software Development team over the past few years to better serve
Galvion www.galvion.com
July 2022
COT’S PICKS Keysight Launches New Design and Simulation Software for Radio Frequency and Microwave Designers
Keysight Technologies, Inc. has introduced the new PathWave Advanced Design System (ADS) 2023, an integrated design and simulation software that rapidly addresses increasing design complexity and higher frequencies in the radio frequency (RF) and microwave industry. Keysight’s PathWave ADS 2023 includes enhancements to electromagnetic (EM) simulation for circuit designers. It also streamlines the integration of multi-technology circuit assembly and simulation into enterprise electronic design automation (EDA) design workflows. PathWave ADS 2023 enables RF and Microwave product development teams to easily address signal complexity, design densification, multi-technology integration, and frequencies moving to 60GHz and beyond. As a result, customers can shorten time-tomarket, improve engineering team productivity and deliver competitive design wins. “PathWave ADS 2023 directly addresses the needs of customers developing multi-technology high speed, high-frequency designs,” said Joe Civello, director of RF and Microwave Simulation at Keysight. “This new solution offers workflow and simulation performance improvements that accelerate the design and simulation process while delivering the analysis results necessary to ensure designs meet critical electrical and
New RAD Tolerant P-FETs for Aerospace & Defense Applications SSDI developed the SFL22P06S.5 to respond to a customer’s request for a 2N7624U3 replacement needed for a space application. This -22 A, -60 V
thermal performance requirements.”
RFPro Electromagnetic Simulation for Circuit Designers Simulation performance enhancements in RFPro, the interactive EM simulator integrated with PathWave ADS, enable rapid design tuning and optimization. New RFPro features include: • Automation of EM-circuit co-simulation setup which ensures that analysis is easily accessible by circuit designers without the help of an EM expert or the need for invasive layout editing. • Advanced EM solvers and meshing technologies are accessible via a single unified environment with parallelized simulation acceleration through cloud-based, high-performance computing (HPC) that supports fast, high-capacity simulation. • Seamless integration with Cadence Virtuoso, Synopsys Custom Compiler, and Ansys HFSS facilitates enterprise electronic design automation signoff workflows. • RF and Microwave Development Environment PathWave ADS 2023 development environ-ment enhancements include: • Automation of 3D multi-technology assembly (SmartMount) for routing and verification of densely integrated RF modules. • Enhanced management of design databases containing complex multi-technology structures enables correct simulation setup and traceability of designs and simulation data. • Python and Microsoft Visual Studio scripting,
P-channel MOSFET in the SMD.5 package has a low on-resistance of 60 mΩ max (-10 V, -10 A) and a low total gate charge of 7 nC typ. This fast switching device has been supplied to support spacecraft and military applications. Contact the factory for radiation data.
debugging, automation, processing, utilization, and visualization of complex simulation and measurement data that provides the integration and insights needed to achieve optimal designs that meet multiple performance specifications. Multi-Physics Simulation Technologies Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) distortion specification is the new requirement when designing for digitally modulated signals in RF and microwave applications. PathWave ADS incorporates Keysight instrumentation algorithms for compact test signal generation and rapid EVM distortion calculations to deliver EVM simulation support for any modulated signals at the circuit level, enabling design tuning and optimization. Multi-physics simulation enhancements enable designers to: Accurately identify transient temperature rise to create reliable high-power RF components when deployed in the field to avoid costly premature failures. Ensure power amplifier stability under all operating conditions. When used with RFPro EM visualization, designers can identify the physical locations and frequencies at which instability occurs to fix them before building hardware. Compress what would normally require five days on a single machine into one day with cloud-based high-performance computing (HPC) to perform thorough simulation and optimization that results in higher yield and reduced time to market. Keysight Technologies, Inc. www.keysight.com
SSDI’s engineering and manufacturing teams can scale devices to meet specific program needs. For higher current requirements, SSDI offers the SFL40P06S.5, which delivers a continuous drain current of 40 A and drain-source voltage of 65 V. The SFL40P06S.5 has a low on-resistance of 50 mΩ max (-10 V, -15 A) and is also available in the SMD.5 package. SSDI also released the SFL11P06S.22 to offer an SMD.22 option for designers that need to maximize board space. This -11 A, -60 V PFET has a small footprint of .150 in. x .227 in. max and a low profile of .075 in. max. With its in-house tooling and packaging capabilities, SSDI supplies a wide variety of hermetic packages, which includes offering¬¬ alternative package options or modifications to fit unique mechanical requirements. SSDI Power www.ssdi-power.com
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July 2022
COT’S PICKS Antenova’s compact low-power GNSS receiver module extends runtime by 500%
Antenova Ltd is launching GNSSNOVA M20071, a brand new GNSS receiver module, with power consumption, reduced five-fold to enable smaller tracker designs, and trackers that run for five times longer. The M20071 module is for small tracking devices that operate from Li-ion batteries, where a lower power requirement is a clear advantage. These are typically small mobile trackers, pet trackers, personal fitness devices, and location trackers for bikes and e-scooters. The M20071 tracks the GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and BeiDou constellations simultaneously, this improves position accuracy, particularly in urban environments. Based on the latest generation chip from Mediatek, it draws 17 mW of power when receiving GPS only, and 21 mW receiving all constellations. GNSSNOVA M20071 measures 9.0 mm x 9.0 x 1.8 mm. Pairing this with one of Antenova’s compact SMD antennas makes a compact RF solution and a way to realize slimmed-down tracker designs. Antenova offers several GNSS antennas to enable a compact RF product to be designed – in particular the low-profile Sinica chip antenna and the Bentoni FPC antenna.
New Pixus SlotSaver SOSA™ Aligned Chassis Manager Plugs Into Rear Side of Backplane Pixus Technologies is now offering a SOSAaligned VITA 46.11 compliant chassis manager that
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COTS Journal | July 2022
Says Michael Castle, Product Marketing Manager at Antenova, “Designers using M20071 and our low profile GNSS antennas can specify much smaller designs than with the usual patch antennas.” Standard GNSS modules typically draw 90-100 mW of power, so Antenova’s reduction in power consumption to 17 mW gives a significant increase in operational time, over 500%. Designers can either build a product to run five times longer or specify a smaller battery to save space in the design. The GNSSNOVA M20071 module contains an integrated SAW (surface acoustic wave) filter and LNA (low noise amplifier), TCXO, and RTC to improve performance and speed up the first position fix. The M20071 includes EASY™ (Embedded As-
sits behind an OpenVPX backplane. This mezzaninebased approach allows for chassis management without sacrificing a slot. The SHM300 SlotSaver VPX chassis manager is designed to the latest SOSA requirements and utilizes 100% US-based software/firmware. The chassis manager is used to monitor/manage the FRUs (Field Replacement Units) plugged into the SOSA/OpenVPX chassis platform. Features include chassis discovery of plug-in boards, information storage, cooling management, SDR-based sensor initialization, and other chassis control and event handling.
sist SYstem) which speeds up TTFF (time to first fix). It generates synthetic ephemeris data rather than downloading it from the satellite, thus reducing power consumption. The warm start time using EASY is around 2 secs compared to 25 secs without EASY. For applications that wake up periodically to get a position, EASY further reduces total power consumption, so a smaller battery can be specified. M20071 also includes EPO which is Assisted-GNSS. EPO receives assistance data from a website to speed up the TTFF. Antenova Ltd www.antenova.com
Interested in getting your copy of J O U R N A L
The compact design of the Pixus SOSA aligned chassis manager ensures that the size/spacing does not interfere with VITA 66 or 67 interfaces and cabling. The SHM300 also supports redundant options.
Contact us;
Pixus Technologies https://pixustechnologies.com/
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Index
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.
