COTS Journal October, 2022

By Author Rodney Feldman, VP Business Development and Marketing, SECO USA

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.

By Dima Feldman, VP of Product Management and Marketing at Sony Semiconductor Israel

The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

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The Building Blocks for the future’s Wearable

Do you ever need something different? In today’s world where products are built to open standards, company after company are so similar in what they offer that it is difficult to separate those with true innovation. This year at AUSA Ben Sharfi, Founder of GMS surprised the world with the X9 Spider. Somehow the word “clever” isn’t sufficient in describing how GMS was able to create interconnected building block solutions to address a wide range of applications.

Fitting in the palm of your hand the X9 can be configured specifically to the needs of the application without compromise. No longer is there a need to buy features that are not of interest, or compromise finding yourself trapped in an underperforming system. The X9 is a modular, scalable, distributed architecture that simplifies applications that require rugged highperformance computing, high-definition video, sensor processing, AI, storage, or I/O at the edge.

Ingeniously connected through the use of Thunderbolt, GMS has a patented rugged solution that meets or exceeds many traditional backplane speeds with 40Gbps, with an optional 100W per port power for up/down stream sensors and system expansion. Designed from the ground up to offer the most compute power and I/O in the smallest, lightest battery-powered package possible, the X9 is perfect for AI implementations supporting situational awareness.

The X9 product family comes with many processing and I/O support solutions off the shelf as well as a platform that can accommodate application-specific features. Whether it is wearable for feeding fire control solutions or placed in an optional ATR enclosure within a command center the X9 is untethered, yet a connected cloud-like solution that meets the rigors of the environments.

The innovation that GMS has incorporated in their Lightbolt interconnect, will feel familiar to the user as it is based on the Apple Thunderbolt. Lightbolt moves data via a lightweight and EMI-immune fiber optic cable that neither radiates emissions nor is susceptible to EMI or RFI. The combination of moving power and data together enables a single power source to manage multiple sensors with a single clean wiring implementation. GMS has used its genius to improve the connector through the use of a shroud that will secure the connections from being inadvertently disconnected.

The concept of stacking modules for simplicity may remind you of PC/104, but the X9 has unparalleled elegance. From power distribution to the rail system that couples sensors, GMS has thought of everything with the intent of making system configuration as easy as 1, 2, 3.

Designed from the ground up to offer the most compute power and I/O in the smallest, lightest battery-powered package possible

The INSIDE TRACK

Jankel establishes agreements with key UK defense industry partners to deliver the

Oshkosh JLTV

Jankel has announced the establishment of agreements with several key UK defense in dustry partners to create a team of experts to deliver the Oshkosh Defense Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) to the UK. The new partnerships follow on from the headline agreement with Os hkosh Defense announced in June 2022. These latest partnerships are being specifically formed to create a UK-based team of defense vehicle subject matter experts that can deliver the Osh kosh JLTV vehicle to meet crucial protected mo bility requirements of the British Armed Forces. Today’s announcement coincides with the DVD event taking place at Millbrook, 21/22 Septem ber, where Jankel and Oshkosh are displaying the Oshkosh JLTV vehicle and offering customer off-road demonstration rides.

A comprehensive partnership framework is being identified and developed by Jankel to es tablish a robust, UK-based, expert supply chain to deliver design, sub-system integration, manu facture, assembly, and through life support ser vices. The first agreements of this type to be put in place are with NP Aerospace in Coventry and Make UK Defence, a member-owned defense trade organization. NP Aerospace is a well-es tablished supplier to UK MoD and they bring with them expertise and pedigree across mul

tiple UK defense vehicle projects. Jankel will be working in collaboration with Make UK Defence to access and leverage the full spectrum of UK defense industry expertise.

Jankel, working in partnership with Osh kosh Defense and supported by key UK defense vehicle industry experts, can provide a Land Industrial Strategy aligned mechanism for UK MoD to procure, support, and spirally upgrade the JLTV, through life. The Oshkosh JLTV meets the requirements of the UK MoD for a role-ver satile, common platform, next-generation pro tected mobility solution. Jankel and partners, with JLTV, can deliver a low-risk, technically mature, in-service, and volume productions solution matching outstanding performance with affordability. Oshkosh Defense has cur rently manufactured over 17,400 JLTVs and 2300 companion trailers. The JLTV has been fully val idated and verified through independent testing to include 29 blast tests and 250,000 miles of re liability testing.

Andrew Jankel, Chairman at Jankel said: “I’m delighted to announce these key partner ships today with NP Aerospace and Make UK Defence that are the first of a number of this type that we will be established to enable the deliv

ery of the Oshkosh Defense JLTV to UK MoD. We have so much talent present in the UK defense industry and to begin to bring it all together like this is very exciting and will give the MoD exact ly what they need whilst remaining fully aligned with the Land Industrial Strategy.” He added, “Looking ahead and beyond JLTV, these partner ships could be further developed to support our long-term strategy of establishing a UK-based light vehicle center of excellence that integrates and further develops the best of British technol ogy and innovation into world-leading vehicle platforms, to meet the future UK and global re quirements.”

John Lazar, Vice President and Gener al Manager International at Oshkosh Defense stated “Oshkosh Defense has been providing vehicles and through life support to UK MoD for nearly two decades for Wheeled Tanker, Heavy Equipment Transporters (HET) and Light Equipment Transporters (LET). We are proud to have demonstrated the capability and reliability of our Oshkosh military trucks through years of successful contracts on operations abroad. We look forward to the next chapter of this relation ship, meeting protected mobility requirements in cooperation with our partners at Jankel”.

The INSIDE TRACK

Lockheed Awards Marvin Test Solutions’ SmartCan™ SERD Certification O-Level Armament Test Set Certified for F-16 Armament Test

Marvin Test Solutions, Inc. announced that its MTS-3060A SmartCan™ Universal O-Level Armament Test Set is now officially certified for F-16 armament systems test by Lockheed Martin.

Support Equipment Requirements Doc ument (SERD) certification signifies that the SmartCan is safe, operable, and effective for testing F-16 armament systems including launchers, bomb racks, pylons, fuel tanks, and the gun. LMA certified the SmartCan in support of one of its Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers. The F-16 System Program Office (SPO) also declared that the SmartCan O-Level Armament Test Set is a fully qualified and approved solution for the F-16 Fighting Falcon and assigned SERD #75A77.

“Since its introduction in 2011 to the F-16 and other aircraft, the MTS-3060A SmartCan serves as the choice of an ever-in creasing number of customers worldwide seeking active O-Level test of both Smart and legacy armament systems on fighter and

rotary aircraft, un manned aerial sys tems (UAS), and ground-launched weapons systems,” said Major Gen eral Stephen T. Sargeant, USAF (Ret.), CEO of Marvin Test Solutions. “SERD certification gives the war fighters we serve the confidence that the SmartCan is qualified for Flightline arma ment test by both the F-16’s Original Equip ment Manufacturer (OEM) and the F-16 SPO. We appreciate the opportunity to work with both Lockheed Martin and the USAF F-16 SPO achieving this major milestone in the history of the SmartCan. MTS is proud of this accomplishment as it will allow us to satisfy the requirement of many potential domestic and international customers who were awaiting the SERD certification.”

The innovative MTS-3060A is the most cyber-secure handheld armament test set available and deployed globally on fighter and remotely piloted aircraft today includ ing the F-16, F-15C/E, FA-50, F-5, foreign RPA, and ground-based weapon systems. The SmartCan will also be deployed on the A-10, F/A-18, and AH-64 in the second half of 2022. Additionally, it incorporates the abil

ity to support current and future communi cation interfaces used on aircraft armament systems and many other weapon systems, enabling the test and maintenance of all ar mament systems deployed on any armed air craft and ground-based systems. As a result of its extensive capabilities, the SmartCan is also used as a weapons emulator in System Integration Labs (SILs) and is currently being evaluated as a missile test set.

With a very small footprint, and ul tra-fast test procedures compared with cur rently deployed test sets, the MTS-3060A SmartCan provides outstanding multi-air craft support to warfighters deployed under the USAF’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) CONOPS and fits well into the Air Force’s vi sion of the Flightline of the Future (FLOF). The SmartCan test development and de ployment are greatly simplified by utilizing ATEasy™, MTS’s full-featured test executive and test development software suite.

The INSIDE TRACK

DDC-I’s Multicore DO-178C Deos RTOS Hosts Honeywell Flight Management System for Airbus

Safety-critical multicore RTOS gives Airbus flight management system unprecedented multi-core performance, modularity, scalability, and reuse

DDC-I announced that its DO-178 Deos™ multicore real-time operating system (RTOS)

has been selected by Honeywell to host its new Flight Management System (FMS). Airbus will utilize the next-generation Honeywell FMS to meet the air traffic management needs of its new A320, A330, and A350 twinjets, with service entry planned for the end of 2026.

“Deos has flown for millions of hours in systems aboard commercial air transport, business jet, military aircraft, and helicopters,” said Greg Rose, vice president of marketing and

functionality, and modularity needed to deliver future enhancements without hardware chang es. After development, the new FMS will be a standalone federated system, making it easier for operators to support the fleet.

Deos is a safety-critical embedded RTOS that employs patented cache partitioning, memory pools, and safe scheduling to deliver higher CPU utilization than any other certifi able safety-critical COTS RTOS on multi-core

product management at DDC-I. “We are excit ed to have been selected by Honeywell for this state-of-the-art flight management system. Advanced multicore capabilities that uniquely address CAST-32A objectives, binary modulari ty, and reusable certification evidence make our DO-178C DAL A Deos avionics platform the per fect safety-critical environment for developing, certifying, and deploying advanced flight man agement systems.”

Honeywell’s FMS provides the primary navigation, flight planning, optimized route determination, and en route guidance for the A320, A330, A350, and A380 platforms, deliver ing best-in-class operational efficiency, reliabili ty, and safety. The next-generation FMS will also incorporate connectivity with non-avionics systems in the outside world, such as Electronic Flight Bags and airline operational control cen ters.

The new FMS combines multiple current Airbus FMS offerings into a single standardized hardware and software platform for Airbus air craft, providing the multi-core performance,

processors. First certified to DO-178 DAL A in 1998, Deos provides a FACE™ Conformant Safety Base and Safety Extended Profiles that features hard real-time response, time and space parti tioning, and Rate Monotonic, ARINC-653 and POSIX interfaces.

SafeMC technology extends Deos’ ad vanced capabilities to multiple cores, enabling developers of safety-critical systems to achieve best-in-class multi-core performance without compromising safety-critical task response and guaranteed execution time. SafeMC employs a bound multiprocessing (BMP) extension of the symmetric multiprocessing architecture (SMP), safe scheduling, and cache partitioning to min imize cross-core contention and interference patterns that affect the performance, safety criticality and certifiability of multi-core sys tems. These features enable avionics systems, and developers, to address issues that could im pact the safety, performance, and integrity of a software airborne system specified by multicore guidance contained in AC-20-193 (draft) and AMC-20-193 (released).

The INSIDE TRACK

Analog Devices and Keysight Technologies Join Forces to Advance the Adoption of Phased Array Technology

Analog Devices, Inc. and Keysight Technol ogies, Inc. announced their collaboration to ad vance the adoption of phased array technology. This technology is key to realizing ubiquitous connectivity and sensing by simplifying devel opment stages associated with creating satel lite communication, radar, and phased array systems.

Analog Devices’ family of phased array platforms is used to accelerate customers’ beamforming developments by providing a to tal solution that can then be tested and calibrat ed with Keysight phased array test solutions. This collaboration brings together the entire ecosystem by aiming to provide a total design, test, and calibration solution. Phased array antennas are the enablers of next-generation wireless communication applications as well as signal intelligence and earth observation appli cations.

“We are pleased to collaborate with Analog Devices to bring innovative phased array technology to a wide variety of new cus

tomers and their use cases,” said Peng Cao, Vice President and General Manager for Keysight’s Wireless Test Group. “Keysight’s state-of-theart measurement solutions have transformed phased array test times from minutes down to seconds. Working closely with Analog Devices, we have demonstrated a 70 times faster mea surement speed while maintaining excellent accuracy. Bringing together the beamforming advances of Analog Devices and measurement innovation from Keysight, our customers will now have the opportunity for a complete, endto-end solution for phased arrays which will ac

celerate time to market and deliver exceptional performance.”

“Our customers are demanding more than just a beamforming IC, but rather a total sys tem-level solution with the test and calibration of the array. By utilizing ADI’s system platforms, the collaboration between ADI and Keysight in tends to help accelerate the adoption of phased array platforms for higher data rate commu nications and sensing solutions,” noted Bryan Goldstein, Vice President of Aerospace and De fense at Analog Devices.

Mercury enables Airbus A330 MRTT to become the world’s first tanker certified for automatic air-to-air refueling operations

Mercury Systems, Inc. announced that the mission computer built for the Airbus A330 MRTT allowed the tanker to receive the world’s first certification for automatic air-toair refueling (A3R) boom operations.

Mercury Mission Systems International, located in Switzerland and Spain, delivered a purpose-built computer for Airbus based on the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) ROCK family of pre-integrated subsystem platforms that draw from a range of safety-certifiable modular COTS building blocks, addressing both the need for high-end video processing and the safety-criticality of the application. The system handles video streams with very low latency across multiple processors while meeting stringent DO-178 and DO-254 soft ware reliability processes.

The in-flight refueling process must be reliable and repeatable, and it must meet avionics flight safety certifications designed to eliminate the risk of catastrophic failure caused by the computing malfunction. Air bus’s SMART MRTT program enables A3R op erations with no additional equipment on the receiver aircraft, which can reduce the refu eling operator workload, improve safety, and enable air superiority.

The INSIDE TRACK

VIAVI Acquires Jackson Labs for Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) Solutions

VIAVI Solutions Inc. announced it has completed the acquisition of Jackson Labs Technologies, a leader in Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) solutions for critical infra structure serving both military and civilian applications.

Jackson Labs develops and supplies modules, subsystems, and box-level solutions that include front-end receivers, transcoders, rack-mounted equipment, and patented ret rofit technology. Their broad customer base

includes armed forces, defense contractors, energy distribution infrastructure, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) operators, and 5G service providers. Jackson Labs’ next-generation M-Code solutions complement and advance VIAVI’s timing and synchronization portfolio at a time when PNT requirements for defense, space, commercial aviation, transportation, and telecommunica tion networks are expanding and becoming in creasingly critical.

“As telecommunications, avionics, and mission-critical infrastructure adopt next-gen eration technology, legacy timing and synchro nization protocols are no longer sufficient. Jack son Labs is a trusted provider of PNT solutions

in these markets, and we look forward to ad dressing these opportunities together,” said Oleg Khaykin, President and CEO of VIAVI. “With this acquisition, we are continuing to drive opera tional scale via the addition of advanced tech nology and high-performance products that ad dress market segments with strong growth and profitability.”

“Being a part of VIAVI will significant ly expand Jackson Labs Technologies’ market reach worldwide, and allow us to further deliver world-class solutions for the rapidly developing PNT landscape as it enters a new era,” said Jack son, CEO of Jackson Labs Technologies.

Bell Textron Inc. announced it has entered into a teaming agreement with Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), a global aerospace and na tional security company, for Bell’s High-Speed Vertical Takeoff and Landing (HSVTOL) aircraft. As part of the collaboration, SNC will specifically support the design and development of mission systems for HSVTOL variants.

Bell’s HSVTOL vehicles blend the hover capability of a helicopter with the speed, range, and survivability features of fighter aircraft, with low downwash hover capability and jet-like speeds of more than 400 kts. This family of scal able aircraft concepts is designed to carry out USAF and USSOCOM missions across the full spectrum of conflict and political scenarios, in cluding personnel recovery, contested logistics, and ISR/Strike.

“In an effort to advance technical maturi ty and deliver HSVTOL capability to warfight ers sooner, Bell is assembling a team of indus try-leading partners. We’re thrilled to have SNC onboard,” said Jason Hurst, vice president, Inno vation, Bell. “We’ve made significant progress in Bell’s HSVTOL technology development in 2022, and we look forward to showing this progress in the upcoming year.”

“SNC is delighted to join Bell’s HSVTOL development team, and we are already hard at work to deliver the visionary mission systems

that Bell demands for their visionary aircraft,” says Derek Hess, vice president, of strategic pro gram business development at SNC. “Our na tion’s warfighters will benefit from this HSVTOL program’s ground-breaking operational capabil ities.”

Similar to Bell’s innovation development, SNC continues to leverage its mission systems expertise to explore dynamic new opportuni ties. SNC also supports Bell with additional mis sion systems expertise for the development of the Bell 360 Invictus for the U.S. Army’s Future

Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) compe tition.

Bell is currently executing its HSVTOL risk reduction effort and participating in the AFW ERX HSVTOL Concept Challenge, a crowdsourc ing effort for the United States Air Force (USAF) and United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). Bell is one of 11 companies from more than 200 challenge entrants selected to receive market research investments aimed at advancing HSVTOL technology.

Bell Selects Sierra Nevada Corporation for its High-Speed Vertical Takeoff and Landing Development Team

The INSIDE TRACK

Reveal Technology and Teal Drones Demonstrate Multi-Drone Mapping to US Military

Networked Multiple Drones Far Outperform Single Drones for Gathering and Analyzing Geographic Intelligence About Rapidly Developing Situations On-the-Ground

Military tactical teams’ ability to quickly pro duce accurate maps of areas targeted for military operations can mean the difference between mis sion success or failure. Meeting this need, Reveal Technology has teamed with Teal Drones – a di vision of Red Cat Holdings (NASDAQ: RCAT) – to enhance Reveal’s “Farsight” mapping software by automatically combining imagery from mul tiple unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to produce high-fidelity 3D maps. By dramatically increasing the speed of collection, users receive Farsight maps and analytics faster than ever. The groundbreaking technology was recently successfully demonstrat ed to U.S. Army Special Operations Command near Fort Bragg.

“Farsight already significantly sped up the rate at which aerial imagery could be used to help teams more safely and effectively carry out their missions,” said Reveal COO Andrew Dixon. “Simul taneously gathering data from multiple drones, such as using Teal’s 4-Ship multi-drone system, compounds this for significant intelligence advan tages on the battlefield.”

Just introduced in June, the 4-Ship allows a

single operator to simultaneously control up to four of Teal Drones’ Golden Eagle drones, allowing for instant and ongoing 360-degree surveillance of a target. Farsight gives military teams virtually re al-time access to detailed 3D maps of a target area that can be overlaid with:

• Line-of-sight analysis, which allows a team to choose a route at the target area that is least vis ible to the enemy

• Terrain analysis and graphing

• An AI-generated “best route” through a target area, based on line-of-sight data, elevation mapping, and terrain analysis

• A vertical measurement tool, for determin ing the height of buildings and structures that may be part of an operation

• A helicopter landing zone survey, to quickly identify the best and safest spot to land

These combined features provide a team with an advanced awareness of the situation as it actu ally is on the ground, leading to more successful missions.

Before Farsight, military teams in the field were often dependent on overtasked and often separate intelligence organizations, which result ed in slow-moving intelligence analysis that did not match the fast-paced environment on the ground. Farsight helps overcome this issue by blending state-of-the-art computer vision, AI, and computing “at the edge” – computing in the field on handheld devices. Because all processing for Farsight is completed at the edge, no network con

nection is required, which eliminates the need for additional processing capabilities like servers or cloud infrastructure. This not only speeds up the entire process but allows the creation of detailed, actionable maps from virtually anywhere on the globe. And, especially important, computing at the edge does not increase the team’s electronic signa ture to the enemy, which, as seen in Ukraine, could attract artillery fire, among other responses.

“A primary role of Teal Drones – which is one of only a handful of drone companies approved to provide equipment to the U.S. military – is to pro vide a superior airframe upon which others build apps that allow the military to better meet their objectives, including warfighter safety mitigation,” said Red Cat CEO Jeff Thompson. “This integration of Reveal’s Farsight software with Teal’s 4-Ship product is one of the most important apps that has been developed for the Golden Eagle so far. We are excited about our partnership with Reveal and look forward to evening more groundbreaking de velopments in the future.”

“What sets Teal and Red Cat apart – and an important reason why we are excited to be work ing with them – is their demonstrated ability to build and ship products,” added Dixon. “Because Teal has a dedicated manufacturing facility in the U.S., they can make good on their promise to de liver the product to the military on time, which is an enormous advantage in today’s drone indus try, and means that our technology is much more likely to get to users on the front lines when they need it.”

The INSIDE TRACK

Collins Aerospace receives milestone certification for combined vision systems

Collins Aerospace has achieved a technical standard order (TSO) for its combined vision sys tem (CVS) for business aviation aircraft. The CVS provides clarity to pilots in all types of weather to confidently and securely navigate aircraft through low visibility situations.

A long-time industry leader in head-up dis play (HUD) technology, Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS), and Enhanced Vision Systems (EVS), Col lins’ advanced CVS algorithms blend the full EVS image and SVS into a single conformal view, cre ating the best possible image on the HUD and pri mary flight display (PFD) that pilots use to safely and efficiently navigate through challenging envi ronments.

“TSO certification is an important step in our journey to provide dynamic CVS technology to our customers who rely on our vision systems to guide them through low visibility situations in

Lockheed Martin, Ayar Labs Partner to Advance Microchip Connectivity For Next Generation Sensory Systems

A new era of defense platforms with optical I/O aim to support faster decision-making in the most agile, mission-critical scenarios while advancing domestic semiconductor capabilities

Lockheed Martin and Ayar Labs announced a strategic collaboration to develop future senso ry platforms that leverage Ayar Labs’ advanced optical input-output (I/O) microchips that use light to transfer data faster, at a lower latency, and at a fraction of the power of existing elec trical I/O solutions. The new platforms could be used across Department of Defense (DoD) applications to capture, digitize, transport, and process spectral information.

“As the complexity and amount of data grows on the battlefield, faster decision-mak ing is essential. New innovative system archi tectures, coupled with AI and machine learning techniques, are needed for our customers’ mis sion success,” said Steve Walker, chief technology officer and vice president, Engineering & Tech nology at Lockheed Martin. “Ayar Labs’ optical interconnect solution provides the necessary

every stage of flight,” said Craig Brown, general man ager of Vision Systems for Collins Aerospace. “Wheth er it’s poor weather, smoke, dust, demanding terrain or busy airports, CVS clearly and automatically displays the critical visual information pilots need to safely operate their aircraft.”

CVS brings together Collins’ proven HUD, PFD, SVS, and EVS technologies, to present the best view to pilots. Advanced algorithms detect and extract real-time features from the complete EVS image – such as from Collins’ EVS-3600 multi-spectral EVS sensor – and integrate them with Collins’ feature-rich SVS which accurately presents terrain, obstacles, airports, and runways, independent of the visibility conditions. These CVS images are displayed conformally on the HUD and in color on the PFD, providing clarity through low-visibility conditions like smoke, fog, and darkness.

Collins’ true CVS is a single enhanced view,

technology to process spectral information with greater speed and lower latency for next-genera tion system designs.”

Lockheed Martin is partnering with Ayar Labs in developing multi-chip package (MCP) solutions that place high-density, high-efficiency optical I/O chiplets in the same microelectronics package as the radio frequency processing de vices. The development and integration of Ayar Labs’ TeraPHY™ optical I/O chiplets and SuperNo va™ light source represent a faster, more efficient, and more reliable transfer of data throughout the platform. This is important for next-genera

enabling pilot visibility far beyond what the eye can see. This greatly improves situation aware ness, reduces workload by eliminating the need for manual switching between vision systems and enables maximum operational credit by allowing aircraft to continue all the way to the runway sur face in low visibility scenarios rather than necessi tating a go-around. CVS is ready to support these future operations, such as EFVS takeoff and EFVS approaches in lower visibilities.

Collins’ Vision Systems solutions are cur rently installed and flying on both commercial and military platforms, including the C-130 Her cules and the Boeing 737 family of aircraft, with future certification installments planned for addi tional military rotorcraft.

tion architectures that will use phased array ap ertures to connect systems and people to make smarter, faster decisions.

“Our advances in interconnect density, latency, reach and power efficiency represent a significant advantage for extreme-edge sens ing applications, which is critical for enabling next-generation architectures and systems,” said Charles Wuischpard, CEO of Ayar Labs. “For ex ample, our optical I/O solution will provide a 5x power reduction and 12x size reduction versus a representative mid-board optical solution.”

The INSIDE TRACK

CCC helps General Dynamics Mission Systems–Canada Win $24 Million

Contract with Portugal

Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC) is pleased to announce General Dynamics Mis sion Systems–Canada has won a $24 million contract to help the Portuguese Air Force mod ernize its fleet of P-3C aircraft to support Mari time patrol and reconnaissance activities.

This was secured through a govern ment-to-government (G2G) contract between CCC and the Portuguese Air Force. G2G con tracts are part of CCC’s International Prime Contractor program that brings qualified Cana dian companies to foreign government buyers.

Oshkosh Defense Selected to Produce an Enhanced Heavy Equipment Transporter System (EHETS) Trailer for tghe U.S. Army

Oshkosh Defense announced that the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armament Com mand (TACOM) has awarded Oshkosh Defense a contract to produce Enhanced Heavy Equipment Transporter System (EHETS) trailers for the U.S. Army. Oshkosh will execute the contract with the support of its major subcontractor, Broshuis B.V.

The competitively awarded five-year re quirements contract is valued at $263.2 Million for an estimated 466 trailers and associated lo

General Dynamics will provide equipment and technology to upgrade communications and mission electronics. The upgrades to Portu gal’s P3-C fleet are modeled on modernizations that General Dynamics provides to the Royal Canadian Air Force. The Mission Management System offered to Portugal now comprises over 50 installations worldwide on both Maritime Patrol Aircraft and Maritime Patrol Helicopters.

Portugal is a member of NATO. The up grades will allow the Portuguese Air Force, as a NATO member, to maintain the capabilities re quired to contribute to new and existing NATO activities. In addition to maritime patrol and reconnaissance activities, Portugal’s air force also provides air policing, air transport, search

gistics products and support services. Under the first delivery order, valued at $37.6 Million, Os hkosh Defense will produce five test trailers for Product Verification Testing (PVT), Operational Testing (OT), Logistics Development, and Engi neering Development, along with 68 production trailers.

“One of Oshkosh’s core competencies is partnering with our customers to develop and deliver vehicles and trailers specifically designed to meet stringent military requirements and survive the rigors of modern combat,” said Pat Williams, Vice President and General Manager of U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps Programs for Oshkosh Defense. “The EHETS trailer is one such example of our commitment to meeting our

and rescue, and medical evacuations.

“CCC is proud to simplify and expedite the acquisitions of Canadian expertise and technol ogy by Portugal – a NATO ally and important trading partner,” - Mathieu Lacroix, CCC’s Ac count Director, Aerospace Sector.

“We are very pleased to partner with the Portuguese Air Force, leveraging Canada’s in vestment and long-term commitment to the P3 fleet,” said Matt Young, Sr. Director of Interna tional Air and Naval Systems, General Dynam ics Mission Systems–Canada. “As standards and threats evolve, we are proud to support our cus tomers around the world to meet the changing environment.”

customer’s mission requirements. We are proud that the U.S. Army has once again called on us to produce another mission-critical trailer,” Wil liams concluded.

Oshkosh Defense designed the EHETS trail er to be pulled by the Oshkosh Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET) A1 currently in service with the U.S. Army. The combined HET A1 and EHETS trailer system is designed to self-load and unload and can haul a payload of up to 90 tons, allow ing it to transport the heaviest Army-tracked vehicles, including current and future versions of Main Battle Tanks (MBTs), while also obtaining European road permissions at required payloads.

The INSIDE TRACK

Hypersonics: Developing and defending against missiles far faster than sound

The challenges of the hypersonic era in mili tary operations are immense. But so are the abil

ities of innovators who work together to solve them.

That was the message when Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Missiles & Defense, a Ray theon Technologies business, spoke to investors about how teams are working across the company

to solve the myriad science and engineering prob lems that come with developing and defending against hypersonics, generally defined as weapons that fly at speeds of Mach 5 or greater.

“We have to go faster. We also have to go farther. We have to be able to detect threats at longer distances. We have to be able to target at longer distances. We have to be able to close kill chains at longer distances,” Kremer said, using the military term for the process of defeating a target. “We have to be able to do that across multiple do mains. How we work across domains and how we solve those types of problems is one of the true synergies that we have in this business.”

Here are some of the ways colleagues across Raytheon Technologies, with their deep expertise in areas including heat management, propulsion, missile development, and surface- and spacebased sensing, are combining novel problem-solv ing approaches with decades of institutional knowledge to give the U.S. military and allied forc es an advantage in the era of hypersonic military operations.

Intelligent Edge Sensors Ultra Performance in Constrained Environments

By Author Rodney Feldman, VP Business Development and Marketing, SECO USA

Deployed sensors enable situational awareness and early warning detection of emerging battlefield threats. Ideally, a wide variety of sensors communicate and correlate data to automate and accelerate the detection of changing conditions. In reality, this is limited by several factors, including the traditional size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) as well as associated limitations on intercommunication and processing capability. Current advances in processing technology along with artificial intelligence, computer vision, and machine learning are changing the dynamic – enabling intelligent sensors at the edge.

Making Sensors Intelligent Spanning a wide array of technologies, sensors include cameras (whether electro-optical,

infrared, or hyperspectral), sound or vibration detectors, radar, environmental (such as gas, temperature, humidity, and pressure), positional (GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer), and more. Each type of sensor generates specific data formats, which differ in frequency, amount, and structure. To be useful, data must be analyzed and the results communicated or automatically made actionable.

In the non-military world, we’re very familiar with the artificial intelligence (AI) model where data collected at the edge is transmitted via a network to a data center where highperformance computing infrastructure with AI capability processes it and returns a result. This paradigm minimizes intelligence required at the edge, but requires network connectivity, incurs

added latency to get a result, and limits the amount of data that can practically be handled and correlated against other data. There is also the risk of interception of communications.

For military and intelligence operations, edge autonomy is often preferred. With a computing platform capable of local high-performance processing, the problems of the cloud computing model are eliminated. Larger data sets can be processed, multiple data sets can be correlated, and faster results can be utilized that enhance operational performance.

Current advances in microprocessor technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer vision, and algorithm development make it increasingly viable to implement

intelligent sensors at the edge with lower power, smaller packages, and for a lower cost.

Processor Platforms That Enable Intelligence

Emerging microprocessor platforms enable increasingly power-efficient instruction sets in conventional processing cores, and additionally provide hardware accelerators for artificial intelligence, computer vision, and machine language operations – along with associated software libraries that enable easy access by algorithm developers.

For example, Intel’s 11th generation Xeon W-1100E series (formerly Tiger Lake-H) and 11th generation Core 1100 series (formerly Tiger Lake Up3) offer high-performance processors with industrial temperature and long-term availability. Featuring DDR4, PCIe 4.0, USB4, and more, these processors enable very high bandwidth interfaces. Integrated graphic cores can be used for display rendering as well as general-purpose number crunching. Intel Deep Learning Boost provides hardware acceleration for training and inferencing along with Vector Neural Network Instructions (VNNI) - usable for on-the-fly learning from sensor data. Intel offers a distribution of OpenVINO toolkit (Open Visual Inference and Neural network Optimization)

that enables efficient development of machine learning and deep learning applications. Tiger Lake-H Xeon processors offer 4, 6, and 8-core options with thermal design power (TDP) ranging between 12W and 45W. Tiger Lake Up3 Core processors offer 2 and 4-core options with thermal design power (TDP) ranging from 12W, 15W, and 28W.

For even higher performance in a similar power envelope, Intel’s 12th generation Intel Alder Lake P series introduces Performancecore (P-cores) that provide high-performance processing and Efficiency-cores (E-cores) for managing multitasking – for optimal processor core loading that leads to power efficiency. Added graphics execution units and further implementation of Intel Deep Learning Boost, VNNI, and OpenVINO to enhance AI capabilities. Core counts range from 5 to 15 with 15W, 28W, and 45W TDP options.

ARM-based processors are also emerging that are useful for intelligent edge sensors. For example, NXP’s i.MX 8M Plus microprocessor provides up to four Cortex-A53 cores and a neural processing unit for machine learning applications. While it has far less PCIe and USB interface capability than the above Intel processors, its two MIPI-CSI streaming cameras and various serial interfaces,

along with integrated image signal processors, make it useful for less extensive, and lowerpower, intelligent sensor applications.

Some FPGA devices, such as Xilinx’s Zynq UltraScale+ family, incorporate a multicore ARM processor with a programmable logic fabric that enables very powerful sensor applications. With large numbers of flexible interfaces, a wide variety of sensors, from very high bandwidth to relatively low speeds, can easily be incorporated, analyzed, and synchronized utilizing programmable logic and traditional processor code.

Intelligent Algorithms Perform the Heavy Lifting

The performance and power advances of leading-edge processors provide a hardware platform that can interface with and crunch data from a multitude of sensors. It is the advanced algorithms that these processors are capable of executing which enable the intelligence in edge sensors.

The need for real-time intelligent algo-rithms is practically endless. Applications include aerial detection, classification, and tracking of in-flight vehicles and weapons, ground surveillance of people and vehicles, identification of munitions fire sources and explosions, and countless others.

ARM-based processors are also emerging that are useful for intelligent edge sensors.

The software algorithms that implement these applications can be divided into various categories. Each category has unique characteristics and software libraries that allow application developers to leverage basic operations. Often, these libraries enable the utilization of specialized processor hardware or software instruction sets that enable highperformance and/or power-efficient execution.

Computer vision (CV) algorithms utilize operations that extract features from images or video captured by imaging sensors – whether electro-optical, infrared or other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. CV operations extract information from these two-dimensional images, or from the additional dimension of time in the video, through filters that tend to identify edges, patterns, colors, and changes thereof. CV algorithms often utilize graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware with computation units optimized for the basic operations that enable power- and time-efficient parallel execution. Common CV libraries include OpenCV and Open VX.

Machine learning (ML) algorithms enable a computational resource to learn from datasets,

whether pre-determined before deployment or on-the-fly once deployed, characteristics that can subsequently be utilized for analyzing and classifying a current situation. ML algorithms execute most efficiently on dedicated hardware such as a neural processing unit (NPU). Example ML libraries include TensorFlow and oneAPI Deep Neural Network Library (oneDNN). ML algorithms may utilize data from one or multiple sensors of various types to develop models of typical and atypical conditions.

Artificial intelligence (AI) utilizes ML, CV, and other algorithms to allow a computer to perform human-like analysis based on data to predict future events or take actions based on very complex sets of data.

Intelligent sensor applications utilize a combination of software technologies to analyze sensor data, recognize target features of interest or anomalies, and automatically take action based on this analysis and recognition. Depending on the application and sensors, various combinations of traditional, ML, CV, and AI techniques may be used. Data from disparate sensors can be synchronized and correlated. A deterministic real-time operating system (RTOS) may be utilized to ensure the synchronization of multi-sensor data sets for maximum accuracy.

The complexity of today’s processors and application software, while enabling new intelligent edge sensor paradigms, also provides developers with significant amounts of work and risk in deploying new them. Time-tomarket, development costs and risk can be minimized through the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computing engines.

COM-HPC – New High-Performance Embedded Computing Standard

Over the years, several standards have been developed for high-performance computing (HPC).

Chassis-based sys-tems such as VPX and the older VME offer the ultimate in rugged performance and the use of a combination of COTS and custom plug-in boards. They allow for the relatively rapid development of complex systems for military applications. However, their size, weight, power, and cost limit their utility for many edge sensor applications where small size, lower power availability, and need for lower costs are required.

PICMG’s COM-HPC specification, ratified in early 2021, is targeted for applications of more limited deployments. This new standard form factor, successor to COM Express, utilizes a two-board architecture consisting of a COMHPC computer-on-module (COM) which hosts a complete computing engine and an applicationspecific carrier board designed to host the COMHPC module and associated peripheral circuitry and interfaces to sensors.

COM-HPC provides board sizes ranging from 95 mm x 120 mm to 200 mm x 160 mm and provides module power budgets of up to 300W on server modules and up to 200W on client modules. This enables the use of small formfactor edge applications and entirely new classes of processors, including server-class CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, and heterogeneous systems on the chip.

COM-HPC provides a wealth of very high bandwidth I/O capability through its two 400-pin connectors. This includes ultra-high performance interfaces such as 100 GbE, 40 Gbps USB4, and x64 lanes of PCIe Gen 4.0 or 5.0, the latter of which delivers up to 32 GTps data transfer speeds. Adding lower speed, legacy interfaces such as UART, I2C, SPI, and GPIO, COM-HPC provides the ability to interface broad varieties of sensors – from high-resolution array sensors that require PCIe to lower bandwidth environmental sensors.

An example COM-HPC module suitable for intelligent edge sensor computing is SECO’s LAGOON COM-HPC Client size A module, which leverages the 11th generation Intel® “Tiger Lake H” mobile processors ranging from octal-core Xeon® to Core™ devices – on Intel’s IoT Group roadmap for industrial temperature range and long-term availability. The processors include up to 32 execution units of Intel® Iris® Xe graphics. Utilizing 20x PCIe Gen 4.0 lanes, 20x PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes, and two 2.5 GbE interfaces, two to four USB 4 interfaces with bandwidths up to 40 Gbps, An intelligent sensor developer, integrating the LAGOON module on a custom-designed carrier board, can interface up to 15 separate PCIe sensor endpoints, up to 12 USB devices, two 2.5 GbE interfaces, and several serial-based sensors - enabling a single microprocessor to analyze

and correlate a large number of sensors within a relatively small form-factor.

Combining the conventional, AI, and CV processing power of these processors with the COM-HPC standard, a powerful but relatively power- and size-efficient computing platform implements complex intelligent edge sensors, including sensor fusion applications.

Intelligent Edge Sensors – Marriage of High-Performance Computing with Intelligent Algorithms

Current and next-generation microprocessors, with their artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision hardware accelerators and associated software libraries that utilize them, enable new levels of edge sensor intelligence. With greater processing capabilities enabled with AI, ML, and CV algorithms, ultra-high bandwidth interfaces, and lower power envelopes, intelligent edge sensors allow for unheard-of lev-els of situational awareness analyzed with minimal lat-ency that allows for autonomous action –avoiding scenarios where disrupted chains of communications may prevent the use of sensor data. With current-generation microprocessors, compact but wide data interfaces en-abled by standards such as COM-HPC, and through the use of AI, ML, and CV algorithms, intelligent edge sensors will gain use in deployed applications.

Current and next-generation microprocessors, with their artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision hardware accelerators and associated software libraries that utilize them, enable new levels of edge sensor intelligence.

LTE-M – Delivering a Futureproof IoT

By Dima Feldman, VP of Product Management and Marketing at Sony Semiconductor Israel

The CAT-1 LTE modem was initially de fined in 2008 as a low-cost, low-power alter native to connect IoT devices that needed to transfer limited amounts of data. However, vendors and network providers at that time focused on higher throughput. The actual device introduction started about five or six years later.

In 2016, eight years after the initial CAT-1 definition, CAT-1bis was finalized in 3GPP

release 13. The new protocol was expected to further reduce the cost of the modem and simplify the device by removing the second antenna. Those technologies were far better suited for the IoT than 4G/LTE (CAT3 and above), which were designed for smartphones and other demanding devices, and whose high cost and power consumption needs were far beyond the requirements of a connected utility meter, tracker devices, medical health devices, and other applications.

At about the same time, in 2016, the specs for LTE-M (CAT-M) were frozen and released by 3GPP. Device makers and chipset designers have debated which is better. Today, staring into the future, it is clear that LTE-M’s future proof technology, better coverage, and lower power costs should make it the cellular mo dem of choice for the IoT.

CAT-1 has several key benefits over LTE-M. It offers higher maximal throughput, which

Image 1 - Airmen of the 216th Space Control Squadron set up antennas at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., Sept. 20, 2022.

may be needed for some applications, and lower power consumption when uploading or downloading significant amounts of data (faster transmission and shorter on time), as well as slightly lower latency. However, the majority of IoT devices rarely need high throughput or capacity as they are inherently designed to operate at low data rates. There fore, those advantages do not offer a compel ling use case for smart cities and utilities.

CAT-1bis, as an alternative solution, is sig nificantly inferior to LTE-M in terms of net work coverage and cost. While they both use a single antenna, the CAT-1bis network cov erage is degraded by 9db, and it is still 20%50% more expensive than LTE-M. As a result, it does not provide a real alternative.

Being Part of the 5G Framework Matters

Utility device designers and smart-city planners want to create connected devices that will share data for the next 10-15 years. LTE-M was included in the 5G framework. As a result, its technology is expected to be sup ported until 2040 and beyond. Smart meters and other critical infrastructure applications

Figure 1 - UL throughput estimation Cat-1 / Cat-M1 comparison

Utility device designers and smart-city planners want to create connected devices that will share data for the next 10-15 years.

will continue to pump out information deep into the foreseeable 5G future.

All flagship smartphones have supported 5G features for about two years, and 5G is be coming a standard feature for any new smart phone. For carriers, smartphone connectivity is a major business today, and it drives many of the spectrum management decisions. Since all smartphones (and new vehicles) are 5G capable, cellular carriers around the world have already begun their spectrum re-farm ing from LTE to 5G. As 5G devices become commoditized, carriers will have financial pressure to migrate their spectrum to 5G. In contrast to LTE-M, CAT-1, which is support ed by the LTE network only, could find itself completely unsupported as soon as 2030. Once that support is gone, devices with CAT-1 will be unable to transmit data and will need to be replaced.

For the better part of ten years, we have seen telecom carriers and industry insiders offer their vision of 5G. The vision is coming to fruition across the planet, enhancing IoT and bringing more smart cities closer to reali ty. Ironically, we may see CAT-1 holdouts cling to LTE technology. With LTE’s lack of support coming in as little as eight years, no one can guarantee its longevity.

This alone should be enough to drive devel opers to LTE-M. However, LTE-M has addi tional factors in its favor.

Tests Show LTE-M Offers More Reliable Coverage

In CE Mode A, we have seen a 5 dB improve ment for LTE-M over CAT-1. CAT-1’s dual an tenna seemingly would give it an advantage over LTE-M’s single antenna.

As shown in Figure 1 on previous page, CAT-1 and CAT-1bis transfer more bits per second in good conditions. However, as con ditions deteriorate and coupling loss increas es, CAT-1’s bit rate drops and becomes closer to LTE-M. CAT-1bis completely disconnects at around 145 dB MCL (minimum coupling loss), and CAT-1 loses its connection at about 149 dB. LTE-M, on the other hand, can main tain its connection down to 154 dB CL.

In effect, LTE-M is a more robust solution, able to maintain connectivity even after CAT1 has dropped offline.

LTE-M’s extended coverage in poor condi tions and poor coverage areas is especially important for critical infrastructure appli cations, as devices frequently need to be in

Image 2 - Marine Corps Sgt. Danielle Grimshaw launches an R80D Skyraider unmanned aerial system at Berga Naval Base, Sweden, Sept. 20, 2022, during Archipelago Endeavor, an integrated field training exercise.

stalled in challenging reception environments like basements. System integrators also must consider that coverage could degrade over time due to vegetation growth or changes in our cities’ landscape due to continuous hous ing development.

LTE-M Costs Less to Build

Across the board, the costs associated with LTE-M are significantly lower than both CAT1 and CAT-1bis. Using LTE-M as our baseline, CAT-1bis is 20%-50% more expensive, and CAT-1 is up to 80% more expensive. LTE-M uses less hardware in its design. Its simpler design has fewer parts, including just a single antenna, and no need for expensive, coun try-specific SAW filters – enabling ONESKU™ solutions. This is one of the examples where economy of scale helps to reduce the cost and simplify the logistics.

LTE-M’s operational costs are also lower than that of its rival technologies. LTE-M is far better than CAT-1 and CAT-1bis at con serving power. Its reduced power consump tion not only extends battery life but costs less to operate due to the smaller number of batteries.

Look to the Future

IoT utility devices are built to last for the long term. As such, LTE-M is the right tech nology choice. Admittedly, LTE-M does not have the same throughput as CAT-1 offers. With a 5Mbps upload and 10Mbps download, CAT-1 can move data faster than LTE-M’s 1.2Mbps upload and download speed (3GPP Release 17). However, connected utilities typ ically do not need the higher throughput pro vided by CAT-1. They can transfer data just as effectively over LTE-M.

The two technologies have comparable net work capacity as well, although, in practice, LTE-M only deploys 6RB, which could lead to reduced network capacity to match the cur rent demand. This is sufficient for a connect ed utility use case and helps reduce operating expenses for the carriers. LTE-M offers better latency in poor coverage areas, which is im portant considering that many utility meters are located in rural areas with weaker net work coverage.

Considering that LTE-M is included in the 5G framework and will last until at least 2040, has lower costs, and meets the requirements of smart utilities, it is the obvious choice for utility and smart city developers.

Figure 4 - U.S. and Korean Marines call for fire during tactical air control party and close air support training at Pilsung Range, Gangwan Province, South Korea, Sept. 15, 2022.

2022

COT’S PICKS

ZMicro and Brelyon Team Up to Develop Ultra Reality™ Rugged Military Displays

Brelyon, the MIT spin-off pioneering a new category of ultra-immersive display technology, and ZMicro today announced a strategic part nership under which the companies will jointly develop Brelyon’s Ultra Reality™ rugged displays for deployed military markets. ZMicro will be the exclusive supplier of Brelyon’s technology in rugged markets.

“Brelyon’s Ultra Reality™ technology is unlike anything we’ve seen,” said Jason Wade, President of ZMicro. “It has the potential to enable an entirely new way of computing and human-computer interface. By bringing depth and panorama to conventional displays, Brelyon can provide large-format and immersive visual ization solutions in a small form factor. This is something that can bring huge benefits to mili tary end-users.”

Through this strategic partnership, ZMicro will license Brelyon’s Ultra Reality™ technolo gy to create one or more rugged, large-format

display products for defense applications, in cluding indirect vision, training, simulation, te leoperations, command and control, and intel ligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).

Built upon revolutionary work from the MIT Media Lab, Brelyon’s Ultra Reality™ uses computational wavefront engineering to create a massive field of view with true optical depth, generating an immersive panoramic virtual screen that engulfs the viewer without the need for a headset. Launched at CES in January, Brely on’s Ultra Reality™ combines the latest technical advances in novel physics and computational optics with the company’s patented superconic light-field expansion technologies. Unlike con ventional stereoscopic displays, Brelyon uses its monocular depth modulation capabilities to provide a visual experience that alleviates eye fatigue and image artifacts for the user.

“Today’s monitors can take up a lot of space and are not immersive,” said Alok Meh ta, COO of Brelyon. “Technologies like VR and AR headsets aren’t user-friendly and have poor image quality. We’re reimagining displays to take the computer display experience into the virtual world without headsets. Through our

partnership with ZMicro, we will be able to bring a much richer and more productive view er experience to end-users of deployed military applications.”

Brelyon’s patented Ultra Reality™ technol ogy renders a massive virtual screen in a com pact form factor, making it an ideal solution for space-constrained applications, including inside next-generation ground combat vehicles and remote or distributed node command and control centers.

“In ZMicro, we’ve found an exception al partner with the expertise and resources to meet the defense industry’s MIL-SPEC rugge dization standards and bring our products to market,” added Mehta. “With Ultra Reality™, Bre lyon has been able to break several performance records on conventional parameters for peak brightness, resolution, eye comfort, image size, and more. As the defense industry’s need for high-performance displays continues to grow, we believe Brelyon’s large-format display solu tion is well-positioned to dominate the market.”

ZMicro https://zmicro.com/

October 2022 COT’S PICKS

AMETEK Abaco Systems Releases VP461

Dual RFSoC, Dual FPGA Card Aligned to SOSA Standard Share

Abaco Systems introduced its VP461 6U VPX FPGA carrier card aligned with the Sensor Open Systems Architecture™ (SOSA) technical standard at the AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition.

The VP461 is designed with two Xilinx® Vir tex® UltraScale+™ FPGAs and two Xilinx® Zynq® Ul traScale+™ RFSoCs, allowing for closer proximity to the sensor for lower-latency and higher precision signal processing. A single slot populated with a VP461 can replace many different acquisition and processing boards that traditionally occupy multi ple slots in a system. The RF and processing density of the VP461 enables new system architectures by offering one of the highest-performance solutions in a SWaP-constrained environment.

New PICMG® standard for modular industrial PCs - EKF showed first prototypes at the InnoTrans

Under the name PICMG® ModBlox7™, sev eral manufacturers are currently working on a new standard for modular industrial PCs that is intended to combine the advantages of scalable systems such as CompactPCI® with cost-saving box PCs.

As a flexible BoxPC system, ModBlox7™ is based on units defined in height and depth, but expandable in width.

An addi tional MPSoC manages the data traffic be tween the four primary FPGAs and the backplane while offering robust security. This allows the VP461 to be configured to each program’s unique RF and processing require ments. The space-saving carrier card is available air and conduction-cooled. The rugged VP461 is designed to reliably operate in some of the harsh est environments and applications, including radar, EW, DRFM, telecommunication base sta tions, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, autonomous vehicles, renewable energy stations, and more.

The SOSA-aligned backplane supports mul tiple 100GbE paths for high-speed data exchang es between other cards in the chassis, including

multiple VP461s. Optional MORA, VITA 49.2, RED HAWK, or GNU Radio support is available.

“This exceptionally powerful carrier card not only is aligned with the SOSA standard, but it also saves valuable processing space,” said Mike Underwood, Abaco division vice president, and business unit manager. “By putting these boards in parallel, for example, users can easily quadru ple their system-level computing power in the same footprint.”

Abaco Systems / AMETEK www.abaco.com

Each unit has a front width of 7HP or a multiple thereof (1HP = 5.08mm). The mechan ics allow for flexible mounting options, includ ing wall mounts, DIN Rail clamp technology, or 19-inch sub-racks.

ModBlox7™ allows simple interconnection of boards without the need for an addition al backplane. The rear panel of the housing is used for heat dissipation. Thus, highly integrat ed and redundant architectures can be realized.

In 2023, the PICMG® ModBlox7™ specifica tion is expected to be finally approved.

In cooperation with Ci4Rail, EKF showed the first prototype systems at InnoTrans in Ber lin. The railsuitable concept is based on a 7TE power supply arranged on the far left, next to it a 14TE wide CPU module, followed by I/O modules.

PICMG® www.picmg.org

COT’S PICKS

Elma’s New 12-Slot, 3U Backplane Aligned to SOSA™ 1.0 Enables

Development & Deployment

Elma has released a new 3U 12-slot back plane that aligns with The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture™ (SOSA) Technical Standard 1.0. The backplane is an update to Elma’s original CMOSS reference backplane supporting the U.S. Army’s latest open-standards require ments. The new 3U OpenVPX backplane offers a mix of plug-in card (PIC) slots that enable com plex, high-speed signal processing and system de velopment, supporting up to 100 Gigabit Ethernet.

The SOSA-aligned backplane supports highspeed signals on all the data paths as well as in corporates leading-edge VITA 67.3 connectors compatible with legacy VITA 67.1 and VITA 66.4 RF and optical I/O connectors. In addition to pro viding the latest optical fiber and RF connectivity, the backplane features precision network timing (PNT) plus the integration of mixed payload mod ules including SBCs, switches, radial clocks, and system expansion.

Ken Grob, Director of Embedded Computing Development, said, “Our new backplane aligned to SOSA establishes the foundation for system development of high-performance mission-criti cal C5ISR and EW systems based on a common,

New 10U RiCool Chassis from Pixus Supports Redundant Rear Pluggable Power Supplies

Pixus Technologies has a new 10U RiCool chassis that supports single, dual, or N+1 re dundant power suppliers that plug-in from the rear of the enclosure.

The 10U RiCool chassis features a 6U OpenVPX or SOSA aligned backplane in up to 16 slots at 1.0” pitch and speeds to 100GbE. The enclosure is extra deep to allow rear plug gable power supplies. This additional space also allows RF devices or other modules to fit within the rear of the chassis. The enclosure also supports a pluggable SOSA-aligned chas sis manager or a rear mezzanine approach that fits behind the backplane without taking up any slot space.

Each of the two reverse impeller blow ers supports 191 CFM (cubic feet per minute)

modular ar chitecture that lowers lifecycle costs, allows rapid technology insertion, and enables complex, high-speed signal processing.”

The full-featured CMOSS reference back plane offers a range of OpenVPX slot profiles aligned with the SOSA technical reference stan dard. The backplane provides a dual-domain ar chitecture, supporting MORA, ML2B, and Victory Messaging. Ideal uses include MOSA-aligned open standards-based military computing systems that require critical high-speed data communications, necessary for sensor-based systems.

The backplane can handle the highest data rates possible with Expansion Plane links sup porting PCIe Gen 4, and optionally 100GBASEKR4, while Data & Control Planes links support 100GBASE-KR4 and 25GBASE-KR respectively. It features two switch slots, a PNT timing slot, nine payload slots, and two VITA 62 PSU slots.

When equipped with optical interfaces, the VPX architecture now supports higher overall bandwidths by augmenting the copper intercon nects, allowing multiple fiber optic interfaces per slot. This greatly increases the overall connectivity

providing additional data paths for system design ers. The VPX optical interface ensures that this backplane will be able to meet future bandwidth requirements.

The backplane includes two I/O-intensive SBC slots, while the nine Payload slots can sup port RF Payload, GPGPU, and compute-intensive SBCS. Maintenance ports, AUX CLK, REF CLK, and GPIO signals are routed to headers allowing for outside connection. The backplane also routes IPMB A and B interfaces to support connection to an external VITA 46.11 Chassis Manager. The backplane is included in the SOSA 1.0 Reference Guide for Integrators (RIG) as a reference 3U back plane example for larger systems.

Elma’s products aligned to the SOSA Tech nical Standard 1.0 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 www.elma.com

of airflow for a powerful cooling solution in a front-to-rear airflow configuration. The highly efficient and hot-swappable fans typically run under 59 DB. Various I/O and power options are available, along with opti cal or RF inter faces through the backplane.

Pixus offers OpenVPX and SOSA-aligned chassis in com mercial grade and MIL rugged formats. The company also has options for other VITA and PICMG-based standards such as VME, CompactP

Pixus Technologies https://pixustechnologies.com/

October 2022 COT’S PICKS

Cincoze Announces New Open Frame Display Module CO-100 Series

Cincoze launched the CO-100 Series of openframe display modules with robust features and exclusive adjustable design for easy fitting into enclosures of different materials and thicknesses in industrial applications such as automation ma chines and kiosks. The debut CO-W121C, a 21.5” 16:9 high-resolution FHD display module with a PCAP touchscreen, is the latest addition to the CO-100 series, further expanding the variety of sizes, display ratios, and touch methods to meet a broader range of market needs.

The CRYSTAL Display Computing product line has three distinct series: CV-100 for indoor HMI requirements, CS-100 for outdoor high-brightness applications, and CO-100 for installation in a wide range of enclosures and cabinets. All three series use Cincoze’s Convertible Display System (CDS, Patent No. M482908) so they can be combined with a computer module (P2000/P1000 Series) to make an industrial panel PC, or combined with a monitor module (M1000 Series) to make an indus

trial touch mon itor while retain ing flexibility for future upgrades.

Adjustable Design Makes Installation Easy

The biggest feature of the CO-100 series is the adjustable mounting bracket, specially developed for equipment manufacturers. The thickness ad justment setting makes it easy to fit cabinets of different thicknesses and allows precise and stur dy positioning. The CO-100 series also supports different locking methods (panel and boss type) for flat or standard mounting, simplifying the in stallation process and providing more convenient integration while giving a smooth and consistent appearance for cabinets of different materials and thicknesses.

Integrated Structure Fits Any Machine

The CO-100 breaks free from traditional open frame designs by adopting a new integrated struc ture that reduces complex customizations for in stallation in equipment, improving the efficiency of on-site deployment and simplifying the cost of future maintenance. The different installation

methods support a wide range of applications, with the flat and standard mounting as standard, but after removing the mounting bracket, the VESA mount can be used for a standalone system or installed in a 19” rack.

Robust and Reliable Design for Industrial Applications

The CO-100 series embodies Cincoze’s high quality, stability, and robustness by utilizing in dustrial-grade materials, providing an IP65 wa terproof and dustproof front panel, supporting 0–70°C wide temperature operation, and giving 50,000 hours of backlight life. The CO-100 series is also in line with CE and FCC EMC requirements, making it ideally suited for industrial HMI appli cations. Finally, in addition to the standard P-CAP touch, a single-point resistive touch is set for fu ture release.

Cincoze www.cincoze.com

Antenova Ltd is releasing a new, compact, and very efficient antenna for the Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee frequencies at 2.4 - 2.5 GHz. This new antenna is named Invicta, part number SRFW082.

The Invicta antenna averages an efficiency of 70% across the 2.4 GHz band. Consequently, designs using this antenna will operate better, over longer distances and through walls and obstacles, thus extending the coverage and per formance of wireless devices using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee.

Invicta is a Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) antenna, which is easy to place in a design. It con nects directly to the PCB via a cable and IPX MHF (UFL) connector. The antenna comes with 100mm cable as standard and other cable lengths and connector options are available on request.

An FPC antenna is different from an SMD antenna in that it operates independent to a ground plane length and no antenna matching is required, so the design

cycle for Invicta is simpler and shorter.

The FPC antenna also makes for easier man ufacturing, as the antenna is fixed in place by a simple self-adhesive strip, and can be curved and inserted into the case of a design. This style of the antenna is ideally suited to small to medium -vol ume manufacturing.

Antenova has designed the Invicta antenna primarily for smart battery-powered devices for the home and office, where one single device pro vides global coverage. Typical applications in the home would be smart meters, home automation, wireless sensor networks, smoke, and intruder alarms. It would also be used for remote monitor ing in industrial and medical environments.

Commenting, Antenova’s Product Marketing Manager Michael Castle says:

“The efficiency of an antenna is related to its size, with larger antennas usually providing better performance. The Invicta antenna will be a winner because it performs better than PCB trace anten nas and provides exceptional performance and range in return for the relatively small space in a design.”

Antenova Ltd www.antenova.com

Antenova’s “Invicta” 2.4 GHz antenna gives wider coverage for tiny Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee designs

October 2022 COT’S PICKS

Molex Launches PCIe Cable Connection System for Open Compute Project Servers

Molex has announced the release of its NearStack PCIe Connector System and Cable As semblies for next-gen servers. Developed in col laboration with members of the Open Compute Project (OCP), NearStack PCIe replaces traditional paddle-card cable solutions to optimize signal in tegrity and improve system performance.

A standout feature of NearStack PCIe is its direct-to-contact Twinax termination, which elim inates the need for paddle cards within the cable assembly. Unlike competing cable jumpers, which are terminated by hand-soldering cables onto a PCB paddle card, NearStack uses a fully automated wire termination process. This high-precision pro cess improves manufacturing efficiencies, repeat ability, and signal integrity.

“Thanks to its superior construction, NearStack PCIe is ideal for next-generation PCIe Gen-5 and Gen-6 system implementation,” said Bill Wilson, new product development manager, at Molex Enterprise Solutions. “The product is ca pable of 32-Gbps NRZ data rates, enabling server OEMs to achieve unprecedented performance.”

Critical Components for the Open Compute Project

The Open Compute Proj

ect is a consortium of industry leaders dedicated to combining the best available technologies into standardized hardware development with highspeed and high-bandwidth capabilities.

NearStack PCIe was defined and adopted as a standard by the Small Form Factor (SFF) com mittee as SFF-TA-1026, and OCP recommends the technology as “TA-1026” for server reference designs. NearStack PCIe also has been included in the OCP Modular - Extensible I/O (M-XIO) speci fication and the Modular - Full-Width HPM Form Factor (M-FLW) as part of the next-generation OCP Data Center - Modular Hardware Systems (DC-MHS) family. As part of an open SFF standard, the technology is available to second-source ven dors under a reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) license. NearStack PCIe already has been second-sourced through these licenses, with ad ditional licenses offered to multiple vendors. This strategy ensures inter-vendor operability between Molex and other vendors while creating a robust supply chain.

Mechanical Design Optimizes Space, Simplifies Integration

Molex has optimized the cable assemblies for efficient use of space as well as the safe and easy attachment. Smart, rugged mechanical features, along with the optional “angle-exit” cable design, let technicians easily plug the jumpers into crowd ed boards. In addition to alleviating space con straints, NearStack PCIe offers a low-mated profile for improved airflow management and minimizes interference with neighboring components.

NearStack PCIe further simplifies integra tion through support for hybrid cables, with a NearStack PCIe connector on one end and a legacy connector on the other. These connectors provide a streamlined upgrade path for existing equipment, which enables customers to take advantage of the new technology immediately without redesigning or replacing current hardware.

Aitech System https://aitechsystems.com/

Evergreen Optical Solutions - Discover the flexible CEMA, C4, and ISR solutions connecting the technology of today with the capabilities of tomorrow.

The UK’s most diverse and forward-think ing security is once again bringing together mil itary, law enforcement, and security agencies to meet with leading defense and security tech nology and innovation businesses on the 3rd of November at the Three Counties Showground.

3CDSE always focuses on the new threat landscape, and with the move to a new eco system governed by open standards for the creation and application of commercial off-theshelf (COTS) equipment, there’s never been a more important time to stay in the loop.

PPM Systems is actively involved in defin ing, maturing, and applying the open standards for connecting this new ecosystem, in part due to its proven history of strong collaboration and its authority in the RF and optical domains.

Working with CEMA, C4, and ISR system in tegrators, PPM is delivering collaborative, fu ture-proof solutions.

Connecting the technology of today with the capabilities of the future, evergreen RF over fiber solutions easily integrate with the radio equipment you have now and will allow you to smoothly add equipment from any suppliers at any point. Ease your current Vehicle Integration Kit (VIK) challenges and take your first, simple step into the ecosystem of the future.

Explore this technology-agnostic solution where all types, modulations, and classifica tions of a signal can be carried on a single, com pact RF over fiber cable. Fiber is also impervi ous to interference from other electromagnetic signals and, as it can be part of a distributed network, you get flexible optical routing, dis tributed processing, antenna remoting, and re duced armor penetration.

ppm Systems https://ppmsystems.com/