March 2023 COT’S PICKS

Mercury Unveils the Industry’s First Signal Processing Board To Feature Intel’s Latest Direct RF Technology

Mercury Systems, Inc. introduced a new COTS open-architecture board that delivers the latest commercial signal processing technology for aerospace and defense applications, driving higher performance from a smaller form factor. The DRF3182 Direct RF Processing Module is the first standard product purpose-built for the aerospace and defense industry that leverages Intel’s new Stratix® 10 AX SoC field programmable gate array (FPGA), which adds a critical capability to the Mercury Processing Platform by enabling the direct digitization and processing of broadband RF signals.

ProtoLogic EDS and DDC-I Announce Ruggedized, Safety-Critical COTS Avionics Display

Platform

Delivers advanced AMLCD display technology, configurable I/O, and middleware coupled with a FACE-conformant, safety-critical multi-core RTOS, certifiable to DO-178C DAL-A

ProtoLogic EDS, an industry leader in ruggedized avionics displays and display processors, and DDC-I, a leading supplier of safety-critical operating systems and tools, announced that they had joined forces to offer a turnkey, open COTS display platform for avionics. The integrated open COTS platform features ProtoLogic EDS’ ruggedized flat panel AMLCD display, processor, and reconfigurable I/O modules running DDC-I’s Deos™

Unlike traditional systems that use costly analog frequency conversion hardware, direct RF technology allows the direct processing of broadband signals. Designed for radar and electronic warfare (EW), this technology can enhance a wide range of applications, including software-defined radio and communications. This streamlined architecture reduces the total system size and cost while increasing flexibility.

Why it Matters

Today’s rapidly evolving threat environment requires deploying advanced processing capabilities to the tactical edge. Through deep collaboration with Intel, Mercury has set a new standard for performance that will ensure modern EW and radar systems can provide a decisive advantage to US and allied forces and make the world safer and more secure.

DO-178C Design Assurance Level A (DAL-A) verified ARINC-653 and FACE™ 3.1 conformant software environment in single or multi-core configurations.

“We’re pleased to team with DDC-I to offer the industry a fully integrated COTS display system to commercial and military avionics developers,” added Chris Haan, Vice President of Business Development at ProtoLogic EDS. “Our hardware platform has everything avionics developers need to hit the ground running with readily certifiable value-added display applications. The quality, support, and performance of the Deos RTOS have proven that we made a good decision to work with DDC-I, and we already have positive feedback from our customers as well.”

“To maintain technological superiority in today’s complex geopolitical landscape, next-generation radar, and EW systems must leverage the latest commercially developed signal processing semiconductor devices,” said Kevin Beals, Vice President and General Manager of Mercury’s Signal business. “The DRF3182 Direct RF Processing Module utilizes Intel’s latest direct RF technology to significantly increase the processing density of modern radar and EW systems.”

Mercury Systems, Inc. mrcy.com

“This is an integrated, cost-effective, COTS DO-178C DAL-A certifiable display platform for the avionics market,” said Greg Rose, vice president of marketing and product management at DDC-I. “Protologic has taken a progressive and unique step towards offering the glass display, electronics, base software environment, and middleware and integrated and packaged these components as a display platform. Together, this reduces risk and time to market for avionics developers by enabling them to focus on application development.”

ProtoLogic EDS’s ruggedized AMLCD display modules and systems feature high-resolution, sunlight readable displays, with integrated CPU/ GPU, video processor, and analog and digital interfaces and data I/O processors in an expandable open architecture. ProtoLogic’s products are fully certifiable (DO-178/254) and support custom and industry standards (FACE, OpenGL, MOSA, SOSA, HOST) and are designed to withstand the harshest environments (DO-160/MIL-STD-810/461/462).

Deos is a safety-critical embedded RTOS that employs patented cache partitioning, memory pools, and safe scheduling to deliver higher CPU utilization than other certifiable safety-critical COTS RTOS on multi-core processors. First certified to DO-178 DAL A in 1998, Deos provides a FACE Conformant Safety Base and Safety Extended Profiles that feature hard real-time response, time and space partitioning, and Rate Monotonic, ARINC-653, and POSIX interfaces.

ProtoLogic EDS protologiceds.com