COTS Journal

Data Sheet: Rackmount Systems Roundup

JOURNAL

The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

Navy Modernization Efforts Chart an Open Course AESA Radar Designs Benefit from Modular Solutions Rugged Tablets and Laptops Serve Mil/Aero Needs

An RTC Group Publication

September 2015 Volume 17 Number 9

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JOURNAL

The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

CONTENTS

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.

September 2015 Volume 17 Number 9

FEATURED p.10 Naval Modernization Focuses on Variety of Open Architecture Efforts SPECIAL FEATURE Navy Modernization Programs Leverage Open Standards 10

Naval Modernization Focuses on Variety of Open Architecture Efforts Jeff Child

DEPARTMENTS 6 Editorial

Silicon Valley Huzzah!

8

The Inside Track

30

COTS Products

50

Marching to the Numbers

TECH RECON Signal Chain: Modular Design Strategies for Radar Systems 16

Modular Approach Cuts Costs of AESA Radar Designs Mark Howard, API Technologies

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT Rugged Laptops and Tablets as Military User Interfaces 20 Laptops and Tablets Bulk up with Mil/Aero Capabilities Jeff Child

Coming in October See Page 48 On The Cover: Lockheed Martin this month won a contract to continue to modernize Aegis hardware and software onboard Navy vessels including Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. Shown here is the destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in 2011 is underway in the Pacific Ocean as part of the John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Benjamin Crossley/Released).

DATA SHEET Rackmount Systems Roundup 24

26

Rackmount Systems Push Compute Density Barriers Jeff Child

Rackmount Systems Roundup

Digital subscriptions available: cotsjournalonline.com

COTS Journal | September 2015

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JOURNAL

The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

Editorial EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Jeff Child, jeffc@rtcgroup.com EXECUTIVE EDITOR Johnny Keggler, johnnyk@rtcgroup.com SENIOR EDITOR Clarence Peckham, clarencep@rtcgroup.com MANAGING EDITOR James Pirie, jamesp@rtcgroup.com

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HOME OFFICE The RTC Group 905 Calle Amanecer, Suite 150 San Clemente, CA 92673 Phone: (949) 226-2000 Fax: (949) 226-2050 www.rtcgroup.com EDITORIAL OFFICE Jeff Child, Editor-in-Chief 20A Northwest Blvd., PMB#137, Nashua, NH 03063 Phone: (603) 429-8301 PUBLISHED BY THE RTC GROUP Copyright 2015, The RTC Group. Printed in the United States. All rights reserved. All related graphics are trademarks of The RTC Group. All other brand and product names are the property of their holders.

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EDITORIAL Jeff Child, Editor-in-Chief

Silicon Valley Huzzah!

E

arly in my career as a technology editor I worked for a now long gone publication called Computer Design. It was during that phase in my career that I made my most frequent trips to Silicon Valley. It was a pretty fantastic experience to be able to research an in depth story about DRAMs or FPGAs or graphics chips and be able to visit each and every vendor of that technology in just a couple days. Today technology hubs are spread out in various regions of the country—primarily because the cost of living in northern California forced such migration. But even so, Silicon Valley remains a place like no other in terms of technology-focused entrepreneurial spirit that seems almost breathable in the air.

With all that in mind, it’s cool to see that the DoD chose Silicon Valley as a location to collaborate with the private sector for a new frontier in electronics manufacturing: flexible hybrid electronics. Late last month Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced the award of a Manufacturing Innovation Institute for Flexible Hybrid Electronics to a consortium of 162 companies, universities, and nonprofits led by the San Jose-based FlexTech Alliance.

The institute is the fifth of six manufacturing institutes led by the Department of Defense and is part of the National Network for Manufacturing Innovation announced by President Obama in 2012.

According to the DoD this newest institute will bring the best minds from government, industry and academia together to advance U.S. leadership in manufacturing flexible hybrid electronics. The FlexTech Alliance consortium is backed by companies as diverse as Apple and Lockheed Martin and major research universities including Stanford and MIT. The cooperative agreement will receive $75 million in DoD funding over five years matched with more than $90 million from industry, academia, and local governments.

Flexible hybrid electronics manufacturing is defined as production of electronics and sensors packaging through new techniques in electronic device handling and high precision printing on flexible, stretchable substrates. The technologies promise dual use applications in both the consumer economy and the development of military solutions for the warfighter.

In his speech at the announcement, Secretary Carter talked about how when he began his career, most technology of consequence originated in America, and how a lot of that was sponsored by the government, particularly by the Defense Department. “To-

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COTS Journal | September 2015

day”, said Carter “much more of our technology is commercial, and the technology base is global. And other countries have been trying to catch up to the breakthroughs that for the last several decades made our military more advanced than any other.”

To stay the best, the DoD is investing aggressively in innovation.

“We’re pushing the envelope with research into new technologies— on robotics, data science, cybersecurity, biotech, hypersonic engines that can fly over five times the speed of sound, and I could go on,” said Carter. “We’re drilling tunnels through that wall that sometimes seems to separate government from scientists and commercial technologists—making it more permeable so more of America’s brightest minds can contribute to our mission of national defense, even if only for a time. And we’re developing new partnerships with America’s private sector and tech communities, particularly here in Silicon Valley.”

In those efforts one of the keys to Silicon Valley, is colocation.

Carter himself said he sees it every time he visits and that he experienced firsthand when he lived and worked there just last year. “Everyone’s in the same area, which not only helps forge relationships, but also helps spread new ideas. And that close geographic proximity, coupled with strong links between academia and industry, has made this entire region a nexus for creativity—an innovation ecosystem.”

Anyone who has spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley knows that that feeling Secretary Carter describes is not just a politic thing to say. It’s a real feeling and I know it well. Whenever I’d eat at restaurant in San Jose there was always at least a 30 percent chance some nearby table would be talking about semiconductors or some Internet business idea.

Right after the announcement of the FlexTech Alliance award Secretary Carter held the first ever roundtable of Silicon Valley leaders at Defense Innovation Unit – Experimental (DIUx). Secretary Carter announced his plans to launch this outpost at Moffett Federal Airfield for the department to work with a variety of corporations and entrepreneurs at a speech at Stanford University in April. It’s gratifying that the SecDef sees the Valley in the same way many of us technologists do. To that I say Silicon Valley huzzah!

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INSIDE TRACK Army Awards Sustainment Contracts for RQ-11B Raven and RQ-20A Puma UAVs The U.S. Army has solicited 10 orders from ten orders totaling $47.1 million for RQ-11B Raven and RQ-20A Puma AE unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) sustainment. This total value includes seven orders awarded on July 23 totaling over $35 million. The AeroVironment Raven, the most widely used UAS in the world today, is a lightweight solution designed for rapid deployment and high mobility for military applications requiring low-altitude surveillance and reconnaissance intelligence (Figure 1).

The Puma AE is a small UAS designed for land-based and mari-

time operations. Capable of landing in salt water or on the ground, the Puma AE empowers the operator with a level of operational flexibility never before available in the small UAS class. Last fall AeroVironment announced it received three firm fixed-price orders from the United States Army totaling over $27 million or RQ-11B Raven and RQ-20A Puma AE unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) spare parts.

Curtiss-Wright Awarded Coast Guard for Air Data Computers on Helicopters

The MH-65 Dolphin is a conversion of the Airbus HH-65 Dolphin, which is itself a variant of the French-built Eurocopter AS365.

The MH-65 conversion integrates a glass cockpit into the aircraft. The Curtiss-Wright Air Data Computer supplies the altitude, airspeed, and vertical speed data to the glass cockpit displays as part of that upgrade. The Dolphin helicopter serves the U.S. Coast Guard both as a short-range rescue and maritime law enforcement platform. The helicopters operate from 17 air stations on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii and the Great Lakes, as well as from deployed cutters.

Curtiss-Wright announced that its Defense Solutions division has received a contract from the United States Coast Guard to supply its Air Data Computer technology for use on the Coast Guard’s Airbus MH-65 Dolphin helicopter fleet.

The MH-65 Dolphin helicopters will be integrated with dual Air Data Computers that provide flight critical altitude and speed information to the cockpit and other important helicopter systems. The initial value of the contract is approximately $3 million. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2015 and continue through 2019.

FIND the products featured in this section and more at

AeroVironment Monrovia, CA (626) 357-9983 www.avinc.com

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

www.intelligentsystemssource.com

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COTS Journal | September 2015

Figure 1 RQ-11B Raven is a lightweight UAV designed for rapid deployment and high mobility for military applications requiring low-altitude surveillance and reconnaissance intelligence.

SpaceX Signs New Commercial Launch Contracts At the World Satellite Business Conference in Paris, France, SpaceX announced two new orders for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles. The contracts include launch of a communications satellite for HISPASAT on a Falcon 9 and launch of the Saudi Arabian Arabsat 6A communications satellite on a Falcon Heavy. The above are expected to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida between late-2017 and 2018. With these additions, SpaceX currently has over 60 missions on manifest representing over $7 billion under contract (Figure 2).

Falcon 9 is a two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of satellites and the

Figure 2 SpaceX currently has over 60 missions on manifest representing over $7 billion under contract.

Dragon spacecraft into orbit. When Falcon Heavy lifts off next year, it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two according to SpaceX. With the ability to lift into orbit over 53 metric tons (117,000 lb)--a mass equivalent to a 737 jetliner loaded with passengers, crew, luggage and fuel--Falcon Heavy can lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle,

The

INSIDE TRACK the F-35’s current electro-optical targeting system, Advanced EOTS incorporates a wide range of enhancements and upgrades, including short-wave infrared, high-definition television, an infrared marker and improved image detector resolution. These enhancements increase F-35 pilots’ recognition and detection ranges, enabling greater overall targeting performance.

Due to its similarity in shape and size to EOTS, Advanced EOTS can be installed with minimal changes to the F-35’s interface (Figure 4). It will be housed behind the same low-drag window, maintaining the F-35’s stealthy profile.

Advanced EOTS production will be completed on the current EOTS line. Advanced EOTS and EOTS are the first sensors to combine forward-looking infrared and infrared search and track functionality to provide precise air-to-air and air-to-ground targeting capability.

the Delta IV Heavy, at one-third the cost.

SpaceX Hawthorne, CA (310) 363-6000 www.spacex.com

Rockwell Collins to Provide Avionics for USAF Combat Rescue Helicopters Rockwell Collins has been selected by Sikorsky for the U.S. Air Force Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) program. Rockwell Collins will provide avionics and mission equipment to the next generation of combat rescue helicopters, including the cockpit flight and mission display system, navigation radios and the advanced ARC-210 V/UHF communication system.

Based on combat proven technologies currently being fielded on the U.S. Army’s Black Hawk helicopters, the HH-60W’s cockpit display system leverages 15 years of open systems leadership to enable the Air Force to affordably implement mission enhancements over the life of the CRH. Sikorsky was awarded the CRH Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract in June 2014 to develop up to four helicopters, seven training systems, and to provide initial product support. The contract includes production options for fielding a total of 112 HH-60W helicopters which will replace the U.S. Air Force’s aging fleet of HH-60G helicopters (Figure 3).

Rockwell Collins Cedar Rapids, IA (319) 295-1000 www.rockwellcollins.com

Raytheon Awarded $33 M Sonar System Contract The U.S. Navy has awarded Raytheon a $33 million contract for

Figure 3 Sikorsky’s contract includes production options for fielding 112 HH-60W helicopters which will replace the aging fleet of HH-60G helicopters (photo illustration HH-60W shown). the production, integration, testing and delivery of AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar (ALFS) systems. The contract includes an option for additional systems for U.S. inventory and potential Foreign Military Sale. The option, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to more than $98 million.

As the primary undersea warfare sensor for the Navy’s MH-60R multi-mission helicopter, ALFS provides significantly improved airborne anti-submarine warfare capability. ALFS is highly integrated with the helicopter and with the MK 54 lightweight torpedo, providing the full detect to engage ASW mission capability from the helicopter. ALFS is the mission-critical ASW capability for the defense of U.S. Navy strike groups, providing submarine detection, tracking, localization, classification, acoustic intercept, underwater communication and environmental data collection. It is the only in-service dipping sonar with multi-frequency operation, allowing the system to adapt its performance to varying environmental conditions. With a rapid search rate and extended range, ALFS identifies threats sooner,

enabling it to cover a larger area.

Raytheon Waltham, MA (781) 522-3000 www.raytheon.com

Lockheed Martin Rolls Out Advanced EOTS for the F-35 Lockheed Martin has introduced Advanced EOTS , an evolutionary electro-optical targeting system, which is available for the F-35’s Block 4 development. Designed to replace EOTS,

Lockheed Martin Bethesda, MD. (301) 897-6000 www.lockheedmartin.com

Figure 4 Because of its similarity in shape and size to the F-35’s current EOTS, Advanced EOTS can be installed with minimal changes to the aircraft’s interface.

COTS Journal | September 2015

9

SPECIAL FEATURE Navy Modernization Programs Leverage Open Standards

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COTS Journal | September 2015

SPECIAL FEATURE

Naval Modernization Focuses on Variety of Open Architecture Efforts Leading the way on open systems that are upgradable, the Navy is modernizing everything from shipboard networks to EW systems to software radios.

Jeff Child, Editor-in-Chief

T

here’s no doubt that compared to its fellow military branches, the U.S. Navy has led in its commitment toward open architectures and open system concepts. Today those ideas are in full bloom as the notion of software upgradable systems and common hardware architectures reign. And as Navy modernizations efforts, the open concept has moved into everything from computing systems to digital radios to RF systems and electronic warfare. All that’s bolstered by the Navy enjoying another years where it’s funding is greater than other branches.

In support of the shift to an Asia-Pacific defense strategy, Navy funding is enjoying a stronger focus (Figure 1). A central principle to the United States Maritime Strategy is forward presence, which promotes conflict deterrence by ensuring forces are in a position to expeditiously respond to conflict. Funding is requested for nine new ships ($11.6 billion) and the overhaul of the USS George Washington (CVN-73) ($678 million). The Shipbuilding Portfolio for FY 2016 includes the funding for the construction of nine ships (two SSN 74 Virginia Class nuclear attack submarines; two DDG 51 Arleigh Burke Class destroyers; three Littoral Combat Ships (LCS); one Fleet Replenishment Oiler (TAO(X)); and one LPD 17 Amphibious Transport Dock Ship.

Aircraft carrier funding spent for the CVN 78 class ships will include new technologies and improvements to improve efficiency and operating costs as well as reduced crew re-

COTS Journal | September 2015

11

SPECIAL FEATURE

Figure 1 Just as it was for the 2015 budget, the Navy segment of the DoD’s 2016 budget request is significantly larger than other segments. Driving this is the shift toward an Asia-Pacific rebalancing strategy.

quirements. This new class brings improved warfighting capability, quality-of-life improvements for Sailors, and reduced total ownership costs. Gerald R. Ford is the first aircraft carrier designed with all electric utilities, eliminating steam service lines from the ship, reducing maintenance requirements and improving corrosion control.

The new A1B reactor, Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS), Advanced Arresting Gear (AAG) and Dual Band Radar (DBR) all offer enhanced capability with reduced manning. The ship’s systems and configuration are optimized to maximize the sortie generation rate (SGR) of attached strike aircraft. The FY 2016 request funds the fourth year of construction costs for USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79), completion costs for USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), long lead items for USS Enterprise (CVN 80), and continued development of ship systems.

Modernization is also planned for the various variants of the Arleigh Burke class destroyer. The DDG 51-71 represent the original design, designated Flight I ships, and are being modernized to current capability standards. DDG 72-78 are Flight II ships and DDG 79-123 ships are Flight IIA ships.

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COTS Journal | September 2015

In FY 2016 this plan is for DDG-124 to become the first Flight III ship. Flight III ships will feature the Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) capability. The FY 2016 budget request funds two DDG 51 AEGIS class destroyers as part of a multiyear procurement for ten ships from FY 2013 to FY 2017.

The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) funding plan includes a seaframe acquisition strategy that procures two seaframe designs which are a separate and distinct acquisition program from the mission module program. The two programs are synchronized to ensure combined capability. Mission: Defeats asymmetric threats, and assures naval and joint forces access into contested littoral regions by prosecuting small boats and craft, conducting mine countermeasures, and performing anti-submarine warfare.

The FY 2016 budget request funds construction of three LCS seaframes.

CANES Propels Forward The most dramatic changes in shipboard systems in recent years has been the Consolidated Afloat Networks and Enterprise Services (CANES) program. Its goal has been to consolidate and modernize ship-

board, submarine and shore-based command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) network systems.

This consolidation is designed to dispense with many legacy, stand-alone networks and provide a common computing environment infrastructure for dozens of command, control, intelligence and logistics applications. This strengthens the network infrastructure, improves security, reduces existing hardware footprint and decreases total ownership costs. CANES is expected to be installed on all platforms in the Navy’s inventory objective, which includes ships, submarines and land sites. CANES installations have been successfully completed on several aircraft carriers and cruisers and on multiple destroyers. Installations continue on carriers, an amphibious assault ship, landing dock ships, cruisers and destroyers.

For its part Northrop Grumman was among the five vendors selected by SPAWAR and PEO C4I last year to build and deliver CANES gear. In June the company announced it successfully completed the CANES program’s design, development and limited deployment phase for the U.S. Navy.

Since winning the contract for the design and limited-production run for CANES in early 2012, Northrop Grumman has delivered 37 shipsets for various ship classes. The company leveraged its cyber expertise to ensure cyber-robust CANES systems. The company also applied its Modular Open Systems Approach-Competitive process to encourage continuous competition and achieve the lifecycle benefits of open systems architecture and COTS and software.

More Upgrades to SEWIP Open, upgradable systems have been an important part of electronic warfare thinking for the Navy. Replacing problematic legacy hardware, COTS-based approaches have come to the rescue as the navy replaces closed systems with scalable, upgradable architectures. For the past 17 years Navy’s Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP), a spiral-block development program, has provided a common/open and scalable architecture to leverage emerging technologies.

In Block 2 of the Navy’s SEWIP initiative employed the first sensor to be fully compliant with the Navy’s Product Line Architec-

SPECIAL FEATURE

subsystems in advanced sensor processing applications with the goal of creating more affordable, flexible and open standards-based solutions.

The idea behind OpenRFM is that within the RF and Microwave domain, much of the technology supporting EW, EA, Figure 2 and SIGINT applications The Ensemble RFM-1RS18 tuner integrates three rugged the same level of stanOpenRFM modules into a single-width, 6U VXS package. dardized, modular, open interface. systems architecture that’s been a success for embedded computing— ture strategy. By using COTS components, it VME and OpenVPX for example. provides additional cost savings and ease of The idea of OpenRFM is to solve the maintenance for sailors. Called the AN/SLQ- challenges of digital and RF/microwave 32(V)2, the system found on all U.S. aircraft convergence, spectrum-fusion and maneucarriers, cruisers, destroyers and other war- verability, complementary system interopships is upgraded with key capabilities that erability, and affordability. OpenRFM uses determine if the electronic sensors of poten- a modular, open-architecture approach, tial foes are stalking the ship. standardizing the electromechanical, softNot surprisingly technology suppliers ware, control plane and thermal interfaces from the military embedded computing used by integrated microwave assemblies to industry have provided solutions to SEWIP. streamline the design, integration, and testMercury Systems provided Lockheed Mar- ing of RF and digital capabilities within sentin with advanced radio frequency (RF) mi- sor processing systems. OpenRFM design crowave tuner and intermediate frequency principles are compatible with prevailing (IF) products as part of the SEWIP Block 2 embedded computing industry standards, upgrade. In July the Navy awarded Lockheed including 3U and 6U form factor OpenVPX Martin a $154 million low-rate initial production contract for Block 2 of t provide additional systems to upgrade the AN/SLQ32 systems on U.S. aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and other warships. Block 2 is the latest in an evolutionary succession of improvement “blocks” the Navy is pursuing for its shipboard electronic warfare system. In 2013 and 2014, Lockheed Martin was awarded 24 systems as part of low-rate initial production, the first 10 of which have been delivered to the Navy on schedule.

and VXS/VME for EW and Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) applications.

Today the specifics of the specification are still in progress. But back in May Mercury Systems announced the Ensemble RFM1RS18 tuner as the first tuner in the embedded industry to be developed using OpenRFM system building blocks. The Ensemble RFM-1RS18 tuner integrates three rugged OpenRFM modules into a single-width, 6U VXS package (Figure 2). Each package is comprised of a wideband front-end tuner spanning a range of 0.5 to 18.0 GHz, a quadconverter that delivers four IF outputs and a synthesizer to ensure coherent outputs from the converter. Each tuner combines a highchannel density, derived from OpenRFM’s three modules per slot approach with wide, near-instantaneous bandwidth capability, ultra-fast tuning speed, and low-phase noise performance all within a low-SWaP package.

That same month Mercury Systems announced it was awarded a $7.1 million indefinite quantity/indefinite delivery (IDIQ) contract by the U.S. Naval Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC) to supply advanced radio frequency (RF) tuners, digital receivers and related equipment to be used as spares during the installation of the AN/ SLQ-32(V)6 electronic countermeasure system on U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships. The AN/SLQ-32(V)6 was developed as part of the Navy’s SEWIP.

Open Standards for RF Systems While open systems thinking has been embraced by the Navy, our embedded industry true to its history continues to create open form factor solutions. With that in mind, a year ago Mercury Systems launched the OpenRFM standards initiative with a goal toward streamlining the integration of RF and digital

Figure 3 Built around the Aegis Combat System, the U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG-90) is shown here while performing maneuvers off the coast of Hawaii.

COTS Journal | September 2015

13

SPECIAL FEATURE

Upgrading Aegis Combat System The Aegis Combat System ranks among the most transformational shipboard system since its inception to meet changing customer needs and enemy threats. Fortunately the system was engineered to evolve over time. As the fleet of in-service Aegis ships ages, and the threat increases, modernization to improve the combat capability of existing ships is essential. Right now modernization programs—for both cruisers and destroyers—are in place to improve warfighting capabilities, extend hull service life, and reduce total ownership cost through the fielding of Open Architecture and commercial computing technologies.

For the next phase of integrating the Aegis Combat System on the U.S. Navy’s fleet, Lockheed Martin has won a ten-year contract that will, with options, have the potential to be worth about $428 million. The Ship Integration & Test (SI&T) program will integrate Aegis onboard new Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, and modernize destroyers and cruisers to operate the latest iteration of the Aegis configuration, called Baseline 9 (Figure 3). Through Baseline 9, ships can simultaneously defend against airborne threats, such as aircraft or cruise missiles, while also targeting and intercepting ballistic missiles. According to Lockheed, it is the only naval combat system in the world to demonstrate the ability to conduct integrated air and missile defense simultaneously.

Software Defined Radio Software-defined radio is another key technology area that’s been fed into Navy modernization plans. Designed for shipboard use, DMR radios can have their functionality upgraded using software. The U.S. Navy has ordered 56 AN/USC-61(C) Digital Modular Radios (DMRs) and related equipment from General Dynamics (Figure 4). The newly built DMR radios will be capable of using the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) waveform, the digital dial tone needed to make voice calls to the U.S. Department of Defense’s next generation, narrowband MUOS satellite communications system. The four-channel radios form the foundation of the Navy’s network communications aboard submarines, surface ships and on-shore locations. This order, valued at over $29 million, exercises option five on a contract awarded to General 14

COTS Journal | September 2015

Figure 4 The software-defined DMRs are four-channel radios that form the foundation of the Navy’s network communications aboard submarines, surface ships and on-shore locations.

Dynamics in 2010.

Earlier this year, General Dynamics announced a software upgrade for existing DMRs that turns the radio’s four channels into eight virtual channels. This expanded communications capacity is available when sailors are using high frequency (HF) communication frequencies. As a software upgrade, the added capacity keeps the existing onboard DMR, saving the Navy the cost of replacing the physical radio or changing the configuration in space-constrained radio rooms.

General Dynamics C4 Systems Scottsdale, AZ (480) 441-3033. www.gdc4s.com Lockheed Martin Bethesda, MD (301) 897-6000 www.lockheedmartin.com Northrop Grumman Los Angeles, CA (310) 553-6262 www.northropgrumman.com

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TECH RECON Signal Chain: Modular Design Strategies for Radar Systems

Modular Approach Cuts Costs of AESA Radar Designs The advent of modular, stackable subsystems is enabling cost effective ways to build configurable Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar systems. These simplify system integration and permits rapid first line repair.

Mark Howard, Chief Engineer, API Technologies

Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, or e-scan, is a well-established technology that has evolved in recent decades, becoming increasingly reliable and price competitive due to ongoing refinements in GaAs MMICs, higher integration of functions (IoF) per chip, increased process yields with reduced failure rates, pre-screening of key components such as power amplifiers (PAs), and other low cost manufacturing techniques.

Despite these advancements, the use of AESA radar technology has been largely restricted to highly customized solutions developed by prime aerospace contractors for use in their own proprietary systems.

These custom designed radar systems are relatively costly, require extended lead-time to design and manufacture, and lack the flexibility to be easily configurable to new applications. The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye for example uses the new AN/APY-9 radar that has an active electronically scanned array (Figure 1).

With the threat of international terrorism on the rise, including a higher risk of asymmetrical attacks on military and civilian targets and key infrastructure, a clear need has emerged for a modular, stackable approach to AESA radar system design that addresses a growing range of applications, 16

COTS Journal | September 2015

Figure 1 The E-2D Advanced Hawkeye for example uses the new AN/APY-9 radar that has an active electronically scanned array.

including radar—naval, airborne, vehiclemounted, and ground-based—; coastal, harbor, and border security; air traffic control; foreign object detection (FOD) for airport runways; satellites; and data links.

How AESA Radar Works AESA systems use numerous transmit/ receive modules (TRMs) that transmit and

receive high power radio waves of varying frequencies, scanning rates, and radiation patterns on demand to provide highly agile beam steering that is capable of tracking multiple targets simultaneously. A key advantage of AESA over conventional radar systems, including Passive Electronically Scanned Arrays (PESA), is its greater frequency agility, which results in more un-

TECH RECON predictable scan patterns that are more difficult to detect by radar warning receivers (RWRs), particularly older systems.

Offering unmatched versatility, AESA radar systems can provide high jamming resistance by spreading signals across a range of frequencies. These systems can also be switched into a receiver-only mode to track the source of jamming signals or to act as a radar warning receiver. AESA radar can also serve as a high-speed data link, enabling such functions as peer-to-peer networking, where data from multiple platforms is combined to provide expanded radar coverage and resolution enhancement.

In general, the highest field of view (FOV) for a flat phased array antenna is 120 degrees (60 degrees left and 60 degrees right). Wider coverage can be obtained using multiple antenna face configurations or through the use of two rotating antenna faces. AESA radar systems mounted onto the nose of an aircraft can use a mechanical gimbal to provide additional mechanical steering, thus widening the aircraft’s FOV. Thermal management requires careful consideration as the power amplifiers are distributed across the antenna face. Distributed cooling systems are required that can fit within the limited space envelope between elements and keep the thermal gradient across the antenna to a minimum.

Modular, Stackable Solution In 2013, API Technologies introduced the first modular Quad Transmit Receive Module (QTRM) as part of its Active Antenna Array Unit (AAAU) solution, providing the industry’s first modular and scalable building block solution available at X-band and C-Band, as well as a Dual Transmit Receive Module (DTRM) at S-Band. Figure 2 shows a QTRM. The AAAU consists of multiple QTRM sub-arrays. The QTRMs are also available as a standalone product, or as scalable Planks that typically consist of four QTRMs combined with an integrated linear 16 element antenna array, liquid cooling with quick release non-drip connections, and distribution networks to provide RF and DC control signals to each QTRM. Individual Planks plug into slots in the main array structure to create a 2D array solution Figure 3 shows how quad packs fit into the final 2D radar array.

A QTRM is self-contained unit con-

sisting of four T/R channels, each consisting of a low noise amplifier (with receiver protection), a power amplifier (PA), as well as digitally controlled phase and gain control elements. Each QTRM module also contains local DC power supply conditioning, a built-in logic interface for serial control and BITE power supply monitoring, and a protective thermal shutdown facility. QTRMs come factory calibrated and individually addressed Figure 2 to provide ease of installation and This modular Quad Transmit Receive Module integration, with external system (QTRM) provides a scalable building block solution loss, antenna offsets, and phase available at X-band and C-Band, as well as a Dual offsets being easily uploaded by Transmit Receive Module (DTRM) at S-Band. the system integrator.

Each T/R channel is individually controlled, so any individual T/R channel failure will not affect the other RMS phase and amplitude errors to reduce channels within the module, resulting in side-lobes. System integrators should have graceful degradation. This solution elimi- access to upload phase and attenuation offnates a major shortcoming of legacy radar sets introduced by external RF circuitry such systems that could potentially face a to- as cabling. Unique address codes should be tal loss of operation due to a single Point applied so that modules can be placed anyof Failure (PoF), such as the loss of the where within the overall array. Using GaN travelling wave tube (TWT) power ampli- technology and space-saving cooling sofier. These modular, plug and play QTRMs lutions helps to improve efficiency and to are Line Replaceable Units (LRU) that use reduce footprint and mass, particularly for COTS components to reduce first line repair airborne applications. costs. Individual QTRMs can also be rapidly The available space envelope is generswapped out without incurring any system ally dictated by the need to maintain a half downtime. By contrast, non-modular legacy wavelength (or less) antenna spacing and AESA systems require the entire platform to by the array configuration, with total power go off-line for repairs or upgrades. output limited by the module’s frequency, size, and allowable heat dissipation. GenerDesigning the Ideal AESA Solution ally, a number of modules are packaged into Application-specific requirements can a single housing, usually four for the higher limit design options, so a flow-down ap- frequencies (C-Band and above), and two for proach is required. Key design parameters S-Band frequencies. These configurations include a number of elements. First there’s provide enough space to include full digital optimizing the physical size of the T/R functionality, local power supply conditionchannels to minimize the antenna spacing ing, and a single, all-encompassing environto a half wavelength or below, which re- mental seal, which is generally more cost duces undesirable grating lobes. Next there’s effective than multiple channel-by-channel the matter of combining a low noise receive sealing techniques. channel with high output power to extend signal transmission range. Improving Power Circuit Technology Issues Added Efficiency (PAE) and reducing DC The circuit technology is largely influpower requirements is also key. enced by the required frequency band and System designers should reduce the hence the available space envelope. Lower minimum detectable range (MDR) by mini- frequency designs lend themselves to a mizing T/R switching speed, limiter recov- single layer RF pcb design mounted onto a ery time, and DC supply gating circuit re- backplane, with surface mount packaged quirements. It’s also important to cutting MMICs, and drop-in devices such as circulaCOTS Journal | September 2015

17

TECH RECON

Figure 3 Shown here QTRMs plug into slots in the main array structure to create a 2D array solution

tors or packaged discrete transistors.

With higher frequency designs, the space envelope gets reduced, making it increasingly difficult to fit all the RF functionality and associated interconnects onto a single layer. Therefore, the use of packaged devices is usually prohibited, thus requiring a chip and wire approach using a highly integrated MMIC chip set. A multilayer approach may also be considered, such as LTCC packaging or a mixed-media multilayer board.

The functional building blocks of a typical T/R channel are similar regardless of overall system requirements. For frequencies at C-Band and above, a MMIC ‘core chip’ will most likely be utilized along with a low noise amplifier MMIC in the receive path and a power amplifier MMIC in the transmit path. The MMICs will likely be designed as a chip set, allowing the power amplifier to be driven directly from the core chip.

port feed to the T/R channel usually passes through a ferrite circulator, often with a ferrite isolator to protect the power amplifier, or occasionally with a high power T/R switch that can terminate the receive path with a load during the transmit pulse cycle.

Lower frequency designs can utilize a combination of discrete surface mount MMIC devices to realize the core chip functionality, along with discrete high power transistors with external matching circuits for the power amplifier. In all cases, adjacent T/R channels will need to be isolated using either channelized grounded cavities or metal covers.

elements can be concentrated within a square meter, which is ideal for airborne applications where minimizing size and mass are critical requirements. Fighter aircraft can utilize X-Band systems for intercept and attack of enemy fighters and ground targets. In their multi-function role, these radar systems can also serve as a high-speed data link. The compactness of an X-band system is also ideal for shorter-range applications, including border surveillance, where the need for man portability and fast deployment are essential. Figure 4 shows an X-Band sub-array face.

Application Dictates Frequency Range

The growing need for systems that offer higher levels of agility, flexibility, and functionality over a wide range of radar and data link applications will stimulate ongoing demand for modular, stackable AESA radar solutions that are configurable to both retrofit and new system design. Modular, stackable AESA radar systems provide a cost effective alternative that reduces the total cost of ownership: accomplished through the use of COTS components and MMIC technology, ease of installation and integration, graceful degradation without a single point of failure (PoF), and infield TRM replacement (LRU) without having to take the entire system off-line.

Lower frequencies such as S-Band are ideal for long-range applications, including seaborne surveillance and tracking, achieving higher output power per element and lower atmospheric attenuation. S-Band systems typically utilize Silicon LDMOS or GaN discrete transistors for the output stage of the PA. C-Band is commonly used for short range or medium range mobile battlefield surveillance and missile control applications that require rapid relocation and deployment. This higher frequency allows the size of the antenna to be reduced, while also improving accuracy and resolution, thus creating the potential for radar systems that are mounted on mobile platforms.

X-Band offers even further size reduction and enhanced resolution, as over 1,000

Core Chip Functions The core chip itself typically includes a digital phase shifter and an attenuator, along with low noise and medium power amplifiers that interface directly with the receive and transmit path MMICs. Switches within the core chip allow the attenuator and phase shifter functions to be used in both transmit and receive paths and thus form a common leg circuit.

The LNA requires a limiter circuit to protect the device from high power RF signals generated either from the transmit side or from external sources. The antenna 18

COTS Journal | September 2015

Figure 4 Compactness of an X-band system is ideal for shorter-range applications, including border surveillance, where the need for man portability and fast deployment are essential.

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SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT Rugged Laptops and Tablets as Military User Interfaces

Laptops and Tablets Bulk up with Mil/Aero Capabilities Rugged laptops, rugged tablets offer portable solutions for interfacing for many military and aerospace systems. These devices are deliver features and apps that a variety of powerful tools for both military users and military system developers.

Jeff Child, Editor-in-Chief

D

efense platform today often require sophisticated graphical user interfaces. Taking the form of rugged laptops, workstations and display systems, and even rugged tablets, these interfaces are how the warfighter gets the complex situational awareness data—maps, video, images and text—it requires and how they interface directly to military weapons platforms on networks. These have evolved in the past couple years to powerful systems such as complete laptop-based cloud severs, cockpit apps for tablets, and tablet based avionics test interfaces.

Thin Client for Cloud Computing One of the most interesting evolutions recently in rugged laptop applications is the idea of using them as complete sever client for cloud computing applications. Along just those lines, last month Chassis Plans launched a Rugged Zero Client, which is a purpose built system for the Department of Defense. The thin client delivers the latest access technology in a rugged portable clamshell and is designed to meet increasingly stringent security mandates for desktop computing devices and complements Chassis Plans rugged virtualization solutions. The system is ideal for remote access into mixed HSD, VDI or web-hosting environments and compliments Chassis Plans 20

COTS Journal | September 2015

Rugged “Cloud in a box” (Figure 1).

Using PCoIP (PC-over-IP Technology) with the single purpose image decompression and decoding, Chassis Plans zero clients eliminates hard drives, graphics processors, operating systems, and applications/security software. Our zero clients offer the highest quality user experience and compared with the price of a loaded desktop or laptop. Chassis Plans zero clients is a simple small footprint will also years longer than any OS-driven device because there is nothing to upgrade.

Chassis Plans Zero Clients do not require applications, patches, service updates, operating systems or antivirus software. All application data remains locked down in the rugged Chassis Plan server. Chassis Plans Rugged Zero Clients simply receive and decode encrypted image information, and are immune to viral attack. No sensitive application data ever reaches the endpoint; our zero clients do not store any application data. The encryption module uses AES 256 and NSA Suite B cyphers. Chassis Plans Zero Clients can be paired with USB security authorization, a smart card or proximity card system or other single sign-on devices to comply with the highest security requirements including 802.1x network authentication.

Figure 1 Rugged Zero Client is a purpose built system for the Department of Defense in a rugged portable clamshell ideal for remoting users into mixed HSD, VDI or web-hosting environments.

Rugged Tablets with Video Getac for its part recently updated its V110 rugged convertible and the updated F110 rugged tables. The second generation F110 and V110 products each feature a fifth generation Intel Processor, Intel HD Graphics 5500, an eight-megapixel rear camera, a front HD webcam and an updated LumiBond 2.0

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

Figure 2 The F110 rugged tablet is less than oneinch thick and measures slightly more than 12 x 8 inches in size.

touch screen that allows glove-on use.

The F110 is a large-screen rugged tablet that packs superior performance and a large 11.6-inch display into a compact design (Figure 2). The F110 is less than oneinch thick and measures slightly more than 12 x 8 inches in size. At three pounds, this rugged tablet is one of the lightest largescreen, fully rugged tablet available. The V110 is a thin and light rugged convertible that measures less than 12 x 9 inches in size, is a mere 1.3 inches thick and weighs slightly more than four pounds. A quick twist of the unique multi-position hinge allows the V110 to effortlessly transform from a laptop to a tablet, giving users the versatility needed in unpredictable environments. The V110 also features a large 11.6-inch display and a full-size, waterproof-membrane backlit keyboard that is 56% larger than the competition’s. Its 88 standard-sized, island-style independent keys provide an unmatched premium feel and increased durability.

Both products incorporate the latest processors: the fifth generation Intel Core i5-5200U (2.2GHz), i5-5300U (2.3GHz with vPro Technology), i7-5500U (2.4GHz) or i7-5600U (2.6GHz with vPro Technology), together known as the Broadwell platform, which are designed for speed and efficiency.

The i5 and i7 CPUs feature Intel Turbo Boost Technology, clocking maximum speeds up to 2.7GHz, 2.9GHz, 3GHz and 3.2GHz, respectively. In addition, the new Intel HD 5500 graphics provide an unparalleled level of responsiveness and frame rate for both 2D and 3D graphics.

The LumiBond 2.0 technology bonds the display glass with the touch panel and LCD. That creates a single pane that is more durable and improves readability with its wide viewing angle. This creates a display that is more readable and offers better contrast and more crisp colors than a typical rugged lap-

top display. The LumiBond 2.0 adds the flexibility to configure the display for use while wearing gloves or with direct exposure to rain-essential features when operating in inclement weather or working near hazardous materials when gloves are required.

Flight Info Device on iPad It’s not just the tablets themselves that are becoming suited for military and aerospace users, it’s the apps themselves.

One example is the way Jeppesen, a part of Boeing Commercial Aviation Services, offers operators an enhanced version of its industry-leading FliteDeck Pro electronic flight bag (EFB) solution for iPad. iOS 7-compliant features and functionality of FliteDeck Pro will help airlines and other large operators work more efficiently, with improved access to critical flight information and shared data between devices.

The Jeppesen FliteDeck Pro version features departure and arrival runway depiction (SID and STAR) rendering on the enroute map to increase pilot situational awareness (Figure 3). A “Flight Info Drawer” feature redesigns the previous Route Drawer to create, load, view and save the active flight data from either the terminal charts view or the enroute view. Pilots are also now able

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COTS Journal | September 2015

to create user-defined waypoints and comments to identify important points along the enroute map. New integration and collaboration capabilities such as app-to-app route sharing and the ability to now import flight plans from third-party flight planning systems, provides the right information to the pilot at the right time in support of flight preparation and execution needs.

Figure 4 The USB MULTI family of pocket-sized USB adapters provide an easy and portable way to interface computers to multiple avionics databuses including: MIL-STD-1553, EBR 1553, ARINC 429, ARINC 708, ARINC 717, Serial, and Discrete I/O.

FAA-Certified Cockpit App For its part, ASIG (Avionics and Systems Integration Group) offers its flyTab Cockpit iPad app as a FREE download in the Apple App Store. flyTab Cockpit is an avionics test environment and simulator for the flyTab avionics platform. The flyTab platform is a combination of FAA-certified hardware and iOS software that allows iPads to connect to standard avionics buses of an aircraft while in operation via the Lightning or 30-pin connector of an iPad. It is also useful to gather and display data from the buses on the iPad and capture the avionics data in files for further off-aircraft analysis. When in test mode, Cockpit allows installers of flyTab hardware to verify the installation in the aircraft and conform aircraft systems and sensor data via the iPad user interface.

Tablets for Protocol Testing Another key direction for multi-protocol interfacing is small size for protocol testing. Ballard Technology, an Astronics company, has taken that approach with their pocket-sized USB adapters. They provide an easy and portable way to interface computers to multiple avionics databuses including: MIL-STD-1553, EBR 1553, ARINC 429, ARINC 708, ARINC 717, Serial, and Discrete I/O. The USB MULTI family of pocket-sized USB adapters enable computers to communicate with, simulate, test, and monitor avionics equipment and systems (Figure 4).

These rugged USB 2.0 peripherals feature a combination of different protocols in a single device. This provides greater convenience and cost savings when interfacing to multiple databus types. They are compatible with virtually all modern PC laptop, desktop, and tablet computers, and all power necessary for operation is provided via the single USB port. Plug and Play and Hot Swap features make them easy to install and move between computers.

ASIG North Little Rock, AR (866) 890-2744 www.asigllc.com Ballard Technology Everett, WA (425) 339-0281 www.ballardtech.com Chassis Plans San Diego, CA (858) 571-4330 www.chassis-plans.com Getac Irvine, CA (949) 681-2900 www.getec.com Jeppesen Englewood, CO (303) 799-9090 www.jeppesen.com United Electronic Industries Walpole, MA (508) 921-4600 www.ueidaq.com

DATA SHEET Rackmount Systems Roundup

Rackmount Systems Push Compute Density Barriers Entrenched as having a solid place in military mindshare, rackmount bladed systems are starting to displace alternative approaches that can’t offer the same compute density.

Jeff Child, Editor-in-Chief

W

hen the goal is packing in as much compute density into a system as possible, it’s hard to beat a rackmount blade-computer architecture. Naval platforms need such technology to increase their levels of automation aboard ships. A wealth of product and system solutions is available targeting military applications with these requirements.

Compute density has become the mantra for many military systems. To meet such needs, a rackmount system architecture has lots of advantages. Blade server based computing solutions and other rackmount boards are rapidly finding a niche in a variety of military applications. Among these are SATCOM-On-the-Move systems and other vehicle-based systems. With complete serverlevel computers now easily available in a 1U blade, developers can pack a lot of computing in a convenient rack-based space alongside an off-the-shelf 1U network router and advanced communications boards. These include units such as specialized encryption systems, precision timing boards or tried and true networking gear like Cisco routers.

By using the 1U form factor, it’s easier to integrate together systems that include existing off-the-shelf IT-based 1U boards. systems of larger sizes such as 2U, 3U and 4U are also gaining acceptance in military systems where compute density is para24

COTS Journal | September 2015

Rackmount systems lend themselves well to cable-based interfacing such at PCI ExpressOver-Cable and Ethernet. 10 Gbit Ethernet is becoming entrenched as a favorite data plane interconnect fabric in compute-intensive applications like sonar, radar or any application that networks sensor arrays together. But PCI Express has inherent advantages that make it better for Figure 1 control functions than A 1U rackmount form factor is easy to integrate with an Ethernet. The PCI-SIG off-the-shelf IT-based 1U board. These include units such as approved the PCI Exspecialized encryption systems, precision timing boards or press External Cabling tried and true networking gear like Cisco routers.

Specification in 2007 that defines PCI Express mount. Unlike backplane-based architec- implemented over a standard cable. This altures like VME or CompactPCI, rackmount lows the full bandwidth of the PCIe bus to systems are bus-less and typically use Ether- be utilized within multiple chassis systems net or other cable-based technology to link and small local networks. Many applications boards with one another. Eliminating the have been implemented using PCIe over backplane also significantly reduces overall cable for high-speed I/O, bus expansion and system weight. This approach has become local networking. popular in military comms gear in vehicles where every pound of weight is precious (Figure 1).

DATA SHEET

Rackmount Systems Roundup

Military Grade Server Features Xeon Processors and Adaptive Cooling

Liquid Cooled 1U Server Provides Nvida GPUs or Intel Phi Processors

2U Xeon-Based Server Targets I/Ointensive Applications

Chassis Plan’s rugged military servers provide a durable and proven platform.

The M1U20xx Military Grade Rack Mount System is a rugged, reliable highperformance solution for those looking for an off the shelf military computer. Unique for a rugged 1U server, two x16 (Gen 3.0) slots are offered on the high performance motherboard.

Dynatem’s BoldHPC 50-10 is a fanless, 1U high, 19 inch rack mount computer that brings super computer performance to applications never previously possible.

The 1U server offers optional configurations including, dual blades, single blade with liquid cooled AC/DC or DC/DC power supplies, single blade with PCIe expansion including versions supporting RAID storage.

The XIOS 2U from EDT is a 2U server designed for I/O-intensive applications.

It provides ten PCIe / PCI-X slots with cooling and power to support an average of 45 Watts per slot. The server has one CPU module, two removable I/O modules, and four removable 2.5 inch disk drives. Each of the three modules carries its own cooling fan and temperature sensor.

• 1U x 20.0-inch rugged military grade chassis.

• Extended-life motherboard options with long life processors.

• One or two blades, each max 3.3 Teraflops.

• Single and dual Xeon E5 processor options.

• Safe reliable liquid cooling enables greater density and performance, 1000 times more effective than air cooling, less expensive than fans.

• Two x16 (Gen 3.0) card slots.

• Extreme performance and high density.

• Up to three removable 2-1/2 inch drive bays and one slim DVDRW drive.

• Good for rugged environments.

• Five 40mm high MTBF long life aluminum body cooling fans w/ SysCool adaptive controller.

• Redundant power supply.

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26

COTS Journal | September 2015

• Up to four Nvidia Kepler GPUs or four Intel Phi coprocessors.

• 2U server with extreme power and cooling.

• Ten slots at 45 watts per slot.

• High-volume cooling.

• Intel Xeon processor (single or dual quadcore).

• Up to four removable 2.5 inch drives.

• One CPU module with two PCIe slots.

• Up to two Altera Stratix FPGAs.

• Two removable I/O modules, each carrying four PCIe slots or four PCI-X slots.

• Intel Cluster-Ready Certified.

• Advanced diagnostics.

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Our new “Data Sheet” style round-up format Links to the full data sheets for each of these products are posted on the online version of this section.

2U Haswell Processor-Based Server is Optimized for Expansion

2U Server Has PICMG Passive Backplane, Positive Pressure Cooling

1U Server Sports Dual E5-2600 V3 Xeons and Four SAS/SATA Drives

The 2U Expansion Optimized Server (EOS) from One Stop Systems is specifically designed to accommodate expansion appliances like the OSS Flash Storage Array (FSA) and High Density Compute Accelerator (HDCA). The EOS provides seven PCIe expansion slots and dual Haswell-based processors. It can be easily cabled to expansion appliances and is equipped with a BIOS that supports the highest number of external buses required in today’s HPC applications.

Systel’s IPC 4250 2U rugged rack mount server provides a compact and versatile 2U server platform offering high reliability.

Intel or AMD processor based architecture provides the highest performance available.

Active CPU board options enable maximum flexibility and configuration.

Themis Computer’s RES-XR5-1U features up to two E5-2600 V3 Series Intel Xeon processors with up to fourteen cores per socket, 512 Gbytes of DDR4 ECC memory, four SAS/SATA drives, and enhanced reliability. Designed for military, industrial, or rugged commercial use, the RES-XR5-1U server keep mission-critical applications available in demanding environments where Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) is an important consideration.

• Intel E5-2600 v3 Haswell processors.

• Up to eleven PCIe 3.0 ½ height, full length slots and has a variety of front panel storage options.

• Up to twenty-four 2.5 inch removable SAS SSD/HDD carriers. Or fewer with optional slim DVD slot.

• Motherboards optimized to support up 10 PCIe 3.0 NAND flash cards, advanced network interfaces.

• Supports up to 1 Terabyte of memory mapped IO for memory intensive GPUs and accelerators.

One Stop Systems Escondido, CA (877) 438-2724 www.onestopsystems.com

• Standard I/O chassis, 5 slot, positive pressure cooling.

• 17 inch deep chassis designed for military environments.

• PICMG passive backplane with single board computer.

• Minimum 700 watt 110/200 VAC autoswitching power supply, DC option.

• Latest Intel and AMD processors.

• Two fixed internal shock mounted hard drives, rotational or solid state.

• 5.25- and 3.5-inch accessible shockmounted drive bays.

• MIL-STD-810G shock & vibration.

• 0 to 50 degrees C operating temperature.

Systel Sugar Land, TX (281) 313-3600 www.systelusa.com

• Up to two E5-2600 V3 Series Intel Xeon processors with up to fourteen cores per socket.

• Up to 512 Gbytes of DDR4 ECC DRAM. • IPMI v2.0 support.

• Expansion with two PCIe 3.0 16X full size cards.

• Up to 4 removable 2.5 inch SATA or SAS disk drives, • 2 Gigabit Ethernet or 10 Gigabit ports (RJ45).

• 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 IPMI 2.0 port.

• 0 to 50 degrees C operating temperature.

Themis Computer Fremont, CA. (510) 252-0870. www.themis.com FIND the products featured in this section and more at

www.intelligentsystemssource.com

COTS Journal | September 2015

27

DATA SHEET | Rackmount Systems Roundup

4U Server Meets 810G/461F MILSpecs and Boasts Long Life Support

Rugged 1U MicroTCA Chassis Accepts Six AMC Slots

Trenton System’s TMS4702 4U rackmount military computer is designed for mounting in a 19 inch component rack or a transit case. This 4U rackmount computer solution utilizes long-life system components in order to provide the configuration stability needed for extended project cycles common in military applications. It’s been certified to a number of different MIL-STD810G and MIL-STD-461F environmental and electrical standards and test methods.

The VT950 Vadatech is a rugged 1U chassis used in Mil/Aero or other applications that need to withstand shock/ vibration. The lightweight aluminum construction provides 6 single module midsize AMC slots. For front panel retention, there is a single MicroTCA.1 screw on the opposite side of the ejector handle on each module slot.

• MicroTCA rugged 1U 19 inch rackmount chassis platform.

• Dual-processor Trenton BXT7059 featuring multi-core Xeon E5-2400 series processors.

• Meets MIL-STD-810F, MIL-STD-901D for shock/vibration.

2U Platform Marries Haswell Core i7 Processors and Gbit Ethernet Expansion The PL-80640 from WIN Enterprises is a 2U rackmount hardware platform designed for network service applications.

Built with Intel Embedded IA components with warranty of longevity, the PL-80640 Supports Single Intel 22nm Haswell (codename) core i3/i5/i7/Pentium/Celeron and E3-1200V3 processors. The platform supports four un-buffered and non-ECC or ECC DDR3 1333/1600 MHz DIMM sockets with max capacity up to 32 Gbytes.

• Meets MIL-STD-461E for EMI.

• Supports Intel Haswell Core i7/i5/i3/ Pentium/Celeron and E3-1200V3 Series, LGA1150.

• Supports up to six single module mid-size.

• Supports Max 32 Gbytes of DDR3 1333/1600 MHz System Memory.

• x8 PCIe Gen 3 routing (or dual x4).

• Maximum of 24 GbE LAN ports.

• Backplane options support multiple PCI Express, PCI-X and PCI option cards.

• Chassis accepts AMCs with single retention screw opposite of ejector handle on each slot.

• 4x removable 3.5 inch SATA HDDs.

• Rugged, corrosion-resistant, 4U rackmount military enclosure design.

• AMC.1, AMC.2, AMC.3 and AMC.4 compliant.

• Long life cycle with 7+ year SBC and backplane availability.

• Front-to-back cooling.

• MIL-STD-810G/MIL-STD-461F military computer configurations designed for long-life.

• Configurations support single or dualprocessor SBCs.

Trenton Systems Gainesville, GA (770) 287-3100 www.trentonsystems.com

FIND the products featured in this section and more at

www.intelligentsystemssource.com

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COTS Journal | September 2015

Vadatech Henderson, NV (702) 896-3337 www.vadatech.com

• Sup ports one PCIe x4 expansion slot with 4 x GbE and max 24 GbE Ethernet ports on the front-panel.

• 1 USB 2.0 ports, 1 RJ-45 console port.

• LED indicators monitor power and storage device activities.

WIN Enterprises North Andover, MA (978) 688-2000 www.win-ent.com

Shared Memory Network Interfaces Introducing a Gigabit Speed, Low Latency, Shared Memory Network for Deterministic Applications • 2.125 Gbps optical loop network • Single-mode and multi-mode optical interfaces supported • Up to 256 Shared Memory Network Nodes • Sustained data rates up to 200 Mbyte/Sec • Up to 256 MB of Shared Memory • Device drivers for Windows, VxWorks, Linux, and LabVIEW

www.aviftech.com/sharedmemory ...with flexible hardware options and complete software support PCI

PCI Express

AIT is a division of

PXI Express

XMC

COTS

FIND the products featured in this section and more at

PRODUCTS

www.intelligentsystemssource.com

COM Express Boards Serve up 6th Generation Intel Core Processors ADLINK Technology has announced the first products based on the 6th generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3 processors (codename Skylake) and latest Xeon processors, coming to market in the second half of 2015 and early 2016. These current Intel processorbased offerings feature an updated 14nm microarchitecture and added support for Ultra HD 4K resolution displays. ADLINK’s new offerings include COM Express computer-on-modules in both Compact and Basic sizes.

ADLINK’s COM Express computer-on-module (COM) offerings include the cExpress-SL (shown) and Express-SL in PICMG COM.0 Type 6 Compact and Basic Size form factors, respectively. Both Basic and Compact size modules are available with 6th generation Core i7, i5 or i3 processors and accompanying Intel QM170 and HM170 Chipset. ECC memory is supported by models utilizing the Intel Xeon processor E3-15XX v5 family and Intel CM236 chipset.

DDR4 memory is supported up to a total of 32 Gbytes, with a lower voltage compared to DDR3 resulting in a reduction in overall

power consumption and heat dissipation These new COMs also provide support for three independent UHD/4K displays and are well-suited for applications in automation, medical, and infotainment, with extended operating temperature range optionally available for transportation and defense applications. The boards are equipped with ADLINK’s Smart Embedded Management Agent (SEMA) to provide access to detailed system activities at the device level, including temperature, voltage, power consumption and other key information, and allow operators to identify inefficiencies and malfunctions in real-time, thus preventing failures and minimizing downtime.

ADLINK Technology, San Jose, CA. (408) 360-0200. www.adlinktech.com

ISR, IMAGING & NAVIGATION SOLUTIONS DISPLAYS SMART DISPLAYS & TABLETS

DVRs

CMUs

MISSION COMPUTERS

MAPS

Digital Video Recorders

Mission Computers

Smart Display with Quad Screen Capability

Cockpit Management Units

AVALEX has partnered with all branches of the armed forces to provide COTS solutions to mission-specific challenges since 1992. Designed and manufactured in our state of the art facility in Gulf Breeze, Florida, our rugged and reliable designs are built to withstand the most extreme conditions.

WWW.AVALEX.COM [850] 470.8464 contact us by email at sales@avalex.com

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COTS Journal | September 2015

COTS PRODUCTS

Single-Slot Quad-Head Graphics Display Controller Rides 3U VPX Curtiss-Wright announced that its Defense Solutions division has introduced a single-slot 3U VPX Display Controller solution for quad-head graphics display. The new small form factor board set combines Curtiss-Wright’s highest performance embedded graphics module, the small form factor VPX3-716 3U OpenVPX graphics display card, with the low-power XMC-109 mezzanine SBC. This fully validated, pre-integrated board set achieves in a single 3U VPX slot, what typically requires two 6U or 3U modules, thus reducing system size, weight and power (SWaP) requirements when integrating four graphics display heads into deployed embedded systems for aerospace and defense applications.

Offered in both air- and conduction-cooled configurations, the board set is ideal for applications that require multi-head graphics and an excellent balance between performance and thermal management, such as embedded training, moving maps, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), 360 degree situational awareness, Diminished Vision Enhancement (DVE) and other graphics and video-intensive OpenGL and OpenCL-based applications.

The board set has been fully integrated with the OS and embedded OpenGL driver suite, which significantly reduces the design risk for new applications, lowers the up-front cost, and shortens development schedules with proven technology. The board set combines the next generation AMD Embedded Radeon E8860 “Adelaar” GPU with the processing capabilities of the XMC-109 SBC’s 1.2 GHz Freescale dual-core QorIQ P2020 processor. Together, they provide the highest performance quad-head graphics controller capability available in a single 3U VPX slot. The board set features the unique ability to thermally manage the GPU and SBC simultaneously while operating at maximum performance.

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

MIL-STD-1553 RIGHT ON TARGET

STANAG3910/EFEX

Avionics Databus Solutions

ARINC429 AFDX®/ARINC664P7 Fibre Channel ARINC825 ARINC818

Modules – Software – Systems

Solving all your Avionics Databus Needs – Right on Target. www.aim-online.com

AIM Office Contacts: AIM USA LLC - Trevose, PA salesusa@aim-online.com AIM GmbH - Freiburg sales@aim-online.com AIM GmbH - Munich Sales Office salesgermany@aim-online.com

COTS Journal | September 2015

31

COTS

PRODUCT GALLERY North Atlantic I n d u s t r i e s

www.na i i . c om

Extreme Rugged™ PC/104 SBC with Intel Atom™ Processor SoC • Intel Atom™ Processor 38xx Series SoC

Aries PC/104-Plus SBC with Intel E3800 CPU and On-board Data Acquisition

SIU31 Sensor Interface Unit – Customer Configurable I/O, Communications and Processing

• Extended temperature: -40°C to +85°C

The Aries PC/104-Plus SBC uses the Intel “Bay Trail” E3800 series processor to deliver an unmatched combination of high performance, competitive price and low power consumption. Packed with real-world features including a full on-board data acquisition circuit, Aries provides a complete solution for most embedded applications in a single board, saving you space, time, and money.

ADLINK Technology Inc.

Diamond Systems

North Atlantic Industries, Inc.

Phone: (408) 360-0200 Email: knud.hartung@adlinktech.com Web: www.adlinktech.com/pc-104/

Phone: (650) 810-2500 Email: sales@diamondsystems.com Web: www.diamondsystems.com

Phone: (631) 567-1100 FAX: (303) 426-8126 Web: www.naii.com

• Bus type: PC/104, PC/104-Plus, PCI-104 • Up to 4GB DDR3L at 1333MHz • Supports VGA and LVDS • up to 2x GbE, 1x SATA 3Gb/s (optional 2x SATA) • 1x USB 3.0 + 2x USB 2.0, 8x GPIO

The highly configurable SIU31 rugged system/subsystem is ideally suited to support mil-aero applications that require high-density I/O, communications, Ethernet switching and processing. Built on NAI’s Custom-OnStandard Architecture™ (COSA™), the SIU31 uses one field-proven 3U cPCI board configured with up to 3 I/O and communications function modules.

SUBSCRIBE NOW! Data Sheet: COM Express Boards Roundup

JOURNAL

TRAX-5 Rugged Mobile Computer

Model 7070-317

• Optimal Performance

FlexorSet Model 7070-317 8-Channel 250 MHz A/D with DDCs, Virtex-7 FPGA - x8 PCIe: As a FlexorSet™ integrated solution, the Model 3316 FMC is factoryinstalled on the 7070 FMC carrier. The delivered FlexorSet is a multichannel, high-speed data converter with programmable DDCs suitable for connection to the HF or IF ports of a communications or radar system. Its built-in data capture features offer an ideal turnkey solution as well as a platform for developing and deploying custom FPGA processing IP.

• Open system architecture • SWaP-C • Fanless operation – Extended temperature range • Custom I/O Options • Designed, manufactured and certified in the US

Computers in Motion Phone: (303) 430-1500 FAX: (303) 426-8126 Email: sales@octagonsystems.com Web: www.octagonsystems.com

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COTS Journal | September 2015

Pentek Phone: (201) 818-5900 FAX: (303) 426-8126 Email: sales@pentek.com Web: www.pentek.com/go/cots7070

The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

Tech Readiness Demands Fuel Pre-Integrated Systems Trend

Solutions From SSD to RAID Systems Bulk Up for Defense Duties Rad-Hard FPGA Technologies Improve Space-Qualified Designs An RTC Group Publication

August 2015 Volume 17 Number 8

cotsjournalonline.com

COTSJOURNALONLINE.COM

COTS PRODUCTS

Rugged 3U VPX SBC Provides Support for Data integrity, Security

Handheld Combination Analyzer Provides 50 GHz Coverage

GE Energy Management’s Intelligent Platforms business has announced the SBC328 GE Rugged 3U VPX SBC. Based on 6th Generation Intel Core technology (“Skylake”), the SBC328 features the latest Intel Xeon E3-1200 v5 family processor operating at 2.8 GHz which delivers substantially higher performance than previous-generation processors. With integrated graphics and memory controller all in one device, and coupled with the CM236 chipset. Also notable is the enhanced support the SBC328 provides to enable customers to implement advanced security capabilities such as anti-tamper and information assurance. This support includes an inherently secure FPGA solution, and support for Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology.

Keysight Technologies added six millimeter-wave models to its family of FieldFox handheld analyzers. The flagship model is the industry’s first handheld combination analyzer to provide coverage to 50 GHz. FieldFox can replace three or four single-function instruments—benchtop or handheld— that are typically used for maintenance and troubleshooting of systems that operate at or above Ka-band frequencies. Three combination-analyzer models cover 32, 44 or 50 GHz and provide spectrum analysis, vector network analysis and cable and antenna testing in a rugged, portable unit. Pricing starts at $28,000 for the N9950A 32 GHz FieldFox microwave combination analyzer.

GE Intelligent Platforms Charlottesville, VA. (800) 368-2738 defense.ge-ip.com

Keysight Technologies Santa Rosa, CA (800) 829-4444 www.keysight.com

COTS Journal | September 2015

33

COTS PRODUCTS

Core i7-based SBC Joins Scalable CompactPCI Serial Family

Rugged 15.6-inch Notebook Features Broadwell U Series CPU GammaTech has introduced the latest addition to its Durabook lineup: the rugged S15AB notebook. The unit features a generous 15.6 inch LCD display with full high-definition resolution (1920x1080 resolution); Intel’s latest generation CPU; a Broadwell U series CPU platform; up to 16 Gbytes of memory; and the popular built-in Durabook toughness. With its variety of security systems, the Durabook S15AB is ideal for applications such as those found in the automotive industry, government and mobile applications.

The unit features an Intel Broadwell U series CPU platform, a one-chip solution with a highdefinition graphic engine, and featuring 15W low-power consumption. The Durabook S15AB rugged notebook comes with GammaTech toughness built in. Its magnesium alloy case is 20 times stronger than ABS plastic. The unit is tested to MIL-STD 810G for vibration resistance and to ASTM 4169-08 standard for truck transport. Its C face—including keyboard, keypad, buttons, and indicator— offers spill protection. The unit also has a dust proof rating of IP-5X. The GammaTech S15AB notebook features an integrated web camera with microphone; a capacitive touch pad with L/R buttons to support multi-finger tracking and gestures; a built-in SD card reader and supports SDXC cards; and a Smart Card reader that allows the card to be fully inserted.

MEN Micro offers the 3U CompactPCI Serial G23 single board computer (SBC) based on the fourth generation Intel Core i7 CPU. The G23 is the latest in MEN Micro’s scalable SBC family, following the same I/O interface assignment and front plate design as previous versions. This enables existing systems to be easily upgraded to the latest CompactPCI Serial technology, dramatically extending a system’s lifecycle.

The SBC comes standard with a fourth generation Intel Core i7 processor with scalable performance that reaches a 3.4 GHz turbo boost frequency. The G23 offers up to 16 Gbytes of firmly soldered DDR3 DRAM and the front I/O comprises two DisplayPorts, two Gbit Ethernet and two USB 3.0 interfaces. Extensive rear I/O includes seven PCIe, eight USB 2.0, two USB 3.0 and five SATA ports and one DisplayPort/HDMI interface.

The new CPU board is the third in a family of CompactPCI Serial SBCs having the same fit, form and function. Other interchangeable SBCs that support the same interfaces from MEN include the G22 processor board, equipped with a third generation Intel i7, and the G20 using the first i7 generation. The upgradeable CompactPCI family concept began with the Pentium M-based F14 and has continued up to the CompactPCI PlusIO-based F23P. MEN Micro, Ambler, PA. (215) 542-9575. www.menmicro.com ISS Part: intelligentsystemssource.com/G23

BEHLMAN AC

1984: THE BUYER ASKED HOW LONG IT WOULD LAST.

2015: HE SENT IT BACK FOR A TUNE UP.

Long-lasting power solutions you can count on! With over 30 different ultra-reliable Behlman AC power supplies to choose from, you are likely to find exactly what you need for clean, accurate, easy to use, “right-on-spec” AC testing, for virtually any purpose.

GammaTech Fremont, CA (510) 492-0828 www.gammatechusa.com

Decades of successful worldwide COTS and custom power solutions for everything from 400 Hz aircraft systems and 60/50 Hz appliance and motor testing, to 120 VAC from DC at electric power sub-stations, make Behlman the first choice in AC power.

• • • • •

FIND the products featured in this section and more at

www.intelligentsystemssource.com

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COTS Journal | September 2015

31-year-old Model KBT AC power unit during 2015 Behlman service.

Clean AC Regulated AC Reliable AC Rugged AC Economical AC

PROUDLY MADE

IN THE USA

www.behlman.com • 1 631 435-0410 • sales@behlman.com

COTS PRODUCTS

HPEC System is Based on VPX Xeon-D Processor SBC

Kontron has introduced its nextgeneration StarVX high performance embedded computing (HPEC) system based on the company’s VX3058 3U VPX SBC. Leveraging the breakthrough processor performance capabilities of the advanced 8-core version Intel Xeon D-1540 (Broadwell DE), the StarVX packs server-class silicon and highly ruggedized technologies in a compact 3U blade footprint. Based on parallel virtual machine (VM) execution that can leverage operational efficiencies provided by isolated workloads configured to dynamically share common resources, server virtualization is now spreading outside IT rooms thanks to rugged platforms such as StarVX. Kontron’s StarVX computing blades support extreme computing payloads while balancing both CPU power and I/O bandwidth for higher reliability. Each blade is connected to two 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and high bandwidth PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0 through the system backplane, while the processor uses high speed DDR4 memory to meet increased sensor data processing needs. Employing Kontron’s innovative VXFabric API, which provides a TCP/IP protocol over the PCI Express infrastructure towards the application, StarVX helps accelerate the design process and allows high-speed socket-based communication between blades by using multiple switched fabric interconnects within the backplane.

The StarVX offers a 24 port 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch as well as a PCIe switch.

Other options on each computing blade include a M.2 interface that can be used for storage or for integration of customized personality modules, an XMC slot and 2-D graphics with the front-I/O selectable DVI/ HDMI connection.

Kontron, Poway, CA (888) 294-4558. www.kontron.com

The industry’s most trusted and widely used USB interfaces

Portable Avionics Databus Interfaces A reliable USB interface from Astronics Ballard Technology does it all – databus test,

· MIL-STD-1553, EBR 1553 · ARINC 429, 708, 717 · Serial, Discrete

analysis and simulation. Use it in the lab or in the field – it’s fully powered by a single USB port. Simply connect it to any available laptop, desktop or tablet PC and it’s ready to go. Add our CoPilot® interactive software for a complete easy-to-use solution.

NEW models with multiple protocols mean the best is now even better!

Get the best solution – all the protocols and channels you need in a single device

www.ballardtech.com/USB or call 425-339-0281

AS9100 / ISO 9001 Registered

ABT_Jet_COTS_Half-Page-Island.indd 1

4/10/2015 12:28:07 PM

COTS Journal | September 2015

35

COTS PRODUCTS

Advanced 32-channel RS485/422 XMC Offers Rich Features

Superior SWaP-C Solutions

ADC & DAC Modules •Multi GSPS, Xilinx® suite of FPGAs •Various channels and resolution •FMC versions

For rugged solutions providing the highest performance density, come to VadaTech. Our modular openstandard designs can vastly reduce

Processors •Wide range of Intel® & Freescale™ processors

your SWaP-C and provide you with virtually unlimited configuration options!

Storage Modules •2.5” SAS-3 or SATA III disks •RAID options to RAID 60 •Removable or fixed options

VadaTech – Redefining Performance Density

The 7757 Advanced 32-channel RS485/422 XMC is a third generation successor to Technobox PMC solutions 2674 and 4289. Whereas the 2674 and 4289 offered 4K and 12K Logic Elements (LEs) respectively, the 7757 provides the approximate equivalent of 50K LEs within its Altera Cyclone V GX FPGA (5CGXFC4C6F2717N). The Cyclone V also provides considerably more internal SRAM and several PLLs, as well as multipliers that are typically used for DSP applications.

Many key features of the 2674/4289 designs are retained such as asynchronous SRAM, 32 differential RS485 pairs, the facility to download FPGA code via PCI/PCI Express, a local sensor to monitor board temperature, and JTAG programming via an Altera USB-Blaster. Also carried over are FPGA-driven user LEDs, silicon delay lines for critical asynchronous FPGA circuits, serial EEPROM for user data, and an option for a precision oscillator.

The 7757 preserves a 68-pin connector for its front panel interface and a PN4 connector for the rear. The 7757 supports up to two GEN-1 (2.5 Gbits/s) PCI Express lanes to a host processor via its P15 connector—(either VITA 42 or VITA 61 style). Furthermore, the PCIe interface is built into the Altera Cyclone V GX as a hard core block, greatly simplifying access to PCIe resources. FPGA design programming is performed using Altera’s Quartus FPGA design software tools. A free web edition is available from Altera. Technobox provides sample FPGA and C code as a foundation for end user designs. Generally, designers will use Altera’s Qsys to implement internal FPGA buses for hooking up the PCIe core to user application blocks.

Technobox West Berlin, NJ (856) 809-2306 www.technobox.com

www.vadatech.com • info@vadatech.com • 702.896.3337

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COTS Journal | September 2015

Military DC-DC Power SuPPlieS VITA 62 Compliant High Efficiency Field Proven

 VITA 62 Compliant  High efficiency: 90% at full load  3U: 500W total output power  6U: 1000W and 800W total output power  Active current share through backplane  MIL-STD-461F, MIL-STD-704, and MIL-STD-810G Compliant  Qualified to the most stringent VITA-47 levels Made in the United States of America.

1-978-849-0600 www.SynQor.com/C2

COTS PRODUCTS

FPGA Accelerator Card Delivers Sustained 3 Teraflops Performance

PrXMC Board Sports Atom Bay Trail CPU and Optional Cisco Routing

Nallatech has announced the 510T, an FPGA coprocessor designed to deliver ultimate performance per watt for compute-intensive datacenter applications. The 510T is a GPU-sized 16-lane PCIe 3.0 card featuring two of Altera’s new floating-point enabled Arria 10 FPGAs delivering up to sixteen times the performance of the previous generation. Applications can achieve a total sustained performance of up to 3 Teraflops. The 510T is available with an unprecedented 290 Gbyte/sec of peak external memory bandwidth configured as eight independent banks of DDR4 plus an ultra-fast Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC). The FPGA’s on-chip memory bandwidth is 14.4 Terabytes/s.

Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions has introduced a new high performance, low-power quad-core Intel Atom (“Bay Trail”) E3845-based XMC Processor Mezzanine SBC. With a typical power consumption of only 15 W, the XMC-120 can be hosted on any 3U or 6U VPX module with an available VITA 42 XMC mezzanine site, such as an SBC, DSP processor, or VPX carrier card, to provide a single-slot compute solution. The XMC-120 is also available preintegrated with the Cisco Systems 5921 Embedded Services Router (ESR) Software, enabling system designers to deploy a single-slot solution that combines both Cisco network routing and Intel multicore processing.

Nallatech Camarillo, CA (805) 383-8997 www.nallatech.com

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

COTS and Safety Certifiable

Want to save time and money on safety-critical programs ?

CES offers COTS boards and boxes designed according to RTCA DO-178C / DO-254 and delivered with off-the-shelf certification evidences to meet Design Assurance Level C*. Our COTS safety-certifiable products rely on 15 years of DAL experience and in-service DAL-A-certified products expertise. From board to system level, our products are designed following a top-down approach ensuring a seamless, safe and secure integration.

*For higher Design Assurance Level please contact your CES sales representative

www.ces-swap.com/safety-certifiable

38

COTS Journal | September 2015

MFCC-8557 - Safety Certifiable processor XMC

COTS PRODUCTS

Bi-Directional Power Amplifier Delivers 450 MHz The TTRM1076 from Triad RF Systems is a high linearity bi-directional SSPA suitable for use with any modulation and signal type. It is currently utilized in UAV data links and long range point-point COFDM video links. High speed T/R switching and sequencing of the PA, LNA, and switch driver circuitry is performed by an on-board CPLD, where switching timing can be adjusted in firmware based on system requirements. The transmit section produces over 25 Watts of BPSK power, and over 6 Watts of 64 QAM. The unit also features a three color status LED on the front panel that shows if the SSPA is in transmit or receive mode, or if an alarm condition exists. The amplifier housing is weatherproofed per the guidelines of IP66.

Triad RF Systems East Brunswick, NJ (855) 558-1001 www.triadrf.com

2U Rackmount Appliance Embeds Intel Haswell E3 Processor WIN Enterprises has announced the PL-80640, a 2U rackmount hardware platform designed for network service applications, such as general Internet and data center support, SPAM and security filtering, file serving and so on. Built with Intel Embedded IA components that are guaranteed for long product life, the device supports Intel 22nm Haswell (codename) core i3/i5/i7/Pentium/Celeron and E3-1200V3 processors. The platform supports four un-buffered and non-ECC or ECC DDR3 1333/1600 MHz DIMM sockets with maximum memory capacity of up to 32 Gbytes. The box has a maximum 24x GbE LAN (4x standard) with optional copper and SFP removable PCIe expansion.

WIN Enterprises Andover, MA (978) 688-2000 www.win-ent.com

Soar with superior

OpenVPX System Platforms without the lofty prices

Utilizing top quality Rittal mechanical designs and one of the largest manufacturing centers in the world, Pixus offers the best value for VPX system platforms. With dozens of modular configurations, backplane design expertise, and superior cooling configurations, check out Pixus for your application today!

sales@pixustechnologies.com pixustechnologies.com COTS Journal | September 2015

39

COTS PRODUCTS

Ejector Handles and Panels Target 3U and 6U VPX Pixus Technologies now offers ejector handles and panels for 3U and 6U VPX boards. Designed in Europe, the high-quality handles are offered at highly competitive prices. The Pixus Type IV IEEE hot-swap ejector handles feature a rounded base that allow the handle to rock back, providing leverage to insert/remove VPX boards more easily. The handles can engage over 1000N or 225 pounds of force per slot. Front panels in 0.8 inch, 1.0 inch and custom widths and 3U/6U heights are available in flat or Uchannel versions for EMC. The 2.5 mm aluminum panels come in anodized or clear chromate finishes. Filler panels are also available in various widths.

Pixus Technologies Waterloo, Ontario, Canada (519) 885-5775 www.pixustechnologies.com

2U server with EXTREME power + cooling XIOS 2U has: • Ten slots (PCIeGen2 x8) in a 2U chassis • 45W per slot with high-volume cooling • 1-2 Xeon processors • 1-4 removable disks See more at edt.com

40

COTS Journal | September 2015

COTS PRODUCTS

3U VPX Board Sports Xeon E3-v5 and 16 MB of DDR DRAM

5 Watt SIP DC-DC Converter has 4:1 Input and Remote On/Off

Concurrent Technologies has announced their first processor board based on the Intel Xeon processor E3 v5 family (previously known as Skylake-H). TR E5x/ msd is a 3U VPX board featuring the quad core Intel Xeon E3-1505M v5 processor with up to 16 Gbytes of DDR4 ECC DRAM and a rich assortment of I/O interfaces. The board is fully compliant with the recently ratified VITA 46.11 standard, designed to enable uniform system management functions across VPX based equipment. An XMC expansion slot enables customers to add application specific I/O with up to 24 single-ended and 20 differential pairs tracked through to the backplane for rugged deployments.

ConTech, a Division of Calex, has announced the “SPJ” Series of DC/ DC converters. The SPJ Series offers 5 Watts of fully regulated output power with an industry standard SIP footprint.

Total board space required for this package is 0.86- x 0.37- x 0.44-inches. The series offers a 4:1 input range with nominal input voltages of 12, 24, and 48VDC. Single outputs offered are 3.3, 5, 12, 15 and 24V DC. Dual outputs are +/-12 and +/-15 VDC. The operating ambient temperature range of the SPJ is -40 to +75 degrees C. The SPJ Series has a Remote On/Off feature which when used has a standby current of 2.5ma maximum which makes this series ideal for battery applications.

Concurrent Technologies Woburn, MA (781) 933-5900 www.gocct.com

TRAX - 5

OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE

ConTech Concord, CA (925) 609-1193 www.contech-us.com

TRAX-5 RUGGED MOBILE COMPUTER •

Optimal Performance Intel® Quad-core

•

SWaP-C

•

Fanless Operation Extended Temperature Range

•

MIL-STD 810 for Shock & Vibration

•

Custom I/O Options

•

Windows & Linux Support

•

Designed, manufactured and certified in the US

APPLICATION-READY | OPEN PLATFORM CUSTOM VERSIONS TO MEET SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS Visit our website for more information SALES@OCTAGONSYSTEMS.COM / +1 303.430.1500

WWW.OCTAGONSYSTEMS.COM

COTS Journal | September 2015

41

COTS PRODUCTS

conduction- or air-cooled, 6U OpenVPX 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch module that is capable of supporting various configurations of up to twenty-two 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports, twelve 10/100/1000BASE-T Ethernet ports, and

6U VPX 10 Gbit Ethernet Switch Offers Huge Ethernet Port Density Extreme Engineering Solutions has announced the XChange3100, a

eighty-eight 1000BASE-X Ethernet ports.

It features three Broadcom BCM56450 Ethernet switches, each including 102.5 Gbits/s of non-blocking switching, an on-chip ARM A9-based CPU, an integrated hierarchical traffic manager to reduce overall board complexity and power, and a feature-rich packet processing engine, all within a single 40 nm device.

One Broadcom switch is connected to the control plane, while the other two Broadcom switches are utilized for data plane switching. This allows the XChange3100 to provide completely independent control plane and dual data plane switching for use in systems that require network segregation for security or performance. The three switches also can be combined together for communication from the control plane to the data plane.

The XChange3100 features a wide variety of configuration options to choose from, depending on project requirements.

Additional features include extensive IEEE protocol and IETF RFC support, VICTORY Infrastructure Switch support, advanced cable open/short detection, IPv4 and IPv6 support, and a Ruggedized Enhanced Design Implementation (REDI) per VITA 48.

Microwave Shielding Effec-veness 140

120

Extreme Engineering Solutions Middleton, WI (608) 833-1155 www.xes-inc.com

Shielding Effec-vness (dB)

100

80

60

40

20

0

10

16

19

21

23

26

28 31 34 38

Frequency (GHz)

FIND the products featured in this section and more at

www.intelligentsystemssource.com

42

COTS Journal | September 2015

A44_COTS_2-25x9-875_A44.qxd 7/30/15 10:11 AM

COTS PRODUCTS

DC-DC CONVERTERS 2V to 10,000 VDC Outputs

VITA 62, 3U DC/DC VPX Power Supply Delivers 400 Watts

1-300 Watt Modules

North Atlantic Industries (NAI) has announced the availability of its latest 3U rugged VPX power product — the VPX57-31.

Ideally suited for rugged military and commercial aerospace applications, the VPX57-31 provides up to 400 W of power (CC4 temperature range, full load) with six outputs and is compliant with MIL-STD-704F. Other features include current share, remote error sensing and a built-in EMI filter compliant with MIL-STD-461, CE-102—all within a single slot 1.0 inch pitch, 3U package. The VPX57-31 is designed to meet standard 3U VPX mechanical requirements and has VITA 62 compatible outputs and signaling, user programmability, I2C communication and programmable Over-Temperature monitor. Basic pricing configuration starts at $2,888 (100s).

Regulated/Proportional/Programmable Isolated/Single/Dual solated/Single/Dual Outputs

High Reliability

Greater than 1,000,000 hrs.

Mil Hbk 217F •

Military Upgrades

Expanded operating temperature -55º to +85º C, no derating required •

Environmental Screening

Selected Screening, Mil Std 883 •

ULTRA Miniature

North Atlantic Industries Bohemia, NY (631) 567-1100 www.naii.com

From 0.5" x 0.5" x 0.2" •

Surface Mount/Thru-Hole

ISS Part: intelligentsystemssource.com/VPX57-31

• Custom Models • US Manufactured • AS 9100 Approved

Conduction-cooled H.264 XMC Video Encoder Card Runs on 7W Tech Source has unveiled the low power (7 Watt) Condor VC100xX H.264 high quality video capture and compression card. This rugged and fully conductioncooled card is the perfect addition to the Condor VC100 Series and simplifies the video compression task in challenging surveillance/C4ISR applications using the VPX Platform. The XMC form factor module, featuring an H.264 video encoder with baseline, main and high profile support up to Level 4.1, supports up to 4 composite video inputs (NTSC/ PAL/SECAM) or up to 2 SDI inputs (HD-SDI/SD-SDI), all of which are selectable through the provided API. Condor VC100xX also has 2 stereo or 4 mono audio inputs.

The Condor VC100xX card performs H.264 encoding in hardware to minimize CPU usage.

Exceptionally high quality video data is captured and stored in files and made available to customer applications for processing, analysis or display on a local graphics card. The Condor VC100xX also supports transfer of the video stream via UDP or TCP/IP using RTP and RTSP protocols for remote display of captured data with low latency.

Tech Source Altamonte Springs, FL (407) 262-7100 www.techsource.com

High Reliability AC/DC Power Supplies, Transformers and Inductors

See PICO’s full line catalog at

www.picoelectronics.com

YOUR PROVEN SOURCE.

Over 40 years providing reliable products.

Over 2,500 Standard Modules.

800-431-1064

PICO ELECTRONICS, Inc. FIND the products featured in this section and more at

www.intelligentsystemssource.com

143 Sparks Ave., Pelham, New York 10803 Call Toll Free 800-431-1064 • FAX 914-738-8225

E Mail: info@picoelectronics.com

COTS Journal | September 2015

43

COTS PRODUCTS

Data Recorder Supports Four Independent Serial FPDP Links

Pentek has introduced a new addition to the Talon Value Series of recorders, the Model RTV 2602 Serial FPDP recording and playback system. This new recorder extends the Talon Value Series of rackmount recorders that are optimized for laboratory operating environments. The RTV 2602 supports up to four independently clocked Serial FPDP links using copper or optical cables with singlemode or multimode fiber with flexible baud rate selection to support virtually all popular Serial FPDP interfaces. It is capable of both receiving and transmitting data over these links and supports real-time data storage to disk and playback from disk. Up to four channels can be recorded or played back simultaneously with an aggregate rate of up to 400 Mbytes/s. Providing 4 Terabytes of data storage, the six enterprise-class, hot-swappable front-panel disk drives can be easily replaced by empty drives when full.

All Talon recorders are built on a Windows 7 Professional workstation and include Pentek’s SystemFlow software, featuring a GUI (graphical user interface), signal viewer, and API (Application Programming Interface). The GUI provides intuitive controls for out-of-thebox turn-key operation using point-and-click configuration management. Configurations are easily stored and recalled for single-click setup.

User settings to configure data format for the signal viewer provide a virtual oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer to monitor signals before, during and after data collection.

The C-callable API allows users to integrate the recorder control into larger application systems. The Talon RTV 2602 Value Series recorder starts at $19,495. Optional GPS time and position stamping and IRIG-B time stamping are available. Connector options include SFP+ copper, LC single-mode optical or LC multi-mode optical.

Pentek, Upper Saddle River, NJ (201) 818-5900. www.pentek.com

Untitled-1 1

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COTS Journal | September 2015

9/17/09 3:09:10 PM

COTS PRODUCTS

PC/104-Plus SBCs Sport Bay Trail Processor and Rich I/O

Diamond Systems has unveiled its rugged, highly integrated ARIES PC/104-Plus single board computer based on the Intel E3800 "Bay Trail" processor family. Designed in the PC/104-Plus form factor with wings (114 x 102 mm / 4.5 x 4.0 inches), Aries' full rectangular shape provides more coastline for I/O connectors, enabling an unmatched level of feature integration onto a single board its size. In this compact form factor, Aries includes a wide range of display capabilities, system I/O, plus data acquisition, meeting the majority of today's connectivity requirements in a single board.

Available configurations include the E3845 1.91GHz quad core processor and the E3826 1.46GHz dual core processor, with choice of 2 or 4 Gbytes of soldered memory. Dual independent displays are supported, with connections for dual channel 24-bit LVDS LCD, VGA, DisplayPort, and HDMI. Available PC I/O includes 3 USB ports, 4 RS-232/422/485 ports with fully programmable configuration, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and a SATA port that supports both on-board SATA DOM and off-board SATA devices.

The optional integrated data acquisition includes 16 16-bit A/D channels with 250 kHz sample rate, 4 16-bit D/A channels with voltage and current outputs, a programmable waveform generator, and 22 programmable digital I/O lines, all supported by Diamond's free, industry-leading Universal Driver data acquisition programming library. The Aries SBC family was designed with rugged applications in mind with an operating temperature of -40째C to +85째C, memory soldered on board, an integrated heat spreader thermal solution, 50 percent thicker PCB, and latching I/O connectors. Single unit pricing starts at $750 without on-board data acquisition.

Diamond Systems Mountain View, CA (650) 810-2500 www.diamondsystems.com

COTS Journal | September 2015

45

COTS PRODUCTS

Integrated Analog Front-end Simplifies Sensor Interfaces A new a new analog front end (AFE) with a field effect transistor (FET) input AFE and an integrated ADC driver is designed to interface directly with current mode sensors such as photo diodes and high output impedance voltage sensors. The ADA4530 from Analog Devices simplifies design and lowers power and PCB footprint by more than 50 percent compared to discrete implementations.

The ADA4350 features low-noise performance at low frequencies of 90nV/√Hz at 10 Hz and broadband noise of 5 nV/√Hz at 100 kHz to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of the sensor output. Wide dynamic range measurement for small, sensitive signals such as photons or electrons is enabled with the inclusion of integrated gain switching. The on-chip programmability of the ADA4350 allows designers to select external, optimized feedback components. With one chip, a single-ended or differential sensor current or voltage

signal can be transformed to a highspeed, low-noise, single-ended or differential-output voltage.

In analytical measurement applications, light may need to be monitored over many decades of intensity. This requires a variety of gain switching networks that often incorporate multiple external amplifiers and analog switches, which increases the potential for system errors. The ADA4350 integrates the switching networks and input amplifier to minimize leakage and allow the switching network to select up to six externally configurable feedback networks.

Analog Devices Norwood, MA (781) 329-4700www.analog.com

Rugged connectors and backplanes you can rely on.

Rugged DIN Connectivity

Make your vision a lasting reality.

When you are in need of a reliable and efficient connector less than 100% quality is not acceptable (gold plating capabilities available).

HARTING’s connectors and backplanes are made for meeting high expectations.

Challenge HARTING’s local design team to develop a solution for your backplane and connectivity needs.

HARTING-usa.com

46

COTS Journal | September 2015

Reliable Mezzanine Connectivity

COTS PRODUCTS

3U VPX System Quick Start Kit Speeds System Development

High Capacity SLC-based Secure SSD is Designed for Defense

A new family of rugged 3U VPX Lab System Quick Start Kits (QSK) accelerates the development of rugged deployed systems for defense and aerospace applications. The QSKs from CurtissWright provide proven 3U VPX modules preconfigured in a 6-slot lab/demonstration chassis.

Available in a wide range of configurations, these fully integrated COTS development platforms are designed to speed the development of VPX-based compute-intensive deployed applications.

The fully integrated QSKs feature Curtiss-Wright’s rugged 3U VPX modules, including Single Board Computers (SBC), FPGA solutions, Ethernet switches, graphics/video, and flexible I/O. Use of the QSKs enables system integrators to rapidly start their software development process. Curtiss-Wright QSK development systems can be configured with a wide range of 3U VPX modules. Advanced features such as Trusted COTS and Secure Routing are available on some modules, such as the Freescale-based SBC-VPX3-133 and Secure Router-VPX3-685. The QSK’s modular design supports a wide range of I/O, Intel Core i7 and Freescale Power Architecture CPUs, and Linux and VxWorks operating environments.

Microsemi has announced its highest security and capacity serial advanced technology attachment (SATA) solid state drive (SSD) for defense, intelligence, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and other defense-related network area storage (NAS) applications. As increased use of high resolution sensors is changing the way data is stored, higher density SSDs are needed. Microsemi is addressing this market need by leveraging the company's miniaturization technology in a compact 2.5-inch, 9.5mm form factor.

The MSD01TAM3R TRRUST-STOR 1 Terabyte SSD is designed and built for extreme reliability and data security applications. The device's reliability is further enhanced with long life single-level cell (SLC) flash and advanced error correction code. By utilizing Microsemi's Armor memory processor technology the company also enables long-term availability to its customers. For sensitive applications, the encryption key can be erased in less than 30 milliseconds (ms), and a second security layer can be activated to erase the entire storage media in less than 10 seconds, rendering data forensically unrecoverable.

Microsemi, Aliso Viejo CA. (949) 380-6100. www.microsemi.com

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

Here’s to Another 30 Years of Building Connections.

Connecting Engineers for Three Decades

Connecting Engineers for Three Decades

January 19, 2016

RT

16

30th 0

Santa Clara, CA

30th

ECC

2

Register today at www.rtecc.com COTS Journal | September 2015

47

COTS

ADVERTISERS INDEX GET CONNECTED WITH INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS SOURCE AND PURCHASABLE SOLUTIONS NOW Intelligent Systems Source is a new resource that gives you the power to compare, review and even purchase embedded computing products intelligently. To help you research SBCs, SOMs, COMs, Systems, or I/O boards, the Intelligent Systems Source website provides products, articles, and whitepapers from industry leading manufacturers---and it's even connected to the top 5 distributors. Go to Intelligent Systems Source now so you can start to locate, compare, and purchase the correct product for your needs.

Index

www.intelligentsystemssource.com

Company Page# Website

Company Page# Website

AIM......................................................31.................................aim-online.com Aries Electronics Inc............................22................................... arieselec.com Avalex Technologies Corp....................30........................................avalex.com Avionics Interface Technologies..........29.....................................aviftech.com Ballard Technology..............................35................................ballardtech.com Behlman..............................................34.................................... behlman.com CES.....................................................38...................................ces-swap.com COTS Product Gallery..........................32.........................................................

CP Cases Inc........................................4......................................cpcases.com Data Bus Products..............................44....................... databusproducts.com Data Device Corporation.....................40.................................... ddc-web.com Dynatem..............................................15.................................... dynatem.com EDT......................................................40............................................ edt.com Equipto Electronic Corporation............42................................equiptoelec.com Extreme Engineering Solutions............51...................................... xes-inc.com Harting Inc..........................................46...............................harting-usa.com

Innovative Integration.........................45.......................... innovative-dsp.com Inteligent Systems Source...................49...........intelligentsystemssource.com Mercury Systems, Inc. .........................7........................................... mrcy.com North Atlantic Industries Inc............19, 21.........................................naii.com Octagon Systems................................41........................ octagonsystems.com One Stop Systems, Inc. ....................25, 33..................... onestopsystems.com Orbit Electronics group........................5.......................................vmevpx.com Pentek, Inc..........................................52.......................................pentek.com Phoenix International Systems, Inc. .....4..................................... phenxint.com Pico Electronics, Inc............................43..........................picoelectronics.com Pixus Technologies..............................39......................pixustechnologies.com RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. .......2..............................................rtd.com RTECC.................................................47..........................................rtecc.com SynQor.................................................37....................................... synqor.com Trenton Systems, Inc. .........................23......................... trentonsystems.com VadaTech.............................................36................................... vadatech.com

COTS Journal (ISSN#1526-4653) is published monthly at 905 Calle Amanecer, Suite 150, San Clemente, CA 92673. Periodicals Class postage paid at San Clemente and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to COTS Journal, 905 Calle Amanecer, Ste. 150, San Clemente, CA 92673.

COMING NEXT MONTH Special Feature: Comms and Networking in Land, Sea and Air

System Development: Cooling Options for Rugged Box Systems

Tech Recon Signal Chain: Visual Data Exploitation with GPUs

Data Sheet: High Reliability Power Supplies Roundup

A major portion of today’s U.S. military platforms is either directly or indirectly involved in communications or networking critical information between warfighters. The trend is toward every vehicle, every aircraft, every ship, every UAV and every soldier on the ground to be able to quickly share data, voice and even video with almost any level of the DoD’s operation. This section explores the display, computing and networking technologies that are all part of a netcentric military.

Throughout 2015 our Tech Recon feature delivers a series of sections that follow a sequential path hitting all the key technologies that are part of a signal chain. GPUs have potential in application areas including target tracking, image stabilization and SAR (synthetic aperture radar) simulation. A number of solutions are available in OpenVPX and other form factors, but GPUs are not expected to supplant FPGAs or general purpose processors. The October Signal Chain section looks at how GPUs can be applied to visual data exploitation applications.

48

COTS Journal | September 2015

Because military system developers are risk-adverse by nature, it’s taken years for acceptance of any kind of cooling technique more exotic than clever heatsink configurations. But as demand for more computing power continues, methods like liquid cooling, spray cooling and even fan-based cooling are being designed in and deployed by some, and at least considered by others.

This section looks at the tradeoffs and technology choices out there for cooling rugged box systems.

Selecting power supplies and power conversion electronics rank as make or break technical choices in embedded military computer systems. With more and more computing stuffed into smaller spaces, power has direct implications on the size, cooling and mobility of a board or box-level system. Articles in this section examine technology trends affecting DC/ DC converters, power supply module bricks and slot-card power supplies (VME, VPX, cPCI and others).

Why Should Researching SBCs Be More Difficult Than Car Shopping?

Today’s systems combine an array of very complex elements from multiple manufactures. To assist in these complex architectures, ISS has built a simple tool that will source products from an array of companies for a side by side comparison and provide purchase support.

INTELLIGENTSYSTEMSSOURCE.COM is a purchasing tool for Design Engineers looking for custom and off-the-shelf SBCs and system modules.

INTELLIGENTSYSTEMSSOURCE.COM

COTS Journal’s

MARCHING TO THE NUMBERS 11 HOURS

< 1 MINUTE

Total time of flight where Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Navy successfully demonstrated endurance capabilities with the MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned helicopter. On a planned 10+ hour flight and range out to 150 nautical miles flight from Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu; the MQ-8C Fire Scout achieved 11 hours with over an hour of fuel in reserve. The long range, long endurance flight was part of a series of capability based tests used by the Navy to validate their concept of operations and previously tested performance parameters. The Navy conducted the demo with support of Northrop Grumman engineers.

428.3 million $

Value of contract awarded to AM General for the new M997A3 HMMWV Ambulance Chassis Vehicles for domestic disaster relief efforts by the Army, Army Reserve and Army National Guard. Under the initial contract award of $89.5 million, AM General will provide the National Guard 654 M997A3

HMMWV Ambulance Chassis Vehicles. The contract announcement follows several substantial Foreign Military orders the company has received this year for thousands of HMMWVs that have added to its backlog, as it continues to successfully track new Light Tactical Vehicle business both domestically and internationally.

443.4 Million

$

Value that the total Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) market is expect to reach by 2020 according to a new market research report, now available on ASDReports.com. It says the total autonomous underwater vehicles market is expected to reach $343.4 Million by 2020, at an estimated CAGR of 13.42 percent between 2015 and 2020.

The AUV market has witnessed significant technological developments over the last few years.

This market in the report has been categorized by type–shallow AUVs (depth up to 100 m), medium AUV (depth up to 1000 m), and large AUV (depth more than 1000 m).

50

COTS Journal | September 2015

Time it took to swap payloads during demo

by U.S. Naval Research Lab and Raytheon of a modular, rapid replacement architecture for electronic warfare (EW) payloads on the Miniature Air Launched Decoy-Jammer (MALDJ). The testing occurred during the biannual Northern Edge exercise in Alaska. Called CERBERUS, four separately developed EW payloads were used in 12 operationally relevant missions. The interchangeable payloads, each customized for a specific mission and threat, were swapped onto the captive carry vehicle in less than one minute. The payloads were designed to be used on a MALD vehicle.

Thirteen

The number of Boeing P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft Boeing will provide to Australia and the U.S. Navy following a $1.49 billion contract award from the U.S. Navy. The order includes nine aircraft for the U.S. Navy and four Poseidon aircraft for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), a long-time partner to the U.S. Navy on P-8A development. This latest award puts Boeing on contract to build the Navy’s second lot of full-rate production aircraft, bringing the U.S. Navy’s fleet total to 62 P-8As. Boeing has delivered 28 Poseidons to date.

Critical Recording in Any Arena When You Can’t Afford to Miss a Beat!

Pentek_37

®

Introducing Pentek’s expanded line of Talon COTS, rugged, portable and lab-based recorders. Built to capture wideband SIGINT, radar and communication signals right out-of-the-box: • • • • • • • • • •

Analog RF/IF, 10 GbE, LVDS, sFPDP solutions Real-time sustained recording to 4 GB/sec Recording and playback operation Analog signal bandwidths to 1.6 GHz Shock and vibration resistant Solid State Drives GPS time and position stamping ® Hot-swappable storage to Windows NTFS RAIDs Remote operation & multi-system synchronization ® SystemFlow API & GUI with Signal Analyzer Complete documentation & lifetime support

Pentek’s rugged turn-key recorders are built and tested for fast, reliable and secure operation in your environment.

Call 201-818-5900 or go to www.pentek.com/go/rtctalon for your FREE High-Speed Recording Systems Handbook and Talon Recording Systems Catalog.

Pentek, Inc., One Park Way, Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 • Phone: 201.818.5900 • Fax: 201.818.5904 • e-mail:info@pentek.com • www.pentek.com Worldwide Distribution & Support, Copyright © 2013 Pentek, Inc. Pentek, Talon and SystemFlow are trademarks of Pentek, Inc. Other trademarks are properties of their respective owners.