COTS Journal

December 2017, Volume 19 – Number 12 • cotsjournalonline.com

JOURNAL

The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

NEW DISPLAYS IMPACT SITUATIONAL AWARENESS COTS PICKS Top High Capacity Storage DATA SHEET: XMC - FMC Board Round Up VIDEO DISTRIBUTION AND DISPLAY TRENDS FOR SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

An RTC Media Publication

The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing JOURNAL

COTS (kots), n. 1. Commercial off-the-shelf.

Terminology popularized in 1994 within U.S. DoD by SECDEF Wm. Perry’s “Perry Memo” that changed military industry purchasing and design guidelines, making Mil-Specs acceptable only by waiver. COTS is generally defined for technology, goods and services as: a) using commercial business practices and specifications, b) not developed under government funding, c) offered for sale to the general market, d) still must meet the program ORD. 2. Commercial business practices include the accepted practice of customer-paid minor modification to standard COTS products to meet the customer’s unique requirements.

—Ant. When applied to the procurement of electronics for he U.S. Military, COTS is a procurement philosophy and does not imply commercial, office environment or any other durability grade. E.g., rad-hard components designed and offered for sale to the general market are COTS if they were developed by the company and not under government funding.

DEPARTMENTS

SPECIAL FEATURE Video Distribution and Display Trends for Situational Awareness

6 Publisher’s Note

Situational Awareness Drew Castle, Vice President of Engineering

Working Together to Build a Stronger Defense

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A few keys to succeed with displays...

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The Inside Track

Raj Raheja, Chief Executive Officer

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COTS Products

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TECH RECON 18

COT Supportability Edmond Hennessy, Chief Executive Officer

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT 20

Highly Accurate, Record/ Playback of Digitized Signal Data Serves a Variety of Applications John Aldon, PhD President, MILCOTS

COT’S PICKS 24

High Capacity Storage Systems

DATA SHEET 28

XMC - FMC Board Round Up

COTS Journal | December 2017

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The Journal of Military Electronics & Computing

JOURNAL COTS Journal Editorial

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF John Koon, johnk@rtc-media.com EXECUTIVE EDITOR John Reardon, johnr@rtc-media.com

ADVERTISING CONTACT John Reardon, johnr@rtc-media.com Aaron Foellmi, aaronf@rtc-media.com

Finance

MANAGING EDITOR Aaron Foellmi, aaronf@rtc-media.com

ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE Cindy Muir, cindym@rtc-media.com (949) 226-2032

Art/Production

Publisher

CREATIVE DIRECTOR & LAYOUT Jenna Dawn DiMeria, jennagraphicdesigner@gmail.com

Advertising

DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER Rachel Osman, rachelo@rtc-media.com (949) 226-2032

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COTS Journal | December 2017

PRESIDENT John Reardon, johnr@rtc-media.com VICE PRESIDENT Aaron Foellmi, aaronf@rtc-media.com

CORPORATE OFFICE RTC Media 940 Calle Negocio, Suite 230 San Clemente, CA 92673 Phone: (949) 226-2023 Fax: (949) 226-2050 www.rtc-media.com PUBLISHED BY RTC MEDIA Copyright 2017, RTC Media. 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.

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

John Reardon, Publisher

Working Together to Build a Stronger Defense

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hose of you that have endured the past few years recognize the challenges in bringing forth the best in technology in a coordinated way. As we sit here today excited about the promise of greater defense spending, we must be cautious to what COTS Journal believes will be an incremental advancement in defense systems. To achieve this, we must build a structural foundation for the future. The stakes are greater than ever and the advantage of a coordinated, connected defense is clear.

As a group, we all spoke about our own issues: As we have witnessed in the private sector, the historical discrete system going down at an airport is now resulting in the whole Eastern Seaboard coming to a halt. This can be multiplied exponentially when considering the multiple branches of the service, the multiple countries involved, and the potential for loss of human life. This is the inflection point where we believe our industry must come together to offer the strategically best solutions possible. Many companies have almost been in a stasis like state with little or no ongoing investment in their products. This divide between the promise of a future with artificial intelligence and the security threats that a system designed in the last decade holds should give everyone a moment of pause.

In a recent conversation with Ken Peterman, Vice President of Government Systems at Viasat, he said it best when he described their commitment of being in it for the long haul. He described how they went to the end user in the field to better understand the needs. He went on to describe their intent to bid a strategically correct solution regardless of any deficien-

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cies in the RFQ. He spoke about how many times RFQs do not reflect the latest advancement and how sections L and M did not adequately address the security concerns. This pursuit to do the right thing on behalf of the client must be joined with technology standards that can be built upon.

The roadmap from silicon manufactures is foggy at best, Moore’s Law is a thing of the past, connectivity and security is a must. Big data and artificial intelligent have us believing that anything is possible with enough data. This clever, almost science-fictional approach to system development is a challenge for us. It challenges the standard groups to build a better strategy. It challenges OEMs to build system architectures that stand up to the practical applications they address. It will require the intentional integrity of each us to do the right thing and to not just be focused on the economic potential of increased defense spending.

For almost a decade, we have seen the standard groups in our industry be discounted as not relevant as they fought for purpose. We found that open standards did not hold the same value, as the compute power was pushed to the cloud. This created an environment of individual companies marching to their own tune. It was encouraged by the ideas that proprietary IP gave them an advantage. Today, more than ever as we try to deploy highly complex, highly connected, mutli-vendor solutions we need to come together as an industry to affirm we are offering nothing less than the best for the defense of our country.

The

INSIDE TRACK Mercury Systems Receives $12 million RF Microelectronics order for Airborne Electronic Warfare Application.

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ercury announced it received a $12 million order from a leading defense prime contractor for Swap-optimized RF modules ready for integration into an advanced electronic warfare system.

This is on the heals of their recent acquisition of Themis and CES. General Microsystems receives $88.6 Million Army Contract as a Prime.

Republican Congressmen Pete Aguilar aided GMS in celebrating their recent win of an $88.6 million contract to supply the Army with a server and rugged display system. Deployed in vehicles, the system will offer the vehicles occupants an extensive array of sensors capabilities to detect IEDs and Landmines. Ben Sharfi, the Founder of GMS expressed his excitement about being able to contribute to our troops safety.

Raytheon and the Australian Navy team up for the first international delivery of Anti-Air Warfare Defense Technology.

Raytheon Company has completed design, development and testing of its Cooperative Engagement

Orbital ATK Shareholders Vote to Approve Acquisition

by Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation announced that the shareholders of Orbital ATK have approved the company’s proposed acquisition of Orbital ATK. “We are delighted to see that Orbital ATK’s shareholders have approved the proposed acquisition,” said Wes Bush, chairman, chief executive officer and president, Northrop Grumman.

“Bringing together these two great companies will benefit our customers,

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Capability system, which will be certified by the U.S. Navy for the system’s first international installation.

Onboard the Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Hobart, CEC will expand the ship’s battle space awareness by sharing sensor data among a network of other Australian and allied CEC-equipped ships and aircraft.

CEC is a real-time ‘sensor-netting’ system that brings together radar data into a single integrated air picture from geographically dispersed ships, aircraft and ground-based units. This integrated picture improves task force effectiveness by enabling longer range, cooperative, or layered engagements. Today’s CEC benefits

from advancements in commercial and specialized technologies, as well as from the experience and expertise the Raytheon team has gained throughout more than 30 years as the U.S. Navy’s CEC Design Agent.

“The addition of CEC is a major building block for Australia in their defense against anti-air warfare threats in the Pacific Region,” said U.S. Navy Captain Jonathan Garcia, CEC major program manager, Program Executive Office Integrated Warfare Systems 6.0.

“This delivery to Australia marks a significant first – expanding the CEC network globally and increasing the U.S. Navy interoperability with a valued, strategic ally.”

The equipment - certified hardware and software - will transfer to Australia for installation on HMAS Hobart (DDG-39), and NUSHIP Brisbane (DDG-41) over the coming months, followed by an extensive integration, test and evaluation period. Raytheon will actively support CEC system integration and testing, including scheduled sea trials, similar to support provided for the U.S. Navy fleet. shareholders and employees. The combination will provide increased competition, greater innovation and a broader set of capabilities, to help our customers solve their toughest challenges.”

Northrop Grumman continues to expect the acquisition to close in the first half of 2018, after receiving regulatory approvals. Orbital ATK contributed to the successful launch of the GovSat-1 satellite on SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket.

The

INSIDE TRACK

JPL uses lidar to test for pollutants in the air Scientists recently completed test flights with prototypes of potential satellite sensors - including two from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California -- over the Western United States, probing basic science questions about aerosols, clouds, air quality and global ocean ecosystems.

The flight campaign, called Aerosol Characterization from Polarimeter and Lidar (ACEPOL), sought to test capabilities of several proposed instruments for the Aerosol-Cloud-Ecosystem (ACE) pre-formulation study.

Aerosols are small solid or liquid particles suspended in Earth’s atmosphere, like fine dust, smoke, pollen or soot. These particles scatter and absorb sunlight and are critical to the formation of clouds and precipitation. Scientists can analyze this scattered light using instruments like polarimeters, which measure the color and polarization of the scattered light, and lidars, which use lasers to probe the atmosphere. Together these data sets provide key information about aerosol properties, including size, shape and chemical composition -- information that provides a better understanding and assessment of their effects on weather, climate and air quality.

Harris Corporation Delivers Fourth GPS III Satellite Navigation Payload; Establishes Full Production Cadence Harris Corporation delivered the advanced navigation payload for the fourth GPS III Space Vehicle (SV04) to Lockheed Martin on October 29 – establishing a proven and reliable production cadence.

Harris delivered two payloads in 2017 and is committed to delivering four more in 2018.

Harris is under contract with Lockheed Martin for 10 GPS III navigation payloads. The first payload is fully integrated on the U.S. Air Force’s first GPS III satellite, GPS III SV01, which was declared Available for Launch in September, with an expect-

ed launch in 2018. The payload moved flawlessly through space vehicle integration and test – exceeding specification requirements.

Harris’ second, third and fourth navigation payloads have been fully integrated on GPS III SV02, SV03 and SV04. The fifth payload for SV05 is in process of environmental testing.

At the heart of Harris’ navigation payloads is a Mission Data Unit (MDU), featuring a unique 70-percent digital design that links atomic clocks, radiation-hardened computers and powerful transmitters – enabling signals three times more accurate than those on current GPS satellites. These payloads also boost satellite signal power, increase jamming resistance by eight times and help extend the satellite’s lifespan.

COTS Journal | December 2017

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The

INSIDE TRACK Northrop Grumman Corporation announced that Yolanda Murphy has been appointed vice president of communications for its Technology Services sector, succeeding Alleace Gibbs, who will now serve as vice president of communications for the company’s Mission Systems sector, effective Jan. 1, 2018. They will both report to Lisa Davis, corporate vice president of communications for Northrop Grumman.

Major Russian Defense, Intelligence Companies Targeted By New U.S. Sanctions List The U.S. State Department has targeted more than three-dozen major Russian defense and intelligence companies under a new U.S. sanctions law, restricting business transactions with them and further ratcheting up pressure against Moscow.

Saab’s Swordfish maritime patrol aircraft combines Bombardier’s Global 6000 ultra-long-range aircraft, General Dynamics Mission Systems Canada’s acoustics processor and Saab’s airborne surveillance solutions.

The maritime patrol aircraft design is equipped with up to four weapon hard poin INSIDE_TRACK-007 ts under the wings

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to carry anti-ship missiles, torpedoes and drop pods for search-and-rescue missions.

The Global 6000 configuration has a maximum cruise speed of 450kt and a longrange cruise speed of 360kt. It can operate over a range of 4,400nm.

According to Saab, the Swordfish comes with a range of customisable options: • AESA 360° multi-mode radar • Multi-statics acoustic system • HD quality EO/IR (electro-optical/infrared systems) sensor with integrated laser payload • SATCOM and tactical data links • Four weapon hard points • MAD (magnetic anomaly detector) boom

Northrop Grumman Awarded $124.7 Million Contract for Production of AN/ APR-39D(V)2 Digital Radar Warning Receiver and Electronic Warfare Management Systems.

SPECIAL FEATURE Video Distribution and Display Trends for Situational Awareness

Situational Awareness With the constant emergence of new display technologies in the consumer sector, it is important for program managers and engineers in the military markets to be aware of which and how several of these advances can be incorporated into new military programs to achieve maximum benefit. Additionally, as older programs present themselves for technological refreshes, it is imperative to understand the difference in display specifications from previous decades, and how updated technology provides avenues for their evolution and continued progress.Adding to the complexity of the problem is the fact that the operator is typically limited, because of space, weight and power requirements, with a single display screen.

Drew Castle, Vice President of Engineering Chassis PlansSolutions

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t is no secret that the amount of data available to today’s warfighter is staggering. With the number of sources for data ever increasing, from new and more advanced Tactical Data Links, improved mapping and terrain data to advanced weather depiction it becomes even more important to have new and better human interface technology so the information can be quickly digested and decisions be made and acted on.

Modern user terminals have high resolution displays with many enhancements for interfacing with this data. Major trends such as touch screens and enhanced pointing devices, gesture support, biometric authentication and voice recognition are ways to interact with data quickly and securely.

The transition from cathode ray tube displays to early thin film transistor liquid crystal displays occurred rapidly across myriad industries, and the military was no exception. Terminals with multiple display screens, like the three-screen display shown in Figure 1, are seeing transit case deployment in environments where their larger predecessors would never have been taken.

The advantages of smaller overall size and decreased power consumption made the transfer an obvious upgrade for a military with a continued focus on rapid tactical capabilities. Current advances in display technology have seen the mass availability of ultra-high-definition (UHD) and 4K displays, and their subsequent hardening for deployment in mobile military use.

COTS Journal | December 2017

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SPECIAL FEATURE

The adoption of new technology is rarely without missteps, however. The rugged requirements for deployed electronics quickly shone a light on the weaknesses of many or the early consumer-grade displays and their unsuitability for in-theater use. Environmental and rugged packaging considerations aside, many of the requirements for outdoor display visibility weren’t met in early LCD panels. Under the diffuse fluorescent lights of an indoor office, there are no problems with visibility of on-screen information, but the backlight levels and light polarization in displays that were designed for indoor office use weren’t equipped for the harsher lighting of outdoor environments or compatible with night-vision optics.

The term “sunlight readable” is one phrase that has become popular when referring to displays which incorporate enhancements to off-the-shelf panels to make them more useful in delivering information to the user in adverse lighting conditions, but is hardly specific in describing HOW the display is made readable.

Enhancements to a base panel could come in any number of different treatments. Anti-reflective (AR) cover glass, polarizing films, and increased backlight output all serve to make on-screen information more visible to the viewer, but it is important to make note of the fact that while often used interchangeably, a “sunlight readable display” and a “high-bright display” do not always mean the same thing.

A straightforward increase in backlight intensity does not necessarily improve the viewing experience in a bright environment. Even without modification to backlight brightness, dramatic increases to the visibility of outdoor

TFX 3x 19-Inch Rackmount Multi LCD

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displays can be effected by the proper application of AR coatings and circular polarizing films. These enhancements serve to remove ambient light that is counterproductive to the display on the screen, as well as to adjust the light polarity where it is most functional to the user. Of course, both of these treatments can be applied to a high-bright panel for optimal harsh-environment visibility, as well.

Creating a high-bright display by changing the LED backlight strings in a display panel is a very straightforward and common upgrade that often fits into the same mechanical envelope as the base panel. This simple modification can increase the light output from a panel’s native 300 cd/m2 brightness to 1000 – 2000 cd/m2 or greater. Off the shelf display solutions incorporating these panels are becoming ever-more-ubiquitous in the market, with many manufacturers offering high-bright versions of their standard rugged display product offerings, providing a straightforward solution for military and industrial customers who are working in field environments.

On the alternate range of the spectrum, a similar LED string replacement can equip the identical base panel used in a high-bright modification for use as an NVIS compatible display by changing the LEDs on the backlight strings to versions which are compatible with NVIS optics. Some manufacturers are even offering panels that have NVIS compatibility and sunlight readability in the same panels, as seen in the ruggedized 21.5-inch display in Figure 2. As the volume of information available continues to increase at an exponential rate, display panel manufacturers are continuing to find ways to present the data on displays en-

gineered for a variety of harsh environments.

While engineering displays to work in specific environments is one way of getting reliable information to its intended recipients, advancements in display technology are not only improving the quality of the information being delivered, but the very nature of the delivery mechanism. It is no secret that increased display resolution has been a primary focus of every display manufacturer. Cell phone devotees and home theater aficionados have seen the rise of LCD panel resolution increase from XGA (1024 x 768) to High-Definition (1920 x 1080) to 4K-UHD (3840 x 2160) displays and beyond, and the requirements for ultra-high-definition displays in military environments is increasing alongside the consumer market at a similar pace. Large format rugged displays, frequently installed in shipboard applications, are taking advantage of the increased resolution available on large screens to provide more room for more information as well as enhanced clarity of the displayed data. As the information being presented has shifted – from simple alphanumeric text data and low-resolution two-dimensional images to broadcast quality surveillance video and three-dimensional terrain maps – giving tactical advantage in real-time has become a priority for military display functionality. Having higher resolution displays to support it greatly aids in this goal.

No longer content with two dimensional displays, stereoscopic and hologram display technology is on the rise, allowing for presentation of visual data in novel ways. Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) displays take advantage of the binocular disparity of the left and right eyes by

SPECIAL FEATURE

to the ground control station. Looking forward to the future, the standards for 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI, offering double and quadruple the data transfer speeds of 3G-SDI, have been published by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). As adoption of updated standards increases and more products come to market which are capable of supporting them, the availability of lossless video transfer in high resolution imaging will be seen in many tech refreshes of existing imaging systems.

CPI1-241 Industrial Grade Rackmount 24¡å LCD Display

sending alternate images to each eye, creating the illusion of a three-dimensional image. This has been true since the first generation of S3D displays, but new methods which combine the temporal and spatial interlacing of images based on color and temporal interlacing looks to improve on early technology, and more importantly how it interfaces with the human eye, to create a more seamless three-dimensional image for the viewer.

Technological advancements in displays have provided the ability to deliver a higher quality product upstream as well. Video interfaces beyond the classic analog-RGB and DVI connections have gained traction in military space where greater fidelity and resolution than standard HD video can provide are required, or when the requirements for multiple displays to run simultaneously are required.

One video interface that offers improved functionality when compared to traditional VGA, DVI or HDMI video interfaces are Serial Digital Interfaces. While classical serial-digital-interfaces (SDI) have been available for nearly

CPX2-173AG1-C Distribution port.

30 years, increased display and digital camera resolutions have required new standards with higher transfer speeds. Original HD-SDI connections provided nominal transfer rates of 1.485 Gb/s, but currently available 3G-SDI interfaces have double that speed, meaning that a single 3G-SDI connection can replace dual-link HD-SDI. These data transfer speeds allow for a large amount of uncompressed and unencrypted video data streams, allowing for true broadcast quality video signals to be displayed on any properly equipped display panel through a simple BNC connector, as seen in the rear panel connections of the high-definition display shown in Figure 3. In one typical example, a camera payload on a military reconnaissance airplane had multiple video feeds that were being transmitted wirelessly to a ground control station, but were required to be displayed on Chassis Plans’ CPX1-201 displays in the cabin of the airplane for review by flight crew personnel as well. Providing 3G-SDI functionality in the displays allowed viewing of uncompressed video from the payload cameras without interruption of the feed

With the ability to transmit and display the wealth of available information to warfighters in any number of different scenarios, it logically follows that the methods of interacting with displays and data are going through changes as well. Touchscreens that were once relegated to kiosk and industrial automation lines have found their way into the phones in everyone’s pockets, as well as onto larger format displays on Navy vessels and in aircraft.

The number of different touch-capable devices has increased along with the ways of interacting with them. Touchscreen communication and gesture support has grown to include multiple different technologies, including Glass-Film-Glass Resistive Touch, Projected Capacitance with 10-Point Multi-Touch, InfraRed Multi-Touch, and Gesture Recognition, for example.

With advances and enhancements in not only technologies which are intrinsic to displays, but to those which accompany them as well, the presentation of information is becoming increasingly more affective, provided that the correct choices are made when specifying the system. Selecting the correct combination of display attributes for each soldier’s application can seem a daunting task when presented with the number of available options in today’s off-the-shelf military marketplace. Ultimately, the proper selection of displays for each use is going to be dependent on several factors driven largely by the environment in which the display will be used, the type of data required to be displayed, and the requirements for how the user will interface with the displayed data.

Chassis Plans San Diego, CA (800) 787-4913 www.chassis-plans.com

COTS Journal | December 2017

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SPECIAL FEATURE

Struggling How to Apply Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality to your Training Needs?

At times, Technology articles overstate the potential that Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) offer for training, as low cost headsets and devices are commercially available and relatively easy to deploy.

By Raj Raheja, Chief Executive Officer

By now, all services of the military either have deployed or are the in process of developing VR/AR based training exercises.

The U.S. Navy hopes to save $1 billion by incorporating AR technology into their shipbuilding process (through Newport News Shipbuilding). By adding the 3D component of augmented reality to the traditional 2D approach, shipyard workers can quickly understand and perform tasks like placing studs in a bulkhead or steel panel, saving hours per person/task daily.

On the Operations and Maintenance side, virtual reality training is being deployed for Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) crews, provid-

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ing critical, real-time feedback.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, although there are some lessons to be learned and caveats to keep in mind, as experience is gained.

Many teams want to start deploying (or trying out) VR/AR-based training without accounting for fundamental training needs and lifecycle considerations. This siloed approach will stall and limit project or program ROI. Here is an effective roadmap that companies can follow from the start, when deploying visual and immersive training solutions:

1. Plan for Training + VR/AR, not VR/AR + Training VR/AR must be additive in the training lifecycle, not siloed - as a tech innovation available to only those few with the specific hardware on hand. Approximately 80% of the cost involved in creating immersive VR/AR Operations & Maintenance training content can be re-purposed across many platforms – like web, mobile, and laptops. This is an effective approach rather than launching an application, as a standalone.

The training application captured in the video below focuses on UH-60 Black Hawk maintenance technicians for overhaul procedures. The cost to migrate to VR after developing the 3D simulation – represented only 20% of the original investment! https://hwd3d.com/videos/sikorsky-virtual-maintenance-training/ (Note: embed code for online posting available from side bar) Recommendation – Training teams should conceive (and design) with 3D interactive simulation in mind first, as it gives workers the same benefits as VR and will be accessible to everyone. It lacks only the truly immersive quality VR lends and will set organizations up for success with AR and VR, as the hardware & headsets needed to experience them become more commonplace.

SPECIAL FEATURE

2. Protect against False Starts & Blind Alleys a.

b.

c.

What happens to AR in the dark? It doesn’t work! Try telling that to the field service technician trying to figure out what step to perform next – at 10 pm outdoors What percentage of people who tried VR suffered from a form of dizziness or nausea? Almost 35%! (As latency in the hardware lowers, that number will reduce) What happens when the AR/VR hardware runs out of battery power or is missing cables?

Yes tablets, laptops and phones have the same issue, but we are used to carrying the appropriate chargers with us or they’re relatively easy to come by in a pinch. Single-use devices like VR/AR hardware might be forgotten and the workforce may be caught unprepared, with no access to critical training content.

Recommendation – While deploying VR/AR is part of the visionary innovation cycle, avoid letting workforce training depend on it exclusively – especially when they routinely carry other devices that can act as access points to the same content.

3. Deploy for Universal Access Here is a trick (but true) question – What is the best camera in the world? The one you have with you! It’s no surprise that Smartphone camera photos now overtake SLR photos by a massive margin. And, it’s always in your pocket, fully accessible.

Similarly, virtual reality using peripheral technology like touch-based haptic devices or extra hardware might make the training experience more ‘immersive’, but will only cater to fringe applications. The mass adoption of simulated training will be on devices people already carry.

A basic tenet: Find out what the technicians carry in their pocket or bag, and then design around that experience.

Rather than deploying a ‘near 100% immersive training experience to only 10%’ of the workforce, deliver flexible, modular content to 100% of them, all the time.

As an example – if they happen to have a VR headset – then go unconventional, otherwise have the technician practice the procedure with their fingers on their tablet app, anywhere in the world.

Recommendation – VR/AR is great for training but with a little bit of planning,

training investment can be more scalable and portable, with all of the access points covered – PC, laptops, Web, Mobile, Tablets and yes – VR and AR!

Moving Forward – Choosing between VR and AR

smart thinking, but jumping directly from a classroom to virtual reality might exclude a lot of them. By following the roadmap above, teams will be able to deliver next-gen training immersion and retention, while still being accessible via multiple methods.

Three common challenges we hear from training teams are – 1) Avoid having dedicated training equipment and assigning production machines for training leads to costly downtime 2) Geographically distributed technicians don’t have access to equipment to train (or re-train) 3) Novice or junior technicians need to practice in a safe environment without risk of hazard or equipment damage.

Both interactive 3D apps (on tablets/ laptops) and VR apps can solve the three problems above, with different degrees of immersion. AR will NOT. By definition, it augment’s the live view of the operator or user requiring them to physically be in front of the equipment so it can overlay information.

That requirement brings us back to the three problems.

So how should AR be used? Not in the training phase per se, but in the live performance of the task itself, where it’s real value is unlocked. Industry Experts call this Performance Support or Job Aids.

Raj Raheja, CEO Heartwood 2121 South El Camino Real, Suite 100 San Mateo, CA 94403-1859 Phone: 888-781-0274 Email: raj@hwd3d.com Web: www.hwd3d.com Raj provides a leading voice for the future of 3D Interactivity and Visual technologies. He co-founded Heartwood and focuses on the company vision, culture and new technology development.

Final word Staying on top of the latest training trends to keep our workforce competitive is certainly COTS Journal | December 2017

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COTS Supportability and the Life-Cycle Proposition II: Scorecard - so how is COTS doing?

By Edmond Hennessy, Chief Executive Officer

The Back Story In the late 1990s-early 2000s, we published a series of Industry articles outlining the history of COTS, which traced its roots to Bob Costello, the then Deputy of Defense in 1976 – who coined the definition of COTS (so very long ago) to the advent of the Perry Initiative, which was a game-changer and mandated COTS, as first right of consideration, by Law. This was followed-thru with the Mission-Ready COTS Industry Guidebook (and account seminars), which looked at COTS Supportability (and the Life-Cycle Proposition) from the perspective of the Government/Military, Defense Contractors and COTS Technology companies – advocating that these groups should form a consortium to tackle the tough transition and challenges related to applying COTS to Mission-Critical Initiatives, Programs, Platforms, and Applications.

There were some early-stage, false starts primarily initiated by specific Program Offices/Agencies (broken down by Military linesof-business), which generated useful analysis, output and solid Industry reference material, although these efforts did not impact the demand for COTS. Clearly, COTS found its way- with some tough resistance and obstacles in those days – many COTS companies targeted the Defense & Military Market, with the expectation that they would take down a design win that would eventually go full-production/deployment – and the rest would be gravy. There was also the drive to take a Commerical Design and simply extend it to various Ruggedization levels – and Voila – instant deployment success!

It didn’t quite work that way and there were a range of COTS companies that grew-up in the Defense & Military Market – knew the ropes – developed their product and sub-system solutions with full ruggedization levels (and sometimes with Mil-Spec levels in mind) at the Design phase – and did not stop there.

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This was backed with testing and support programs, systems integration (some customization) and a roadmap that took Modernization, Upgrades and planned Technology Insertion into consideration – to track the Program Map that they were satisfying.

Many COTS companies exited or de-emphasized this Market space, when they realized how complex and demanding it was to “play” and the level of sustained Investment needed to “have a shot” at making it.

We also – with the help of key, Media sources – began discussing the Hidden COTS Market – and the emphasis (initially) on leveraging Repackaging, Reformatting and Technology Licensing to gain access and entry. This critical segment, which was not understood by most COTS companies at the time – was sized-up to be 10X the size of the COTS Market that we (the Embedded COTS Suppliers) were chasing.

Along the way, we expressed our view – with other Industry sources – on the Scorecard of how COTS was performing – not from the COTS Technology view – from the perspective of the Government/Military and Defense Contractor community.

Keep in mind that these sources (originally) were looking at COTS solely, as a means of cost-reduction as compared to traditional proprietary designs.

General Scorecard: there were cost advantages for COTS at the front-end – although serious questions about Life-Cycle Cost of Ownership. COTS was expected to minimize complexity, although the integration of various COTS technologies provided a new challenge for Defense Contractors/System Integrators. Expectation was that leveraging COTS would minimize time-to-program-implementation vs. the long development cycles associated with proprietary designs – this had mixed reviews, although there were some indications that COTS minimized the cycle, by 50%.

At that stage, most COTS companies depended on the Defense Contractor – given

their infrastructure and well-established, programmatics and support programs – to wrap those things around the COTS solution and provide the full life-cycle package to the end-user.

An example: a Stores Management Program hosted on a EURO Attack Fighter, which leveraged custom-COTS solutions that the Defense Contractor (then) supported the Safety Critical Management Program and Life-Cycle Support (estimated at 7-10 years). The Defense Contractor also laid-out plans and provisions for all Tech Refreshes and handled the demanding and complex Program Management tasks and Compliance Programs.

No surprise that literally few, if any, COTS companies could take on those kind of demands – nor did they need to.

Although there were solid reasons for the plethora of COTS acquisitions, by Defense Contractors – the acquired-COTS companies gained considerable advantage.

Today’s Picture The COTS movement has continued to progress – now at the stage of full Industry acceptance and adoption.

Where COTS was utilized for proof-ofconcept and pre-production, we are now seeing literally every type of platform populated with COTS – including the prolific UAV/UAS space that has become a significant growth market.

COTS Suppliers speak differently than in the past – of Target segments, like Avionics, Navtronics, Vetronics and of Initiatives like Urban Warfare, Network Centric Warfare, Platform Interoperability, etc. and have developed a knowledge base not about how their products are used - how problems are solved.

They speak the language of their Customer set – with a knowledge-based, approach that encompasses Industry/Program/Platform/ Applications insights.

Many have organized their business around the key areas that they serve – with teams focused on segments of C4ISR, Network/Communications Management, Satellite Communications, etc. and have depth and expertise. They understand the relationship, as an Initiative and Program element takes shape, to make the linkage between the Lead Lab, Program Office/Agency and target Defense Contractors. This has become the foundation for the Defense Marketing Game Plan that many COTS companies have adopted. In effect, they have learned the game from their Defense Contractor counterparts and have mirror imaged their formula for success – although a retrofitted, mini-version.

At the technology and product levels – COTS companies are morphing and continuing to move up the food chain. It is now common to see a COTS solution – like a fully, functional Avionics Mission Computer being provided, by a COTS source.

This only reinforces the promise of COTS – and the acceptance by the Defense community to continue extending critical content to the COTS Supplier base.

although this is a predictable step in the progress and evolution of COTS, within the Defense and Military target segment.

COTS companies are generally stretched to the limit – and need to continue focusing on the highest-priority relationships and sources of business.

The pattern will prevail – that the critical few will represent their core business.

COTS companies have the credibility and earned right to initiate action and structure these higher-level relationships with target Defense Contractors/System Integrators.

Where will this go?

Sometimes this picture is a little fuzzy – and it may appear that there is a conflictive or competitive situation brewing between the Defense Contractors and the COTS Technology providers.

A fundamental is not to bite the hand that feeds you – we believe that will be perpetuated.

Given the breadth of the Top-level, Strategic Defense budget for Electronics – it is clear that the pie is rich enough to satisfy all-comers.

Plus, the Defense Contractors are consumed in their core business demands and will continue looking for other areas (that were traditionally done in-house) that can be extended to COTS companies.

The future for COTS is secure and the perspective for the Industry is that there will be a continued dependence on COTS sources – as a powerhouse for Technology Innovation.

COTS companies have advocated that the nature of COTS means that their solutions are available to the Market with little to no restrictions. Although many COTS companies have served and been aligned with Defense Contractors/System Integrators for specific Programs, we see a movement towards stronger leveraged relationships and Strategic Alliances. This does not mean that there will be an Industry line-in-the-sand or strict opposing factions (Competitive Teams),

Edmond Hennessy is a seasoned veteran in the COTS Embedded Market.

He has authored many works including the “Mission-Ready COTS” Industry Guidebook, “COTS Supportability & the Life-Cycle Proposition” and “Beyond COTS: Repackaging, Reformatting & Tech Transfers.” He has participated in key industry panels, has been a keynote speaker in E-casts dedicated to signal-processing applications and has been tapped as an industry executive to comment on disruptive and emerging technologies. Mr. Hennessy heads up the Performance Marketing Group (PMG).

For more information access [http://pmg-results.com]

COTS Journal | December 2017

19

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

Highly Accurate, Record/ Playback of Digi zed Signal Data Serves a Variety of Applica ons Using FPGA-based ltering, precision mestamping and packet- inspec on, a powerful recording and playback solu on provides network data that exactly mirrors data captured from the real world.

John Aldon, PhD President, MILCOTS

In recent years, technology advancements in high-bandwidth signal acquisi on have been truly astounding. Whether those signals are comprised of radar, RF, video or other form of data, sensor and receiver technologies keep pushing up the bandwidth of incoming informa on. The same is true of data going the other direc on: broadcast signals in their various forms.

At the same me, network technologies have kept pace enabling processing systems to distribute all that incoming data. 10 Gbit Ethernet networking is today considered mainstream, while 40 Gbit and 100 Gbit Ethernet are no longer considered exo c.

These high-bandwidths and the deluge of incoming data in turn makes recording and playback of signal acquisi ons more challenging. But even there, storage systems and FPGA technologies have likewise advanced to help record and playback systems keep up with the rest of the signal chain.

Understanding that new challenges will have to be tackled, regardless...

There’s a big di erence, however, between ordinary recording and playback solu ons versus the capability to do mul -port line rate record and playback at a high level of accuracy—in other words, accuracy close enough to the original data stream to With just that in mind, New Wave 20

COTS Journal | December 2017

DV o ers its RapXG solu on. The RapXG provides scalable, high-performance packet capture and playback. For networking density, the box supports mul ple ports of 10, 40, and 100 Gbit Ethernet over Quad SFP+ (or QSFP+) ports suppor ng op cal and copper connectors. The system’s standard features include accurate me synchroniza on, programmable 5-tuple lters, PCAP Next Genera on le format, a highly e cient PCI Express Gen3 host, a user-friendly GUI or command line interface and a full API for record and playback func ons. Figure 1 shows a standard implementa on of the RapXG system, capable of recording four 10Gb ports for 3 con nuous hours. However, New Wave can customize several aspects of RapXG—including the number of network adapters, chassis size and temperature/ vibra on characteris cs, RAID array size and drive choices—in order to meet exact bandwidth and storage needs of the user.

Among the most powerful features of RapXG is its ability to play back recorded data exactly as it was captured. While other solu ons simply send captured packets back onto the network, RapXG plays them back at the rate they were captured. The system employs hardware-controlled precision clocks and the recorded capture mestamp, to play back network data to within 20ns of captured me.

Figure 4: The RapXG provides line rate network record and playback. Number of ports, speeds, chassis characteris cs, RAID array size and drive choices are all con gurable to user bandwidth and storage needs.

Among the most powerful features of RapXG is its ability to play back recorded data exactly as it was captured. While other solu ons simply send captured packets back onto the network, RapXG plays them back at the rate they were captured. The system employs hardware-controlled precision clocks and the recorded capture mestamp, to play back network data to within 20ns of captured me.

It’s All on the Board At the heart of the RapXG is the FPGA network card running New Wave’s Capture IP Core (Figure 2). This board does all the network interfacing and, most importantly, the system’s hardware lters, mestamping, regulated playback and customizable pack-

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

Figure 2: The RapXG’s hardware lters, mestamping, regulated playback and customizable packet processing capabili es are all implemented on the board’s Xilinx UltraScale+ FPGA

et processing capabili es are all implemented on the board’s FPGA. Two options are available covering the performance requirements needed.

Op on 1 is the V5031 PCIe card based on the Altera Stra x V FPGA, Quad 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP/SFP+ ports also reside on the card along with an 8-lane PCI Express Gen 3 interface to the host interface. Op on 2 is the V5052, which is based on the Xilinx UltraScale+ Virtex FPGA, o ering up to sixteen 10Gb ports.....or four 40Gb ports..... or four 100Gb ports....using SFP+ or QSFP28 transceivers, on a card with a PCIe Gen 3 x 16 host interface.

New Wave remains FPGA-agnos c in terms of its roadmap for RapXG—or any of its products. The company employs the best available FPGA technologies from lending vendors such as Altera, MicroSemi and Xilinx. On most of its products New Wave supports user customiza on directly on its FPGA rmware. If there’s special lter schemes or IP that’s either classi ed or trade secret, users can embed rmware intended for their eyes only.

The RapXG can perform very accurate me synchroniza on. It supports a variety of me code formats including IRIG-A, B and G me codes as well as IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and others. The board very accurately mestamps data coming in.

And it also uses that mestamp to hardware regulate when a packet egresses the box.

This is in contrast to playback systems that simply push out data through the network

port as fast as possible. In such systems, the data and its ming doesn’t at all look on the network like it did when recorded. Even if the content of the data is all there, it’s not necessarily moving as it did in the original stream—with the same spaces in between packets and so on. For some applica ons, that sort of recording is su cient. But for applica ons like electronic warfare, signal intelligence, advanced communica ons or radar, it’s cri cally important that the data played back look exactly like it did coming in.

Timestamps, PCAP and Filters On the RapXG, all of the ming protocols and mestamping are implemented on the FPGA. As soon as the rst bits of a packet enters the RapXG box, it captures the mestamp and appends it to the packet that’s coming in. And then on playback, the RapXG system uses FPGAs to do hardware regulated playback. The hardware queues up packets and plays them back at the appropriate me based on the external mestamp.

The system stores the recorded data in the open source PCAP format. By using PCAP, the les can easily be shared with others. There are many open source tools for PCAP including text editors and viewers. By using this standard format, not everyone needs a RapXG box to be able to look at the recorded data.

On the RapXG FPGA there are some

very powerful hardware ltering capabili es.

A full set of four channels of 10 Gbit/s data equals 40 Gbit/s of incoming data—which is a lot of data. Many applica ons don’t need all that informa on, so it’s useful to lter out the data that isn’t of interest. These lters let users record or playback only a subset of the data. A simple lter could for example look for the IP addresses found in the packets. Or a more complicated lter might for example look deep into the packet and look for some string of bytes that iden es it as data that’s of interest.

In theory, you could do that kind of ltering in so ware. But theory doesn’t mesh with reality in high-bandwidth data capture of this kind. A so ware based approach just couldn’t keep pace with the speed and volume of data. Moreover, at these kinds of bandwidths, the data must move in and out of disk-drives and across PCI Express interconnects without causing bo lenecks.

By adding more PCI Express channels and larger disk arrays you could compensate, but that adds more cost. In contrast, hardware ltering done at the FPGA level helps cut down the amount of data that needs to be recorded and does it in a much lower cost implementa on. That can have signi cant impacts on many facets of system design—fewer drives, smaller rack-space, less power and so on.

Meanwhile, there are some applica ons that do require full 40 Gbit/s of data. That’s o en the case when the user doesn’t know what data they’re looking for. Instead of ltering, they capture all the data, and go back and si through it to nd the event indicators of interest.

VITA 49 Provides 2nd Timestamp Another signi cant feature of the RapXG architecture is VITA 49 support. The ANSI ra ed VITA 49 provides an industry standard packet format for digi zed signals.

The standard can work with any kind of signal. It basically provides a standard packet format for the exchange between a front end and a processor. If one vendor for example makes a sensor front end that outputs 10 Gbit Ethernet, and another makes a processor system that accepts VITA 49 10 Gbit Ethernet data, the two systems can connect seamlessly and work together.

Aside from the packet content, a VITA 49 standard packet organizes several key COTS Journal | December 2017

21

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT

Figure 3: This data ow diagram illustrates where the RapXG interacts with any signal/data capture-processing applica on. No ma er what the variety of captured data— radar, RF, video, etc.—RapXG provides highly accurate recording and playback in either direc on.

Among the most powerful features of RapXG is its ability to play back recorded data exactly as it was captured. While other solu ons simply send captured packets back onto the network, RapXG plays them back at the rate they were captured. The system employs hardware-controlled precision clocks and the recorded capture mestamp, to play back network data to within 20ns of captured me.

It’s All on the Board At the heart of the RapXG is the FPGA network card running New Wave’s Capture IP Core (Figure 2). This board does all the network interfacing and, most importantly, the system’s hardware lters, mestamping, regulated playback and customizable packet processing capabili es are all implemented on the board’s FPGA. Two options are available covering the performance requirements needed.

Op on 1 is the V5031 PCIe card based on the Altera Stra x V FPGA, Quad 10 Gigabit Ethernet SFP/SFP+ ports also reside on the card along with an 8-lane PCI Express Gen 3 interface to the host interface. Op on 2 is the V5052, which is based on the Xilinx 22

COTS Journal | December 2017

UltraScale+ Virtex FPGA, o ering up to sixteen 10Gb ports.....or four 40Gb ports..... or four 100Gb ports....using SFP+ or QSFP28 transceivers, on a card with a PCIe Gen 3 x 16 host interface.

New Wave remains FPGA-agnos c in terms of its roadmap for RapXG—or any of its products. The company employs the best available FPGA technologies from lending vendors such as Altera, MicroSemi and Xilinx. On most of its products New Wave supports user customiza on directly on its FPGA rmware. If there’s special lter schemes or IP that’s either classi ed or trade secret, users can embed rmware intended for their eyes only.

The RapXG can perform very accurate me synchroniza on. It supports a variety of me code formats including IRIG-A, B and G me codes as well as IEEE 1588 Precision Time Protocol (PTP) and others. The board very accurately mestamps data coming in.

And it also uses that mestamp to hardware regulate when a packet egresses the box.

This is in contrast to playback systems that simply push out data through the network port as fast as possible. In such systems, the data and its ming doesn’t at all look on the network like it did when recorded. Even if

the content of the data is all there, it’s not necessarily moving as it did in the original stream—with the same spaces in between packets and so on. For some applica ons, that sort of recording is su cient. But for applica ons like electronic warfare, signal intelligence, advanced communica ons or radar, it’s cri cally important that the data played back look exactly like it did coming in.

Timestamps, PCAP and Filters On the RapXG, all of the ming protocols and mestamping are implemented on the FPGA. As soon as the rst bits of a packet enters the RapXG box, it captures the mestamp and appends it to the packet that’s coming in. And then on playback, the RapXG system uses FPGAs to do hardware regulated playback. The hardware queues up packets and plays them back at the appropriate me based on the external mestamp.

The system stores the recorded data in the open source PCAP format. By using PCAP, the les can easily be shared with others. There are many open source tools for PCAP including text editors and viewers. By

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT using this standard format, not everyone needs a RapXG box to be able to look at the recorded data.

On the RapXG FPGA there are some very powerful hardware ltering capabili es.

A full set of four channels of 10 Gbit/s data equals 40 Gbit/s of incoming data—which is a lot of data. Many applica ons don’t need all that informa on, so it’s useful to lter out the data that isn’t of interest. These lters let users record or playback only a subset of the data. A simple lter could for example look for the IP addresses found in the packets. Or a more complicated lter might for example look deep into the packet and look for some string of bytes that iden es it as data that’s of interest.

In theory, you could do that kind of ltering in so ware. But theory doesn’t mesh with reality in high-bandwidth data capture of this kind. A so ware based approach just couldn’t keep pace with the speed and volume of data. Moreover, at these kinds of bandwidths, the data must move in and out of disk-drives and across PCI Express interconnects without causing bo lenecks.

By adding more PCI Express channels and larger disk arrays you could compensate, but that adds more cost. In contrast, hardware ltering done at the FPGA level helps cut down the amount of data that needs to be recorded and does it in a much lower cost implementa on. That can have signi cant impacts on many facets of system design—fewer drives, smaller rack-space, less power and so on.

Meanwhile, there are some applica ons that do require full 40 Gbit/s of data. That’s o en the case when the user doesn’t know what data they’re looking for. Instead of ltering, they capture all the data, and go back and si through it to nd the event indicators of interest.

10 Gbit Ethernet data, the two systems can connect seamlessly and work together. Aside from the packet content, a VITA 49 standard packet organizes several key elements include the mestamp, frequency, size of each capture and so on.

Aside from the compa bility advantages, the support of VITA 49 has some important implica ons for New Wave’s RapXG. Because it supports VITA 49, every packet has TWO mestamps—the one captured by the RapXG box system and the VITA 49 mestamp from when the data was originated.

The RapXG’s external me source ensures that its mestamp is extremely accurate.

Users can now look at the delta between the two mestamps and thereby get a valuable determina on of the network’s latency between when the data was created and when it was recorded.

In a simple network, it’s likely that the two mestamps will be the same—or very close to the same. But over complex networks, the data may travel through numerous switches, routers and hubs and therefore may add signi cant latency. By knowing the di erence between the two mestamps, users can adjust or account for that latency, providing a be er ability to replicate exactly how the signal stream really looks.

Having the VITA 49 mestamp also adds op ons for playback that other record/ playback solu ons do not. On playback, the RapXG system can play the data back based on the mestamp captured by the RapXG, or it can play the data back based on the VITA 49 mestamp. In essence, RapXG can make the data stream look just like it was when recorded in the network or make the data look like it’s coming from the originator by playing it back based on the VITA 49 mestamp.

VITA 49 Provides 2nd Timestamp

RapXG Record/Playback in Ac on

Another signi cant feature of the RapXG architecture is VITA 49 support. The ANSI ra ed VITA 49 provides an industry standard packet format for digi zed signals.

The standard can work with any kind of signal. It basically provides a standard packet format for the exchange between a front end and a processor. If one vendor for example makes a sensor front end that outputs 10 Gbit Ethernet, and another makes a processor system that accepts VITA 49

The diagram in Figure 3 illustrates how the RapXG system works. At the far le on the diagram you see a signal captured from the analog world—the signal could be anything including radar, RF, video, comms or other kind of data. Let’s assume for example it’s an RF signal. The sensor front end acquires the RF data and puts in through some analog to a digital conversion. Next, the front end may do some digital processing on it—maybe some digital down-conCOTS Journal | December 2017

23

Safety Critical Product Portfolio SupportIncluding Graphics, Video, Virtualization, Security, and COTS-D Hardware IP – The Future of COTS Hardware Procurement In order to meet the rapid deployment, high performance and low cost demands of todays Military and Avionics embedded systems, integrators have slowly turned away from ground up product developments and sought to use Off-The-Shelf hardware to meet the time-to-market needs. COTS modules provide the performance required of modern rugged applications at a lower cost than that of a custom designed system, while at the same time speeding time to deployment and lowering the overall program risks.

Over the many years that the use of COTS modules has been growing, the number of suppliers has increased and each has sought to differentiate themselves with more services and features, driving cost back into the product. What has gone virtually unnoticed is that the operational needs of the end customer have also changed significantly during this time and the commodity COTS products are no longer sufficient. Systems integrators need products which support certification requirements such as DO-178 and DO-254, something the products themselves have been capable of for years, but not something the COTS suppliers specialize in.

As a result, system integrators capable of certifiable product development are undertaking the work themselves, while COTS suppliers are battling to change years of systems and processes to support the new customer need. These changes come at a high cost to the end customers as the costs to make these changes and adapt to the new requirements is passed on through the products and services wrapped around them.

Is there another way for highly capable systems integrators to meet that time to market challenge with affordable AND certifiable COTS solutions?

24

COTS Journal | December 2017

An Alternate Business Model Instead of procuring standard COTS assemblies, a new, unique IP-based method of building DO-254 COTS hardware enables system integrators to procure turn key designs of the latest technology that they can build themselves in their own manufacturing facilities alongside their existing products, or through a Contract Manufacturer. The strategy of IP procurement - integration and manufacture - which has been used for programmable logic development for many years, is simply extended to encompass the entire ‘COTS’ module. Such a procurement model provides integrators with the same time to market benefits they would get with standard COTS modules, but significantly reduces the recurring costs of the system and provides a rapid return on investment, all while freeing up their resources to develop differentiating product features or capabilities instead of commodity products. For example, integrators can lower their costs by building DO-254 certifiable hardware in their own local facility or other location that offers them the lowest costs. If available, they can use their existing lifecycle services, manufacturing, test, component, repair and other specialists to maximize their resource utilization and existing investments to further reduce costs. Manufacturing the products locally eliminates international shipping, permit delays and repair delays. Because integrators do their own manufacturing of Hardware IP designs, they have the freedom and flexibility to tailor the IP to their specific form factors, add differentiating capabilities required by their programs, and build as many or as few modules as they need, as well as have full control over the delivery timeline from the manufacturing facility.

Hardware IP solutions are particularly well suited to systems integrators that have: • Their own electronic assembly manufacturing capabilities • An infrastructure to build and support electronic assemblies

• A customer need for DO-254 and DO178C certifiable solutions • Systems solutions supporting standard form factor boards.

How Are These Modules Designed?

Hardware IP modules are designed to a structured and audited process aligned with DO-254 requirements as per FAA and EASA guidance, and developed and qualified for harsh environments, meeting applicable DO160 requirements. Before the IP is released to customers, it is manufactured, verified and qualified in the same way as any standard COTS module. A Technical Data Package is prepared with all the source data and other support required to transition the manufacture to a chosen customer facility. While that manufacturing transition occurs, hardware is available to start development and keep the program on track.

These solutions are designed for industry standard module form factors such as VITA46 (3U VPX) and VITA-61/VITA-42 (XMC), but as with any other COTS products, they can be customized to other form factors.

The main difference is that this can be done by the customer as well as the supplier. The development process and available certification artifacts enable the use of the resulting modules in systems requiring the highest Design Assurance Level, DAL A.

Complete Certifiable Solutions with Hardware IP Integrators of safety critical solutions experience challenges when they must source their hardware and software components from different vendors. Integration issues inevitably arise during basic interoperability, application development or the certification process itself, and having to coordinate a solution through several involved parties often impacts both schedule and costs. To solve this issue, the Hardware IP business model

can include software support developed to DO-178C for firmware, board support packages, compute, graphics, safety monitoring and other required software components. These complete solutions consist of both hardware and software which has been pre-integrated and validated together to significantly de-risk the integration challenges typically faced when integrating hardware and software components from multiple suppliers.

A typical complete DO-254/DO-178C certifiable solution consists of: • Industry standard form factor hardware products offered in the form of Design IP rather than turn key assemblies • Complete hardware IP Technical Data Packages including source data to enable the manufacture, support and repair of the product at the integrator’s manufacturing facility • Products available to support system certification needs which have complete DO-254/ARP4761 COTS certification evidence • Fully developed and design qualified assemblies with lab hardware available to support the integrator’s development while manufacturing is put in place • Complete DO-178C software support for the hardware solutions • Complete DO-178C COTS certification evidence to support all software components • Pre-integrated and tested hardware and software to significantly de-risk customer integration work.

SPECIAL FEATURE

Figure 1 – Hardware IP Solution vs COTS Completed Assembly Solution Cost Comparison

board computer and graphics processing module combination, the integrator will save over $9M in reduced hardware costs over the life of the program. Significant additional cost savings will be made through reduced repair costs, a higher utilization of existing staff and infrastructure, as well as the hardware manufacturing cost itself.

The volume of ship sets required for an

integrator to begin to realize cost benefits is typically as low as 100 per the example shown.

However, if the COTS pricing is higher than illustrated, the cost benefits could be realised at 60-70 ship sets or lower. Using the same hardware solution across other programs will increase the cost savings by increasing volumes.

Cost Savings Use Case The following use case example illustrates the costs and ROI when using both standard COTS and the COTS IP models for the same system requirement. This example compares the estimated cost of procuring and building a Hardware IP single board computer and graphics processing module vs. the costs of procuring the same hardware by purchasing standard completed COTS modules.

The following example assumes: • The cost of an equivalent COTS SBC is approximately $7000 US • The cost of an equivalent COTS graphics module is approximately $4000 US • The program will run for 10 years • The program will require 1500 units of both the SBC and graphics module • The cost to manufacture the module in house is approx. 40% of the cost of a bought in module.

Figure 1 illustrates that based on a total consumption of 1500 ship sets of the single

COTS Journal | December 2017

25

SPECIAL FEATURE

Royalties and Marketing Under the Hardware IP business model, integrators receive a license for the manufacturing rights of their selected Hardware IP modules. There is a one time license fee for the TDP and the rights to manufacture the product in an unrestricted quantity. The license fee also provides the integrator with the right to use the IP to create derivative

products of their own, extending the value of the IP and accelerating the growth of their product portfolio. For each board manufactured, either from the original IP or its derivatives, a per board royalty is payable. The integrator is free to build the Hardware IP modules, as well as market and position them as their own products.

Why Does This Business Model Work?

The COTS-D hardware IP business model meets all of the changing needs of customers, including safety certifiable DO-254 products that are affordable, and available off the shelf, which allows them to maximize their own resource and infrastructure investments, and most importantly, significantly reduce the recurring system cost of their product. All of these elements are essential to increase the affordability of the end platform, increasing its competitiveness in the market place and providing the safety and reliability that are critical to the success of every mission and flight.

In a highly competitive market where time-to-market and affordability are critical, the COTS-D hardware IP solution provides integrators with the ability to differentiate their solution from their competitors.

CoreAVI and COTS-D Hardware IP Solutions The Hardware IP business model is available from CoreAVI in the form of COTS-D (Commercial Off the Shelf-Designs). CoreAVI is a company focused on safety critical solutions, and the technology and products which form our COTS-D product line are carefully selected to ensure that they have a path to support the highest level of certification possible. COTS-D offers a variety of hardware solutions, including single board computers based on Power Architecture, x86 and ARM cores, as well as graphics and compute modules based on AMD and other leading Graphics Processing Units (GPU). CoreAVI offers single source for a complete solution by also supplying the required DO-178C certifiable software including drivers, BSPs, firmware, and applicable certification evidence. All COTS-D products are available with DO-254/ ARP4761 COTS certification evidence direct from CoreAVI.

Continuing Support from CoreAVI CoreAVI offers customization services as well as complete certification evidence for custom products. For COTS-D modules, CoreAVI provides support for proprietary operating systems. On-site training is also available to integrators purchasing COTS-D solutions, as well as annual technical support services for both the hardware and software components of COTS-D solutions. COTS-D IP is offered with a 12 month warranty to protect the integrator against any unforeseen issues with design or certification evidence. Learn more at www.coreavi.com.

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COTS Journal | December 2017

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COT’S PICKS

Systel Rugged Computers – SB4100 4U Rugged High Density Storage Server with 26 Hot Swap Removable Hard Drive The SB4100 is a 4U rack mounted storage box incorporating Systel’s experience in designing rugged enclosures for the most extreme environments. Supporting up to 26 rotating, SSD or SATA III removable, shock-mounted hard drives. The 24” deep chassis with positive pressure cooling allows a 0-50 degree C temperature range while addressing applications requiring top performance.

Configured with the latest Intel Xeon processors and is an extreme duty system designed for data-intensive military operations. It features Systel designed backplanes with system management features. Mil-STD-810G Systel, Inc. Phoenix International Systems, Inc. – Phalanx II (877) 979-7835 www.systelusa.com

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COTS Journal | December 2017

Small Form Factor NAS Storage System

One Stop Systems, Inc. – 4U Flash Storage Array (FSAn-4R)

The Phalanx II is a rugged Small Form Factor (SFF) Network Attached Storage (NAS) computer system, specifically tailored for the avionic, military and rugged industrial market.

The system offers the best utilization of size, weight and power (SWaP) and adherence to Commercial Off the Shelf (COT) standards.

The FSAN-4R is a NVMe All-Flash Array provides a new level of performance for applications requiring high performance and big data sets. The storage system is used for acceleration of mission-critical, high-performance database, Hadoop clusters and HPC applications. The FSAn-4R can be deployed in harsh environments such as broadcast trucks, ground stations and surveillance aircraft. It provides a quantum leap in performance and application flexibility by integrating the highest performance PCIe 3.0 x eight lanes for double the bandwidth of today’s 2.5” NVMe drives. In addition, it includes hotswap of four, front-loadable, removable data canisters. Each of the canisters have a capacity of up to 50TB and weigh less then 6.5 lbs.

The Phalanx II supports 16TB configured to either RAID 0 or Raid 1. Weighing only 6 lbs. it supports 5x GigE, 10 GigE, USB 2/3 and serial I/O. The Phalanx has the option of 2 removable SATA III SSD if desired. MIL-STD-810F, MILSTD-461F, MIL-STD-740F/1275D. Phoenix International Systems, Inc. (714) 283-4800 www.phenxint.com

One Stop Systems, Inc. (760) 745-9883 www.onestopsystems.com

COTS PICKS

ZMicro, Inc. – TP2 Rugged Storage The TP2 rugged storage module is an ultra-compact and lightweight data solution for military and industrial applications. Designed and MIL-tested for computing performance in harsh environments, the TP2 delivers advanced protection for any 2.5” spinning or solid-state drive (SSD).

Up to 2TB SSD and HDD capacity with SATA III speeds up to 6.0 Gbps. This micro, hot swappable, thermal padded, EMI/RFI protected module offers compact size with exceptional performance.

ZMicro, Inc. (858) 831-7000 www.zmicro.com

Chassis Plans, Inc. – Portable Storage System.

Crystal Group, Inc. – RSS13S17 Rugged Crystal Storage System

Designed and built in the United States, the DTS transport System approached storage with a keen sense of the application space they wanted to address. Being able to move 100TB of data from place to place in the safest possible manner. It is housed in a small rugged transit case that meets airline requirements for in-cabin overhead-bin storage. Yet, you can take advantage of the anonymity of shipping it with common carriers.

The RSS13S17 combines high-capacity data storage and military-grade security in a reliable, rugged device that doesn’t sacrifice performance or critical data. The 1U, 17” deep chassis can be configured in a variety of ways with up to three (3) 3.5” or six (6)2.5” drives. The RSS13S17 is a platform for custom solutions tailored to the needs of the application. Crystal’s professional services group offers design services along with testing and lifecycle planning.

Chassis Plans, Inc. (858) 571-4330 www.chassis-plans.com

Crystal Group, Inc. (800) 378-1636 www.crystalrugged.com

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COTS PICKS

Cheetah Raid Storage – Storage Box 1000 The 1U chassis supports 25TB+ SSD NVMe storage with Gen 3 PCIe performance. Designed to work with new or existing servers, the CSB1000 offers transparent PCIe Gen 3 connection with no additional software required achieving speeds of 12 GB/s.

Cheetah Raid Storage (866) 322-0788 www.cheetahraid.com

The U.S. Navy and Missile Defense Agency completed the first successful flight test of Raytheon’s SM-3 Block IIA interceptor, at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. (Photo: Missile Defense Agency)

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PMC AND XMC ROUND UP.

DATA SHEET

What is PMC?

Extreme Engineering

Delphi Engineering Group – DEG

XMC is a PMC with high-speed serial fabric interconnect defined by the VITA 42 standard.

XMC specifies an additional connector (P5) that support PCI Express(VITA 42.3) or other high speed serial formats such as Serial RapidIO (VITA 42.2) and Parallel RapidIO (VITA 42.1)

X-ES provides high-performance, reconfigurable FPGA processing modules in the industry-standard XMC form factor. They include x8 PCI Express Gen3 interfaces, high-density I/O, high-frequency 14-bit Digital Analog Converter (DAC) for Digital Signal Processing (DSP), and up to twelve high-speed fiber-optic transceivers.

X-ES XMC FPGAs can be user-programmable, and with a powerful Xilinx Virtex-7 processor, support high-performance signal processing, sensor I/O, data recording, and linking systems in a range of protocols.

Curtiss Wright These rugged commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) processor modules feature Intel’s latest low-power E3-1505L v6 Xeon processor to provide more quad-core x86 performance than previous processor generations operating at higher power levels. The VPX3-1220 and XMC121, which are qualified for full production, have been provided to leading customers for early development since April 2017. Designed for use in size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) constrained aerospace and defense systems, these fully rugged, open architecture processor modules are ideal for use in general purpose mission computing applications that require the highest possible processing performance while consuming low power. The VPX3-1220 and XMC121 speed and simplify the integration of Intel Xeon processing into demanding aerospace and defense deployed applications, such as mission computing, image and display processing, virtualization and small multi-SBC ISR systems.

The ADX 3500 employs innovative design techniques; DEG engineers created a rugged and conduction-cooled product that works equally well in either an air-cooled VME/VXS chassis or a desktop PC. The ADX-3500 converts analog signals into 8 bit data with either a single channel at 3Gsps or two channels at 1.5Gsps.

Following digitization, numerous digital signal processing operations can be performed in the user programmable Virtex-5 FPGA.

What is XMC? A PMC card is a peripheral card that gives a user the capability to add PCI functionality to a system. A PMC card can be used in a cPCI system. Also, a PMC card can be used in a VME System.

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Engineers can either incorporate DEG’s DSP functions or develop their own algorithms in the ADX-3500’s open architecture. Either way, DEG engineers provide industry-leading design guidance and support for customers. Typical functions include Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs), Digital Down Conversion (DDC), and digital filtering. Regardless of whether the FPGA is used for processing, the sample data can be quickly and easily transferred off board via either the PCI-X bus or PCI-Express/RocketIO transceivers.

• Dual channel sampling up to 1.5Gsps at 8-bit Single channel sampling up to 3.0Gsps at 8-bit • Xilinx Virtex-5 SX50T FPGA PCI-Express x8 Interface 32/64-bit • 133 MHz PCI/PCI-X • Compliant Interface Flexible Triggering Options Programmable Sampling Delay/ Length

DATA SHEET

Advantech

Wolf Technology

Innovative Integration

The MIC-3667 is a low power, quad-port Gigabit Ethernet XMC based on the Intel® Ethernet Controller I350-AM4. It provides four copper Gigabit Ethernet interfaces at the front panel on RJ45 connectors. With a PCIex4 gen2 host interface, the MIC-3667 can support line rate traffic on all ports. Using intel’s latest controller technology, the card provides a wealth of offload and virtualization support capabilities to minimize the burden of handling network traffic on the hosting platform.

With power dissipation as low as 4W, the MIC-3667 is perfectly suited for use in rugged requirements and applications with passive cooling. The board is prepared for conformal coating required for harsh environments.

The versatile WOLF XMC-FGX-SDI-4IO (WOLF-3080) module accepts multiple simultaneous inputs and can convert to multiple output formats, including 3G-SDI, HD-SDI and analog (CVBS, STANAG 3350 or VGA). The module is powered by a WOLF Frame Grabber eXtreme (FGX) capture engine which leverages Xilinx® FPGAs to provide capture and conversion of video data from one standard to another. The module can also accept video sources from a GPU DisplayPort output or from a PCIe DMA stream for real-time conversion to SDI or analog output. The raw data from each channel can be streamed with sub-frame latency to the host system or to a GPU for analysis, enhancement, encode or display.

The XU-TX is an XMC module which features two AC-coupled single-ended 16-bit DAC outputs with programmable DC bias. The DAC devices employed support synchronization, interpolation, and their unique output circuits allow improved frequency synthesis in the 2nd Nyquist zone. This can shift the Nyquist null frequency in the output spectrum to two times the typical Nyquist null frequency. The maximum sample rate of the DAC IC is 12 GSPS, the maximum external direct clocking rate is 6 GSPS and the on board PLL can generate clocks up to 4.8 GHz. The DACs’ JESD 204B interfaces can stream data with transfer rates up to 6 GSPS. • wo 16-bit, 5 GSPS DAC channels: • Single ended AC coupled outputs with programmable DC bias • Differential DC model option • ~2.5 GHz analog bandwidth (1X) • Digital inverse sinc filter • Enhanced 2nd and 3rd Nyquist modes • “Frequency doubling” 2X mode • Interpolation filters: 1X(bypassed)-64x • 48 bit NCO and 31 32bit fast hop NCOs • ~7000 MB/s streaming via PCIe or Aurora • Internal or external clocking • Internal 0.3 to 4.8 GHz PLL each DAC • Internal or external triggering • Fixed latency, multi-board synchronization • Xilinx Kintex UltraScale FPGA XCKU060: • 4 GB DDR4 DRAM in 2 banks each with 64 bit interface • Up to 38.4GB/s total bandwidth

• Intel® Ethernet Controller I350-AM4 ƒ • Four 10 / 100 / 1000Base-T Ethernet ports (RJ45 connectors) ƒ • PCIex4 gen2 host interface ƒ • UDP, TCP and IP Checksum Offload ƒ • UDP and TDP Transmit Segmentation Offload ƒ • VMDq and SR-IOV Support with 8 RX and 8TX queues per port ƒ • Parity or ECC protected buffers ƒ • Fully Integrated to comply with IEEE802.3u ƒ • Compliant with VITA 42.0-2005, 42.3-2006 XMC specification

• WOLF Frame Grabber eXtreme (FGX) capture and process engine • Up to four HD-SDI or two 3G-SDI inputs • Up to four HD-SDI or two 3G-SDI outputs • Up to four analog inputs and two analog outputs • Low operating power, under 7.5W

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COTS

PRODUCT GALLERY IC-INT-VPX3d 3U OpenVPX Single Board Computer (SBC) based on Intel XEON (Broadwell-DE SoC) processor.

New 3U OpenVPX™ Single Board Computer Features a 6th Generation Skylake Intel® Xeon® CPU • 6th Generation Intel® Xeon® Quad Core Xeon E3-1505M V5 (47W) • Intel® C230 series CM236 PCH chipset • Programmable CPU power for heat sensitive applications • Up to 32GB of high-speed DDR4 memory with SODIMM lock-down mechanism (permits user removal or upgrades)

• One Intel® Xeon® Processor D-15xx • Two banks of DDR4 with ECC • Boot flash memory • External independent RTC with supercap backup • 2 * 10Gbe ports • 2 * PCIe x4 ports • 2 * GigaEthernet ports • 1 * RS232 console port • 4 * rear SATA interfaces • 6 * GPIOs • 1 * extension FPGA Kintex-7 • 1 * extension XMC slot PCIe x8 - or 2 * x4

Interface Concept

Phone: +33 2 98 57 30 30 or 510 656 3400 eMail: info@interfaceconcept.com Web: www.interfaceconcept.com

• Extensive I/O options • Power-on self-test (POST) code LCD display The VPX6600 series utilizes the 6th Generation Skylake Intel® Xeon® processor and C230 PCH chipset for extensive I/O support. Expanded memory performance comes with up to 32GB of DDR4 ECC SODIMMs that are firmly attached to the board and are removable for security or upgrades. This SBC is designed for commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications and manufactured to meet VITA 46.0 with a minimum 7-year life expectancy. A conduction-cooled version is also offered and boards start at less than $6,300.

A superior array of backplane I/O options includes PCIe x4 data and expansion planes, optional SATA III expansion plane, Ethernet ports, RS-232/422/485 ports, USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, DisplayPort 1.2 ports, SATA III ports, and audio. The Data Plane and Expansion Plane interfaces can be used to interconnect multiple VPX6600’s or to provide PMC/XMC support.

Acromag offers C libraries for VxWorks® and other operating systems. These libraries provide generic routines (source code included) to handle reads, writes, interrupts, and other functions.

The COTS product line of AcroExpress® processor boards are RoHS compliant and ideal military applications that requires extensive specialized I/O support with advanced cooling management.

Acromag

Phone: 877-295-7084 Web: https://www.acromag.com/vpx6600

Star Communications, Inc. PVP7 Signal Processing Receivers The PVP-7xx family combines a multi-channel digital receiver with up to four FPGAs, on a standard PCI Express® card. When installed in a customer’s desktop, server, or other PCIe® host, these cards provide a complete IF-to-DMA path for processing wireless signals.

• Scalable - 1,2,3,or 4 high-end Virtex®-7 FPGA (XC7VX485T) • Scalable - 0 to 4 receive channels • Compact - half-length card, only 4.4 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches • Low SWaP - less than 11 ounces, as low as 50 Watts • Powerful - processing > 6 TeraMAC/sec, memory > 270 Terabit/sec • Encryption protection available for code and data • Easy-to-Use - two-way direct memory access (DMA), simple intuitive API • Installs in any host or server in minutes, example app. already installed • Extensive signal processing libraries available • Programmable intermediate frequency (IF) • Programmable sample rate (100 to 250 mega-sample/sec) • Free software development kit • Free lifetime technical support Star Communications, Inc. Phone: (703) 254-5860 Email: sales@starcommva.com Web: www.starcommva.com

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COTS

Index

ADVERTISERS INDEX Company Page# Website

Company Page# Website

Acromag, Inc.................................backcover .................... www.acromag.com

Phoenix International..............................4................................www.phenxint.com

Avionics Database Solutions ..............31........................ www.aim-online.com

PICMG ...................................................25.................................... www.picmg.org

Behlman Electronics ..........................27........................... www.behlman.com

PICO ......................................................23.....................www.picoelectronics.com

Chassis Plans .....................................11.....................www.chassisplans.com

SynQor Inc. .............................................5................................... www.synqor.com

Elma Electronics.................................19..........................................elma.com

Themis Computer ..................................26..................................www.themis.com

One Stop Systems...................................7.................... www.onestopsystems.com

VPT Power .............................................30.............................. www.vptpower.com

Micro Digital...........................................31................................www.smxrtos.com Pentek.....................................................2...................................www.pentek.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.

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