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www.eecatalog.com/vme

Engineers Guide toVME, VPX & VXS

Annual Industry GuideSolutions for VME, VPX & VXS system engineers

UAVs Drive Call for SmallForm Factor Standard

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2012 GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc. All rights reserved.

All other brands or names are property of their respective holders.

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VPX Solutions: X-ES Is The VPXpertExtreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) has the broadest range o proven VPX

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board computers, switches, storage, FPGA processing, and I/O to ully qualifed

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4/44Engineers Guide to VME, VPX & VXS 2012

Welcome to the 2012 EngineersGuide to VME, VPX & VXS

For a computer architecture that is heading into its fourthdecade, VME (and its related architectures, especially VPX)remain remarkably robust. VDC Research projections indicate a

compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.48% for VME-basedsingle-board computers from 2010 through 2015, bringing thetotal VME-related market revenue forecast to $625.3 million in2015. And vendors seemed generally optimistic at the EmbeddedTech Trends forum the newest incarnation of what waspreviously the VITA Bus & Boards conference which took placeJanuary 16-17, 2011 in Cocoa Beach, Florida.

In this issue, we provide an overview of this event in UAVsDrive Call for Small Form Factor Standards, and throughoutthese pages youll find product information from key players inthe VME and VPX markets. VITA marketing director Jerry Gipper

explains how standards provide one way to stay ahead of thegame in Critical Embedded Systems Design Challenges. InVetronics Architectures Emerge to Facilitate Network-EnabledOperations, Rubin Dhillon of GE Intelligent Platforms describeshow vehicle electronics(vetronics) are changing communicationsamong virtually all battlefield assets. And Dr. Fred Blnnigen ofBustec addresses automatic test system requirements in VXIRemote and Embedded Controller Considerations. Finally,we talk to experts from Themis Computer and GE IntelligentPlatforms about opportunities surrounding new technologiesand markets in our roundtable discussion, Board Vendors Adaptto New VME Trends and Opportunities.

There are plenty of questions around the VME/VPX industrythese days, including the impact of defense budget cuts and theviability of alternative markets, to whether customers really wanta new small form factor standard, and how vendors roll that intotheir overall product offerings. We dont have all the answers,but we give you the information you need to draw some of thoseimportant conclusions for your business.

We hope you enjoy this EE Catalog VME and VPX ResourceGuide. As always, wed love to hear your feedback, thoughts andcomments. Send them to [email protected].

Cheryl Berglund CoupEditorEECatalog.com

P.S. To subscribe to our series of Resource Catalogs for developers andother professionals, visit www.eecatalog.com

Engineers Guide to VME, & VXS 2012


VP/Associate Publisher

Clair [email protected](415) 255-0390 ext. 15

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The Engineers Guide to VME, VPX & VXS 2012 is published by Extension Media LLC. Extemakes no warranty for the use of its products and assumes no responsibility for any errorsappear in this Catalog nor does it make a commitment to update the information containeEngineers Guide to VME, VPX & VXS is Copyright2012 Extension Media LLC. No informCatalog may be reproduced without expressed written permission from Extension Media Street, San Francisco, CA 94107-2343.

All registered trademarks and trademarks included in this Catalog are held by their respecompanies. Every attempt was made to include all trademarks and registered trademarksindicated by their companies.

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OpenVPX Development Platform

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Making Sense of

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SystemPaks

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Storage

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Elmas solid foundation of core capabilities is basedon decades of hardware design expertise, extensive

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7/31/2019 9964Dd01


Contents

Board Vendors Adapt to New VME Trends and Opportunities

By Cheryl Coup ........................................................................................................................................................................................6

Elma Electronic Embedded Systems Platorms

By Elma Electronic ........................ ........................ ........................ ........................ ......................... ........................ ........................ .......... 11

Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES)

By Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) ...................... ........................ ........................ ....................... ........................ ........................ ... 12

Critical Embedded Systems Design Challenges

By Jerry Gipper, VITA Director of Marketing.................... ...................... ....................... ........................ ........................ ........................ ... 14

UAVs Drive Call or Small Form Factor Standards

By Cheryl Coup ....................... ........................ ........................ ........................ ......................... ........................ ........................ .............. 18

Vetronics Architectures Emerge to Facilitate Network-Enabled Operations

By Rubin Dhillon, Industry Manager for Communications and Networking Solutions, Military and Aerospace division,

GE Intelligent Platforms ...................... ....................... ........................ ....................... ......................... ........................ ........................ ...... 22

VXI Remote and Embedded Controller Considerations

By Dr. Fred Blnnigen, Bustec .................................................................................................................................................................26

Online & Oine VME, VPX & VXS Resources .................................................................................................................29

Products and Services

Chips and Cores

Protocol Analysis Tools ICs

LeCroy Corporation

LeCroys PCI Express Protocol Analysis and Test Tools ..... 30

Hardware

Backplanes

Elma Bustronic

What is OpenVPX? ...................... ........................ .................. 31

SIE Computing Solutions

VPX Backplanes ....................... ........................ ...................... 32

Card Rack Hardware and Accessories

Elma Electronic

VPX/VXS Handles & Panels ........................ ........................ .. 33

CPU or Single Board Computers

CES - Creative Electronic Systems SA

RIOV-2478 ....................... ........................ ........................ ...... 34

Development Boards

Pentek

4 Channel 200 MHz 16-bit A/D with Virtex-7 FPGA VPX

Onyx Board (Model 53760) ........................ ........................ 35

Enclosures

Elma Electronic

Elma Rugged ATR Platforms ..................... ........................ .... 36

SIE Computing Solutions

717 Series Air-Over Conduction Cooled ATR Enclosures...... 37

Mupac 760 Small Form Factor Series ....................... ............ 38

Mass Storage

Elma ElectronicVME RAIDStor ....................... ........................ ........................ 39

Services

Design

Elma Electronic Inc.

VPX-300 3U VPX Reference Development Platform ............. 40

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ApplicationsData Recording

Display Processing

Digital Mapping

SIGINT / Electronic Warare

Mission Computing

Network Attached Storage

Payload Controllers

Sensor Management

Image Processing

Fire Control

Command and Control

Data Link Processing

Network Processing

BeneftsLOWER PRICE

Design-to-cost goals

Better value

SHORT LEAD TIME

prototype builds

confgured rugged systems

STATE-OF-THE-ART

SMALL PROGRAMS WELCOME

Use preconfgured systems or IRAD,

prototypes, and small programs

Available 3U VPX CardsTSBCi7300X

3U VPX Single Board Computer

with Intel CoreTM-i7 CPU

TIOC300X3U VPX XMC/PMC Carrier Module

TSC300X

3U VPX 8-Port SATA/SAS RAID

Module with PMC/XMC Site

TSM300X

3U VPX SATA/SAS

Mass Storage Drive Module

TGA 300X

3U VPX Graphics Processor

with AMD E4690 GPU

TSY300X Series

Standard ATR Footprint Standard 3U VPX Backplane

I/O Transition Board

Forced Air Conduction Cooled Standard

Optional External FLASH Drive Receptacles

Integrated Chassis Manager

Multi-port Ethernet Switch

Web Browser Management Interace

Finned, Coldplate, or Liquid Cool Option

I2C Interace to Cards and Test Port

350 Watts

8 x 1.0 Pitch Slots Multiple Temperature Sensors Dynamic Fan Speed Control

Variable Speed Redundant Fans

TSY305X Series

ATR Style or Footpad Mounting

Standard 3U VPX Backplane

Natural Air Convection Cooled

I/O Transition Board

28 VDC Power Supply Unit

150 Watts 5 x 1.0 Pitch Slots

VITA74 NANOATR

Intel Atom N455 @ 1.66 GHz 1 GB @ 667 MHz DDR3

VITA-74 Nano-ATR

Electrical per VITA-46 3U VPX

Electrical per VITA-65 OpenVPX

BP Connectors per VITA-57 FMC

4 Slot + Storage

Conduction Cooled with Fins

Dimensions (W x H x D) 4.88 x 4.12 x 4.38

4.5 lbs (average)

Conduction Cooled

Operating Temperature -40 C to + 71 C +28 VDC (18 to 36 VDC)

MIL-STD-810G, MIL-STD-461F

NANOPAK

Intel Atom N455 @ 1.66 GHz

1 GB @ 667 MHz DDR3

VITA-74 Derivative

I/O Through Front Panel Connector

Dimensions (H x W x D) 89 mm X 21 mm X 90 mm

Conduction Cooled

Operating Temperature -40 C to + 71 C

MIL-STD-810G, MIL-STD-461F

7/31/2019 9964Dd01


EECatalog SPECIAL FEATURE

U.S. military and aerospace budget uncertainties are

driving many of t he trends around VME and related tech-

nologies, with existing systems more likely to be targetedfor upgrades around performance (up) and power (down)

than replacement. Unmanned vehicles remain a bright

spot for new designs, which also continue to drive size,weight and power (SWaP) requirements. Despite a stagnant

economy, William E. Kehret, CEO of hemis Computer and

Michael Grumbine, Systems A rchitect, Militar y/AerospaceGroup of GE Intelligent Platforms still see opportunities

around new technologies and markets.

EEC atalog: How are board and system developers adaptingas military priorities shift to upgrades of existing VME

platforms and development of new smaller, lighter and

lower-cost systems?

Michael

Grumbine, GEInt el ligen t

Platforms:

odaystechnolo-

gies particularly multicore

processors, FPGAs andGPGPUs have created great

opportunities for developers

to reduce the size, weight,power and cost of systems

when upgrading from

existing VME platforms. New

multicore processor boards with high-performance pro-cessing capability can be employed to reduce the number

of boards used in a given solution, leading to lower power,

weight and board-count solutions. In order to reduce costand development time, legacy VME cards that are used for

special functions and interfacing can be combined withVXS hybrid bac kplanes that incorporate VME with high-speed serial busses such as VPX or cPCI. hese VXS hybrid

systems allow for more functionality to be added to the

order system, taking advantage of the performance of theserial-bussed system.

William E. Kehret, Themis Computer:hemis sees a burgeoning opportunity for

new, small form factor modules and sys-

tems, and a slower growth but importantmarket opportunity for traditional VME

ecosystems. hemis has responded by opening the tech-

nology for its new small form factor tactica l platforms and

leading the efforts of the VIA 74 Standards Committee.Dennis Smith, VP of hemis engineering chairs the

working group, which includes several relevant member

companies. his standards committee community-of-interest extends hemis product-development reach,

enabling the company to bring entire new systems to

market, in record time, without compromising its tradi-tional VME/V PX product line roadmap.

EEC ata log: What processor trends are you watching forVME and VPX systems, inc luding the roles of FPGAs andGPGPUs?

Grumbine, GE Intelligent Platforms: wo major trendsin processor technology are the increase in throughput

capacity and the number

of computations per watt.Increasing the number

of computations per watt

allows more work to be doneby a processor board in the

same thermal envelope,

thus gaining more perfor-mance without significantly

raising heat levels that

must be dissipated. Highercomputing-performance

boards allow reduction in

board count, making for a

smaller and lighter package, or allow the same size andweight package to do more. However, just having more

computations per cycle does not mean a better product.

he processor and the technology around the processorneed to be capable of transmitting enough data to utilize

the computational capability of the processor or the addi-tional processing capability will translate to wasted powerwith little gain.

GPGPUs are a great example of processors that increasecomputational capability per watt while maintaining a

reasonable board size. heir capabilities are measured in

GFLOPs (billions of floating point instructions)per wattper second. he parallel str ucture of a GPGPUs many pro-

cessing cores provides impressive computation capability

in packages that reduce the power consumed. However,

Board Vendors Adapt to New

VME Trends and OpportunitiesBy Cheryl Coup

Military-grade VME, VPX and

cPCI systems are well-suited or

opportunities in the oil, gas andmining industries due to their

rugged high-reliability pedigree.

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coupled with our proven COTS components and state-of-the-art

AXIS integrated software development tools virtually eliminate

many avenues of risk. Our RADAR subsystems are shipped with

high manufacturing and technology readiness levels that speed

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GPGPUs are extremely data thirsty and work most effi-

ciently when processing huge amounts of data.

FPGAs, with their quick non-floating-point processing

power,can act as powerful data ingest engines to feed the

GPGPUs and implementing high-speed data transport,such as 10Gbyte Ethernet to transport large amounts of

data, will go a long way towards efficiently using GPGPU

computing capabilities.

Ke hre t, Themis Computer: Security and virtualization

requirements of defense markets set a high standard forthe of necessity low-power processors on the market.

Further, the operating systems that must be hosted are

dominated by Microsoft, with a smattering of Lynux,Solaris and other embedded OSes. he low-power impera-

tive has been met with multicore initiatives from Intel,

AMD and others. hese are ideal env ironments for multi-threaded application code, but the brutal ly enforced power

limits, imposed by small deployment platforms with lim-

ited battery and for UAVs on-board generator power,inevitably lead to an architectural chase that employsFPGAs, as well a s the massively multicored GPGPUs finally

coming to market with low-

power chips. hese lattertechniques have historically

been developed with large

Si footprints and associatedhigh-power requirements.

So we eagerly await new,

higher-performance partsfrom the usual vendors.

Current state-of-the-art is

challenged by the high datarates of available sensors,

which themselves have undergone significant footprint

shrinks and amazing performance enhancements.

EEC ata log : With mil/aero budgets constrained for the

foreseeable future, what are your expectations for VME-

related technologies pushing into markets such as mi ningand oil exploration?

Grumbine, GE Intelligent Platforms: Oil and gasexploration and mining are booming industries now due

to growth in demand for energy. Along with increasedgrowth, though, these industries are seeing greaterenvironmental and safety regulations. Automated and

autonomous monitoring systems are needed to meet these

regulatory requirements. Military-grade VME, VPX andcPCI systems are well-suited for opportunities in the

oil, gas and mining industries due to their rugged high-

reliability pedigree. New regulations require constantmonitoring of operations and high data-throughput com-

puting capability which VME, VPX and cPCI systems are

well-suited to support.

Kehre t, Themis Com pu ter: While market adjacencies

always look very promising when defense industry bud-

gets are under pressure, the new funding environmentactually provides new opportunities for traditional

embedded computer suppliers, by shaking up markets.

hemis believes it can surf these industry re-levelingchanges. he company does do business in these adjacent

industrial markets (energy exploration and extraction

industries) but the lack of a consistent, favorable domesticenergy policy has created a risk premium for exploration

and extraction activities that is increasingly marginal-

izing U.S. industry partic ipation in world markets.

EEC atalo g: How will opportunities shake out for VPX

with respect to rugged /hardened MicroCA?

Grumbine, GE Intelligent Platforms: VPX was purposely

designed for rugged militar y applications and has receivedbroad industry acceptance. GE Intelligent Platforms is

making significant investments in VPX technologies

because we believe it is an optimal format for our targetedmilitary and aerospace applications. Rugged or hardenedMicroCA essentially takes commercial technology and

re-packages it for rugged

environments. he main ideabehind MicroCA is the con-

cept that large volumes in t he

commercial market wouldmake a range of AdvancedMC

modules available at very low

cost. Since MicroCA hasnot been highly successful,

there are few suppliers for

AdvancedMCs and litt levolume. MicroCA has

become a niche platform in the commercial segment and

the rugged version has become a niche within a n iche. Cur-rently, we do not see MicroCA as a viable plat form for our

military and aerospace customers.

Kehre t, Th emis Computer: We believe VPX and VPX-like architectures, that have leapfrogged the unfortunate

choice of large and expensive wafer switches, will domi-

nate the former stable mates. odays market is verycost conscious and it is often the quantum SWAP-cost

threshold that has driven new markets that vastly expandthe markets for embedded computing.

EEC atalo g: What are the biggest changes you see coming

in applications for VME and related technologies in thenext few years?

Grumbine, GE Intelligent Platforms: he biggest changethat I see coming for applications is an increase in the

intelligence of the applications that are embedded into

platforms. here is an exponential growth in the amountof real-time data that is being processed on platform

There is an exponential growth

in the amount o real-time data

that is being processed on

platorm applications.

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12/44 Engineers Guide to VME, VPX & VXS 2012


applications. For example, the number of pixels in ISR

systems grew one-thousand (1000X) in t he past year. hat

much data is more than can be stored or transmitted andprocessed remotely, efficiently and timely using current

applications. Effective utilization of the e normous amount

of data that must be processed in real time requires thatmilitary applications become smarter about processing

data and ma king automated decisions. his stepping-up of

mission applications will increase the computational pro-cessing requirements for the platforms and the elec tronics

that support them. VPX and Open VPX-based systems will

increasingly become the format of choice because of thehigh-performance that its serial architecture brings to

clean-sheet designs.

Ke hre t, Th emis Computer: hemis sees and partici-

pates in an incredible shrinking world of reconnaissance

and surveillance platforms. hese changes have drivenpackaging evolution and associated industry standards.

he SWAP-cost imperative imposed by these new deploy-

ment platforms is one of the most challenging realities inour business. Unfortunately, there is a start-up latencythat stands between even the most agile development

organization and full-rate production. he silver lining

for clouded product-line revenues is that demand for

smaller deployment platforms grows faster than cost/

price attrition. So the above-mentioned reconnaissance

and surveilla nce markets are ripe for generational change,a trend that bodes ill for traditional-system ecosystems.

3U backplanes and modules offer one last lifeboat before

applications migrate away from the ecosystem, in favorof a smaller packaging system. hemis has positioned

its new AR systems at the nexus of streaming video and

relatively low power. he company also drives an industrystandards committee (VIA-74) and has preconfigured

product ready for mission-critical applications, including

mission computing, payload control, real-time control,data recording and mobile robotics.

Cheryl Berglund Coup is Editor of EECatalog.

com. Her articles have appeared in EE Times,

Electronic Business, Microsoft Embedded Re-view and Windows Developers Journal and

she has developed presentations for the Embed-

ded Systems Conference and ICSPAT. She hasheld a variety of production, technical marketing and writing

posit ions within technolog y companies and agencies in the

Nor thwest.

VME, VPX & VXS ONLINEExplore... Directory of leading VME, VPX & VXS SolutionProviders

Top Stories and News White Papers Expert Opinions (Blogs) Exclusive VideosValuable ArticlesAsk the ExpertsSign up for the quarterlyVME, VPX & VXS E-Product Alert


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13/44www.eecatalog.com/vme

EECatalog SPECIAL FEATUR

CONTACT INFORMATION

Elma Electronic Embedded

Systems PlatormsElma Electronic Inc. supplies a first class offering of VIA stan-dards based products for standard and rugged COS electronics

packaging and sub-systems integration: chassis, boards, back-

planes, mechanical components, and cabinets. Elmas EmbeddedComputing products and services make the company a leading sup-

plier of VME, VXS and VPX based integrated embedded boards and

sub-systems. System architecture, hardware, and software designservices enable delivery of complete solutions. For rugged require-

ments, we take COS products, such as single board computers,

then enhance and qualify them to meet certain MIL Standards.

Our extensive chassis product offering is unparalleled in the

industry: rugged COS 19 rackmount chassis, AR boxes, and non-rugged and lab appropriate chassis and enclosures. Te 12R2 series is

an extrusion-based modular design, which provides a cost-effective

way to customize designs. Elmas rugged chassis platforms meet theEMI/RFI requirements for MIL-SD-461D, and shock and vibrationaccording to MIL-SD-167, MIL-SD-810F and MIL-SD-910D.

Our popular ype 32 towers and E-Frame chassis are perfect for new

board-level and system development in the lab.

Elma is capable of quickly turning projects from initial system

architecture through to specification, design, manufacturing andtest. We also work with you to manage the entire project including

EOL issues, spares inventory and lifecycle management. Elma is

truly qualified to offer the widest range of best of class productsand by teaming with our partners, we provide complete standard

or custom integrated embedded sub-system platforms to meet

your requirements.

19 and Portable VME, VXS and VPX Chassis

meet a wide range of applications

heights

shipment

dual star, mesh, or custom fabric implementations

Rugged COTS Chassis

SD-810F, MIL-SD-167 and MIL-SD-901D

is a major factor

ATR (Air Transport Rack)

reduced cost and lead time

panels, and top and bottom covers

VME, VXS, and VPX Embedded ComputingBoards

Engines

-forms (SystemPaks)

requirements

Elma Electronic44350 Grimmer Blvd

Fremont, CA 9453 8USA510-656-3400 Telephone

[email protected]

www.elma.com

7/31/2019 9964Dd01


X-ES has an extensive portfolio of rugged VPX products.Designed for both conduction- and air-cooled applications,

carriers, storage modules, power modules, backplanes, RMs,and platforms and enclosures.

Extreme Engineering

Solutions (X-ES)By Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES)

Product Name Form Factor Processor Max CPU Speed Memory NVRAM Mezzanines Ethernet USB

XCalibur1541 6U VPX MPC8572E 1.5 GHz 4 GBDDR2-800

256 MB NOR16 GB NAND

2 PMC/XMC 4 1000BASE-T 3 USB2.0

XCalibur1640 6U VPX QorIQP3041,P4080,P5020

1.5 - 2.5 GHz 8 GBDDR3-800



XCalibur1740 6U VPX QorIQP1011,P2020

1.2 GHz 8 GBDDR3-800



XCalibur4341 6U VPX Core i7 2.53 GHz 16 GBDDR3-1066

32 MB NOR128 GBNAND

2 PMC/XMC 51000BASE-BXor 1000BASE-T

3 USB2.0

XCalibur4440 6U VPX 2nd GenCore i7quad-core

2.1 GHz 16 GBDDR3-1333

32 MB NOR128 GBNAND

2 PMC/XMC 51000BASE-BXor 1000BASE-T

5 USB2.0

XPedite5370 3U VPX MPC8572E 1.5 GHz 4 GBDDR2-800

256 MB NOR4 GB NAND

1 PMC/XMC 2 1000BASE-T

XPedite5470 3U VPX QorIQP3041,

P4080,P5020

1.5 - 2.5 GHz 8 GBDDR3-

1333


1 PMC/XMC 2 1000BASE-Tor

1000BASE-BX

2 USB2.0

XPedite5570 3U VPX QorIQP1011,P2020




XPedite7170 3U VPX Core 2Duo


4 MB NOR4 GB NAND

1 PMC/XMC 1-21000BASE-T

0-2USB2.0

XPedite7172 3U VPX Core 2Duo


2 MB NOR4 GB NAND

1 PMC/XMC 2 1000BASE-Tor1000BASE-BX

2 USB2.0

XPedite7370 3U VPX Core i7 2.53 GHz 8 GBDDR3-

1066

32 MB NOR16 GB NAND

1 PMC/XMC 2 1000BASE-Tor

1000BASE-BX

2 USB2.0

XPedite7371 3U VPX Core i7 2.53 GHz 8 GBDDR3-1066

32 MB NOR16 GB NAND


2 USB2.0

XPedite7470 3U VPX 2nd GenCore i7

2.1 GHz 8 GBDDR3-1333

32 MB NOR16 GB NAND


2USB2.0

Single Board Computers

7/31/2019 9964Dd01


Storage SolutionsX-ES provides a variety of VPX storage options for embedded

computing applications. o address the storage requirementsof deployed embedded applications, X-ES offers high density

Solid State Disk (SSD) storage solutions and removable SSD

storage options. X-ES can build removable storage options intosystem-level solutions, such as the XPand4200 sub-1/2 AR

box.

Carrier

bit AES encryption

Switches and Carrierso facilitate system integration, X-ES provides a number of

switch and carrier options. All are available in both conduc-tion- and air-cooled versions.

with bridging to cPCI

Gigabit Ethernet switch

Integrated Switch with XMC and Management Support

Backplanes, Power Modules, and Rear Tran-sition Modules (RTMs)Design margins for VPX backplanes are much narrower thantraditional backplane due to the number and the speed of the

signals on the backplane. o ensure that backplanes do not

represent a weakness in the system design, X-ES provides aline of VPX backplanes. o support air-cooled applications

and development efforts, X-ES provides a line of RMs. Power

requirements of VPX systems can be much higher than with

traditional systems. o ensure that system power require-

modules.

output, 300 W, 3U VIA 62.0 VPX power supply with

integrated MIL-SD-461E filtering and optional hold-up

capacitor

output, 300 W, 3U VIA 62.0 VPX power supply with inte-

grated MIL-SD-461E filtering, with 12V allocated as theprimary distribution rail across the backplane

System Integration and System QualifcationX-ES integrates X-ES products, third-party products, our

customers proprietary boards, and software, based on the cus-

tomers needs. X-ES performs a wide variety of qualification

testing. Utilizing our in-house equipment and test engineers,we perform environmental testing and environmental pre-

screening. We also perform EMI pre-screening utilizing our

in-house equipment. We also perform environmental andEMI testing by working with independent test facilities. X-ES

delivers integrated and qualified subsystems and completesystems ready for deployment.

ProductName

Form Factor Chassis Type Dimensions Chassis Cooling

SupportedModules

# o Slots

ADP 3U VPX Development 11.5D x 5.5W x 16.5H Air Conduction 10

XPand1000 3U VPX Development 8.3D x 4.2W x 8.5H Air Conduction 2



XPand1300 3U VPX Development 11.5D x 5.5W x 16.5H Air Air 15

XPand3200 3U VPX ATR 8.75D x 4.88W x 5.62H Conduction Conduction 6

XPand4200 3U VPX ATR 13.5D x 4.88W x 6H Air Conduction 6

XPand5200 3U VPX ATR 10.30D x 4.88W x 5.65H NaturalConvection orConduction

Conduction 4

Platorms and Enclosures

Extreme EngineeringSolutions, Inc.

322 5 Deming Way, Suite 120Middleton, WI 53562608-833-1155 Telephone608-82 7-6171 Fax

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7/31/2019 9964Dd01



VIA technologies such as VMEbus, VPX, PMC, FMC, VXS and

many others are a favorite choice in what are termed Critical

Embedded Systems. Tese are systems that are life-critical orsafety-critical and whose failure or malfunction may result

in death or serious injury to people, loss or severe damage to

equipment or severe environmental harm. VIA technologiesare further defined to be used in high performance, distributed

computing systems that manage high bandwidth I/O, involve

real-time processing and are environmentally constrained tospace, weight and power (SWaP). Tis definition clearly sepa-

rates VIA technology from that used in personal computing

or data center servers.

Te focus of VIA technologies on the needs of critical

embedded systems means that most applications of the tech-

nology are in military/aerospace, communications, industrialand medical application markets. Applications within these

markets that are life or safety critical benefit from the extra

care that suppliers of VIA technologies put into their prod-ucts. Te performance bandwidth and packaging options

defined in specifications such as VMEbus and VPX have

attractive options for different requirements of demandingapplications.

Tere are many challenges that designers face when developingcritical embedded systems. As computing elements are added

to new applications with each generation of product develop-

ment, the issues become increasingly complex.

Fragmentation o marketsTe very nature of embedded computing is forcing an ever-

expanding fragmentation of the requirements. Tere is a

for suppliers to reach economies of scale that help to drive costreductions enjoyed by high unit volume consumer devices.

Some designers try to fit low-cost desktop technology into

critical embedded systems only to find that the support costsfar outweigh the material costs. Using a Windows and Intel

Architecture solution is not always the best choice for critical

applications. Evaluating commercially available real-timeoperating systems and other processor families is importantwhen developing a critical embedded system because they can

have features that are better suited to meet requirements. For

instance: better security, event response times or processingelements.

Fortunately, some technology is ubiquitous and tends toevolve its usage model so that you can gain some cost savings

without sacrificing performance and reliability. Examples of

these are also not always a perfect fit, they have evolved over

the years to make them suitable options in many cases. Te

respective ecosystems have roadmaps for the technology thatmake them suitable for the long product life cycles required by

most critical embedded systems.

More Standards than everTe fragmentation of the markets is leading to a rise in the

number of standards that help to define next generations of

technologies used in embedded computing. Te next wave ofstandards is generally defined by the ecosystems that have

the technology needs. One or two major contributors often

team up to turn a proprietary specification into the nextstandard. Te incentive is to help drive up the consumption

and thus lower costs. Te number of working groups that aredefining the next generations of standards is increasing eachyear. VIA alone has over 30 active working groups gathering

the Voice of the Customer inputs and converting the inputs

into robust specifications. Tese working groups are workingon everything from small form factor systems to backplane

interconnect strategies to reliability guidelines. Standards

driven through established organizations such as VIA ensurea well-developed and vetted specification.

Critical Embedded Systems

Design ChallengesBy Jerry Gipper, VITA Director of Marketing

7/31/2019 9964Dd01

17/44




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SWaP is CriticalSize, weight and power are three limitations that nearly every

critical embedded system is bounded to by some degree. All

three become increasingly critical as devices become moremobile and integrated. SWaP applies across all levels of tech-

nology from chips to boards to systems. Finding the right

combination and making the associated trade offs is verychallenging. Every application has its own guidelines and

restrictions driving important design decisions. Standards

that have made considerations for options help in the decisionprocess. For example, the usage of the VPX family of specifica-

tion is guided through the OpenVPX architectural framework

that defines the operability levels of the numerous combina-

tions of products that are available from the product suppliers.

Need or SpeedMany new applications arise because the performance levelsare going off the charts with processing and interconnect

capability and there does not appear to be any end to the needfor speed anytime in the near future. Give an engineer morecomputing performance, and they will find a way to need even

more.

Fortunately, there are small armies of engineers working

on innovation to improve performance at all levels. Most

important for a critical embedded system is interconnecting

performance. In addition, most exciting and promising here is

the work with optical interconnects. While still not practicalfor many applications, optical interconnects are making great

inroads in performance and cost. Te new VPX fiber optic inter-

connect specification (VIA 66) that defines a family of blindmate fiber optic interconnects for use with VPX backplanes

and plug-in modules is one of the first backplane standards

to emerge. Te endgame is nowhere in clear sight, and you canexpect a lot of new innovation as suppliers find ways to make

optical interconnects practical and cost-effective. VIA has

established the VIA Architectures for Optical study group tohelp push along efforts to create necessary standards.

CustomizationDespite all the efforts to develop standards, there is also a

the components and systems to solve the root problems of

the design process, but the levels of customization must not

interfere with the time-to-market and cost models of the finalproduct. Finding technologies that let you customize quicklyand effectively are necessary. Te use of FPGAs and system

integration with board level modules is one of the most proven

ways to address the requirement for fast and relatively easycustomization. Most board suppliers offer custom products

and design services to some degree, some more than others.

Even higher levels of customization at the board level willhappen in the future.

SummaryDesigning critical embedded computing systems is no easy

task. Te challenges become more daunting with each passing

generation of technology. Using standards and products basedon the standards is one way to stay ahead of the game because

you can reduce risk by leveraging the knowledge based on the

developers of the standards and the related products. VisitVIA at www.vita.com to learn how VIA technologies can

help you with your next project.

Jerry Gipper has held a variety of positions in

systems engineering, sales, product marketing,

business development and strategic planning. Histechnology and marketing experience spans embed-

ded computing technologies from VMEbus, PMC,CompactPCI, AdvancedTCA, various embeddedmotherboard technologies, embedded microprocessors and SOCs,

Embedded Windows, Linux and real-time operating systems.

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VIAs long-standing Bus & Boards conference, which hasnttaken place for several years, was reincarnated in Cocoa Beach,

Florida on January 16-17, 2012 as the Embedded ech rends

conference. Billed as a business and technology forum ratherthan a trade show, the event revolved around presentations

on a variety of VME and VPX-related technologies, updates by

several VIA groups, as well as media briefings and networking.

Discussion focused on the need for smaller, lighter, faster

systems especially growing demands for unmanned groundand aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are driving development ofnew small form factor (SFF) standards and modular systems.

Questions around which if any of these new standards will

succeed still abound, however. Vendors indicate that customerstypically come at a design challenge with a focus on processor,

operating system, application requirements and yes, general

size, weight and power (SWaP) requirements but not neces-sarily a specific modular form factor. In many presentations,

vendors talked about their full system solutions approach that

is more often customized than not. (While the use of COStechnologies is still important, its not clear if that real ly means

commercial or custom off-the-shelf.) Its possible that the

focus on modularity and new form factor standards doesntappropriately address customer or vendor needs. For instance,if

one or more of the new SFF standards takes off, vendors may be

hard-pressed to fold that new product line into their portfolios,on top of efforts to follow new processor announcements in an

already wide range of board standards and form factors.

But all that remains to be seen. What follows are impressionsfrom the events presentations and vendor discussions.

VITA OverviewVIA director of marketing Jerry Gipper opened the event with

an overview of VIA activities, technologies and state of themarket. Overall, VIA membership has stayed fairly consistentsince 2005, with membership at 126 companies then and now,

and with a high of 141 member companies in September 2010.

Gipper noted the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&A)on membership, and that most of the same players were still in

attendance, just wearing new hats.

Research from IMS Research and VDC Research indicate steady if

not overwhelming growth. IMS Research last reported on this

market in August 2010 (a new report is due out soon), but showedVME revenue for single board computers at $493 million in 2010,

down from $496.3 million in 2008, but up from $456.4 million in2009. Military and aerospace applications continue to dominate

the market with about 37% of total VME revenue; communications

followed at about 25% of the market, with industrial automation(9%), medical (7%), transportation (6%) and other sectors (16%)

making up the balance. Overall, x86 architectures comprised just

over 51% of revenue, while Power architectures captured just under40% and other architectures made up the balance.

VDC Research provided data that was current as of late 2011(from the VDC study 2011 Embedded Hardware and SystemsService, rack 2: Embedded Boards Supplier Analysis, Volume

1: Slot Single Board Computers and CPU Blades). In 2011, VDC

showed that VME and its variants comprised 24% of the slot SBCand CPU blade market, with revenue of $392.6 million. Tat share

is projected to remain the same through 2014, although overall

market growth will bring VME-related revenue to $544.5 millionduring that time. VDC believes that newer technologies such as

VXS and VPX are driving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)

of 12.48% from 2010 through 2015, and expects that VPX willbe the dominate VME-based architecture by 2014, moving from

18% of the VME market in 2011 to 34% in 2014.

VITA Goes SmallSwaP requirements continue to drive new VIA standards, and

much of the discussion during the conference revolved aroundadvancements in 3U VPX and new smaller form factors. Pro-

ponents of new SFF standards presented updates on VIA 59

and VIA 74. Sponsors of VIA 73 (PCI Systems) and VIA 75

(Curtiss Wright) were not in attendance.

VITA 59

ANSI-VIA 59 ESMexpressCOM defines a Rugged System-

On-Module Express (RSE) thatis sponsored by MEN MikroElektronik GmbH as well as

Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense

Systems, Pentair, Samtec and LiP-PER Embedded Computers. (See

photo.) MEN Mikro CO Manfred Schmitz presented the new

standard that is designed to make COM Express viable in ruggedenvironments and mobile applications. Schmitz described it as

the only rugged COM standard that supports conductive cooling,

electromagnetic shielding and mechanical protection, as well asstandard pin-outs to support easy replacement and long-term

UAVs Drive Call or Small

Form Factor StandardsEmbedded Tech Trends 2012 Focuses on SWaP, Interoperability and System-

Level Solutions

By Cheryl Coup

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availability, with size and mounting compliant to PICMG COM.0

module that is compliant with the standard in process, andSchmitz described several applications for it, including railway

equipment. (More information is available at http://www.men.

de/news/press-releases,126888,In-op-Form-ESMexpress-Com-

puter--On--Module-with-PowerPC-QorIQ.html#y.)

VITA 74

VIA 74 is sponsored by TemisComputer, along with Samtec,

Molex and Xembedded. In a

presentation, Temis VP of engi-neering Dennis Smith focused on

the growing market for military

unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs),

-

lion market with a forecasted CAGR

of 12% from 2013-2018. While small tactical platforms such as UAVshave adopted architectures such as PC/104, there is also extensivefragmentation and a need to adopt VPX features without the high

cost. Temiss approach is based on the Nano EX express standard,

which is the size of a credit card with a COM Express interface. It

new fabrics that include PCI Express, SAA and Gigabit Ethernet. Inthe conferences only hospitality-suite-slash-product-demo event,

Temis showed its Nano-Pak sealed module and five-slot VIA-74

NanoAR system. (See photo and http://www.themis.com/themis/product/tacticalsystems/vita74 for more information.) Temis is

actively working to build an ecosystem around VIA 74: mechanical

models and drawings are available for download and tooling forframe and module extrusions has been set up. In the meantime,

Temis states that it is finding applications for VIA 74 within the

U.S. Armys Victory group and also sees interest in energy servicesand transportation applications.

VPX in ActionTe VPX Marketing Alliance is one of four marketing groupsnow active within VIA (the others are focused on FMC, VXS

and the reliability community), and all of which are working to

meet VIAs mission of promoting open standards for criticalembedded computing. Valerie Andrew of Elma Electronic is

the new chair of the VPX Marketing Alliance, which covers thebase standard VIA 46, as well as VIA 48 (VPX-REDI), VIA

channel), VIA 60 (interchangeable connectors), VIA 66 (fiber

optic connectivity) and VIA 67 (analog/RF connectivity), aswell as the new small form factors. Andrew introduced several

sessions related to VPX and OpenVPX.

Challenges o Interoperability with OpenVPX

David Hinkle of Elma Electronic dispelled the notion that VPX

is not multi-vendor interoperable, describing Elmas OpenVPXsystems that are built with products from industry leaders

such as Emerson, GE Intelligent

Platforms, Concurrent echnologies

and Interface Concept. OpenVPXdefines systems using an established

nomenclature that provides a foun-

dation for interoperability. OpenVPXprofiles define a topology of data

connectivity to the backplane fromthe modules with slot profiles (which

pins connect to what), and define

what protocols a module is specifiedto use when communicating over the connections defined in the

slot profiles with module profiles. Each slot profile has a unique

slot profile names to understand all the elements and define

how it will be used. A few things to keep in mind: Since VPX

preceded OpenVPX, it should not be surprising there are manyvendors whose products only comply to VPX, but many vendors

are adding OpenVPX-compliant boards to their offerings that

indicate the module and slot profiles they are compliant with.Finally Hinkle says: dont assume that just because a module isnot OpenVPX that it cant be used in an OpenVPX design.

OpenVPX Successully DeployedPaul Monticciollo, Mercury CO, stated what became a common

theme at the conference: that military and aerospace customers

are looking to vendors for system-level solutions that are based onopen board standards in order to control program costs and accel-

erate time to deployment. Monticciollo described two Mercury

applications for Open VPX: the Gorgon Stare and Patriot MissileDefense programs, both advanced processing systems that were

rapidly implemented using open hardware and software standards.

Penteks Roger Hosking continued this theme, and stated that

the benefits of Open VPX outweigh perceived competitive

threats, with vendor interoperability becoming the basis for suc-cessful sales strategies. He sees new embedded designs shifting

from VME to Open VPX as a natural roadmap extension, and

believes that Open VPX has more momentum than other new

small form factor standards in the works.

VITA Technology ChallengesA panel of experts responded to questions from moderator JohnMcHale of Military Embedded Systems. Panelists were Man-

fred Schmitz, MEN Mikro Elektronik GmbH;Ken Grob, ElmaElectronic Inc.; Peter Cavill, GE Intelligent Platforms; and PaulMonticciollo, Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. What follows are

excerpts from these discussions.

On roadmaps rom processor suppliers:

Intel and Freescale are

mainstream, but it canbe tough for board and

system suppliers to keep

up with Intels designcycle of a new product

Themis Nano-Pak sealed

module and fve-slotVITA-74 NanoATR cube.

3U VPX Mini ATR in

a rugged OpenVPXplatorm rom Elma

Electronic

7/31/2019 9964Dd01



architecture every 12 months. ARM is beginning to show up in

some military applications, but these are emerging opportunities

that are fragmented in terms of suppliers. And while there is ahuge amount of software driven by the consumer smartphone

and tablet markets, that presents even more of a mismatch with

mil/aero due to volume of markets and long-term support.

The impact o deense spending cuts on COTS:

GEs Cavill expects business to move away from ground vehiclesto smaller systems such as UAVs, while Mercurys Monticciollo

expects to see an emphasis on putting systems together that are

effective in gathering information. Elmas Grob will be watchingthe emerging SFF arena, even though that presents challenges

in folding new products into full portfolios that already encom-

pass VME, CompactPCI and other technologies.

Use o VME technologies in other industries:

Grob notes that the cost differential in systems specified forrugged military versus rugged industrial might be 2:1 and won-

ders if there might be a move towards more centric requirements

for standards, while Schmitz of MEN Mikro indicates that usageof mil/aero standards in other verticals is dependent on quantity.

The impact o compliance to Restriction o

Hazardous Substances (RoHS) conversion:Tere were grimaces across the panel on this topic, with frus-

tration evident on how to maintain reliability and mitigate tin

whisker shorts. However, manufacturers recognize that theboat has sailed and theyre collecting data on processes and

developing more reliable assembly techniques. Te impact may

depend on demands from the customers customer, which canresult in poor yield or unmanufacturability, not to mention

wasted time spent negotiating around these issues.

On trends in oshore manuacturing:

Overall, panelists are seeing some components coming from

low-cost regions, but most are building systems onshore, in theU.S. or Europe.

On what COTS means today:

Tis discussion generated quite a few laughs. Monticciollo statedthat customers always need some sort of customization since the

environmentals are different for every product. He believes that

COS standards can get them to 80-90% of the solution; the issueis how much its going to cost for that last 10%. Schmitz responded

wryly that COS is a custom product for which the customer isntwilling to pay non-recurring engineering (NRE) charges. Cavill -

ally composed of custom products that have multiple customers.

Future vision o embedded boards:

Cavill believes that the VPX portion of VME will continue to grow,

see complete functions on modules as silicon integration continues,

and is seeing a move to complete application-ready systems. Schmitz

also sees MEN Mikro changing from a board manufacturer to asystem manufacturer, especially as systems become smaller. Tese

themes were echoed by Grob, who also sees a move to systems and

VPX. Monticciollo noted that todays system solution also includesthe analog portion and that software has become more important

for differentiation, especially as silicon becomes more integrated,

providing fewer opportunities to differentiate in hardware.

On microTCAs impact on VPX:

None of the panelists saw an impact from MicroCA.

Other SessionsAdditional presentations included VIA Working Group updates(which can be found at www.vita.com), an overview of the VIA

Reliability Community, a review of the FMC market by Patrick

Mechin of echwaY,and an explanation of the issues arounddebugging PCI Express (PCIe) in critical embedded systems by

John Wiedemeier of LeCroy.

While the consensus at

Embedded ech rends

seemed to be that copper isstill meeting most needs, WillOuyang of Samtec generated

interest with his overview

on new optical interconnectsthat will be required to match

CPU performance increases.

Challenges come down tobandwidth, distance and density, which Samtec is addressing

with new active optical cable (AOC) products generated from the

June 2011 acquisitions of AlpenIO (now Samtec Optical Group)and Aspen echnologies (now Samtec Microelectronics). Te cable

assemblies are available as a PCI Express x4 AOC, which is PCIe Gen

3-speed capable at 100 meters, and QSFP+ AOC that is compliant100 meters. Weight and size comparisons were impressive: at one

meter, the PCI Express cable is 63% smaller in diameter and 90%lighter than copper (61% lighter including total assembly); the

QSFP+ assembly at one meter is 68% smaller in diameter and 88%

lighter than copper.

Next Embedded Tech TrendsPlans are already in the works for the second annual Embedded

ech rends conference, which will bring the event back to the

take place in early 2013 on the Queen Mary. Watch www.vita.comfor details.

Cheryl Berglund Coup is editor of EECatalog.com.Her articles have appeared in EE Times, Electronic

Business, Microsoft Embedded Review and Win-

dows Developers Journal and she has developedpresentations for the Embedded Systems Conference

and ICSPAT. She has held a variety of production,

technical marketing and writing positions within technology com-panies and agencies in the Northwest.

Samtec optical engines

7/31/2019 9964Dd01



Introduction

multi-national forces who are required to deploy anywhere in

the world faster than ever before. Communications of voice,video and data have become critical to the successful opera-

tion of these forces. Tis has led to the implementation of

Network-Enabled Operations (NEO) as a force multiplier,and has resulted in everything from forward operating

bases to vehicular electronics systems architecture adoptingcommon, IP-based network architecture. Vehicle electronics,

often combined as Vetronics, are changing communications

among virtually al l battlefield assets.

Emergence o the NEO Paradigmhe core basics of conf licts, command control, communica-tion and intelligence (C4I) have not changed since a ncient

days and now, perhaps more than ever,

the use of information superiority andmilitary communications as a force-mul-tiplier is seen as a competitive edge. We

can add real-time high-definition video

streams or intelligent blue-force tracking,360-degree situational awareness and

real-time language translation to the list

of game changing militar y technologies.

Military forces see the development of a

superior communications network as pri-ority number one, even above developing

superior weapons, thus marking a major

shift in military thinking towards a newNEO mindset. he essential premise of

NEO is that technology now enables each

warfighter and militar y asset to become abattlefield sensor. he data t hus gathered

can then be shared in real time over a

high-speed network.

he implementation of NEO is influencing

military technology in profound ways.

he network architecture has become all-pervasive, and almost every battlefield

asset is adopting a network-based design.

he fundamental pri nciples of NEO are as

follows:

1. A robustly networked military force

improves information sharing.

2. Information sharing enhances the

quality of the information, as well as

shared situational awareness.

Vetronics Architectures

Emerge to Facilitate Network-

Enabled OperationsBy Rubin Dhillon, Industry Manager for Communications and Networking Solutions, Military and Aerospace division, GE Intelligent Platforms

7/31/2019 9964Dd01



3. Shared situational awareness enables collaboration and

self-synchronization, and also enhances sustainabilityand speed of control.

4. he end result of these benefits is increased mission

effectiveness.

he networking principle behind NEO is based on the

same basic architectures as the Internet or other largenetworks you might find in the enterprise world. A net-

work diagram of the U.S. DoDs Global Information Grid(GIG) that connects warfighters, policy makers and sup-port personnel looks very similar to a diagram of a large

corporate network that connects company personnel,

management, customers and suppliers to a single securenetwork. It is modular, scalable and open, which has led

to the large-scale adoption of embedded computing and

common off-the-shelf systems.

New Vetronics Architectures DrivingNEO to the Tactical EdgeAs net work-enabled operat ions begin to deploy, a need is

emerging to see the battlefield network reach all the way

to the tactical edge. he US Army envisions a warfighter

wearing computers and communications equipment orperhaps using a standard smartphone. hese warfighters

are connected to a communications hub that gives them

real-time connectivity to the battlefield network, andthat hub has taken the form of a modern armored mili-

tary vehicle. Since the military vehicle has become notonly a network node but essentially a complex networkappliance, the design and architecture of the vehicle is

transforming. he vehicles nervous system of electronics

has become a network. Even the systems themselvesthecomputer, communications and weapons systemsare

becoming networks within a network.

A scal able, distributed net work wi ll likely result in

decreased deployment times for new vehicles and new

Figure 1 Example VPX System, GEs MAGIC1 (3U System)

7/31/2019 9964Dd01



technologies. Also,in these budget-constrained times,

the combination of reduced size, weight, power and cost

(SWaP-C) along with an open, multivendor mix of systemcomponents could significantly reduce the cost of design

and deployment.

Implementation ChallengesWith the adoption of Network-Enabled Operations and

the priority placed on network communications, a fightingforce must literally setup a whole communications infra-

structure with wired and wireless broadband links and

data centers for every theater they enter. Along withtheir traditional radios, warfighters are carrying routers,

switches, blade servers, cellular base stations, network

gateways and a number of other network equipment intobattle. All this equipment must be transported and pow-

ered; so it is no surprise that now as never before, SWaP

issues are at the fore of concerns for military users andprime contractors alike.

Another sig nificant concer n is the harsh env ironment inwhich militar y vehicles are designed to operate. Vetronicssystems are subject to significant shock and vibration,

temperature extremes, dust, sand, dirt and moisture. Such

systems are therefore ruggedized, which adds to their sizeand weight. hese systems are also passively cooled, which

places limits on the power and performance of the elec-

tronics within them.

hese challenges can be exemplified by a common NEO

requirement such as the capture and trans port of video for

C4I applications and 360-degree situational awareness.he demand for video capabilities in military vehicles is

expected to continue to grow both in numbers of deployed

platforms as well as range of functionality, especiallyreal-time, high-definition video. As such, platform

communications must be able to distribute video feeds

encapsulated in IP and transported over Ethernet bothto the operators (whether on the platform itself or at a

remote location) as well as to specia lized video processing

systems. hese processing systems require very high-performance computing with high-speed communications

links. Given the SWaP and environment challenges, the

standard systems one would use in the commercial enter-prise world would not work. his is where COS embedded

platform solutions come into play.

COTS Embedded Technology Solutionshe COS embedded industry has been working to address

the challenge of delivering high-performance computingand networking technologies to meet challenging SWaPand environmental requirements such as those for a

video processing system within a military vehicle with a

modular, open,network-enabled architecture.

he embedded industry has developed a range of modular,

open-architecture platform standards designed spe-cifically for rugged and harsh military applications like

Figure 2 GEs NETernity GBX460 10 GiGE SwitchGEs GBX460 (http://deense.ge-ip.com/products/3569)

is a highdensityOpenVPX 10GigE data-plane switch that has becomepopular with system architects

building platorms or vehicularnetworks. The GBX460 canbe either unmanaged or simple network con-

igurations withast start-ups or as a ully managed, layer 2/3+ switch or morecomplex networks withsecurity requirements such as separatingclassiied and unclassiied data streams.

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vetronics. Some of these standards, such as t he bus-based

cPCI and VME architectures, have been used to develop

a range of vetronics systems in the past. With the intro-duction of NEO, however, new standards have emerged

that incorporate switched fabric architectures. hese are

essentially networks in a box. he VPX standa rds definedby VMEbus International rade Association (VIA) give

us a modular,open-architecture base platform that is per-

fect for the design of a video processing system.

Most of todays vetronics systems incorporate various

video transport methodologies, both analog and digital.But as platforms increasingly adopt design architectures

optimized for NEO, these video streams will be encap-

sulated in IP and transported over Gigabit Ethernet and10GigE I/O interfaces.

Finally, the system requires a powerful Ethernet switch.Since the Ethernet switch is essentially the nervous

system of any platform deployed in NEO applications,

system architects need to pay careful attention to thespecification and selection of this vital component. hereare three primar y areas of concern when selecting an Eth-

ernet switch:

1. Number of ports

2. Bandwidth

3. Management/Protocols and Security

Any Ether net sw itch must have enough por ts to intercon-

nect all the compute and I/O components and handle the

input and output of video streams. he vetronics diagramabove depicts the complexity of such a network-enabled

system-of-systems and demonstrates the large number

of Ethernet ports required. he number of required portscan quickly add up when you consider the number of

input/output streams and the number of blades installed

in a system. o provide fault-tolerance and redundancy,

systems are also designed with redundant links to eachinstalled blade. A system with six installed compute and

I/O components would require 12 ports to connect them.

Embedded Ethernet switches for military applications aretypical ly offered with 10MB, 100mb and Gigabit Ethernet

links. oday, with the increase in video transport over IP,we are seeing the need for multiple 10GigE links.

he nature of an open, distributed network architecture

means that there are multiple network assets, often f rom

multiple vendors and they must all ta lk to each other. Pro-tocols and management standards have been implemented

to enable interoperability, and most managed switches

have adopted the standa rds. Some vendors, however, mayinterpret the standards differently than others, leading

to interoperability problems. In many cases, the military

may choose to modify a standard protocol to implementsecurity features to optimize for mobile ad-hoc environ-

ments or to bridge legacy non-Ethernet enabled devices to

the network. It is therefore important to choose a switchsolution with a protocol suite that is flexible and can be

optimized and c ustomized for target environments.

ConclusionAs armed forces push towards an IP everywhere rea lity,

Ethernet will reach further and further out to the edgeof the battlefield. While GigE networking still dominates

in the military and aerospace arena, 10GbE is becoming

increasingly necessary with the deployment of platformstransporting and processing real-time voice, video anddata. As such, robust, high-density 10GbE network switch

transport with the flexibility to adapt and connect to

legacy or non-standard Vetronics systems will becomeincreasingly important in order to meet the growing data

throughput rates of NEO networks. GE has developed a

range of such solutions designed specifically to connectand secure the network enabled warfighters of todays

battlefield.

Rubin Dhillon is the Industry Manager for

Communications and Networking solutions inthe Military and Aerospace division of GE In-

telligent Platforms. Rubin holds a Bachelor of

Bus ine ss deg ree from the Vic tor ian Universit yof Technology in Melbourne, Australia and has

more than 18 years experience in embedded communications

technologies for the commercial, telecommunications and mili-tary markets.

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A VXI test and measurement system consists of a chassis,

instruments and a controller computer that may be in the

chassis with the instruments or remotely connected. In thesesystems, low first-word latency is often an important consid-

eration. Many modules from different vendors use single-word

communications for one reason or another. o enable any sortof transfer speed, the VXI controller also known as a slot-0

controller needs direct memory access without going through

Te only solution would be a memory-mapped interface or an

with first-word latencies of 700 nsec to 2 sec (depending onimportant factor in all large test systems, especially in military

systems, is longevity.

Tis highlights a key trade off of

embedded versus remote con-

trollers for VXI systems: on onehand, you could use an embedded

solution and never touch this

system; on the other hand,youhave future growth and change in

mind and will need the increased

performance and capabilities ofnew PC hardware. For the latter

case, the only viable solution

today is to select a state-of-the-art remote controller interface

and use an external computer. As

in the short-lived and very fast-

changing world of PC processorsand corresponding operating

systems,you most likely will not

be able to even find your operating system of the time of concep-tion of your system; even less the processor architecture initially

chosen. Te remote controller option generally delivers cost sav-ings, which is also of increasing importance in light of shrinkingbudgets and cost-reduction efforts.

Cost and Perormance Trade osRegarding the cost issue, it is worth noting that there is a trade

off between cost and performance. Te embedded VXI controller,

essentially a specialized computer that fits into the VXI chassis,offers the highest performance and commands the highest

price. It is also important to point out that the performance

parameters we are concerned with here are those related toexchanging information between the controller and the instru-

ments in the VXI chassis and not processor speed, memory or

other parameters of the controller computer itself. Indeed, one

can usually find a more amply provisioned PC in the generalmarketplace than in the embedded world. Tis is due not only

to the longer design and product lifecycles of embedded VXI

controller computers, but also to the fact that the data transferperformance, along with system size, is usually more important

than PC processor speed, memory, etc. for a controller solution.

Express(PCIe) connection to the host computer offers perfor-

mance so close to an embedded controller that it is essentially thesame for many applications. Data transfer occurs at PCI Express-

dard and a VXI 4.0-compatible

PCIe remote VXI controller. Tecost of using such a controller

is indeed higher than that of

controller, but not nearly as

high as using an embedded con-

troller. For the vast majority ofapplications, the deciding factor

between embedded versus

remote VXI controller becomessystem size and shape. Is it

important to have the PC inside

the VXI chassis to reduce systemfootprint? Does the system

need to be self-contained and

transportable within the VXI

chassis? If the answer to ques-tions such as these is no, then

the remote controller benefit of

reduced cost, as well as being able to upgrade to faster generationsof controller computer, can be realized.

Throughput and LatencyData throughput refers to the rate at which data is transferred

Latency refers to the delay before the first word or byte of datais received for such a transfer. As mentioned earlier, most remote

have much higher latency than an embedded VXI controller. Tethroughput is lower with these busses compared to an embedded

for many applications. Latency, however, can be a major showstopper. If a system needs to perform real-time, two-way commu-

VXI Remote and Embedded

Controller ConsiderationsBy Dr. Fred Blnnigen, Bustec

Unlike the current incarnations

o USB and Ethernet, a PCI

Express (PCIe) connection

to the host computer oers

perormance so close to an

embedded controller that it is

essentially the same or many

applications.

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nication such as in a simulation or close-loop control application,

latency on the order of 100 microseconds not uncommon for

operations must be performed as quickly as possible, this also is

a case for which high latency is often unacceptable. Digital I/O isa prime example of this. Military and production automated testsystems often have digital I/O or other single-word operations

that must be completed as rapidly as possible.

Cabling and Multi-Chassis ConfgurationMany test systems with VXI instruments require multiple VXI

chassis. A VXI controller solution may support multi-chassissystems in a star configuration, daisy-chained configuration or

both/either. For a PCIe controller to support a star configuration,

the host PC must be equipped with a PCIe interface card withmultiple ports and/or multiple PCIe cards. Tis approach works

well for systems with only two or three chassis, all of which are

located close to the host PC. For systems with more chassis orchassis distributed over a longer distance, the cost and number

of PCIe slots becomes prohibitive because more PCIe cards are

needed, along with longer cables. For these systems a daisy-chained configuration is preferred. Some remote VXI controllers

support daisy-chaining and some do not.

Hot-Plug SupportNot all PCIe VXI controllers support PCIe hot-plug. Te practical

implication of this is that without hot-plug support, users may be

forced to power up their VXI chassis before the host PC and refrainfrom powering down any of the VXI chassis while the host PC is

running. Violating these conditions may result in a system crashor unstable configuration. Tis is unacceptable for some applica-tions, as accepted procedures and training have evolved around

operating the test system according to certain conventions. Te

cost of rewriting and retraining can be prohibitive. If the controllersupports PCI Express hot-plug functionality, system operators can

power up the host PC independently from any and all of the VXI

chassis. Tey can also power off any of the VXI chassis and add orremove VXI modules without having to shut down the host PC.

LXI-Compatible Trigger BusMost modern test systems are built with components from dif-

ferent standards such as VXI, PXI, PXIe and LXI. With LXI rapidlygaining market share, this new instrumentation bus has modules

in most new systems build today. One of the major features of

LXI is the LVDS trigger and timing interface. Terefore,it can bean advantage to have an implementation for this optional trigger

interface built into the VXI controller. An important consideration

is whether this trigger bus is compatible to the LXI trigger bus asspecified in the LXI Standard rev. 1.3. It is also important to ensure

that the trigger bus not only enables forwarding or receiving any

of the eight VXIbus L trigger lines or the CLK10 to/from otherVXIbus mainframes in a multi-chassis system, but also connects to

LXI-compatible devices in hybrid test systems. Te interface should

ideally be based on an 8-channel multipoint LVDS (M-LVDS) sig-naling system that allows all devices on the bus to be configured

as sources and/or receivers of trigger signals. Devices sharing an

LXI trigger bus can be connected in a daisy-chain configurationthrough separate input and output connectors or in a star configu-

ration utilizing readily available star hubs.

Example ApplicationRecently, Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract for a large auto-

matic test system (AS) program called eCASS. Te systems they are

integrating include VXI chassis so that they can use the best instru-ments for performance and compatibility including VXI and other

platforms. Tey had several requirements for VXI controllers, which

are listed further below. Tey decided on a remote VXI controllerapproach,providing a direct connection from a host PC to a VXIbus

chassis using the high-speed PCI Express serial bus (see Figure 1).

Te following are some of the requirements for the system:

1. rue 64-bit VISA application support.

2. Multi-chassis system: With its multi-port host interface and

daisy-chaining capabilities, the selected PCI Express Slot-0solution supports multi-chassis systems using only one PCI

Express slot in the host computer.

3. est time: Te extremely low first-word latency of down to 700nsec and the high throughput shortens the test time considerably.

4. Optimized modern processor support: Te hardware and soft-ware of the slot-0 offers enhanced support for state-of-the-art

nature of the PCI Express bus, PCI Express bridges withindependent routing capabilities and state-of-the-art kernel

driver design; it supports non-blocking, concurrent access

with full multi-threading and multi-core support.

the LXI-compatible LVDS trigger interface on the front-panelenables the user to forward or receive any of the eight VXIbus

L trigger lines or the CLK10 to/from other VXIbus main-

frames in a multi-chassis system and also to connect to LXIcompatible devices in his hybrid test system.

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6. Hot-plug/hot power-cycle capability: One more very impor-

tant point is the hot-plug functionality. Te possibility of acomputer crash if one of the mainframes loses power or if it is

switched off by accident is unacceptable.

Tese six reasons, plus the possibility to update the systems to

VXI specification 4.0,drove the decision to select this new andstate-of-the-art VXI controller. It should be mentioned thatthis system will already use revision 4.0-compatible chassis; so

using a revision 4.0-compatible slot-0 is only a logical choice.

For more information, please visit www.bustec.com.

Dr. Fred Blnnigen ( [email protected] ) has a Ph.D. in physics. After heearned his Ph.D. in France, he worked at the University of Berkeley in

California as a nuclear and elementary particle physicist. Back in Eu-rope, he worked for a large American dataacquisition and test companyfor several years. In 1997, he founded Bustec in Ireland and opened a

branch in 2000 in the USA. He is still working as CEO of Bustec.

Figure 1 The ProDAQ 3030 rom Bustec is a remote VXI controllerthat connects to a PCIe card in the host computer, delivering 400 MB/sthroughput and less than 700 nsec latency. Model shown includes con-nectors or LXI triggering.

Figure 2 A PCIe remote VXI controller requires a card in a PCIe slot o thehost PC. The ProDAQ 3261 rom Bustec includes two PCIe cable connec-tors or supporting both star and daisy-chain confgurations and enables

use o a desktop or server computer just like an embedded controller.

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