Military Embedded Systems

Multiple intelligence (Multi-INT), sometimes referred to as multi modality, is a popular term used in recent years to describe C5ISR [command, control, computers, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] applications in which data obtained from disparate sensing sources is fused together to derive new information and operational insights. In some cases, this can mean the fusion of SIGINT [signals intelligence] data and radar data, or SIGINT data with EW [electronic warfare] data and EO/IR [electro-optical/infrared] data. In other cases, it may mean combining real-time data with post-mission analysis from previously processed data. Additionally, there are approaches where artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) assist via data and information analysis to identify patterns or predict outcomes.

For rugged DSP [digital signal processing] processor cards, it is important to have a balance between processor performance, memory bandwidth, I/O bandwidth, and ruggedization. Deficiencies in any of these attributes will limit the achievable performance. Due to limited real estate available on 3U OpenVPX boards, designers and users must make tradeoffs on which dimensions to maximize and/or minimize.

Virtualization software and model-based design provide a path that not only enables system designers to maintain legacy software for avionics and other mission-critical systems but also makes it possible to migrate that code to modern higher-performance processing platforms, for example from an older PowerPC-based VME board over to a new x86 or Arm-based VME or OpenVPX module.

The Sensor Open Systems Architecture Technical Standard (SOSA) – which will bring many benefits to designers of radar systems – will also have a beneficial effect on the design of electronic warfare (EW) systems.

In order to keep up with the continued acceleration of new technology and to be able to protect the warfighter from the latest threats, it is essential that we can turn our deployed platforms into adaptable entities that can evolve over time and are not static. The SOSA [Sensor Open Systems Architecture] Technical Standard is the next major step in realizing this goal.

In order to keep up with the continued acceleration of new technology and to be able to protect the warfighter from the latest threats, it is essential that we can turn our deployed platforms into adaptable entities that can evolve over time and are not static. The SOSA [Sensor Open Systems Architecture] Technical Standard is the next major step in realizing this goal.

The advantages that the Intel Xeon processor D-1500 product family brings to compute-intensive embedded electronic warfare (EW) system designs is clear. These 8-/12-/16-core devices deliver enhanced performance at low power, making them suitable for use on rugged open-architecture modules designed for deployment in harsh environment applications including electronic warfare (EW) and command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR). These system-on-chip (SoC) devices make large numbers of x86 processing cores readily available for embedded defense applications.

Radar and other digital processing systems are by their very nature complex and challenging to configure. Depending on the system architecture, the radar program?s team of software, hardware, FPGA and system engineers might require four to eight weeks to optimize the configuration of the board level modules selected for their particular project.

Many military satellite communications (SATCOM) systems operate in the very-high-frequency S-band (2 to 4 GHz) and C-band (4 to 8 GHz) range. Accurate sampling of satellite communications requires frequency rates that are at least twice, but preferably 2.5 to 3 times, the speed of the carrier frequency.

Several design approaches exist for implementing beamforming processing tasks, with options ranging from GPUs to multicore CPUs, DSPs, and FPGAs. The unique strengths of FPGAs make them an increasingly appealing choice for beamforming when compared to their counterparts.

Designing a general-purpose FPGA card that addresses the universe of Electronic Warfare (EW) and radar applications is a challenge. For any individual application, defining the requirements of the system and determining the optimal architecture for that particular solution is fairly straightforward. However, the problem is much more complex when trying to target a wide spectrum of use cases with a single FPGA module. The goal is to provide a flexible architecture that also enables the use of the latest FPGA features.