Military Embedded Systems

Contributing Editor

Military Embedded Systems

Articles 1 - 12
Comms

2010: New decade, new ideas - Other

December 15, 2009
Embedded Computing Design is getting a fresh look for the New Year.
Radar/EW

Bullets for a safer world - Story

November 10, 2009
If you have watched the History Channel or the Military Channel and seen footage of naval anti-aircraft fire during World War II, you realize just how difficult the problem of tracking an outgoing bullet just might be.
Comms

Point, line, plane, um, wait, I got this - Other

July 16, 2009
The much-hyped "smart grid" is neither smart nor a grid.
Comms

Who wants to live forever? - Story

April 20, 2009
The true definition of "obsolescence" is outliving everything that once mattered and redefining relevance in an evolved world.
Comms

Rugged SFFs for spaceflight - Story

March 20, 2009
Turning attention to three examples of rugged SFF computers for spaceflight, these appear to be dominated by Power Architecture processors, FPGAs, and VxWorks operating system support. Also of note in these applications is the use of SpaceWire, a nine-pin serial interface defined by the European Space Agency (similar to IEEE 1355) but gaining use in space programs worldwide.
Unmanned

Rugged SFFs for vehicles - Story

March 20, 2009
A vehicle in today's environment can be almost anything from a fully rugged land combat vehicle to an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or helicopter to a marine vessel. The degree of harshness a computer must endure varies, as do the types of interfaces the platform needs to support. Several examples show the range of Small Form Factor (SFF) platforms designed for today's vehicle-based needs.
Radar/EW

Crunch all you want, we'll make more CPUs - Story

September 25, 2008
If the Apple purchase and integration of P.A. Semi goes as expected, the PWRficient has joined a long list of dead CPU technology inside a defense program somewhere near you: CDP1802, MIL-STD-1750A, Z8000, Am29000, and i80960. And Freescale is dead set on the dual-core 8641D being the last of the high-end e600 Power Architecture designs, with its focus instead on designs like the QorIQ P4080 using eight smaller e500mc cores.
Avionics

The next great electronics program - Story

April 02, 2008
There are hundreds of electronics technologies that shaped defense capability over the last century. Mobile two-way radio. Radar. Inertial guidance. Proximity fusing. Infrared seeker technology. Nuclear device triggering. Electronic jamming and countermeasures. Computer-based encryption. Fiber optics. Night vision. Fly-by-wire. Global positioning systems. Phased-array radar. Software-Defined Radio. What will drive the next great electronics program?
Radar/EW

SWEPT up for real? - Story

July 20, 2007
I had no idea that we would be Slashdotted when we posted the Raytheon news release entitled Raytheon Develops World's First Polymorphic Computer on our Mil-Embedded.com RSS newsfeed March 20. I thought I would try to go deeper behind the scenes for the back story on this.
Comms

Hope for the RFID-pressed - Story

February 23, 2007
There seem to be as many negative voices ready to declare imminent failure of RFID technology as there were voices proclaiming its instant runaway success a few short years ago. It is depressing, but it looks more than a bit overdone.
Radar/EW

Has crummy old technology survived? - Story

July 01, 2006
Has COTS worked, or has crummy old technology survived? There are examples for both sides.
Comms

Beep, configure, and fire - Story

October 30, 2005
Military planners are now talking in terms of plug-and-fight capability. This is a spin on the old personal computing term plug-and-play ? catchy, but outdated.
Articles 1 - 12