Military Embedded Systems

Reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements are pervasive throughout defense electronics platforms. Electronic footprints continue to shrink so much that traditional small form factors like 3U VPX or 3U CompactPCI are considered too big. So, it's not surprising that the VITA Standards Organization (VSO) is looking at new form factors, such as Short VPX. In this podcast, Jay Grandin, Vice President of Product Development at Annapolis Micro Systems discusses demand for small form factors, how Short VPX can meet that demand and how it fits into the Open VPX ecosystem. Grandin also explores what military applications would be best suited for the new standard and how it could potentially work within the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard, of which version 1.0 is expected to be completed this year.

BERWYN, Pennsylvania and HUNTSVILLE, Alabama. Officials from Ametek announced that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Abaco Systems, Inc., a provider of mission-critical embedded computing systems for electronic warfare, radar, avionics, communications, and other military applications from Veritas Capital in an all-cash transaction valued at $1.35 billion.

The last 12 months have not been kind to commercial avionics suppliers, as the pandemic ended up grounding many flights and slowing aircraft purchases, consequently meaning fewer orders for avionics systems like displays and computers. Those commercial avionics suppliers – whether prime contractors or embedded computing suppliers – that are staying afloat are ones with a strong military business to offset the losses from the commercial market, as the military avionics market remains healthy.

Ultra-wide band radar systems are generating unprecedented amounts of data and require storage systems that can handle the high bandwidth and what can seem like information overload. In this podcast, Chris Tojeira, Recording Systems Director at Pentek discusses the Department of Defense's current ultrawideband radar requirements, how to capture signal data, PCI Express, FPGA advantages, and latency issues. He also takes a look at the future for signal recording and shares an old Commodore 64 story.  

SOLOMONS, Maryland. Officials from the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) and the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortia will be leading the Open Group FACE and SOSA Consortia Expo & Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) virtual event next month on March 23, 2021 from 11 am to 4 pm Est.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona. The Sensor Open System Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard applies open-architecture concepts to high-performance defense sensor systems such as radar, electronic warfare (EW), and signals intelligence (SIGINT) platforms. The goal of the standard is to design a non-propriety open systems architecture based on Department oif Defense (DoD)-relevant government or commercially available open standards to lower system development costs, and make system reconfigurability and future system upgrades easier and faster, thus improving overall C4ISR capabilities. A key part of the developing technical standard will be how to ensure conformance to the standard is met for hardware or SOSA modules claiming alignment with the Technical Standard. This webcast, titled "SOSA Conformance and What it Means to You," held Wednesday, February 24, featured SOSA Consortium experts discussing the current status of the Technical Standard, what the upcoming 1.0 release means for conforming to the standard, and how you should approach SOSA conformance for your products.

Shared perspectives from embedded COTS suppliers at the annual Embedded Tech Trends (ETT) conference and networking event typically flavor my January/February column each year. Back-to-back twenty-minute press briefings in three-hour periods not only provide column fodder but also help us plan editorial contributions for the coming year.  

SCOTTDALE, Arizona. A new requirement for adherence to function safety or security standards can be a rude awakening for the uninitiated. There can be no half measures when applications are critical.  Requirements traceability, static analysis, dynamic coverage analysis, and unit/integration testing are deemed essential, not just at the end of development but throughout the development lifecycle. Such activities can come at a considerable overhead.  Off the shelf and open source software promise to offset that, and are in abundant supply for common system components such as RTOS and UI. However, integrating them within the application domain in a safety- or security-critical context can be a logistical nightmare for the unwary.  This webcast of industry experts will help you to pick your way through the demands of the functional safety and cybersecurity standards to minimize the pain of compliance while maximising the benefit of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software component use.

In this episode of the Mil Tech Virtual Toolbox, we spoke with Duc Huy Tran, VP of Global Marketing with Aitech Systems about tools for enabling cybersecurity in military embedded systems and how artificial intelligence (AI) and open architecture initiatives such as the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) are changing the defense electronics landscape.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Our five most popular McHale Report podcasts for 2020 hosted by editors John McHale and Emma Helfrich featured guests from National Instruments, Liteye Systems, Pentek, and two guests from Mercury Systems on topics such as artificial intelligence for electronic warfare, the end of Moore's Law, the defense industry's response to COVID-19, counter-UAV advancements, and the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium. Check them out below.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. Our most popular blogs on MilitaryEmbedded.com from 2020 covered topics by guest bloggers from VITA, Crystal Group, Winmate, Curtiss-Wright, and Advantech on subjects such as 6G -stealth fighter planes, hardware security trust, UFOs, rugged tablets, tensors, unmanned fighter jets, small form factors, the kill web and more. Check them out below.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. The most popular stories on MilitaryEmbedded.com throughout 2020 covered subjects such as NASA's Artemis mission, radar for tracking hypersonics, certifying COTS software, big data challenges, and more. Check them out below.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona. With the rapid advancement of defense systems technology, new interconnect standards are enabling new possibilities for high-density, high-speed connections in harsh environments. This webcast, "Evolving Standards: How VITA and SOSA are Leading the Change," to be held December 2, 2020 at 2pm Est., explores embedded computing industry trends, as well as new and upcoming standards for rugged interconnects from the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Consortium and VITA Standards Organization.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona. Modernization efforts that require consolidating multiple proven software systems onto a single intelligent edge platform are difficult. Fortunately, there are strategies that allow you to maintain your software integrity and partitioning while taking advantage of cutting edge software development technology in modern avionics systems. In this webcast on December 1, 2020 at 11 am Est., subject matter experts from Wind River and AdaCore will demonstrate how you can map your existing architecture to guest operating systems on hypervisors, by using Wind River’s Helix Virtualization Platforms and software development tools from the compiler experts at AdaCore.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona. Boeing, in partnership with the U.S. Army, AdaCore, CoreAVI, Presagis, and Real-Time Innovations (RTI), will demonstrate an integrated Future airborne Capability Environment (FACE) commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solution stack covering cockpit displays, graphics systems and data transport connectivity. This stack enables high mission capability using the world’s latest and most advanced avionics technologies designed to accelerate RTCA DO-178C DAL A safety certification and FACE conformance. The webcast, "Accelerating Avionics Design & Testing through FACE Conformance: An Integrated Model by Boeing, U.S. Army & Aerospace Leaders," will cover the stack and take place December 10, 2020, at 2 pm est. The presenters are Marc Moody, Technical Fellow, Boeing; Christopher Edwards, Systems Engineering Lead, U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM); Chip Downing, Senior Market Development Director, Aerospace & Defense, RTI; Dr. Benjamin Brosgol, Senior Technical Staff, AdaCore; Michael Pyne, Director, Strategic Accounts & Solutions Architect, CoreAVI; and Matt Jackson, Technical Product Manager, PRESAGIS.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona. The Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) approach is driving a new generation of efficiency into next generation military platforms, and is embraced by both industry and government as the future of military avionics systems. This webcast on Wednesday, November 18 at 2 pm Est is led by Chris Crook, Senior Software Analyst supporting Program Executive Office (PEO) Aviation (AVN) for the U.S. Army, and elected Chair of the FACE Technical Group (TWG). He will provide a detailed description of: the FACE organization; architecture; architectural segments and interfaces; and the FACE data architecture. Attendees of the webcast include avionics program managers, airborne systems designers, avionics applications software developers, engineering managers, FACE software suppliers, and military avionics architects.

Ah … VME. I first wrote about the VMEbus specification in late 1996; now, in just under a year it will celebrate its 40th anniversary. Not much rust has grown on the open standard in its four decades, as VME-based products are still being designed into military programs today.

Modern battlefields present many complex challenges for Army soldiers, one of which is how to operate in GPS-denied environment. In this podcast, George Hsu, CTO, founder, and board member of PNI Sensor Corp., discusses the challenges in designing sensor solutions for warfighters in these environments like sensor stabilization for moving soldiers and power efficiencies as wel as how PNI leverages artificial intelligence (AI) for their sensor designs. He also describes the perfect magnetic sensor — that will provide longitude and latitude in any environment.  

One impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a decrease in mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity in the defense industry – and to some respect others – at least in the beginning of it all, when everyone was shutting down and didn’t know what to expect from the crisis. Folks were sheltering in place and in lockdown across the globe, not exactly an environment conducive to multimillion and multibillion-dollar acquisitions. Deals like that so often rely on face-to-face interaction.

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona. As military radar, signals intelligence (SIGINT) and electronic warfare systems get more complex so does the associated signal integrity challenges. These signal integrity concerns didn't even exist 10-15 years ago. As signal density for connectors continues to get tighter as footprints get smaller problems such as crosstalk and geometry of launch greatly affect backplane performance. This webcast titled, "Signal Integrity in Military Radar and Electronic Warfare Systems," to be held on Thursday, October 8, at 2 pm Est., will address these challenges and how VITA standards and open architecture solutions are helping solve them.