Op-Eds

From The Editor

Veteran sailor/journalist meets Army tech at AUSA - Blog

October 22, 2015

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems

My editor assigned me to an Army trade show this month – my first military trade show as a journalist. Walking the aisles of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) show in Washington last week touched me with a bit of nostalgia, it was the first time in three years I’ve been in a room full of uniformed military personnel. Last time it was with more sailors than soldiers as it followed my time in the U.S. Navy. Still, it was fun seeing what new toys the Army folks might get to play with in the field – an experience I never had those years at sea.

Comms

Fighting stray frequencies in PCBs - Blog

October 07, 2015

Michael Miller Isola Group

To meet the constant consumer demand for higher bandwidth in their wireless devices, companies have developed ultra-wideband communications equipment and advanced wireless techniques, such as frequency-hopping spread spectrum transmission, in which radio signals are rapidly switched between frequencies. The same technique can also guard against eavesdropping. With those advances, however, comes a growing challenge for manufacturers of the high-performance printed circuit boards aimed at the wireless communications market. That challenge lies in controlling a phenomenon known as Passive Intermodulation.

From The Editor

DSEI London highlights - Blog

September 29, 2015

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems

Anyone thinking the global defense market is slowing down would’ve been surprised if they attended the Defense and Security International (DSEI) show this month in London. Thousands of attendees saw everything from uniforms to tanks to radar signal processing board displayed at the stands. Highlights for me were an anti-drone system from three British companies, a cyber defense solution for submarine control systems (yes you can hack a submarine), a synthetic vision type of system for ground vehicles, and of course a plethora of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) devices for electronic warfare, radar, and unmanned systems applications.

Radar/EW

DSEI, VPX, COTS boards, and a bit of DSP history - Blog

September 28, 2015

Flemming Christensen Sundance Multiprocessor Technology

Nearly two decades after I last manned a stand at the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) show in London, I strolled the halls again this month. There I found floating point digital signal processing (DSP) has overtaken fixed point as the preferred method for military signal processing applications and that VPX is remarkably popular despite its expensive price tag. I also re-established that DSEI is still a one-stop show of military suppliers selling everything from radar processing boards to electric socks for frigid deployments.

Radar/EW

Sensor networks and warfare - Blog

September 25, 2015

Ray Alderman VITA Standards Organization

EVOLUTION OF WARFARE BLOG. In this segment, we will take a look at the sensor networks used by our intelligence community and military and their importance to maintaining secrecy in warfare. As Sun Tzu stated in "The Art of War," "secret operations are essential in war; upon them the army relies to make its every move."

Radar/EW

GE embedded computing business bought by Veritas Capital - Blog

September 23, 2015

John M. McHale III - Editorial Director, Military Embedded Systems GE Intelligent Platforms, Inc.

Rumors were flying last week, but the official announcement that GE was selling its embedded computing business – which falls under GE Energy Management’s Intelligent Platforms subdivision – to venture capital firm Veritas Capital in New York City didn't hit the wires till yesterday.

Radar/EW

Standards -- VPX, CompactPCI, etc. -- are a thing of the past - Blog

September 08, 2015

Ben Sharfi General Micro Systems, Inc.

There are lots of standards out there, such as VPX. But what actually makes a standard standard? I'll use VPX as my example. According to my definition of a standard, I should be able to remove a CPU board from the box and replace it with another CPU board, regardless of the manufacturer, and have it come up and running with fairly minimal effort.

From The Editor

Will the SEALs brotherhood see strength defined by one's actions or one's gender? - Blog

August 24, 2015

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems

Radar/EW

Next generation warfare: unexpected happenings - Blog

August 20, 2015

Ray Alderman VITA Standards Organization

EVOLUTION OF WARFARE BLOG: Now that we have looked at the evolution of warfare through the ages in the previous seven articles, and speculated on what the future may hold, there are several significant incidents that beg examination and explanation. While the U.S. unquestionably has the most sophisticated weapons and intelligence systems on the planet, are our enemies catching up or even getting ahead of us? And do we already have next-generation intelligence systems operating secretly?

Cyber

Embedded systems, meet the Internet of Things - Blog

August 20, 2015

Russell Doty Red Hat

OPEN SOURCE WAY BLOG: In many ways, embedded systems are the progenitor of the Internet of Things (IoT) – and now IoT is changing key aspects of how we design and build military embedded systems. In fact, the new model for embedded systems within IoT might best be described as design, build, maintain, update, extend, and evolve.

Comms

Ensure authenticity by eliminating counterfeit parts - Blog

August 12, 2015

Michael Miller Isola Group

Counterfeit electronics are becoming increasingly common in the marketplace. These counterfeits can lead to problems with product safety and reliability, a risk for end users of the products that incorporate them. It’s possible, however, to minimize the problem by being aware of it and taking proper steps to identify parts and mitigate the issue.

From The Editor

The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society - Blog

July 20, 2015

Lisa Daigle - Assistant Managing Editor, Military Embedded Systems

Unmanned

Looking toward 7th and 8th generation warfare - Blog

July 07, 2015

Ray Alderman VITA Standards Organization

WARFARE EVOLUTION BLOG: “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting,” wrote Sun Tzu in his book "The Art of War."If you can convince your enemy that his military efforts will all be in vain, then you can win without fighting, which is where 7th and 8th generation warfare (7GW and 8GW) will lead us.

Avionics

Going modular? Meet data and control coupling - Blog

June 10, 2015

Jay Thomas LDRA Technology

CODE QUALITY BLOG: Since the dawn of the discipline of software engineering, one of the persistent mantras has been modularization. This structured design and functional decomposition approach breaks software down into clearly defined functional units, or modules, with unambiguous interfaces. The proven value of this approach is high quality software. When you go modular, however, software testing must examine the way that the modules come together and interact. This kind of testing is dubbed “data and control coupling.”

Radar/EW

Security value of processor-driven configuration for FPGA-SoCs - Blog

June 01, 2015

Ryan Kenny Altera

With the massive increase in content and IP options made available in the modern field programmable gate array (FPGA) system-on-chip (SoC) device, the last true frontier in flexibility is the configuration process itself. Expect to see next-generation FPGA SoCs that make this flexibility in security, configuration times, and single-event upset (SEU) responses a reality.