Op-Eds

From The Editor

USS Zumwalt begins its sea trails and sets out to prove its worth - Blog

December 08, 2015

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems

Three years ago this month I said that the next ship I would step on would be a cruise ship, as I would sail onboard luxury doing absolutely nothing except relax and enjoy the view. But today, I would go back just to check out the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000). The ship started its sea trials yesterday and I remember talking about this ship before it had a name, when we were getting ready to go underway for some set of trials of our own. Someone said a new ship was coming, one that would replace the Arleigh Burke-class, one that faster and better.

Comms

Static routing vs dynamic routing on Ethernet networks - Blog

November 25, 2015

Ronen Isaac MilSource

ETHERNET EVERYWHERE BLOG: “Routing” on a network is a common term that I think almost everybody knows and understands today. Just to clarify, routing is the act of finding a path for a data packet to travel from one network to another. However did you know that there are three key elements needed to make this routing happen:

Cyber

IoT: Embedded and Secure - Blog

November 23, 2015

Russell Doty Red Hat

OPEN SOURCE WAY BLOG: Last time I wrote about how the Internet of Things (IoT) is impacting the design of military embedded systems; this month, I'd like to address IoT and security. Specifically, I want to address the security processes involved in managing IoT gateways, which are vital to the successful operation of critical applications.

From The Editor

Astronauts wanted: NASA looks for more space explorers - Blog

November 23, 2015

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

Do you like to travel? Enjoy a spectacular view? Enjoy traveling at high speeds? Moving in zero gravity? Word is NASA hiring astronauts so you may want to ditch the cube walls and get ready for a career in orbit.

Radar/EW

AltiVec is back - Blog

November 23, 2015

Michael Slonosky Curtiss-Wright

POWER ARCHITECTURE TODAY Blog: Freescale’s new T-series processor has brought back the AltiVec floating point SIMD instruction set, the heart of many defense and aerospace digital signal processing (DSP) applications for the last two decades. AltiVec, a mainstay of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) DSP boards for years, went missing in action for one series of previous devices. A disappearing act that led embedded system users to look for an alternative solution.

Radar/EW

GE embedded will be called Abaco Systems - Blog

November 18, 2015

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

As many of you know GE announced it was selling its embedded business to Veritas capital, a venture capital firm in New York City earlier this fall and the organization of about 700 employees would form a new company in January, 2016. Company officials say the deal is expected to close soon, but in the meantime they have announced their new name.... Abaco Systems.

From The Editor

Big thank you to our military veterans - Blog

November 11, 2015

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

Getting to know personally the men and women of the U.S. military has been the true highlight of my two decades in this industry. It’s been a privilege to cover and learn about the technology that helps keep them safe and helps them protect us and our nation.

From The Editor

Veteran's Day and the Flower of Remembrance - Blog

November 11, 2015

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems

Thank you to those that serve, past and present. The flower of remembrance – a red poppy – has become a symbol to remember veterans.

Cyber

Cyberattack concerns prompts Navy to go back to its roots - Blog

November 02, 2015

Mariana Iriarte - Technology Editor, Military Embedded Systems

There are three questions that I seem to get asked most often after people find out I served in the Navy. The first: what my job was? The second: the ratio between men and women onboard a ship? And the third: can I navigate using only the stars?

From The Editor

Potential full-year CR could impact 400 Army programs, say Army officials - Blog

October 23, 2015

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

WASHINGTON. A potential year-long Continuing Resolution (CR) caused by Congress being unable to pass a 2016 budget by December could result and would affect about 400 Army programs totaling about $6 billion, said Heidi Shyu, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology during a press conference at the AUSA Annual Meeting last week in Washington.

Unmanned

Airborne and satellite sensor systems - Blog

October 22, 2015

Ray Alderman VITA Standards Organization

EVOLUTION OF WARFARE Blog: Those nations that are best prepared often succeed the most at winning conflicts or avoiding them in the first place. This thought is expressed even better in Latin: "Si vis pacem, para bellum." Translated as "you want peace, prepare for war," and originally stated by Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus in De Re Militari around the 4th or 5th century BC.

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.