Military Embedded Systems

The vision of hardware interoperability at the tactical edge, from air platforms to ground vehicles to base stations, is now being realized. Because MOSA [modular open systems approach] is an approach and not itself a standard, solutions that support this vision can be achieved through many different means as long as interfaces and communications protocols are based on open standards. There remains a key area to address, though, to achieve seamless interoperability between heterogeneous systems. Consider, for example, the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard: While most aspects of sensor processing system architectures are well-defined within SOSA, one area that has not been rigidly defined is the network configuration and operational environment of individual cards and modules.

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.

Following what has been a busy springtime returning to in-person military conferences and trade shows like the Sea-Air-Space Expo and SOFIC, launching our own virtual events, and keeping up with all the latest defense electronics news and trends like the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) modular open systems approach (MOSA) strategies, the summer slowdown has been sweet.

Pixus Technologies, a provider of embedded computing and enclosure solutions, has announced a new compact implementation of its ruggedized enclosure line utilizing NI’s Ettus Research™ brand Software Defined Radio (SDR).

WATERLOO, Ontario. Pixus Technologies engineers released a VITA 46.11 compliant chassis manager aligned to the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Sttandard that sits behind an OpenVPX backplane.

DAYTON, Ohio. Registration is live for the U.S. Air Force - FACE and SOSA Consortia Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) and expo being held on September 27, 2022 at the Dayton Convention Center in Dayton, Ohio. The event will feature expert presentations and demos by a cross-section of the defense community and industry on Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE) and Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) related topics by a cross-section of the defense community, industry, and academia.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Florida. Engineers at EIZO Rugged Solutions Inc. released the Condor GR2S-A4500 – a 3U OpenVPX form factor video graphics & GPGPU output card designed for high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) apoplications that is also aligned to The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard, Edition 1.0.

Many defense and aerospace processing systems are upgraded or refreshed rather than replaced for cost efficiency and to reduce out-of-service time.

Enthusiastic crowds were a theme at each show I attended over the last six months, as folks were eager to be back among their defense industry colleagues, clients, and partners. None were more excited than attendees at the annual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) in Tampa, Florida, a show put on by the National Defense Industries Association (NDIA). Navigating the exhibition aisles of that show was like trying to walk through a crowded bar, as this was SOFIC’s first in-person get-together since 2019.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. Green Hills Software has extended certified multicore support of its INTEGRITY-178 tuMP safety-critical real-time operating system (RTOS) to the 11th-gen Intel Core i7 processor (formerly Tiger Lake). INTEGRITY-178 tuMP is the only RTOS to be part of the certification of a multicore system to DO-178C and CAST-32A multicore requirements.