Among the reasons for VME’s soaring success in military systems is its unique ability to remain backward compatible and facilitate technology refresh in military programs. A new board with the latest and greatest processor, memory and I/O can easily be dropped into a slot that could be decades old. That kind of easy upgrade becomes trickier as new fabric-based VITA-standard boards enter the mix.

The days are now gone when VME was the only option for new military system designs. That said, its ability to accommodate new technologies opens the door for a healthy stream of technology refresh business. A host of deployed programs and long design cycle programs continue to demand VME SBC upgrades that drop into an existing slot with the latest and greatest processing technology.

These sort of tech refresh/tech upgrade programs form the heart of much of the embedded-computer business. Among the highest profile of these include the F-18 Advanced Multi-Purpose Display program; Bradley Vehicle Electronics Upgrade; B-52 mission computer upgrade; Aegis Guided Missile Destroyer Sonar Upgrade (Figure 1); B-2 Bomber Radar Upgrade; Boeing B-1B Bomber Avionics Upgrade; Abrams Tank Systems Enhancement Package (SEP) upgrade and the C-130 cockpit upgrade. Another example is Thales-Raytheon Systems’ upgrade of their Firefinder Weapons Locating Radars, which includes the AN/TPQ-36 Weapon Locating Radar (see sidebar “Weapon Locating Radar System gets VME Tech Upgrade”) and the AN/TPQ-37 Artillery Locating Radar. Most all of these upgrade programs involve standards-based embedded-computer solutions such as VME.

VPX and VXS Claim New Territory

Now that the newer fabric-based VITA specs—VPX and VXS—are solidly in a “productizing” phase of their development, the industry is starting to ponder a break with traditional VME and its long legacy of complete backplane backward compatibility. This won’t happen overnight by any means. VME board vendors say that old VME 2eSST and VME64 are what they’re shipping the most today. Many new programs are looking to either make the leap to the VPX switched fabric-based backplane, or incorporate VXS to work alongside legacy VME boards in a hybrid solution.

The military is itching to put VPX to work in both new and legacy/upgrade programs. System developers are attracted to the increased potential bandwidth, level-2 maintenance features, I/O options and ruggedness of VPX. VPX—in vendor-specific configurations—has already found its way into some programs. Meanwhile, VXS’s share of the market is growing in niche applications. It offers a significant performance boost over VME64x, and its backward-compatibility is particularly attractive in many systems.

A problem that’s hindered VPX’s progress is that, with the large number of open pins and the variety of fabric options available to it, it’s difficult to ensure any compatibility between VPX products of different vendors (Figure 2). Aiming to address just that problem, earlier this year an initiative was formed called OpenVPX Industry Working Group. OpenVPX is an independent association whose members include nearly all the major military VME vendors. The group also includes a number of leading defense prime contractors. OpenVPX’s ultimate goal is to craft a System Design Guide that will include predefined system profiles for 3U and 6U VPX-based systems, and they’re hoping to accomplish this by October 2009. OpenVPX is an effort outside VITA and its standards body, the VITA Standards Organization (VSO), but it’s using the same rules and procedures. And OpenVPX plans to turn the design guide over to VITA control upon completion.

Aitech Defense Systems
Chatsworth, CA.
(888) 248-3248.
[www.rugged.com].

BittWare
Concord, NH.
(603) 226-0404.
[www.bittware.com].

Concurrent Technologies
Woburn, MA.
(781) 933 5900.
[www.gocct.com].

Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing
Leesburg, VA.
(703) 779-7800.
[www.cwcembedded.com].

Dynatem
Mission Viejo, CA.
(949) 855-3235.
[www.dynatem.com].

Emerson Network Power
Tempe, AZ.
(800) 759-1107.
[wwwemersonnetworkpower.com].

Extreme Engineering Solutions
Middleton, WI.
(608) 833-1155.
[www.xes-inc.com].

GE Fanuc Embedded Systems
Charlottesville, VA.
(800) 368-2738.
[www.gefanucembedded.com].

General Micro Systems
Rancho Cucamonga, CA.
(909) 980-4863.
[www.gms4sbc.com].

Interface Concept
Briec de l’Odet, France.
+33 (0)2 98 57 30 30.
[www.interfaceconcept.com].

Kontron America
Poway, CA.
(858) 677-0877.
[www.kontron.com].

MEN Micro
Ambler, PA.
(215) 542-9575.
[www.men.de].

Mercury Computer Systems
Chelmsford, MA.
(978) 256-1300.
[www.mc.com].

Themis Computer
Fremont, CA.
(510) 252-0870.
[www.themis.com].