The attraction to ATCA among military system designers is no longer theoretical.
Primes like Lockheed Martin are tapping the architecture’s advantages
in high availability and system management.
As military graphics applications have become far more complex than multi-cockpit displays, designers are using GPUs and the OpenGL standard specification to cope with human interface challenges.
System Development RoHS Challenges Industry Perspectives
Most vendors of board- and system-level electronics to the military also supply commercial markets and depend on commercial components. That’s why the RoHS directive’s military exemption may not mean much a few years from now.
Although RoHS testing is not required to demonstrate producer compliance, it can help provide the documentation necessary to show due diligence. Efforts at standardizing RoHS testing are just beginning.
Some unforeseen consequences of RoHS compliance for military systems have emerged, and other RoHS-like restrictions loom, including China’s pending mandate, which allow no exemptions, and the EU’s upcoming REACH initiative.
