COTS Briefing Newsletter

October/November 2005

SDR in the News

Complete SDR Development Platform Released
A development platform containing all hardware and tools required for software-defined radio development has just been released. Compliant with the Software Communication Architecture (SCA) mandated for all future U.S. military radios, the Pentek SCA 2510 hardware platform consists of a Pentek 7640 software radio transceiver PCI card installed in a PC workstation. The computer is loaded with the Linux operating system, development tools and the SCARI++ SCA core framework from Communications Research Centre, Canada . The PCI card comes pre-configured with drivers and libraries so developers can immediately begin their software-defined radio projects. The SCA Architecture mandated by the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program office provides a software framework for the implementation of software defined radio platforms. This framework includes a common operation environment and a set of common services and standardized component interfaces. The Model 7640 Dual Channel Transceiver PCI board digitizes HF or IF input signals using a pair of 14-bit, 105 MHz A/D converters and generates output signals with two 16-bit, 500 MHz D/A converters. The 7640 is also equipped with a Virtex-II Pro VP50 FPGA that serves as a control and status engine with data and programming interfaces to each of the many onboard resources, including a four-channel digital downconverter, a digital upconverter, and a clocking and synchronization system. A 64-bit 66 MHz PCI interface includes a high-performance nine-channel DMA controller to boost PCI bus transfer speeds. Pentek, www.pentek.com .

New FPGA Technology Supports SDR Waveform Portability and Reuse
PrismTech recently demonstrated how a CORBA ORB can be embedded natively in an FPGA and used to control logic within the FPGA. As a middleware technology, the Spectra ICO (Integrated Circuit ORB) eliminates the need to develop custom proxies on General Purpose Processors (GPPs) and Digital Signal Processors (DSPs) that simply serve to establish communication to waveform objects residing within FPGAs. These proxies (sometimes referred to as Hardware Abstraction Layers or HALs) have been used when designing to SDR architectures such as the Software Communications Architecture (SCA) and are meant to increase portability and re-use, but in practice can increase latency, reduce throughput, and lower re-use potential. Spectra ICO eliminates any need to embed GPP cores into FPGAs in order to offer software ORB capability. The Spectra ICO demo equipment consists of a PC running the client code and an Altera Cyclone II development board that hosts the FPGA. The software running on the PC generates a CORBA GIOP message bound for the ICO, encapsulates it in an Ethernet frame and transmits the packet to the demonstration board. An Ethernet controller on the Altera FPGA demo board receives the packet, strips off the Ethernet encapsulation and passes the GIOP message to the ICO residing within the FPGA. The ICO processes the message, extracts the data in the message body and transfers it to the internal logic blocks of the FPGA representing the custom signal processing design blocks of an SDR waveform. If required by the CORBA message, the ICO generates and sends a reply message back to the client on the PC. Spectra ICO utilizes approximately 5% of the logic elements of an Altera EP2C35 and no memory blocks. PrismTech, www.prismtech.com .

Optimized Platform for SDR Released
In other SDR news, Green Hills Software has introduced their Platform for Software Defined Radios, an integrated solution for the development and deployment of next-generation software-configurable radios. The royalty-free Platform for Software Defined Radios complies with the standard Software Communications Architecture (SCA) Operating Environment (OE) and POSIX system interfaces. By integrating development tools, operating system and middleware into a pre-configured, standards-compliant platform, the intent is to make it easier for SDR developers to create reliable and secure reconfigurable radio products for any market. The platform incorporates the INTEGRITY RTOS and GHS' new Partitioning, Journaling File System (PJFS). PJFS extends the reliability and security guarantees of INTEGRITY to persistent storage devices. PJFS also provides journaling of both data and metadata for complete crash safety and rapid reboot/recovery, making it well suited for systems that must be highly reliable and boot rapidly in the field. The Green Hills Platform for Software Defined Radios is available today for PowerPC, ARM, XScale, x86/Pentium and MIPS processors. It can be supported upon request on Blackfin and ColdFire processors. Green Hills Software, www.ghs.com .

Business Briefs

Radstone Gets ATFLIR Contract Extension
Radstone Technology announced that the company had received an extension to an existing contract from the Raytheon Company. The contract – to supply Radstone's PPC4A single board computer, MIL STD 1553 interfaces and Fibre Channel modules for incorporation into 521 ATFLIR (Advanced Targeting Forward-Looking Infra Red) pods – is scheduled for delivery over the next five years, and has a net additional value to Radstone of approximately $12 million.  With its enhanced target detection and recognition range, ATFLIR substantially extends the capability and survivability of the US Navy's F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft squadrons worldwide. Its benefits include a substantial increase in target detection/recognition range over first-generation systems and pinpoint accuracy and assessment from longer standoff ranges. Radstone Technology, www.radstone.co.uk .

Curtiss-Wright Nabs F-35 Contract Win
Curtiss-Wright Controls has received contracts from Lockheed Martin Corporation for the Joint Strike Fighter program with an initial value of $2.2 million for the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase, and a potential value of $120 million for the total program requirements. Curtiss-Wright will supply the Ordnance Hoist System (OHS) and Ordnance Quick Latch System (OQLS) for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The F-35 JSF will provide the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, and the United Kingdom 's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force with an affordable and stealthy tactical aircraft for the 21st century. The Lockheed Martin F-35 JSF has been designed to satisfy the diverse needs of each of these services with a family of affordable, lethal, survivable and supportable combat aircraft. The equipment to be provided is a new requirement designated as Alternate Mission Equipment (AME) for ordnance loading, carrying, and unloading on all three aircraft variants (CTOL, STOVL, and CV). SDD hardware deliveries are anticipated to occur from 2006 through 2010. Curtiss-Wright, www.curtisswright.com ; Curtiss-Wright Controls, www.cwcontrols.com .

LaBarge to Produce Ethernet Switch Units for Bradleys
BAE Systems has awarded a $2.2 million dollar contract to LaBarge to produce the Ethernet Switch Unit (ESU) for its A3 Bradley Combat Systems vehicles. The ESU functions as a router and a switch, making local forwarding decisions to devices operated in the vehicle's local area network. The Bradley A3 is a technologically advanced, highly mobile, digital fighting system that significantly increases the Bradley's lethality and survivability in battle. Bradley A3 communications enable digital information displays for the commander, driver and squad leader. The Bradley Combat Systems continue to provide survivability, mobility and lethality to U.S. soldiers in all types of close-combat urban scenarios or in open-combat terrain. LaBarge, www.labarge.com .

Northrop to Produce New Global Hawks
The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a contract to begin production of the next five RQ-4B Global Hawk aerial reconnaissance systems. These vehicles will be the first operational Global Hawks with full multi-intelligence capabilities, including signals intelligence. The new RQ-4B Global Hawk is designed to carry 3,000 pounds of payload, 50 percent more than the original RQ-4A configuration. This increased capability will allow the Air Force to install additional sensors on the air vehicle, increasing the amount and types of information available to warfighters. Global Hawk flies autonomously at an altitude of more than 60,000 feet, above inclement weather and prevailing winds, for more than 35 hours at a time. During a single mission, it can provide detailed intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information in near-real time over 40,000 square miles—approximately the size of Illinois. Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems, www.ngc.com.

New Product Announcements

Upgraded SBCs Ready for Duty
Both the PPC7D single board computer and the G4DSP-XE Quad PowerPC processor from Radstone Embedded Computing received upgrades recently.  Fully compatible with their predecessors, both the PPC7D and the G4DSP-XD3 now feature the 1.4 GHz MPC7448 processor from Freescale, as well as the Marvell Discovery III system controller. The upgrade to the PowerPC 7448 processor delivers an anticipated average 40% additional processing power compared with its predecessor, while implementation of the Marvell Discovery III delivers further throughput enhancements. The G4DSP-XD3 features four MPC7448 processors, operating at 1.4 GHz. Its unique AccelerX loosely coupled PCI-X architecture allows the simultaneous operation of the four independent node-to-node PCI-X buses. The result is 3.2 GBytes/second peak onboard data transfer bandwidth (simultaneous). Additionally, the implementation of four 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports enables independent and simultaneous code development on each compute node. The PowerXpress PPC8A Single Board Computer also received an upgrade to the PowerPC 7448 processor. Radstone is now offering 7448 processing power across all its major platforms including 6U VME (PPC7D and PPC8A), 6U CompactPCI (CP1A) and 3U CompactPCI (IMP2A). Radstone Embedded Computing, www.radstone.com .

Enhanced Militarized Rubidium Oscillator Released
Symmetricom recently announced a low phase noise option for their 8130A rubidium oscillator. This off-the-shelf militarized rubidium oscillator targets numerous tactical applications and is particularly suited for systems requiring good phase noise under vibration. The enhanced rubidium oscillator's low phase noise outputs combine long term stability with improved short time stability. The low phase noise option provides higher signal-to-noise ratio allowing for improved signal detection in Doppler radar systems and in time difference of arrival measurement. It provides better overall performance for numerous tactical applications where shock, vibration, humidity and other environmental factors are a challenge. The circuit boards of the 8130A are conformal-coated for moisture resistance, and special precautions are taken for improved shock vibration hardening. Use of a filtered power/monitor connector minimizes EMI emissions and susceptibility. Symmetricom, www.symmetricom.com .

New Embedded Wireless Technology for Military Diagnostics
A new embedded sensor concept is nearly ready for use in advanced military vehicle diagnostics. Unveiled two weeks ago at the Defense Maintenance Symposium in Birmingham , Alabama , Solidica's new prototype sensors were created in collaboration with Freescale Semiconductor. Directly embeddable into any metal component, the sensors are able to measure a wide range of critical system health information and wirelessly convey the data to the platform in real time using Freescale's 2.4 GHz digital radio and microcontroller technology based on their ZigBee compliant platform. These data can then be used to make immediate tactical decisions at the operational level and can further be leveraged by the military in support of automated logistics activities as part of their emerging Sense and Respond initiatives. The enabler for these small rugged sensors is Solidica's ultrasonic consolidation technology. Solidica fabricates their sensors using thin strips of metal, one layer at a time. Periodically, electronics and/or sub-millimeter integrated features are inserted between the layers during fabrication, drawing energy from their environment and allowing for an invisible monitoring capability that cannot be removed or easily destroyed. Solidica, www.solidica.com.

Events

Real Time and Embedded Computing Conferences
www.rtecc.com

Portland, OR
December 1, 2005

Seattle, WA
December 6, 2005

Vancouver, BC
December 8, 2005

Register for Upcoming RTECC shows

International Radar Symposium India 2005
Bangalore , India
Dec 19-22

Coming in the November Issue of COTS Journal

Sensors and MEMS
MEMS (micro electro-mechanical systems)—an acronym barely heard of a decade ago—have been having a profound impact in a variety of sensor applications. From relatively simple pressure sensors to complete chemical analysis systems, MEMS are used in a very broad cross-section of military devices from checking airspeed, wing deflection, surface conditions and performing chemical analysis on everything from suspected contaminated areas to fuel/air mixtures. They also play a key role in many other kinds of military electronic systems including data collection sensors for radar, sonar, SIGINT, or sensors used as navigational gyroscopes and munitions guidance. And because MEMS are basically manufactured as semiconductors, they have the inherent robustness and long lifetimes required by such systems. This feature section explores the current and future state of sensor and MEMS technologies as they apply to the military.

Safety-Critical Software Standards
The military and aerospace industry mandates rigorous technical and process requirements for safety-critical computing. Such capabilities emerged a couple years ago as a few scattered announcements supporting safety critical software standards such as DO-178B and ARINC-653, but they're now an entrenched part of the embedded OS vendor's offerings. Articles in this section update readers on those standards and how they're being implemented and applied to a variety of mission-critical systems.

PCI Express Analyzers
PCI Express certainly wasn't the first switched fabric technology to enter the mix, but as it moves onto servers and desktop PCs it's already becoming the most ubiquitous. And it's rapidly moving into the embedded-computer space. PCI Express is quickly becoming a backbone of performance-based embedded systems, and, while many sub-systems take some of the work out of tracking the flow of data, there are several PCI Express bus analyzers that can make any development and debug task faster and easier. This Tech Focus section provides an update on PCI Express analyzer trends, and provides a product album of representative PCI Express analyzer products.

Mass Storage
If the dynamics in the flash memory chip market and the roadmaps of flash chip vendors are any guide, it looks like flash-based solid-state disks (F-SSDs) are poised to quell any arguments for staying with traditional rugged hard drives. Throw in the major advantages of ruggedness and security that F-SSDs enjoy and the contrast becomes even more pronounced. Because F-SSDs targeted for military and aerospace apps use the same fundamental flash components as the consumer realm, the price advantages can be leveraged across all markets. Traditional problems with Flash-based disks are quickly falling by the wayside. Random access speeds rival and will soon beat other media, retention and re-writing cycles have dramatically increased and many systems offer a single-control “erase all” function with or without power for security-sensitive applications. Articles in this section examine the key technology trends affecting the use of F-SSDs in military applications.

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