Signals intelligence (often contracted to SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, whether between people (i.e., COMINT or communications intelligence) or between machines (i.e., ELINT or electronic intelligence), or mixtures of the two. As sensitive information is often encrypted, signals intelligence often involves the use of cryptanalysis. However, traffic analysis?the study of who is signalling whom and in what quantity?can often produce valuable information, even when the messages themselves cannot be decrypted. See SIGINT by Alliances, Nations and Industries for the organization of SIGINT activities, and Signals intelligence operational platforms by nation for current collection systems, and SIGINT in Modern History from World War I to the present.

COTS Products

3U cPCI Board and Rack Family Satisfies Extreme Thermal Needs CompactPCI, particularly in its 3U flavor, is no longer the new kid on the block in the military market. It’s paidRead More...

Serial ATA Stakes out Territory as Next-Gen Storage Interface

Over the past several years, serial interconnect schemes have been steadily pushing aside parallel buses, and that trend has impacted the memory and storage realm just as it has everyRead More...

FPGA Boards Revamp the Radar and SIGINT Landscapes

Waveform-intensive applications like sonar, radar and SIGINT seem to have an endless appetite for signal processing power. Faster DSPs coupled with a broader range of IP cores andRead More...

COTS Products

Managed Ethernet Switch Rides 3U CompactPCI Attracted by its ubiquity and longevity, the military is growing ever more fond of Ethernet. And switched Ethernet is becoming asRead More...

Multicore Processor Boards Push the Compute-Density Envelope

Processor architectures sporting multiple CPU cores on the same device have moved swiftly from the exotic and into the mainstream desktop and sever realm. Gone now are the days whenRead More...

FPGA Boards and Systems Boost UAV Payload Compute Density

Large UAV platforms–like Global Hawk, Predator, Fire Scout, Taranis and others–have a seemingly endless appetite for greater onboard compute density. The payloads aboard those systemsRead More...

Serial FPDP Boards Roundup

24 Serial FPDP Channels Blend on VME Card Using FPGAs in conjunction with the Serial FPDP (sFPDP) interconnect makes for a power combination. Such a solution hasRead More...

10GbE: Well Suited for Demanding New C4ISR Apps

Military application developers continue to hunger for ways to take advantage of improved communications and faster processing. They also are trying to coordinate information to createRead More...

COTS Products

Recorder and Signal Conditioner Team for Rugged Duties When you can integrate any technology down to a significantly smaller size and weight, sometimes that opens up a wholeRead More...

Data Acq Boards Ride the USB and FPGA Waves

The role of the data acquisition subsystems at the heart of military applications–like radar, sonar, SIGINT and broadband comms–remains the same. They still capture, digitize and thenRead More...

FPGA Boards Deliver DSP Muscle and I/O Flexibility

As FPGAs evolve to ever greater sophistication, complete systems can now be integrated into one or more FPGAs. Board-level product developers continue to ride that wave in two ways. OnRead More...

The Future Revolves Around FPGAs

When people think “summer,” visions of a slower pace, time off and less stress come to mind. In many industries summer is indeed a time when business slows down. I wish it were so inRead More...

Processing and Musical Chairs

Okay embedded processing technologies, when the music stops I want each of you to grab a chair and sit. Musical chairs is a good way to describe the moving targets that are advancedRead More...

Five That Push the Computing Envelope

Somehow every year I find it an absolute shock that the month of January falls immediately after December. You'd think my many years in the publishing industry would help me get wiseRead More...

COTS Products

VME SBC Serves Up Low Power Core 2 Duo The Core 2 Duo has become among the most prevalent CPUs in new embedded computer designs in the past couple of years. Its mix of performance andRead More...

FPGA Boards Rev Up for Signal Processing Duties

Military applications like sonar, radar, SIGINT and software radio—all of which rely on heavy amounts of waveform processing—continue to leverage advances in FPGA technology. FasterRead More...

FPGA Processing Boards Roundup

Virtex-5 FPGA PMC Aims at I/O Processing At one time FPGAs served merely as glue logic interfaces. Now they function as complete processing engines. Acromag’s PMC-VFX modulesRead More...

Transitions and New Realities Shake Up U.S. Manned Space Program

Here we are again at a crossroads of National manned space policy—the most significant since the transition from the Apollo/Saturn to the Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttle program isRead More...

Information Overload and Ducks

If you look at the role of military embedded computing systems today, the analogy of a duck coasting along the water comes to mind. The movement of a duck across a pond looks smoothRead More...

The Inside Track

VMETRO Deploys Storage System on Navy Helicopter VMETRO has shipped data recording solutions to the Radar Systems Division of Telephonics, a wholly owned subsidiary of the GriffonRead More...

12-bit ADC Has Two or Six Channels with up to 3.2 GS/s per Channel

A new 12-bit ADC supports either two 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) channels at 3.2 GSPS (Gigasamples per second) or six channels at 1.6 GSPS. The Calypso-V5 from TekmicroRead More...

DSP Architectures Close the ISR Collection-Analysis Gap

Today’s climate of rapidly evolving asymmetric threats is forcing the U.S. military to quickly adapt in order to maintain tactical situational awareness. However, the traditionalRead More...

Embedded Tech Building Blocks Pave Way for a Net-Centric Future

As the U.S. military transforms itself to Network-Centric operations, every node in the networked military will be affected. Gradually, every vehicle, every aircraft, every ship, everyRead More...

FPGAs Take On Expanded Processing Roles

Once used merely as glue logic, FPGAs are now complete systems on a chip. And now that many of them even have general-purpose CPU cores on them, the military is hungry to use FPGAs toRead More...

Processing Solutions Ease Full Motion Video Challenges

In recent years demand for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities has driven a huge ramp up in data collection capacity. While that shows no signs of slowing,Read More...

COTS Journal’s OpenVPX Solutions Center

Rugged 6U VPX SBC Has Integrated Onboard I/O Resources Aitech Defense Systems has introduced a rugged 6U VPX SBC that offers the selection between PCI Express and Serial RapidIO.Read More...

The Inside Track

Army Contracts General Dynamics for Battlefield Handheld Computers The U.S. Army has awarded General Dynamics C4 Systems a $2.3 million contract to provide a prototype, handheldRead More...