This page contains a Flash digital edition of a book.
Editor’s Choice Products


Editor’s note: Military Embedded Systems is “hip” to the whole Web 2.0 social networking revolution. While we don’t know which of today’s buzzy trends will last, we’re going to start including links to vendors’ social networks, when provided. You can also reach us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn ... and that’s just for this week. Next week there’ll undoubtedly be more new sites.


VPX router gets dolled up for FIPS crypto cert


This kind of certification is the stuff dreams are made of … well, if you’re a marketing guy for a VPX company, that is. Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing’s VPX3-685 secure router is undergoing FIPS 140-2 Level 2 cryptographic validation at NIST under the Cryptographic Module Validation Program (CMVP). This is a whole lot of alphabet soup jargon to say that once certified, the single-slot VPX module will ready for deployment in the most information sensitive data communications systems. The certification is the equivalent of winning an Oscar, if you’re a crypto kinda gal. But this certification is accepted by the U.S., Canada, and many other NATO countries.


“Authentication,” “integrity,” and “confidentiality” are the watchwords for data passing through this module. Corsec Security, Inc., is helping CWCEC attain the certification. The module itself can be configured with up to 20 GbE interfaces and up to two 10 GbE ports for switch-to-switch comms and backbones. Like any router, it thwarts IP spoofing, Denial of Service (DoS), and Trojan horses. There’s VLAN and VPN (IPsec/PPTP/L2TP) support, a firewall, NAT routing for IPv4, access control lists, and IPv6 with IPsec tunneling. The list of additional advanced router features is too long to mention here, but you’d think this thing was a full-blown Cisco rack … yet it’s “only” a 3U VPX module. If you’re running a red/black network on the battlefield, this router’s worth a close look.


Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing • www.cwcembedded.comwww.mil-embedded.com/p47648 VMware-certified AdvancedTCA node board


AdvancedTCA is making inroads into moderate environment deployed military racks. The promise of exceptional horsepower and scads of I/O in a small 1U-sized space makes the interoperable PICMG 3.0 (AdvancedTCA, Option 9) standard quite appealing. But the true promise of AdvancedTCA servers and processor nodes lies in their virtualization potential, as exemplified by Diversified Technology’s ATC6239. This AMD Opteron Socket F board is VMware compatible and certified for VMware’s ESX 4.1 and ESXi 4.1 for virtualization. This means the DoD user is assured that the industry’s most popular virtualization software’s gonna run on this baby – no questions asked.


Virtualization takes advantage of excess CPU and I/O resources and makes this AdvancedTCA board appear as multiple processing resources for applications including: LTE/4G wireless and other wireline networks, WiMAX, IMS applications, IPTV, radio network controlling, security and traffic handling, computational clustering, and video/audio transcoding and encoding. Four different kinds of Opterons are supported with a HyperTransport subsystem. Additionally, there’s up to 32 GB of ECC DDRII plus some onboard CompactFlash, and a Broadcom HT2100/HT1000 acts as traffic cop. I/O includes 1 GbE (front) and dual 1 GbE with dual 10 GbE (back), plus 2 USB, SAS/SATA (both to the AMC and RTM), plus video and three more USB to the RTM. And DTI has even tested this card with Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V and Xen virtualization.


Diversified Technology • www.dtims.comwww.mil-embedded.com/p47649 National’s new DAC: Bit on bits, low on power


A DAC’s a DAC, right? Well, maybe not. National Semiconductor’s latest 16-bit digital-to-analog converter, the DAC161S055, has some interesting features up its sleeve, er, SPI. This precision DAC is available over a wide -40 °C to +105 °C temperature range, so it’s ideal for high-rel applications. More importantly, the four-wire double-buffer SPI interface operates at 20 MHz and can be daisy-chained so multiple DACs in series can be connected via a single SPI I/F. This is but one aspect of the device’s flexibility that might save the designer some board space.


Designed for industrial I/O, automated test equipment, and other data acquisition, the fast, buffered output will settle in only 5 microseconds. As well, DC specs show off the device’s precision: +1LSB INL (max) and +1LSB DNL (max). The DAC161S055 has selectable power up to either 0 V or midscale, and the rail-to-rail buffered output has a very low noise of 120 nv/√Hz. There’s read-back on the SPI, an asynchronous load capability, reset pins, and a wide reference voltage of +2.5 V to VA. The analog supply is 2.7 to 5.25 V and supports digital interfaces down to 1.7 V. Oh, and the best part? The little 16-pinner sips only 5.5 mW at 5.25 V (max).


National Semiconductor • www.national.comwww.mil-embedded.com/p46948 Rugged digital touch screens, from 10 to 19 inches


We doubt that VIA, the number three x86 processor vendor, set out to supply rugged LCDs to the military. But these ruggedized and open-frame LCD assemblies are solidly designed for kiosks, POS terminals, and other bright sunlight applications so they ought to do well in military systems … an Abrams here, an AC-130 there. Available to operate over a -10 °C to +70 °C “harsh industrial environment,” the Vision Intelligence Display assemblies are also water resistant to NEMA IP65.


The SXGA resolution screens (1,280 x 1,024) are available in 7-, 10.4-, 12.1-, 15-, and 19-inch TFT sizes, with bright 600 cd/m2 LED backlights that consume up to 30 percent less power compared to traditional CFL backlights. As well, they boast 178-degree wide viewing angles and a five-wire USSB-based resistive touch interface, which VIA calls “excellently responsive.” There’s an available onscreen display panel plus pluggable options for VIA’s own EITX-3001 and AMOS 3001 boxed PCs to feed data to and from the panel. We think there’s a growing market for pre-packed, self-contained panel PCs, and this collection from VIA is a great place to start your search.


VIA Technologies • www.via.com.twwww.mil-embedded.com/p47651 Continued on page 44 MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS March/April 2011 43


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48