Increased performance without all that nasty power
Remember when Motorola/Freescale rocked our military worlds with the PowerPC and AltiVec? Yeah, we kinda remember that, too. But it’s been a while and we’re anxiously awaiting the revival of AltiVec back into the QorIQ family of Freescale processors. So here’s our prediction: GE’s 6U VME PPC10A, which was announced late last year and profiled herein, will soon be equipped with whichever Freescale CPU includes an AltiVec. Meanwhile, GE’s PPC10A with QorIQ P4080 has a rockin’ 8-core CPU yet still drinks no more power than the predecessor board called the PPC9A (which used Freescale’s 2-core 8641D). So that’s 6 extra cores in the same power budget … and soon an AltiVec. (We hope.) Too cool!
The PPC10A’s cores zip along at 1.5 GHz and chat with up to 8 GB of dual-channel DDR3. There are 2 GbE ports (with 2 more as options), 2 SATA, 2 USB (with 3 more as options), and 21 GPIO ports. Two XMC/PMC sites promise even more add-on I/O or processing, and GE’s AFIX expansion site allows customization with SCSI, VGA, 1553, a flash drive, and an AltiVec. Just kidding about that last one, at least until Freescale reintroduces a QorIQ with AltiVec. And since this is GE Intelligent Platforms, there are six ruggedization levels, including conduction-cooled flavors. Even though VPX is all the rage, lots of DoD programs have VME backplanes, and the PPC10A is the top shelf for VME-based Freescale SBCs.
GE Intelligent Platforms •
www.ge-ip.com •
www.mil-embedded.com/p47653 COM Express SBC tucks neatly into rugged shoeboxes
The trend in many military systems is a purpose-built box that fits the required space and I/O ports. This means that what’s inside the box is insignificant – and increasingly, COM Express is what’s so “insignificant.” One perfect example is congatec AG’s conga-CA6 COM Express Type 2 module, based upon Intel’s E6xx Atom and EG20 platform controller hub. Consuming only 5 W at 95 x 95 mm, the COM boasts low battery life and all-rugged components with long-life longevity.
There are four speed grades available for the Atom: 600 MHz, 1.0 GHz, 1.3 GHz, and 1.6 GHz. Each accesses up to 2 GB of directly soldered DDR2 SDRAM. The onboard graphics controller has a 256 MB frame buffer, and Intel has made it 50 percent faster on tasks like DirectX 9.0E, OpenGL 2.0, and MPEG-2/-4. Graphics output is via 24-bit LVDS or SDVO. Other onboard I/O includes 3 PCIe x1, 2x SATA, PCI, EIDE, GbE, High-Def audio, and 6 USB. congatec can equip the conga-CA6 with up to 32 GB of flash memory, accessed via the SATA interface.
congatec AG •
www.congatec.us •
www.mil-embedded.com/p47546
Companies show initiative when it
comes to Android You can’t go anywhere these days without seeing someone whip out their smartphone to look up a restaurant, or to Google the answer to some question that arose during dinner with friends. And the military might not be far behind in adopting smartphones or tablets featuring Android and other open mobile OSs – thanks to OK Labs and Fixmo Inc.’s new “joint initiative to create and commercialize a highly secure COTS mobile
platform.” The platform will target civilian, federal government, and military needs, and will culminate in a “reference solution” – for tablet and smartphone OEMS – that melds system software, firmware, and mobile virtualization for information assurance. The primary goal is to isolate the organization’s apps and data from the operator’s personal user stuff … thus reinforcing the mantra: It’s all about the security.
In engineering speak, this means: 1) The new initiative’s progeny platform will include Fixmo’s Sentinel security monitoring software running on an OKL4 Microvisor-based independent virtual machine to, once again, keep secure things separate on a single mobile device; and 2) The joint platform solution offers image profiling and tracking by checksums and size, in addition to handy-dandy activity auditing. And OK Labs and Fixmo aren’t planning on resting on their laurels: They are also targeting the financial services and healthcare industries. But if we’ve whet your appetite, you’ll still have to wait a few months: The platform isn’t slated for market delivery until Q3 2011.
OK Labs •
www.ok-labs.com •
www.mil-embedded.com/p47654 Fixmo Inc. •
www.fixmo.com •
www.mil-embedded.com/p47655
Editor’s Choice Products are drawn from OSM’s product database and press releases. Vendors may add their new products to our website at
http://submit.opensystemsmedia.com and submit press releases at
http://submit.opensystemsmedia.com. OSM reserves the right to publish products based on editors’ discretion alone and does not guarantee publication of any product entries.
MILITARY EMBEDDED SYSTEMS March/April 2011 45
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