• Features 9th Generation Intel Xeon E-2276ME ‘Coffee Lake Refresh’ processor for maximum performance
• Provides comprehensive Anti-Tamper and Information Assurance functionality for optimum security
• Innovative thermal management maintains high performance even in adverse environments
• 40GigE data plane is in line with SOSA requirements

Abaco Systems announced an upgrade to the recently-announced SBC3511 3U VPX Single Board Computer, which now features the 9th generation i7 6-core Intel ®Xeon® E-2276ME processor (‘Coffee Lake Refresh’) operating at 2.8GHz (with turbo mode up to 4.4GHz). The processor is specifically designed for the specific demands of embedded applications.
The SBC3511 offers a 40GigE data plane for alignment with the SOSA™ (Sensor Open Systems Architecture) 3U I/O-intensive SBC plug-in card profile.
The SBC3511 is distinguished by its extensive provision for secure computing with a security hub based on the Xilinx® Ultrascale+™ FPGA. This has built-in security capabilities including a physical unclonable function (PUF), user-accessible hardened cryptographic blocks, asymmetric authentication, side channel attack protection, and other silicon-based AT features. It can optionally be used to harden the Chain of Trust, which includes Intel Trusted Execution technology. Abaco is developing a security toolkit which will provide users with optional security features.
The new single board computer is also differentiated by its advanced cooling architecture for conduction cooled boards.
The SBC3511 is the first of several new single board computers – 3U and 6U VPX - based on Intel’s latest processor that will be launched in the coming months.
First among these, and in line with Abaco’s extensive history of minimising its customers’ long term cost of ownership, will be the SBC3211 – also based on the Coffee Lake Refresh processor – which will feature a x4 PCI Express™ (Gen 3) data plane for compatibility with earlier Abaco 3U VPX SBCs. This provides a simple, cost-effective form-, fit- and function compatible upgrade for previous generations of Abaco 3U VPX SBCs including the SBC326, SBC328 and SBC329. It is expected that the new processor will offer 50% greater throughput than the 7th generation ‘Kaby Lake’ processor used in the SBC329.
“The SBC3511 provides a unique combination of very high performance, leading edge security provision and advanced cooling,” said Peter Thompson, Vice President, Product Management at Abaco Systems. “Importantly, it is also aligned with the SOSA open system reference architecture that many new programs demand and that will bring to market an exciting new generation of affordable, agile systems capable of responding to the rapidly changing electronic warfare landscape.”
The SBC3511 supports up to 32Gbytes of DDR4 memory, and is equipped with a 64GByte NVMe SSD. Connectivity includes USB 3.1/2.0, DisplayPort™, SATA, GPIO and COM. An XMC site is provided for further functional expansion. The SBC3511 is available in a range of air- and conduction cooled build levels with extended temperature capability up to 85°C. Support for Windows®, Linux® and VxWorks® is provided. 

More information.

When it Comes to Capturing the Best Quality Video, the TuffCORD is tough to beat!
Uncompressed HD-SDI video has become increasingly more desired for precision video analysis and real-time decision-making. With an HD-SDI interface, Ampex's TuffCORD Video Data Recorder gives users the benefit of zero video data losses, true color, and smooth edges for advanced analysis (multispectral, auto-ID via machine learning, etc).
​Built for harsh environments, the TuffCORD also meets a variety of operational needs to include functioning as a network file server, mission/flight test data recorder, or a mission data loader. It has expansion capability for additional Ethernet and other bus types (MIL-STD-1553B, CAN bus, etc.) 

Find the data sheet here.

• Delivers up to 5.7 TeraFLOPS for maximum performance in advanced applications
• Minimal SWaP enables deployment in constrained environments
• Wide range of I/O provides maximum flexibility

 Abaco Systems announced the GVC1001 ultra-high performance graphics, vision and AI evaluation platform. It is based on the recently-released NVIDIA® Jetson™ AGX Xavier™ module that features an NVIDIA Volta GPU with 512 Tensor Cores  and an 8-core ARM® CPU.  The GVC1001 is capable of up to 5.7 TeraFLOPS of performance.
The GVC1001 is ideal for deployment on highly constrained platforms such as autonomous vehicles. Typical applications include embedded training, 360° situational awareness, EO/IR processing, non-cert Degraded Visual Environment (DVE), display processing, moving map and many more.
These types of compute-, data- and image-intensive applications are now requiring AI, deep learning techniques and inferencing engines - which the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier module delivers. This new level of processing is required for advanced digital maps, image recognition, image segmentation, object localisation, image fusion, image stabilisation, object tracking and image correction within the target applications.
The GVC1001 is particularly suitable for ground vehicles as it provides two CANBus ports for vehicle data. It is capable of very high bandwidth with video ingest from multiple cameras over the two 10GbE ports. Additionally, for data-intensive applications, the 512-core CUDA®-capable Volta GPU opens up a broad range of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) applications. These include wide area persistent surveillance, hyperspectral sensor fusion, IED detection, and synthetic aperture radar processing.
“As an NVIDIA Jetson Preferred Partner in the military/aerospace segment, we have early access to NVIDIA’s design and support resources, meaning we can innovate earlier, and be on the leading edge of NVIDIA’s product roadmap – to the benefit of our customers,” said Peter Thompson, Vice President, Product Management, Abaco Systems. “The GVC1001 delivers a huge amount of customer- and application researched value, and is an off-the-shelf solution that can reduce cost, risk and time to market.”
In addition to the dual 10 GBE ports and two CANBus ports, the GVC1001 features extensive I/O flexibility with two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two DisplayPort™ 1.4 ports and two USB 3.0 ports. It is ideally complemented by Abaco’s RES3000 family of rugged Ethernet switches for the aggregation of input from multiple cameras.
256 GBytes of NVMe SSD bulk storage is provided as standard to store mission- and moving map data.

​To enable the rapid development of image processing and manipulation application development, the GVC1001 is supported by Abaco’s AXIS ImageFlex image processing and visualisation toolkit, which is designed to allow engineers to harness the full potential of NVIDIA GPUs. ImageFlex greatly simplifies application creation by delivering a powerful set of high-level application programming interfaces (APIs) that exploit the full capabilities of the underlying GPUs while abstracting the complex details associated with each implementation.  Applications built using the ImageFlex framework are easier to develop, test, debug and maintain, while speeding time to deployment by up to five times.

​More Information.

​Available as companion boards, the PCX/SXP-JAM assembly is a bridging and expansion solution for CompactPCI® Serial systems with need for integrating classis CompactPCI® cards. While the SXP-JAM is a CompactPCI® Serial board which resides on the outmost peripheral slot of the Serial backplane, the PCX-JAM is configured as system slot card for the classis CompactPCI® backplane. Both boards are connected together by a mezzanine stacking connector, which is used to forward a PCI Express® link from the SXP-JAM to a PCI® bridge on the PCX-JAM. Mounted together in a 4HP pitch, the PCX/SXP-JAM boards expand a modern CompactPCI® Serial system by up to seven classis CompactPCI® card slots.
When using either two adjacent separate standard backplanes CompactPCI® and CompactPCI® Serial, or alternatively a custom hybrid backplane, both PCX/SXP-JAM cards will be aligned together in a 4HP pitch (8HP front panel width assembly). The PCX-JAM resides left of the SXP-JAM, requiring the systems slots of both backplane segments to be right aligned.
In addition to the 32bit 33/66MHz PCI® bridge, the PCX-JAM is provided with three RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet jacks (Intel® I210-IT controllers) for industrial networking, and three USB 3.0 Type-A receptacles (TI USB controller). Furthermore, the SXP-JAM can accommodate an SATA SSD module, size M.2 up to 22110.

More details.

The Vision4ce CHARM-80SDI video tracker uses the CHARM Module and the DART (Detection & Acquisition, with Robust Tracking) detection and target tracking software hosted on an embedded multicore ARM processor board for video tracking and image processing applications.  ​The CHARM-80SDI has HD resolution HD-SDI video interfaces. 

​Typical Applications are : Security and Surveillance  -  UAV & UGV   -  Manned Vehicles 
​

​Find the data sheet here.

The EXP238 is a 6U VMEbus form factor expansion card offering three XMC/PMC expansion sites. When ordered as an option for the XVB603 VMEbus single board computer, the 2-slot solution greatly expands system flexibility.

• Provides three XMC/PMC expansion sites via PCI Express tthrough a special XVB603 XMC connector.
• VITA 42.3 compliant
• Expansion sites configured as: - 3x 3.3V/5.0V PMC sites - 3x XMC sites
• Two levels of ruggedisation

​More einformation on the EXP238.
More information on the XVB603.

Certifiable FORCE2 flight computer helps enable successful test mission  

Abaco Systems announced that the company’s FORCE2 flight computer had been chosen by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) to be at the heart of GA-ASI’s Certifiable Ground Control Station (CGCS). The CGCS was recently used to control the complete flight of an MQ-9B SkyGuardian – including take-off and landing.
This was the first time the CGCS has been used to control an entire end-to-end flight of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), and was an important step in achieving GA-ASI’s goal of the SkyGuardian being the first certifiable RPA certified to fly in national and international airspace.
The CGCS architecture provides separation between flight and mission critical functions. Flight critical functions are performed using a combination of off-the-shelf avionics, Abaco’s FORCE2, and hardware developed by GA-ASI that are controlled by GA-ASI’s certifiable DAL B software. The mission critical functions are separated and run alongside GA-ASI’s proven Advanced Cockpit payload and weapons equipment.
“We’re delighted to be involved in this program with GA-ASI,” said John Muller, Chief Growth Officer, Abaco Systems. “Achieving certification is a major challenge for many of our customers, not least because of the cost, time and risk involved. By making available the artifacts necessary for certification of the FORCE2 – as opposed to our customers undertaking the necessary work in-house - we can make a substantial contribution to reducing all three. The FORCE2 is a compelling, highly viable alternative to the in-house development of certifiable solutions.”
The FORCE2 Open Reference Computing Environment is designed to support the planned development of safety-critical, DO-254/DO-178 certifiable applications compliant with the FACE™ initiative.
A rugged, pre-integrated small form factor system for mission computing, the FORCE2 comprises a high TRL (technology readiness level) SBC314 3U VPX single board computer and avionics communications card housed in a robust enclosure to deliver unprecedented levels of performance in demanding flight applications.
The FORCE2 will be supported by DO-254 artifacts suitable for use in systems requiring Design Assurance Level (DAL) A, the highest level of assurance.

• Provides powerful alternative to devices based on ExpressCard, PCMCIA, Ethernet or USB connection
• Leverages high speed 40Gbps interface for minimum latency, maximum channel density
• Gives customers a clear path forward

 Abaco Systems announced the launch of a new family of avionics devices that feature the Thunderbolt™ 3 interface, including Thunderbolt 3-to-PMC/XMC interfacing with ARINC 429 and MIL-STD-1553 protocols.  The new platforms have integrated Thunderbolt 3 to establish a new standard for high-speed, low latency portable devices for a broad range of avionics applications. All of the Thunderbolt 3-equipped products include a rugged, all-aluminum design along with Power-over-Thunderbolt 3 to maximise portability.
The first of the new platforms include:
•            The RCEI-830A-TB supports up to 16 Tx and 16 Rx ARINC channels with a range of flexible I/O configurations. It provides complete, integrated databus functionality for ARINC 429, ARINC 615-3 dataloader, ARINC 717, ARINC 575 and selected 2-wire, 32-bit protocols.  Configurations with ARINC 717 provide support for both ARINC 717 HBP (Harvard Bi-Phase) and BPRZ (Bi-Polar Return to Zero) across a range of bit rate/sub-frame combinations.
•            The QPM-1553-TB provides high levels of performance, flexibility and interface density for MIL-STD-1553A/B. Standard features include 1 MByte of RAM per channel, real-time bus playback, aperiodic message insertion, error injection/detection, conditional BC branching, 64-bit, 25 nanosecond message timetagging, and "one-shot" BC operation.
Additional products in the family are planned for the near future.

​With a full set of development capabilities and an easily transportable design, Elma’s new D-Frame OpenVPX Development Chassis enables engineers to not only build and deploy embedded applications quicker, but collaborate and share resources as well.
The new system platform can be used for design and demonstration activities, such as board design, application development, data flow analysis and troubleshooting, in a number of defence and rugged industrial environments.
The versatile system can accommodate multiple board counts in both 3U and 6U form factors, enabling developers to incorporate different backplanes from Elma’s broad product line, several of which are OpenVPX-based and align with CMOSS requirements and the emerging SOSA standard.
Developers can also enhance system functionality through Elma’s extensive industry partnerships, which provide access to vendors of high-performance single board computers (SBCs), network switches and FPGA processing as well as storage and network timing cards.
The system features front and rear card guides, with optional conduction-cooled card guides as well as three fans that provide side-to-side airflow and an external 12V AC/DC power supply, with alternate power options available.
Housed in a professional-looking, briefcase-style chassis, the new system features a convenient carrying handle. This makes for easy transportation, enabling engineers to bring their technology to different locations for testing, demonstration or other development opportunities. Rubber feet on the chassis’ bottom ensure secure placement for use in a desktop environment.
The new VPX demonstrator chassis incorporates a hinged, clear top lid that simplifies access to probing cards and rear transmission modules, while enabling easy viewing of internal electronics.
With its experience in designing for harsh environment applications, Elma built the D-Frame Development Platform to meet a wide range of rugged, mobile, environmental and MIL-STD requirements. All units are supplied assembled, wired and tested. Systems can be developed for conduction-, convection- or liquid-cooled enclosures as well as for ATR and small form factor (SFF) platforms.
Although it’s OpenVPX-based, the new development platform can be configured to accommodate CompactPCI, CompactPCI Serial and VME boards.

​Find the data sheet here.

• Pre-integrates underlying data acquisition, processing and visualisation functionality
• Leverages best-in-breed technologies from Intel, NVIDIA, Xilinx to deliver 14 TFLOPS
• Supports AI, machine learning for leading edge applications
• Fully rugged for all-environment reliability

Abaco announced the Obox, a R&D evaluation platform designed to reduce the time, expense and risk of developing autonomous platforms for military applications on land, in the air and on the ocean.
A fully rugged (-40°C to + 71°C) enclosure houses customer-specified combinations of Abaco’s latest 3U VPX single board computers, FPGA/DSP subsystems and AI/GPGPU-enabled platforms to deliver up to 14 TeraFLOPS of computing power, together with high speed network switches. Scalable and flexible, the Obox has been specifically designed to capture the input from sensors – including Lidar, radar and cameras, integrated over Ethernet – and to drive actuators controlling velocity, trajectory and more. It enables the full range of autonomous operations, including detection, recognition, tracking, fusion, perception, planning, decision and effecting.
“We created the Obox to give customers the optimum head-start in developing autonomous platforms by providing a turnkey solution - pre-integrating the hardware and software on which to build – enabling them to focus faster on the specifics of the planned application rather than on the low level platform,” said Peter Thompson, Vice President, Product Management at Abaco. “By leveraging our expertise in hardware/software integration, customers will save time and money, minimize program risk and enable faster time-to-market and deployment.”