VPX
The New standard for professional embedded systems for deployed applications.
In the right hands VPX is a powerful building block for next generation military systems that will use the enormous potential of its backplane. Ideal for Radar, SDR, reconfigurable systems, virtualisation. Used in aircraft, naval and Next-Gen ground based vehicle systems.
Unitronix supplies Curtiss Wright, Concurrent Technologies, NAI, General Standard and GET VPX cards. We have a number of 3U & 6U development systems and can provide a high level of technical support on the systems engineering required behind VPX.
3U PROCESSORS
Today’s defence applications demand smaller, faster, and smarter technology to maximise performance while minimising SWaP. What’s more, technology must provide strong, dependable protection against environmental and security vulnerabilities, and a well-supported life cycle throughout the duration of today’s defence programmes.
Full line of rugged, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processor cards supporting Intel, NXP Power Architecture, and Arm processors. Available in the 3U VPX form factor, these single board computers (SBCs) and digital signal processing (DSP) cards bring high-performance processing to today’s C4ISR systems.
The OpenVPX framework defines the clear interoperability points necessary for integration between Module to Module and Module to Backplane and Chassis. The OpenVPX specification and profile list was updated again in 2019 following input from the SOSA Open group.
Our suppliers are at the forefront in implementing compute intensive boards that are compliant to these new profiles. VPX products are widely deployed in military and aerospace environments.
6U PROCESSORS
Today’s defence applications demand smaller, faster, and smarter technology to maximise performance while minimising SWaP. What’s more, technology must provide strong, dependable protection against environmental and security vulnerabilities, and a well-supported life cycle throughout the duration of today’s defence programmes.
Full line of rugged, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) processor cards supporting Intel, NXP Power Architecture, and Arm processors. Available in the 6U VPX form factor, these single board computers (SBCs) and digital signal processing (DSP) cards bring high-performance processing to today’s C4ISR systems.
The OpenVPX framework defines the clear interoperability points necessary for integration between Module to Module and Module to Backplane and Chassis. The OpenVPX specification and profile list was updated again in 2019 following input from the SOSA Open group.
Our suppliers are at the forefront in implementing compute intensive boards that are compliant to these new profiles. VPX products are widely deployed in military and aerospace environments.
A-PNT
VPX3-673 is a rugged, high-performance 3U OpenVPX™ A-PNT solution and Central Radial Clock module. It features a Single Board Computer (SBC) that combines NXP’s capable and low-powered QorIQ® Layerscape LS1043A Quad Core 64-bit v8 Arm® A53 with a full suite of supporting capabilities on-board to enable A-PNT processing and distribution. It supports CMOSS & SOSA Timing Module requirements. When GPS goes away this card can take over with dead reckoning services.
It supports NXP’s Arm processor technology, featuring its Layerscape LS1043A. Utilizing this advanced 64-bit, 4-core CPU and Curtiss-Wright’s proven ruggedisation technology and has been designed for harsh environments, making it ideal for architecting high-performance computing and processing systems for A-PNT.
With a high speed DDR4 memory subsystem connected directly to the processor and supporting up to 4 GB SDRAM, the VPX3-673 is able to maximise the performance of the multiple processing cores, GPS, and associated position and timing capabilities.
The VPX3-673 serves an excellent high-performance, low-skew clock master powered by a GPS-disciplined Chip Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC), which offers a variety of configurable clock reference sources and support for up to 16 synchronised clock outputs.
Optimised for Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) rugged server applications which need excellent processing, memory and storage capabilities. Multi-processor systems can easily be constructed using the built-in Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports. These cards are targeted towards long life-cycle rugged server applications across a range of military, aerospace, transportation and test markets.
Example: TR G4x/msd is optimised for Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) rugged server applications which need excellent processing, memory and storage capabilities.
Key Features
- 3U VPX Server board with virtualisation support
- VMware ready
- Intel® Xeon® Processor D-1500 Family
- Up to 16-cores and 64 Gbytes DDR4 memory
- Up to 2TB direct attached storage
- 10 Gigabit Ethernet and PCI Express® connectivity
3U FPGA
FPGAs have revolutionised the way DSP subsystems are configured. With a large number of gates, hardware multipliers and high-speed serial interfaces, FPGAs enable sophisticated applications, including radar, signal intelligence and image processing. These applications rely on repetitive fixed-point processing that can be expressed in highly parallel form.
FPGAs perform exceptionally well in FFTs, pulse compression, filters, and digital up/down converters. In deployed systems, an FPGA’s technical advantage translates to smaller, lower-power and lower-cost systems. Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions offers a variety of COTS 3U VPX FPGA-based processor cards to meet the most demanding applications. The 3U FPGA processor boards include a wide complement of I/O functionality.
FPGA modules can be the most challenging products to develop due to the increasing power of the FPGAs and related devices and the many high speed interfaces. Includes innovative design features and performs thorough validation to insure rugged FPGA products will function as advertised in rugged, deployed applications.
6U FPGA
FPGAs have revolutionised the way DSP subsystems are configured. With a large number of gates, hardware multipliers and high-speed serial interfaces, FPGAs enable sophisticated (fixed typo) applications, including radar, signal intelligence and image processing. These applications rely on repetitive fixed-point processing that can be expressed in highly parallel form.
6U modules are targeted for applications which can accommodate the size of 6U modules and need multiple FPGAs. In general one 6U module can fit more logic than two 3U modules.
FPGAs perform exceptionally well in FFTs, pulse compression, filters, and digital up/down converters. In deployed systems, an FPGA’s technical advantage translates to smaller, lower-power and lower-cost systems. We offer a variety of COTS 6U VPX FPGA-based processor cards to meet the most demanding applications. The 6U FPGA processor boards include a wide complement of I/O functionality.
FPGA modules can be the most challenging products to develop due to the increasing power of the FPGAs and related devices and the many high speed interfaces. Includes innovative design features and performs thorough validation to ensure rugged FPGA products will function as advertised in rugged, deployed applications.
3U GPU & GPGPU
Our 3U graphics, video, and general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) cards feature the latest AMD and NVIDIA embedded GPU technology. For systems requiring enhanced situational awareness or using deep learning frameworks for AI applications, these highly engineered modules provide a field-proven hardware foundation.
Rugged GPU, Video Capture & Frame Grabber Modules
Whether you need a high-performance solution to see clearly in degraded visual environments or you’re looking to add graphics processing without taking up another slot in your SWaP-constrained system, you’ll find the perfect fit in our selection of embedded graphics cards.
6U GPU & GPGPU
Our 6U general-purpose graphics processing unit (GPGPU) cards feature the latest NVIDIA embedded GPU technology. For systems requiring compute-intensive capability or using deep learning frameworks for AI applications, these highly engineered modules provide a field-proven hardware foundation.
High-Performance GPGPU Processors
Answering the growing demand for artificial intelligence and high-performance processing in deployed EW and ISR applications, our 6U VPX GPGPU modules are designed to deliver advanced capabilities in a highly rugged board.
These processing powerhouses leverage the latest GPGPU advancements from NVIDIA for machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. Equipped with NVIDIA CUDA machine learning cores, our 6U VPX GPGPU boards offer TFLOPS processing capability alongside maximum memory bandwidth for the most compute-intensive tasks.
Unitronix offer a range of VPX IO cards, that cover anologue, digital, serial, single and muli-function.
Single-function I/O boards designed for a specific, single-purpose application. Based on the specialised application itself, from the interface connectors through the motherboard, to the specific function, these boards typically address I/O function integration challenges requiring higher current capacity, layout and/or grounding requirements.
Multifunction I/O Cards When combined with smart function modules they have the ability to meet a wide range of complex and time-critical sense and response requirements for I/O-intensive, mission-critical applications. Specifically designed for the most demanding defence, commercial aerospace and industrial applications, these boards are built with a modular I/O approach that accelerates deployment of COTS-based, high-density, SWaP-optimised solutions.
The 3U VPX form factor is compatible with several VITA standards including: VITA-46, VITA-48 and VITA-65. The 53xxx Series mounts one XMC module on a 3U VPX carrier with a flexible crossbar switch. It is available in commercial air-cooled and ruggedised versions up to and including conduction cooling.
The 6U VPX form factor is also compatible with several VITA standards including: VITA-46, VITA-48 and VITA-65 OpenVPXTM. The 58xxx Series mounts two XMC modules on a 6U VPX carrier, while the 57xxx Series mounts only one.
Both series are available in commercial air-cooled and ruggedised versions up to and including conduction cooling.
Flexible solution for customers starting VPX™ projects based on Concurrent Technologies’ processor boards. 3-7 slot variants and 3U or 4U height. These systems allows the user to create their own point to point backplane interconnections by using the supplied cables instead of forcing the use of a custom backplane. Suitable for desk and lab usage, are suppled as standard with rails for air-cooled VPX cards. Rails that allow conduction-cooled boards to be installed are available as accessories.
3U NETWORKING
OpenVPX and VPX switches and routers enable the vision of networked military and aerospace systems by providing systems integrators with a fast and powerful way to interconnect chassis, cards, and CPU’s through switched Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet as well as sRIO & InfiniBand links. Operating at wire-speed, these Ethernet switching and routing can be used to architect the infrastructure for unified (Ethernet only) or hybrid (Ethernet control and other switched data-plane fabric) networks for transferring IP-based control and data packets within advanced military systems.
Designed for the current generation of VPX systems, and compliant with common OpenVPX profiles, these OpenVPX systems offer wire-speed Gigabit Ethernet and 10 G Ethernet connectivity for intra-platform switching and secure WAN routing.
These 3U switches support air-cooled and conduction-cooled embedded systems.
6U NETWORKING
OpenVPX and VPX switches and routers enable the vision of networked military and aerospace systems by providing systems integrators with a fast and powerful way to interconnect chassis, cards, and CPU’s through switched Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet as well as sRIO & InfiniBand links. Operating at wire-speed, these Ethernet switching and routing can be used to architect the infrastructure for unified (Ethernet only) or hybrid (Ethernet control and other switched data-plane fabric) networks for transferring IP-based control and data packets within advanced military systems.
Designed for the current generation of VPX systems, and compliant with common OpenVPX profiles, these OpenVPX systems offer wire-speed Gigabit Ethernet and 10 G Ethernet connectivity for intra-platform switching and secure WAN routing.
These 6U switches support air-cooled and conduction-cooled embedded systems.
Unitronix supply and support a range of rugged data storage products for military and commercial applications. Leveraging on over 30 years experience of rugged storage solutions from in-flight entertainment systems to fast jets, our suppliers are flexible and innovative manufacturers of hardened storage on VPX.
Example: VPX6-SBM Storage Blade
Curtiss-Wright 6U VPX Storage Blade features 32 TB or 64 TB of storage capacity and up to 6.25 GB/s data throughput rates. This compact, high capacity commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) storage blade leverages the latest NVMe PCIe technology in a single 6U VPX slot that is developed in alignment with OpenVPX™ (VITA 65) and VPX (VITA 46). The VPX6-SBM is air cooled, rugged and ready for defence and industrial applications.
