Rugged Computing January 2019
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SPECIAL REPORT: RUGGED COMPUTING JANUARY 2019 Sponsored by SR Atrenne Ad 0119.qxp_Layout 1 12/19/18 8:28 PM Page 1 LAB DEVELOPMENT to RUGGED DEPLOYMENT • ARINC 404A • MIL-STD-1275 • MIL-STD-167 • MIL-STD-461 • MIL-STD-704 • MIL-STD-810 • MIL-STD-91403 • RTCA/DO-160 LAB DEVVELOPMENT CHASSIS RUGGED ENCLOSURESURE CAPABILITIES • 3U and 6UU, Air and Conduction • 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, 1, 1.5+ AATTR enclosures Cooled Moduleso • 1U to 14U high Rackmount • Extreme coolingc for high-powered enclosures modules • Small form factortor enclosures • VPX/OpenVPX,n VME/VME64x, VXS, • VPX/OpenVPX, VXS,VX VME64x, VME, Hybrid, CompactPCo CompactPCI andnd other embedded • Tower, Desktop,e Open Frame, form factors Rackmount,n Horizontal Insertion • Baseplate, forced-air,ed-air, heat- and ATR exchanger, andd liquid-cooled chassis • 10 Gbaud Gen-3 signaling • 3U/6U air and conduction-cooled • 25+ Standardd VPX backplanes modules. • 3rd-Party Agnostic • Backplanes withth 10 Gbaud signaling • Optional 110/2201 VVAAC, 28/48 VDC, AATTX, in a range of topologiesopologies 12v and 5V centric power supplies • Lightening protectionotection • Red/black Tempest separation CONTENTS FEATURES 24 Protecting Critical Data on 2 Beyond VMEbus: A New Concept Unmanned Underwater Innovative COTS products adopting a Modular Open Platforms Systems Approach (MOSA) compliant architecture To speed the development of autonomous could accelerate efforts to standardize common military underwater vehicles, system designers are hardware platforms. turning to small form factor COTS technologies previously proven in unmanned 6 The Bus TOO TOUGH to Die aerial applications. The venerable MIL-STD-1553B bus has survived remarkably well even as other more advanced solutions gained wide acceptance. APPLICATION BRIEFS 10 CompactPCI Serial Space 27 Ruggedized Computer Rack Cases A new embedded system specification takes on extreme 28 Rugged Server and Display System environments. 14 Radiation Tolerant "Smart ON THE COVER Backplanes" for Spacecraft Avionics A novel approach to radiation mitigation at the board A new embedded level enables the use of existing high-performance COTS computing specification called CompactPCI Serial systems in a space radiation environment, thereby Space was ratified in 2017. lowering cost. Designed for use on defense and space-based 16 Bringing RF into the Embedded projects such as satellites, it takes the proven World: It's Time CompactPCI Serial standard The OpenRFM™ initiative looks to integrate RF and to the next level by microwave technology into "digital-only" embedded addressing requirements form factors for the first time. Here's why. like redundancy, radiation hardening, outgassing, and testing/screening. Read the article on page 10. 20 New Technologies Tackle UAV (Composite illustration by Ayinde Frederick) Challenges Learn how engineers are solving difficult problems of thermal management, power budgeting, EMI emissions, and more. RUGGED COMPUTING SPECIAL REPORT JANUARY 2019 1 Beyond VMEbus A New Concept eployability and life-cycle management of large and These challenges not only make it difficult to upgrade to disparate collections of weapons, combat and C4ISR the latest technology but may also limit the government’s computing systems is one of the most critical ability to repurpose used — but still viable — equipment that Dchallenges facing the Department of Defense today. may have residual value to other programs with less funding. Numerous defense programs, each defining separate, and If the DoD is to get onto, and stay on, the commercial oftentimes unique system architectures, configurations, and technology cam, current efforts to standardize common compositions, result in a wide range of processing and hardware platforms must be accelerated. What is needed is a control systems that create complexity and drive excessive standardized, Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) lifecycle costs. compliant architecture that is at once scalable, extensible, Although serious efforts have been made to standardize on serviceable and available. Once deployed, it should be a set of common hardware solutions such as NAVSEA populated with a relatively small set of mechanically Acoustic Rapid COTS Insertion (A-RCI), Common Processing robust, Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS), loosely-coupled, (CPS), and Common Display Systems (CDS), that limited hardware modules compatible with mission critical land, sea, commonality has not extended across any one ship, let alone and airborne applications—truly COTS products with the end an entire fleet. This lack of a truly common modular in mind. infrastructure has led to: • Difficult, asynchronous technology insertion cycles & The Impact of VMEbus delayed modernization due to expensive, time-consuming To understand the importance of standards-based integration and shipboard industrial work; technology in the DoD market, one of the best known • DMS/MS-driven logistics that lead to the purchase of examples is VMEbus. In the 1980’s and 90’s VMEbus inefficient, obsolete, end-of-life products; overcame a slew of competitors to become arguably the • Non-uniform system administration & management creating leading embedded bus-board architecture for a wide range of unnecessary complexity; commercial, industrial, military and aerospace applications. • Failure to achieve broad-based economies of scale due to Over the years, it became the “party candle” of bus small quantity purchases and a variety of “spares.” structures—whenever a competitor arose adopting some form 2 JANUARY 2019 RUGGED COMPUTING SPECIAL REPORT of the Eurocard packaging, whether it be Multibus II, motherboards, industry standard IO, and Ethernet CompactPCI, Futurebus, ATCA, etc., the VME community interconnects were not only cost-effective, but easier to would morph their product just enough to not only keep it integrate and offered greater flexibility. alive but also maintain its dominance as the embedded Possibly the most obvious example of a successful computing architecture of choice. The compact (6U x 160mm transition from SBCs to 1U rack-mount servers in a mission deep) form factor, flexible packaging, pin-and-socket critical system is the NAVSEA, Acoustic Rapid COTS Insertion connector, and robust commercial/industrial construction (ARCI) program. By transitioning to 1U rack servers, the ARCI enabled it to soldier on as an embedded computing platform IPT has been able to simultaneously reduce costs in hardware, for much longer than anyone could have originally the technology insertion process, and related shipboard predicted—often using the backplane as little more than a industrial work, while speeding the deployment of higher- physical structure with power and ground distribution. performance, contemporary technology unavailable on any The success of VME in the DoD market was largely suitable bus structure. attributed to its: Looking across the universe of military embedded systems, • inherent ruggedness; one can see the proliferation of 1U “pizza boxes” across • industry standard architecture; virtually every major weapons, combat, and C4ISR system, • composability; including: • broad range of suppliers; • The U.S. Navy • adequate performance for most applications. • Aegis Weapons & Combat Systems However, despite its achievements, VME’s days were • AN/SQQ-89 Anti-Submarine Warfare System numbered due to the rise of fast pseudo-serial interconnects • Submarine Warfare Federated Tactical System (SWFTS) & such as RapidIO, PCI Express, Ethernet, Infiniband and Tech Insertion Hardware (TIH) Myrinet. Additional drawback features also contributed to its • Acoustic — Rapid COTS Insertion (A-RCI) decline, such as: • Consolidated Afloat and Network Enterprise Services • Backplane limitations: signaling features were often (CANES) underutilized, with the backplane itself being used for • The U.S. Army power. • Distributed Common Ground Station (Army-DCGS) • Upgrade Complexity: the VME standard allowed custom • Intelligence Fusion System (IFS) backplane pin assignments and custom backplanes; board • Warfighter Information Network — Tactical (WIN-T) models were rarely interchangeable without backplane or • Battle Command Common Services (BCCS) other design changes. • Inefficient Sparing: Lack of fully compatible modules and lack of purchasing coordination between programs led to the need to stock a variety of spares. Several generations of bus protocol enhancements and higher performance VMEbus interface devices helped hide the inherent liability of VME’s relatively low- speed, shared parallel bus structure. In fact, much effort went towards the development of highly integrated VME Single Board Computers (SBCs) and auxiliary local IO bus expansion capabilities, all to remove data traffic from its most fundamental resource — the bus itself. When blade systems began to take market share and Sun Microsystems introduced the 1U “pizza box,” the same capabilities were now available in more cost-effective 1U servers — with commercial motherboard production Only 10" deep, the Themis HDversa accommodates up to twelve special purpose modules volumes that were orders of magnitude that each share common electric, physical and environmental characteristics. HDversa greater than any VMEbus SBC. The highly is suitable for hosting existing bare metal applications while simultaneously providing a integrated systems with packaged ATX-style platform for incremental transitions to a fully hyper-converged architecture. RUGGED COMPUTING SPECIAL REPORT JANUARY 2019 3 Beyond VMEbus