CHATSWORTH, Calif., 31 Jan. 2009. Aitech Defense Systems Inc., manufacturer of open architecture board and subsystem-level products for harsh environment defense, aerospace, and astronautics applications, has unveiled the 6U VME C160 single-board computer (SBC). It sports the latest Intel T7400 low-power, high-performance Merom Core 2 Duo dual core processors, designed for mobile applications.

The rugged, single-slot C160 employs Intel's Virtualization Technology (VT), enabling the board to run different applications simultaneously using multiple virtual partitions.

The new C160 draws 25 watts and incorporates a custom metal thermal-management frame supporting an array of integral stiffeners for increased resistance against high shock and vibration. These characteristics ensure the board is well suited for a number of rugged and harsh military environments, including radar and sonar communications processors, autonomous vehicle IED and RPG protection subsystems, mission management computers, and heads-up display controllers.

The C160 offers 2eSST and 2eVME functionality, as well as VME and PCI legacy support via a Tundra Tsi148 bridge. The bridge's decoupled architecture can handle simultaneous transactions and the large FIFOs (first in first out) to prevent PCI/X to VME deadlock conditions for more reliable data throughput.

The board's large memory arrays provide volatile and non-volatile memory resources including up to 2 GB of fast DDR2 SDRAM operating at 667 MHz and up to 8 GB of on-board Flash disk (NAND Flash) with IDE controller, eliminating the need for externally attached mass-storage media.

For man-machine interface applications, the C160 provides an integrated GM965 graphics engine with 2D and 3D graphics that can be output to various video formats. Graphics language support includes Microsoft DirectX 10 and SGI OpenGL 1.5/2.0.

The C160 includes two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two SATA II interfaces, and two USB 2.0 interfaces, as well as legacy interfaces consisting of two 16C550-compatible RS232/422/485 serial ports and eight discrete I/O lines.

For local onboard I/O expansion, the C160 provides two industry-standard PMC sites capable of up to 133 MHz PCI-X operation for expanded flexibility and integration. All PMC I/O is routed to the backplane's P0 and P2 connectors per ANSI/VITA-35.

The C160 is available in two basic processor configurations, optimized for either maximum performance (2.2 GHz) or for lowest power consumption (1.67 GHz).

The board comes in either air-cooled or conduction-cooled versions, per ANSI/VITA 1-1994 and IEEE 1101.2, respectively.

OEM pricing for the C160 6U VME SBC starts at $6,050.