Demands on faster, smaller and more energy efficient digital audio devices have driven the need for devices from operating at the traditional 5 V to core voltage levels of well below 1 V. These low voltages and the variety of different voltages in use between devices can result in interface compatibility problems as well as measurement issues. Read this application note and learn more about the potential issues that can arise when making digital audio measurements on devices that have incompatible logic levels. 

This White Paper brought to you by Agilent Technologies Inc.

Potentiostatically charged Hybrid capacitors age predictably by a mechanism involving electrochemical reactions that reduce the efficiency of the cathode and consume electrolyte. One of these reactions results in the formation of hydrogen at the cathode which reacts irreversibly with the tantalum foil substrate. The material formed is much less conductive than the original. The consequence to capacitor performance is an increase in ESR and a decrease in capacitance. It has been assumed that the rate of this wear-out mechanism is directly related to the leakage current in the capacitor. This means that the relative age of a capacitor is proportional to the quantity of charge passed as leakage current. If one knows what quantity of charge a capacitor can pass over its useful life, capacitor life can be easily estimated by determining the leakage current under any proposed operating conditions.

This White Paper brought to you by Evans Capacitor Company.

Discusses recent advances in VNA calibration and compares measurements using different calibration types for a variety of RF and microwave devices including cables, filters and amplifiers. It discusses QuickCal, full 2-port unknown thru, and enhanced response calibrations. 


This White Paper is brought to you by Agilent Technologies Inc.

Many of today’s power measurement applications require multiple power measurements to be made simultaneously. This is further complicated in remote applications such as base station testing, where measurements need to be obtained from places where access is inconvenient. This application note details the advantages of using a USB power sensor solution, and also covers the setup for multi-channel power measurement and methodology for lengthening the USB power sensor connection for single-channel power measurement. 


This White Paper brought to you by Agilent Technologies Inc. 


Rise/fall time is one of the key measurement parameters when designing, manufacturing or maintaining pulsed radar power amplifier systems, especially for wideband pulse power amplifiers. Learn how to achieve 5 nanosecond rise/fall time RF pulse measurement with the 8990B peak power analyzer by reading this application note. This article also includes tips on how to consistently obtain accurate rise/fall time measurement results.

This White Paper brought to you by Agilent Technologies Inc. 


High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) combines the latest processor and interconnect technologies with infrastructures such as OpenVPX and standard software components to allow military programs to pack more computing power into smaller size, weight and power (SWaP) for SIGINT, radar, EW, and many other applications. The drive toward Modular Open Systems Architectures (MOSA) is at the heart of GE’s selection of technologies, and this paper examines how this can positively impact programs.

This White Paper brought to you by GE Intelligent Platforms.

Recently updated and expanded to its 8th edition, this handbook reviews the markets and technology for A/D converters with sampling rates higher than 100 MHz. It discusses sampling and filtering techniques and new FPGA technology for A/Ds. The latest Pentek high-speed A/D products and applications based on such products are also presented.

This White Paper brought to you by Pentek, Inc.

Recently updated and expanded to its 7th edition, this handbook reviews the latest FPGA technology and how it can be put to use in software radio systems. FPGAs offer significant advantages for implementing software radio functions such as digital downconverters and upconverters. These advantages include design flexibility, higher precision processing, lower power, and lower cost. Pentek SDR products that utilize FPGA technology and their applications are also presented.

This White Paper brought to you by Pentek, Inc.

Many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have complex electromechanical projects they’d like to outsource, often because they just don’t fit their production model. However, many times the issues that make production inefficient to keep in-house also make it difficult to outsource. Or worse, the product has been outsourced, but the contract manufacturer is unable to support it. This paper looks at the five most common issues that can make complex, electromechanical projects difficult to outsource and strategies for eliminating them.

Whitepaper brought to you by Federal Electronics

In military, aerospace and first responder applications, System Integrators targeting highly rugged applications often utilize conduction cooled modules because of their superior performance in harsh environments. Historically, these have often been proprietary custom designs, but with tighter budgets System Integrators are increasingly turning to COTS suppliers in order to minimize non-recurring costs and shorten time to market.

Whitepaper brought to you by Curtis-Wright

Until recently, the commercial software available for CFD typically has been geared towards specialists, limiting its widespread use. Besides being expensive, these tools have either been difficult, cumbersome or time-consuming to use. As a result, engineering analysis for applications such as heat transfer traditionally have been carried out by specialists in analysis departments, separate from mainstream design and development departments.

Fortunately, new tools have emerged that embed a complete range of flow analyses including heat transfer simulation within mainstream MCAD toolsets.

This White Paper brought to you by Mentor Graphics.

GPUDirect RDMA solves an age-old problem for GPUs by removing the CPU and system memory bottleneck. By doing so, GPUDirect RDMA greatly decreases the latency of streaming data into the GPU from external PCIe endpoints and increases bandwidth through more efficient PCIe intercommunication. This allows the GPU to move into new application domains, like electronic warfare and radar/SIGINT frontends, which were previously inaccessible due to low-latency requirements.

Learn how the latest generation of Kepler™-family GPUs and CUDA™ 5.0 from NVIDIA^®, along with a new feature called GPUDirect™ RDMA enable 3rd-party PCIe endpoints to DMA directly to and from the GPU, without the use of system memory or the GPU.

This White Paper brought to you by GE Intelligent Platforms.

Fast and accurate radar pulse measurements are critical when designing or manufacturing radar components. Knowing how to optimize power measurement tools will help engineers meet stringent market demands. Get tips on how to make the fastest and most accurate radar pulse measurements by reading this application note. This article also includes real-world scenarios that demonstrate how to put these tips into practice with Agilent power meters and sensors. 



This White Paper brought to you by Agilent Technologies Inc.

As more advanced avionics, CMS and IFE systems make their way into aircraft, the amount of 10 gigabit cable deployed to support current and future systems is increasing significantly. Unfortunately, the pathway space remains the same. Engineers in the aerospace industry therefore need cables that meet highly reliable 10 gigabit signal transmission performance, while also taking up less space, lowering the total cable weight and providing installable performance irrespective of the tight pathways of an aircraft. Thermax’s new white paper discusses optimum data cabling characteristics– including reliable 10 gigabit performance, compact size, installable performance and durability, and lower weight per foot – for meeting aircraft design challenges such as tight routing, harsher environments, and lighter, more fuel-efficient aircraft. This White Paper was sponsored by Thermax.

Like every other military and aerospace component, wire and cable is under increased scrutiny as engineers look for weight and space savings in their designs. This is particularly true given the increasing amounts of data and coaxial cable needed to support advanced electronic systems. This white paper discusses how material and design innovations are resulting in smaller, lighter-weight cables that meet exacting military and aerospace standards for electrical, mechanical and environmental performance, while also providing appreciable size and weight advantages over conventional cable designs.

This white paper brought to you by Thermax.

Here’s the problem:
• The newest high-performance commercial processor has just come out
• In order to meet your customer’s requirements, you want to use it in your system
• Your software developers want to get started coding but it will take months for hardware designers to implement the new chip in an embedded computer board
• You can’t WAIT several months to get started
• How can you start working in parallel so your software team can create the code while the hardware is being designed?

This whitepaper explores a methodology for the rapid development of software for embedded systems. This methodology enables you to implement the latest generation of hardware, preserve the investment in legacy software, enable dispersed software teams to work together on a common system and significantly reduce development time.

This White Paper brought to you by Mercury Systems.

Today, with the quad-core Intel® Core™ i7 and associated bridge, memory and hardware, it’s possible to design an SBC with multi-core processors and run multiple operating systems.

The key element that makes it possible to move from older  Asymmetrical Multiprocessor (AMP) designs to now fully leverage the potential of multi-core processors is Hypervisor.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis-Wright.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis is no longer a discipline reserved only for highly trained practitioners. A new class of CFD analysis software known as “Concurrent CFD” is proving to be greatly effective at performing pressure drop analysis, enabling mechanical engineers to accelerate key decisions at their workstations, without the need for CFD specialists.

Sponsored by Mentor Graphics.

Hey! It’s getting HOT in here!
As you look to leverage the latest in high-performance processors, you also are looking at significantly higher heat loads. There are several ways to manage these thermal loads but some add expense, others increase size and weight, and some cause maintenance headaches. As a result, board-level and chassis heat dissipation is a real challenge for the military embedded system designer.
This whitepaper examines several of the cooling techniques that people are implementing and highlights the pluses and minuses of each. It also lays out some new innovations that help you manage thermal loads at both the board and chassis level.
This White Paper brought to you by Mercury Systems.

In the electronics industry, contract manufacturing has long been a strategy for reducing time to market and simplifying project oversight. With today's complex production environment, you need to ensure the intricacies of your project are addressed — without adding extra cost. And that means doing your homework. In our white paper, "Contract Manufacturing Pitfalls: What the Wrong Production Process Could Really Cost You," we uncover eight hidden cost centers — and show you how to avoid them. Read our white paper now!

This White Paper brought to you by Sparton Corporation.

This new handbook reviews some of the techniques and features that are widely desired in a high-speed, real-time recording system. These include, among others, the use of a non-proprietary file system, such as NTFS, the use of a client-server architecture, and the presence of an API for integrating the recorder into a larger system. Pentek Talon Recorders are also reviewed and links are provided for full specifications of these products.

This White Paper brought to you by Pentek.

Software Defined Radio has revolutionized electronic systems for a variety of applications that include communications, data acquisition and signal processing. This handbook shows how DDCs (Digital Downconverters), the fundamental building block of software radio, can replace legacy analog receiver designs while offering significant performance, density, and cost benefits. Pentek SDR products and their applications are also presented.

This White Paper brought to you by Pentek.

The paper will present an open standards based intra-vehicle network design approach applicable to multiple HBCT platforms using a common set of vehicle agnostic components, leveraging OpenVPX slot profiles and VICTORY Standards. Furthermore, this approach will clearly define and segment vehicle specific interfaces from the common architecture.

We will demonstrate how the approach uses line replaceable modules to support the US Army’s 2-level maintenance concept, is highly scalable, modular, and provides an affordable path to rapid technology refresh. This is accomplished using standard components (computers, network switch, and data storage modules) which can be procured from multiple vendors.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis-Wright Control Defense Soutions.

Digital Video Distribution is widely adopted in the telecommunications and broadcast industries. The technologies and methods for capturing, distributing, securing, recording, and displaying digital media have seen significant industry wide investment and advancement over the last two decades. Application of these technologies to the military ground market, specifically for situational awareness and low-latency applications (e.g. driving) have become realizable, and are well supported by the adoption of the VICTORY Architecture and Specifications.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis-Wright Control Defense Solutions.

One of the largest hurdles to the adoption of DARs faced by today’s military systems integrators is the significant challenge of scaling their programs from traditional systolic DBF designs to fully parallel DBFs. New open standard commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) OpenVPX™-based systems, with their novel approach to backplane interconnection, can provide system designers with the significant architecture flexibility they require to quickly and easily migrate current ESA radar to DAR.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis Wright Control Defense Solutions.

Small light-weight UAVs SAR have always been a compromise between size, weight, and power, with capability and real-time actionable intelligence. Traditional digital signal processing technologies processing capability struggles to meet small light weight UAV SAR mission requirements in a timely fashion. Rugged COTS GPGPU boards with their impressive processing capability will disrupt the traditional methods of creating and designing SARs for light-weight UAVs.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis-Wright Defense Control Solutions.

Gigabit Ethernet and other faster Ethernet physical layer interfaces have rapidly become the backbone of many intra-networks in subsystems and entire platforms across the military/aerospace industry. Up to this point CPU modules have been the primary directly connected hosts on most military/aerospace Ethernet networks, regardless of the type of data being transmitted. By directly connecting non-CPU elements like FPGAs to the network, CPU modules can be relieved of data flow responsibilities and freed to perform other work, while data is funneled directly to the required destination.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis Wright.

Tantalum hybrid capacitors are designed for demanding applications requiring long life, wide temperature range, reliability, high specific energy and power. The hermetic design fits the expectations of customers involved with military or aerospace applications. The design has continued to evolve over the past 10 – 15 years and the latest version has considerably increased specific power.  The capacitors have high specific energy compared to electrolytic capacitors and higher specific power.

This White Paper was brought to you by Evans Capacitor Company.

This paper describes and illustrates some of the many applications for which the GE Intelligent Platforms ICS-8580 rugged video processor is an ideal solution. It has the flexibility and features to greatly ease the system integration burden by providing one platform that can be used in many different ways. The ICS-8580 and the standalone daq8580 are truly unique products in the rugged COTS market. The ICS-8580 and daq8580 are interchangeable for any of the applications cited in this document. Choosing which product should be used is simply a question of optimal system architecture when other processing needs are factored in.

This White Paper was brought to you by GE Intelligent Platforms.

While outsourcing is never an easy process, there is often a fairly broad range of solutions within the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry for projects with medium-to-high production volumes. Similarly, job shops offer solutions for many low volume, low complexity projects. However, low volume, complex mission critical projects can be far more difficult to source. Lower volumes can drive sourcing challenges and inefficient line utilization in contractors whose business models are primarily focused on medium-to-high volume production. Job shops often lack the processes, infrastructure and breadth of supply chain needed to support complex military/aerospace projects. This paper reviews the attributes needed to support low volume, complex mission critical projects.

This White Paper brought to you by Federal Electronics.

With Ethernet and the TCP/IP networking protocols common in the commercial industries becoming so integrated in COTS military and aerospace architectures, it is natural that more advanced networking capabilities from the commercial world will also become available to this industry. Network multicast is one of these networking capabilities that have been proven extremely useful in these new network-centric embedded military designs.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis Wright.

This paper introduces the reader to many of the different formats of Ethernet currently used in the embedded market, with specific focus on wired Ethernet for the embedded defense industry. It outlines the various copper and optical interface standards, ranging from the simple 10Mbps “Base-T” interface which ushered in the use of low-cost RJ45 connectors in the commercial world, through to today’s high-speed 40Gbps and 100Gbps datacenter standards which will soon be migrating into the defense sector. Specific focus is placed on Ethernet standards used in common embedded systems designs using standard platforms such as VME and OpenVPX™.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis Wright.

Mezzanine carrier cards have been used in system designs for many years, and will continue to play an integral part, especially as the performance of processor cards continue to increase in the future. This white paper will discuss the many uses of carrier cards designed specifically for VPX and OpenVPX systems.

This White Paper brought to you by Curtis Wright.

Advancements in mission critical devices, such as FPGAs and microprocessors, are driving a need for next generation power management solutions.  Increasing power levels, decreasing voltages, and subsequent tighter voltage tolerances are driving radiation hardened suppliers to rethink and introduce new power management devices to meet these increasing demands.  This paper will discuss these challenges in more detail and ways new power management devices are meeting or exceeding these challenges.

White Paper brought to you by Intersil

Swap 20 TB from plane to ground station in 2 minutes.

Challenge:  How to record high resolution, high volume data in a centralized storage unit for multiple surveillance and reconnaissance activities reliably and at high speed; how to store it; and how to rapidly remove it from the plane, ship or vehicle and transfer it to a ground station for analysis.

Solution:  The RR2P “Purpose-Built” Rugged RAID Disk Array with two Pluggable Canisters with total on-line capacity to 20 TB for military data recorders used in mobile surveillance.

Rugged, lightweight and compact, the RR2P delivers the high capacity, high speed and high reliability that make it ideal for new surveillance applications as well as the perfect replacement for earlier generations of equipment that are no longer available.

Recent initiatives to increase the performance and flexibility of modular platforms aimed at high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) are bearing fruit by enabling board and system designers to use high-speed switched fabrics from mainstream high-performance computing (HPC) markets to maximize performance, reduce technical risk and shorten time to solution for advanced military and aerospace applications.

This White Paper brought to you by GE Intelligent Platforms.

This paper examines the technology, product features, performance specifications and several example applications of the Symmetricom CSAC SA.45s — the world’s first Chip Scale Atomic Clock.

This White Paper is brought to you by Symmetricom.

This guide provides an introduction to the MIL-STD-1553 data bus, its history, applications, and use. It describes:

-The physical elements that make up the bus.
-The protocol, including the message formats, word types, and command and status words.
-Status word bits and mode commands and their definitions and use, both from the remote terminal and bus controller perspective.
-Issues such as bus loading, major and minor frame timing,

Additionally, this guide introduces the various test plans anddiscusses how the GE Intelligent Platforms MIL-STD-1553 product line can solve some of your testing and application needs. 

This White Paper was sponsored by GE Intelligent Platforms.

Now in its 6th edition and recently updated, this handbook reviews the application and advantages of FPGAs for implementing software radio functions such as DDCs (Digital Downconverters). Some of the advantages include design flexibility, higher precision processing, higher channel density, lower power and cost per channel. Pentek SDR products that utilize FPGA technology and their applications are also presented. This White Paper was sponsored by Pentek.

Recently updated, this new handbook reviews some of the techniques and features that are widely desired in a high-speed, real-time recording system. These include, among others, the use of a non-proprietary file system, such as NTFS, the use of a client-server architecture, and the presence of an API for integrating the recorder into a larger system. Pentek Talon Recorders are also reviewed and links are provided for full specifications of these products. This White Paper was sponsored by Pentek.

Now in its 7^th Edition and recently updated, this handbook focuses primarily on A/D converters with sampling rates higher than 100 MHz. Sampling and filtering techniques are reviewed, as well as FPGA technology. The latest Pentek high-speed A/D products and applications based on such products are also presented. This White Paper was sponsored by Pentek.

The use of pan/tilt devices in camera systems, antennas, and other remote sensing applications has increased substantially over the past several years. And so have the types and vendors of pan/tilts. But not all pan/tilts are created equal.

As a system integrator or camera system manufacturer, your pan/tilt choice can have a big impact on your system cost, reliability and performance. It is an important part of what your customers see and experience, and influences their opinion of your company. The right pan/tilt and the right pan/tilt vendor can ultimately determine the success or failure of your application.

This guide is designed to inform you about pan/tilt systems and key things to consider in making your purchase. 

This White Paper was sponsored by Flir.

High-performance motion control systems are the workhorses that enable payloads to dependably execute their missions with pinpoint accuracy. Usually, a system designer comes up with the idea for the application first—UAV, security sensor, communications system, thermal surveillance, etc.—then almost always bumps into this question: “How do I move this thing so it can do its job in the field?”

Download this brief to see how four innovative companies addressed this challenge. This short compilation of success stories focuses on a small subset of applications, but it illustrates the breadth of possibilities available to control mission-critical payloads. 

This White Paper was sponsored by Flir.

This paper reports on the latest advancements in high-power diode laser stacks, which deliver the most compact footprint, power scalability and highest power/bar of any diode laser package. Electro-optical (EO) data on water-cooled (micro-channel) stacks with wavelengths ranging from 7xx nm to 9xx nm and power levels of up to 5.8kW, delivered @ 200W/bar, CW mode, and power-conversion efficiency of 60%, with both-axis collimation will be presented. Also, presented is E-O data on a compact, conductively cooled, hard-soldered, stack package based on conventional CuW and AlN materials, delivering average power/bar 15W operating up to 25% duty cycle, 10ms pulses @ 45C. Results from a 300W, 200mm core/0.22NA fiber coupled package that meets the critical kg/kW metric for directed energy systems will be detailed. These devices can be used as pump-sources for diode-pumped alkali lasers (DPALs), for more traditional DPSS lasers which are power/brightness scaled for directed energy weapons applications, as conductively-cooled arrays for illuminators and as diode pump sources for high brightness fiber lasers.

3D Plus Radiation Tolerant Point-Of-Load Converters combine high efficiency and performance in small form factor, high reliability 14 pin gull wing SMD packaging for Space and harsh thermal/mechanical power applications.

Operating from a 5V power source 3D Plus PoL converters provide an adjustable output voltage from 1.22V to 4V with very high efficiency. A high speed control loop keeps the output voltage within regulation under high transient load swings commonly found in high speed ASICs, FPGAs and Memory devices.

The POL Converter is fully protected against output overload, input under-voltage and internal overheating. The external ON/OFF command and Soft Start function enable any power supply ON/OFF sequencing. Input and output EMC filters are integrated to simplify module implementation reducing layout issues.

3D Plus POL Converters are ideally suited for fast and low voltage digital electronics (FPGAs, SDRAM, DDR and DDR2 Memories) and in a variety of distributed power system designs.

It is becoming evident that embedded computing solutions used in mil/aero applications will need to provide high assurance computing in order to ensure overall mission safety and safeguard the integrity, confidentiality and security of the data within and between systems.

This paper discusses the Freescale™ Trust Architecture approach.

Mezzanine carrier cards have been used in system designs for many years, and will continue to play an integral part, especially as the performance of processor cards continue to increase in the future. This white paper will discuss the many uses of carrier cards designed specifically for VPX and OpenVPX systems.

This paper presents a mature high Technology Readiness Level (TRL) diagnostic and prognostic capability that is ready to be deployed to address vehicle health management and operational readiness.

This paper reviews some of the benefits and limitations of using IBIS models and introduces the new AMI extensions to the latest IBIS version 5.0 specification. Additionally, it illustrates how to perform several simulations of a typical backplane system using the Advanced Design System 2011 (ADS2011) toolset.

This paper introduces the reader to many of the different formats of Ethernet currently used in the embedded market, with specific focus on wired Ethernet for the embedded defense industry. Various Ethernet physical standards are explained and contrasted.

Embedded defense applications such as radar, EO/IR and SIGINT along with certain commercial applications are facing an increasing onslaught of data. As these sensor technologies advance, so does the need to process the growing data streams. Fortunately, processing power is also increasing with each new generation of chipsets. To help understand the performance trade-offs and benefits among different processors, Mercury Computer Systems continually evaluates new processors. This paper addresses our recent  tests comparing Intel® mobile-class versus server-class processors.

Advances in both diode laser design and packaging technology, particularly thermal management, are needed to enhance the brightness of fiber coupled diode lasers while maintaining the small size and light weight required for defense applications. The principles of design for high efficiency fiber coupling are briefly covered. Examples are provided of fielded and demonstrated 100 and 200 micron diameter fiber coupled packages ranging in output from a few hundred to kW-class units in fibers, to include sub-kg/kW capabilities.

This paper compares the bandwidth available to two common types of dataflow for systems based on the VITA 65 CEN16 central switched topology, using three different fabrics – Serial RapidIO (SRIO), 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE), and Double Data Rate InfiniBand (DDR IB).

This paper reports on the latest advancements in vertical high-power diode laser stacks using micro-channel coolers, which deliver the most compact footprint, power scalability and highest power/bar of any diode laser package. We present electro-optical (E-O) data on water-cooled stacks with wavelengths ranging from 7xx nm to 9xx nm and power levels of up to 5.8kW, delivered @ 200W/bar, CW mode, and a power-conversion efficiency of >60%, with both-axis collimation on a bar-to-bar pitch of 1.78mm. Also, presented is E-O data on a compact, conductively cooled, = hardsoldered, stack package based on conventional CuW and AlN materials, with bar-to-bar pitch of 1.8mm, delivering average power/bar >15W operating up to 25% duty cycle, 10ms pulses @ 45C. The water-cooled stacks can be used as pump-sources for diode-pumped alkali lasers (DPALs) or for more traditional diode-pumped solid-state lasers (DPSSL) which are power/brightness scaled for directed energy weapons applications and the conductively-cooled stacks as illuminators.

The landscape of embedded security technologies is vast and complex. Not only does security mean significantly different things to different people, but countless variations of security technologies also exist. “Navigating the Embedded Security Landscape” by Logic PD’s Mark Benson discusses these variations and presents questions that can help focus what security means to you and your product.

Topics include:

• Embedded security end-applications

• Techniques for achieving appropriate levels of security in embedded systems

• A security taxonomy for categorizing embedded security technologies

• Summary of security technologies that Logic PD offers

• Product development process implications when security is a primary concern

• A list of questions to consider to help narrow in and navigate the complicated embedded security landscape

Battlefield communications capabilities have emerged as a top military priority. As a result, vehicle electronics (often combined as “Vetronics”) architectures are evolving to ensure that military assets can effectively serve as part of a holistic communications network. Our new white paper, Vetronics Architectures Emerge to Facilitate Network-Enabled Operations, reviews the genesis and implementation of the NEO paradigm, and explores how Vetronics architectures are changing communications among virtually all battlefield assets.

Survivability is critical, as sophisticated features are only as good as their ability to operate without fail. Increasingly complex military systems are driving increased challenges in integrating effective thermal management methodologies. As designers continue to push the envelope with increased functionality, new thermal management options will continue to evolve to satisfy next-generation application requirements.

Kontron intelligent Power-on Built-in Test (PBIT) solutions improve the reliability, safety and security of your mission critical installations. Kontron PBIT provides a modular and scalable set of uniform test routines to assess the health status and configuration for both boards and complete systems. The SYSTEM wide “capture” concept offers an innovative method to PBIT, so far unmatched in the Embedded SBC world.

In the same way as one might strip out unnecessary weight in a car aimed for racing, the FMC is a performance solution that strips away unnecessary generic interfaces for direct FPGA driven I/O. But that requires knowledge to achieve the desired performance and to ensure the host and FMC module will work well together. This paper outlines some of the considerations in order to assess and the ensure that the host and module will integrate.

Traditionally, the vast majority of deployed military radar systems employ electronically scanned phased array (ESA) radar technology, comprised of 100s to 10,000s of transmit and receive (T/R) elements. These ESA-based radar systems vary in implementation, but typically the elements are clustered to create a beamform. The resulting analog signal is then digitized. The next step involves Digital Beamformers (DBFs) that aggregate the digitized signals and then, via various mathematical techniques, generate a final beamformed image.

The VITA 65 (aka OpenVPX) specification has introduced a number of standardized backplane topologies. The major addition brought by VITA 65 is the standardization of systems that employ one or more centralized switch cards. For systems based on Ethernet, a central switch is the norm. For Serial RapidIO (SRIO), VITA 65 adds central switched architectures to the list of possible topologies that includes switch-less mesh implementations.

In the past decade digital video recording and distribution has been made much more viable by the introduction of new video compression and decompression techniques. Analog video applications have traditionally typically needed large investments in infrastructure to be able to provide any useful recording and distribution functionality (even at very low channel counts), even with the older generation of standard definition (SD) PAL/NTSC video.

Discussion of four options for cooling electronic/electrical equipment housed in enclosures and transit cases. These options include thermoelectric air conditioners, compressor-based AC, vortex coolers and air-to-air heat exchangers. Each cooling method is explained and the advantages of thermoelectric air conditioners are examined as compared to the other cooling methods.

Contained within our publication, ESOM SF – 2.0 is our step- by- step solution to proactively managing the program thru its life cycle.  The framework also provides an important tool for ensuring consistency of approach for all obsolescence responses on a project and for communicating both within the company and with end customers.  This tool was created as document to be used at the program management level.  

Calculating the cost of an obsolete component goes beyond the component purchase cost at the LOT buy. The LOT buy consolidates into a single purchase many years’ worth of components and, as such, there is a considerable required expenditure to finance components that will be purchased today but not used for 5 to 7 years.   Do you have this cost included in your program budget?  www.ch1group.com

By moving real-time control away from specialized hardware into multi-core software, developers can lower costs, raise quality, and increase differentiation. To access these opportunities, developers can use IntervalZero¹s RTX, a hard real-time symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) extension to Microsoft Windows.

The new Intel® Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel® AVX) can double the peak floating-point performance of Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions (Intel® SSE), opening up new possibilities for applications like radar detection, video analytics, and medical imaging. Download this informative article from the Spring 2011 Embedded Innovator newsletter to learn more.

Designers of FPGAs for military and aerospace applications need to increase the reliability and availability of their designs. This is particularly true in the case of mission-critical and safety-critical electronic systems. This paper provides brief definitions of key concepts: mission-critical, safety-critical, high-reliability, and high-availability. It then considers the various elements associated with the creation of high-reliability and high-availability FPGA designs including: FPGA design and verification flows, methodologies, processes and standards, architectural and algorithmic exploration, geographically distributed design teams, IP selection and verification, DO-254 compliance and much more.

Author: Angela Sutton, Staff Product Marketing Manager, Synopsys

Through heat dissipation, thermally conductive adhesives and potting compounds play a pivotal role in the protection of today’s electronic circuitry.  In tandem with the great growth of the technological sector comes the need for a new generation of innovative, highly advanced solutions capable of reliable performance in the ever increasing temperatures of electronic devices. Master Bond’s white paper examines the challenges design engineers face as chip makers up the ante on microprocessor power and density, and how thermally conductive adhesives and potting compounds can manage heat while solving other application issues.

Applications that must meet stringent outgassing requirements now have more adhesive options than ever. If you suspect outgassing could potentially pose a problem in your application, specifying adhesives that comply with the ASTM outgassing standard makes sense.

Engineers often want to know whether an adhesive is low outgassing or generic. And while there are cases when nothing but a low outgassing product will do, the truth is that many so-called generic adhesives inherently have low outgassing levels. What's more, most bonding, potting, encapsulation and sealing applications don't need to meet a defined outgassing specification. Here's a guide to understanding when low outgassing adhesives are the right choice.

The aerospace industry has long been perceived as slow to adapt to new wire harness engineering technologies and processes. Many enterprises rely on systems created in-house, with each tool being structured to support a very specific design/build process. Departments and divisions responsible for defining the electrical content of vehicles and integrating the electrical systems have one of the most demanding jobs in vehicle design.  While these organizations are often understaffed relative to the scope of their task, they have the distinction of being expected to manage the highest number and rate of design changes. Companies, especially OEMs, are finding it difficult to adopt new wire harness technologies and processes while maintaining the quality of their deliverables. Until recently, electrical system and wire harness development tools have not been viewed as an adequate solution for developing complex electrical wiring systems. Now aircraft systems and wiring designs are making a transition from traditional mechanical and pneumatic systems to electrical, and the entire electrical architecture of the vehicle is becoming more complex. Companies are finding that their existing solutions do not provide the needed engineering capability. But powerful new technologies are emerging and many companies are taking another look.  Entrenched beliefs are changing.