AIM debuts digital video test products for ARINC818

TREVOSE, Pa., 9 Aug. 2013.AIM-USA in Trevose, Pa., in introducing a new family of ARINC818Digital Test and Simulation products to aid avionics display developers and aircraft integrators as they performing testing and verification on digital video links.

ARINC818 is considered the defacto standard for digital video links and data transmission within the aerospace community.

AIM’s ARINC818 test products are designed around the field-proven APE-FC-2 PCI Express (PCIe) fiber channel interface, offering data rates up to 1GFC.

AIM officials anticipate offering the APS-FC-2, a PCI Express card that supports data rates up to 4GFC and is software-compatible with the APE-FC-2 card, later this year.

“Both support single or sequential pictures which can be sent in single shot or cyclic mode with software configurable refresh rates,” describes Marco Maier, ARINC818 product manager at AIM-GmbH in Germany. “Picture data can be changed or reloaded ‘on-the-fly’ maintaining picture data integrity with the configured refresh rates on the ARINC818 link. The import of picture data in a Windows BMP/ DIB format for transmission is supported by the software application programming interface (API). Another unique feature AIM offers is the ‘Tap Mode’ which allows users to break into an existing connection between a generator and a display, to tap-out the ARINC818 data with no interference of the traffic.”

The driver software and (API) are bundled in the module price and are compatible with Windows XP/Vista/7/8 and Linux. It also includes a comprehensive set of ARINC818 transmitter and receiver functions.

AIM’s powerful and optional PBA.proTM Databus Test & Analysis Software with the ARINC818 Upper Layer Protocol option provides a simple to use and interactive GUI, which can even be controlled, customized and automated using Python Scripting support.

The scalability of the PBA.pro means provisions for “pure” ARINC818 based test, simulation, and analysis solutions, including all FC Layer 2 capabilities, right up to a heterogeneous avionics databus test system with a seamless integrated ARINC818 capability, says a spokesperson.