PATUXENT RIVER NAS, Md., 17 Sept. 2013. Helicopter avionics experts at Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, are upgrading avionics subsystems aboard the VH-60N Marine-One presidential helicopter under terms of an upcoming contract.
Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., have announced their intention to award a new delivery order to Rockwell Collins to replace the CDU-7000 control display unit's PowerPC 700 processor with a more modern Freescale MPC7448 reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor.
The CDU-7000 consolidates control of communications, navigation, weapons, and defensive aids in a military-hardened package. The unit is designed for military Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) requirements, as commercial Communication Navigation Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM). The CDU-7000 features a color active matrix liquid crystal display (AMLCD), and 3U CompactPCI circuit cards.
The MPC7448 processor is manufactured on 90 nanometer silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process technology and performs between 600 MHz and 1.5 GHz, has one megabyte of L2 cache, and enhanced power management capabilities.
The chip's 128-bit AltiVec vector execution unit enhances applications like high-resolution 3D graphics, video, audio, voice over IP, speech recognition, multi-channel modems, and virtual private network servers. The upgrades will change the nomenclature of the avionics subsystem from the CDU-7000 to the CDU-7000D.
The processor upgrade will help integrate the CDU-7000 avionics into the VH-60N cockpit upgrade program (CUP) preplanned product improvement (P3I) version 40 software and consolidate control of communication navigation surveillance/air traffic management, Navy officials say.
For more information contact Rockwell Collins online at www.rockwellcollins.com, or Naval Air Systems Command at www.navair.navy.mil.
