Curtiss-Wright Debuts First Fabric40™ 6U VPX Single Board Computer to Support Dual 40 GbE or InfiniBand® Interconnects
ASHBURN, Va. – October 22, 2013 -- Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions, a business group of Curtiss-Wright Controls, has announced the newest member of its recently introduced industry-leading Fabric40™ family of extremely high-speed 40 Gbps OpenVPX™ (VITA 65) modules. The new VPX6-1958 is the first rugged, high performance 6U OpenVPX™ single board computer (SBC) to combine Intel®’s latest quad-core 4th generation Core™i7-4700EQ processor with a Dual 40 Gbps backplane I/O interconnect. The VPX6-1958 provides support for 10/20/40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and SDR/DDR/QDR/FDR-10 InfiniBand® (IB) connectivity. OpenVPX systems built using the VPX6-1958 and complementary Curtiss-Wright Fabric40 system elements will deliver over 2x the performance of previous generation SRIO Gen-2-based systems and 4x the performance of 10 GbE-based systems. The unprecedented high bandwidth interconnect data rates supported by the VPX6-1958 are ideal for the compute intensive processing elements used in HPEC and ISR embedded systems for demanding defense and aerospace applications such as SIGINT, Radar processing and beamforming.
"Simply put, our new VPX6-1958, is the highest speed VPX single board computer ever introduced," said Lynn Bamford, senior vice president and general manager of Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions “It defines a new ‘sweet-spot’ for COTS performance for C4ISR and HPEC applications with an unmatched combination of the latest generation Intel® Core™ i7 processor technology and extremely high speed 40 Gbps serial channels – delivering processing capabilities beyond any SBC previously available in the embedded defense and aerospace market. Furthermore, as a member of our Fabric40 family of end-to-end system element products, it significantly reduces the risks and data flow bottlenecks our customers will face when adopting this bottleneck-eliminating 40 Gbps processing technology.”
About the VPX6-1958
The VPX6-1958 features the new 2.4GHz/Quad Core 4th generation Intel Core i7-4700EQ processor (previously code-named “Haswell”). Designed for high-performance operation in benign or harsh environments, the VPX6-1958 is ideal for demanding processing applications and as part of the architecture of small- to medium-sized HPEC systems that connect SBCs to GPGPU, FPGA or multi-processor DSP modules (such as Curtiss-Wright’s CHAMP-AV9 DSP engine), either directly, or through the recently introduced VPX6-6802 Switch card. Available in air- and conduction-cooled configurations, the VPX6-1958 is designed for use in compute-intensive radar, signal and image processing ground or airborne applications. The SWaP-C-optimized module brings unmatched SBC processing to base stations, unmanned aerial and ground vehicles, tactical aircraft, and rugged naval systems.
The VPX6-1958 makes optimal use of the 4th Gen Intel® Core™ i7 quad-core processor’s AVX 2.0 floating point libraries and its redesigned on-chip graphics execution engines. Taking full advantage of Intel’s latest generation advanced quad-core CPU and Curtiss-Wright’s proven ruggedization technology, the VPX6-1958 is designed for high performance operation in harsh environments. With up to 32 GB of DDR3 memory at 25 GB/s (peak) bandwidth coupled directly to the processor, the SBC’s Quad-Core processor is able to maximize the throughput of its floating point units. Supplying up to 64 GB of flash memory, the VPX6-1958 is ideal for handling applications with demanding storage, data logging and sensor processing needs.
Multi-Protocol Support on Curtiss-Wright Fabric40 Products
Previously, system designers have been locked into using a single technology fabric in their HPEC system designs. Now, the higher-level hardware functionality built into our Fabric40 enabled modules makes support for interconnect fabrics “agnostic”. For the first time, system designers have the option to select the fabric protocols, whether 10 or 40 Gbps Ethernet or the 10/20/40 Gbps IB, that best suit their application’s unique requirements.
The VPX6-1958 high-bandwidth fabric support includes Dual 40 GbE (Quad capable) or DDR/QDR/FDR10 InfiniBand to the P1 connector, and PCI Express® Gen3 to the P2 connector.
VPX6-1958 Key Performance Features:
- Form factor: 6U OpenVPX™
- Intel®4th Generation Core™i7 Processor
- 2.4 GHz
- Quad-core CPU
- 8/16/32 GB DDR3 SDRAM
- 32/64 GB NAND flash
- TPM support
- Two XMC/PMC sites
- Intel Graphics:
- (1) VGA and (2) DVI
- Additional I/O:
- (4) Gigabit Ethernet
- (1) AC97 Audio port
- (2) RS-232
- (2) RS-422
- (8) GPIO
- (5) USB
- (4) SATA
- Backplane fabric:
- (2) 40 GbE (Quad capable) – Software Selectable to Infiniband
- (1) 16x PCIe Gen3 or (2) 8x PCIe Gen3
- Ruggedized Air-cooled, Conduction-cooled, and Air Flow Through (AFT)
Extensive Software Support
The VPX6-1958 is supported with an extensive suite of software support including drivers for the Windows® WES7, VxWorks® 6.9, Fedora Core, and RHEL operating environments.
The VPX6-1958 complements the complete family of Curtis-Wright Fabric40 products, including:
- The VPX6-6802 Switch Card: support for 10/20/40 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) and SDR/DDR/QDR/FDR-10 InfiniBand® (IB) connectivity to OpenVPX™ systems
- The CHAMP-AV9 Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Engine: dual 4th generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700EQ
- The CHAMP-FX4 FPGA Engine: the industry’s highest performance 6U COTS, FPGA engine with three on-board Xilinx™ Virtex®-7 FPGAs
The Fabric40™ Program
Curtiss-Wright’s Fabric40 products deliver the industry’s first complete end-to-end system approach for integrating the latest 40 Gbps high-speed fabrics into customer applications. Fabric40 products are the industry’s first COTS modules to offer end-to-end system support for both 10 and 40 Gbps Ethernet fabrics as well as supporting the full range of IB fabric data rates:
- 10 Gbps IB SDR
- 20 Gbps DDR
- 40 Gbps QDR and FDR-10
Fabric40 products effectively double the interconnect rates currently supported by Curtiss-Wright’s industry-leading 20 Gbps interconnect-based system elements. To ensure that processing engines and CPUs are not burdened by high-speed data transfers, all Fabric40 modules support Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) in both GbE and IB modes. The complete Fabric40 ecosystem also includes middleware software enablement such as IPC and OFED/MPI interfaces, which are optimized to support next-generation 40 Gbps systems.
Our Fabric40 Program ensures that all aspects of this new data fabric technology are optimally configured to work together, which greatly enhances interoperability and reduces our customers’ integration risks and development time.
Fabric40, Signal Integrity and End-to-End Interoperability
Curtiss-Wright has developed its entire line of Fabric40 products with highly optimized Signal Integrity design rules to ensure that high-speed signals are not compromised when interconnecting board-to-board through backplanes.
Complete Fabric40 End-to-End Solutions
Curtiss-Wright Fabric40 system elements provide a complete system solution, including SBCs, DSP and FPGA engines, GPGPU processors, network switches and backplanes. This ensures that system integrators can be confident that their entire next-generation system will work together reliably from end-to-end. Curtiss-Wright will continue to announce additional products supporting the Fabric40 Program.
Pricing and Availability
Please contact the factory for information on pricing. EAU availability is scheduled for Q4 2013. Click here for more information on the VPX6-1958.
Sales & Editorial Contacts
For editorial information regarding Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions products or services, contact John Wranovics, public relations director, Curtiss-Wright Controls, Tel: (925) 640-6402; Email: [email protected].
Sales inquiries: Please forward all Sales and reader service inquiries to Jerri-Lynne Charbonneau, Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions, Tel: (613) 254-5112; Fax: (613) 599-7777; e-mail: [email protected].
For additional information on Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions, please visit: http://www.cwcdefense.com.
About Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions
Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions is a long established technology leader in the development of rugged electronic modules and systems for defense applications. Defense Solutions serves as a technology and integration partner to its customers, providing a full range of advanced, highly engineered solutions from modular open systems approaches to fully custom optimized solutions. Our unmatched capabilities and product breadth span from industry standard based COTS modules to complete electronic subsystems. The company’s modules and systems are currently deployed in a wide range of demanding defense & aerospace applications including C4ISR systems, unmanned subsystems, mission computing, fire control, turret stabilization, and recording & storage solutions. Additionally, the company’s broad engineering capabilities combine systems, software, electrical, and mechanical design expertise with comprehensive program management and a broad range of life-cycle support services. For more information visit www.cwcdefense.com.
About Curtiss-Wright Controls, Inc.
Headquartered in Charlotte, NC, Curtiss-Wright Controls is the Motion Control segment of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. With manufacturing facilities around the world, Curtiss-Wright Controls is a leading technology-based organization providing niche motion control products, subsystems and services internationally for the aerospace and defense markets. For more information, visit www.cwcontrols.com/.