U.S. Navy shipboard weapons experts needed embedded computing for upgrading the Aegis weapon system for Navy cruisers and destroyers. They found their solution from Artesyn Embedded Technologies in Tempe, Ariz.
Navy experts are ordering the Artesyn ATCA-7480 Quadstar 40G packet processing server blade for the latest efforts in upgrading processing capability in the Aegis weapon system being installed in new Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers, says Robert Persons, senior presales architect for embedded at Artesyn.
The Artesyn ATCA-7480 is going into the Aegis Block III upgrade in an AdvancedTCA (ATCA) 14-slot chassis. The computer board has the dual-processor Intel Xeon E5-2648L microprocessor version 3. The system is specially hardened for shock and vibration for the shipboard electronics application. It runs the RedHawk Linux software operating system.
In the future, this architecture is under consideration for backfits to existing Aegis systems aboard existing Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers.
The Aegis combat system uses powerful computers and radar to track and guide weapons to destroy enemy targets, including incoming ballistic missiles. More than 100 Aegis-equipped ships have been deployed in five navies worldwide.
Aegis was developed by the Missile and Surface Radar Division of RCA, which after a series of acquisitions became part of the Lockheed Martin Corp. Mission Systems and Training segment in Moorestown, N.J. in 1995.
The Navy originally awarded the job to provide embedded computing for the Aegis upgrade to Artesyn in 2015, and qualified the system for installation on Navy warships in 2016, Persons says. This Aegis upgrade job could last as long as six years.
For the Aegis upgrade, the Navy is swapping out IBM BladeCenter embedded computers for the Artesyn ATCA-7480 ATCA system. Navy officials expect to requalify next-generation Xeon-based Artesyn computer boards for future Aegis technology insertion, Persons says.
For more information visit Artesyn Embedded Technologies online at www.artesyn.com.
