Simon Collins ADLINK Technology

As VPX completes its first decade since ratification, it is clear this standard is here for the long haul. A healthy competitive marketplace has driven product adoption in actual programs, which have been proven in real combat operations. However, the true strength of VPX is its continuing evolution to keep pace with technological advancements.

Jerry Gipper Editorial Director

The FPGA Mezzanine Card (FMC) standard has become the defacto mezzanine standard for anyone wanting a modular solution for platforms using an FPGA [field-programmable gate array]. The convenience of having modular I/O for any FPGA family makes it hard to not use an FMC as the I/O front-end. Consequently, the FMC standard, VITA 57, has gained worldwide acceptance and is endorsed by the major FPGA manufacturers.

Ken Grob Elma Electronic

Over the past five years, 3U OpenVPX has been the architecture of choice to implement rugged military electronic systems. Application areas include Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR), Electronic Warfare (EW), radar, and network communications. Current technology roadmaps show that signaling rates for PCIe and Ethernet are rapidly increasing and that the mentioned applications are sure to utilize all of the incremental bandwidth.

Michael Munroe Elma Electronic

VITA’s Standards Organization (VSO) has been working diligently to finalize a major update to the VITA 65 standard, also known as OpenVPX. In addition, CERDEC [U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center] has been instrumental in supplying some of the additions to the standard. Even broader than these specification updates are additional efforts being made on other VITA standards that strengthen the overall VPX environment itself.

Serge Tissot Kontron

Of the two VPX mechanical form factors, 3U is very popular in certain applications, and 6U is sometimes necessary to build highly parallel systems with optimal computing density. While air and conduction cooling are often implemented to address cooling challenges, liquid cooling solutions can be effective for designs at the chassis, board, and chip levels. Today’s designs must be standardized for VPX to maintain interoperability and availability of common building blocks, and to ensure the success of this modular architecture now and in the future.

Jerry Gipper Editorial Director

I am often approached by individuals and companies that are new to the world of VPX. One of the first questions they ask is, “What does the business ecosystem look like for VPX technology?” My first response is that it is a collection of suppliers and users with VPX as a common interest. But usually the question begs more detail; who the players are and what role they fulfill are foremost among the critical points. VITA has recently formed a study group to develop a map of the VPX ecosystem. This article takes a closer look at the VPX ecosystem and its benefits.

Sally Cole Senior Editor

The short life cycles of commercial components create many obsolescence headaches for military electronic-system designers as they try to integrate these high-performance devices into air, ground, sea platforms that must last for decades, that have long system development cycles, and time-consuming testing procedures. As the military looks to leverage more open architectures and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology, the challenge of managing the obsolescence that comes with COTS will only become more difficult.

Brian Roberts Dawn VME Products

The backplane is the backbone of a VPX system, contoured to the final system configuration. It would be extremely valuable for designers to have a way to evaluate the top options in a working configuration before the final backplane was developed. The following discussion presents an interesting case for using backplane overlays to effectively evaluate the best options.

Jerry Gipper Editorial Director

The September VITA Standards Organization (VSO) meeting was held in Germantown, Maryland, and hosted by DRS Technologies. This update is based on the results of that meeting. Contact VITA if you are interested in participating in any of these working groups. Visit the VITA website (www.vita.com) for details on upcoming VSO meetings.

Jerry Gipper Editorial Director

Trend predictions during an election year are extremely challenging, especially in the circus election that is going on in the United States right now. By the time you read this, it will all be over, and there is a good chance that I may be headed to Australia for a few years! Here goes my attempt to share a few highlights for what developments I expect to unfold in the market next year.