CHALLENGE
Thwarting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) with ground penetrating radar is a challenge for today's small form factor payload computing solutions. In future armored fighting vehicles, the processing performance required for IED detection as part of an electronic warfare solution will increase ten-fold. To be effective, ground mobile payload computer design requires a mature, rugged, highly reliable, standards-based computing architecture that meets DoD Information Assurance (IA) and intense application performance requirements.
APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE
In a ground vehicle, the Ground Mobile Payload Computers are the processing engines for the network of sensors and applications that make up IED detection. A payload computer must process enough sensor data in near real-time to enable counter measures to protect the warfighters.
As vehicle speeds increase beyond 15 to 20 mph, single compute engine capabilities fall short. System advancements in coupling Intel® and GPGPU processing architectures are required to meet the increase in vehicle speeds. A payload computer must support faster networking speeds to fully network the sub-system and support system scaling and failover. In addition, payload computers must be rugged, requiring MILSTD-810G for a shock and vibration profile following method 514.6.
FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Processing, I/O, and Storage - A ground mobile payload computer must possess advanced high performance embedded computing characteristics, flexible networking capabilities, and industry standard I/O without exceeding the available size, weight, and power (SWaP), and cooling. All storage and system functions must be capable of supporting DoD IA requirements. And all of this must be delivered in a ruggedized, standards-based platform with a low power design that doesn't limit payload computing performance.
Balanced SWaP2C2 - A ground mobile payload computer is often integrated in a vehicle later in the design cycle and constrained by available space. The choice of a ground mobile payload computer is driven by a balance between its size, weight, and power, performance, cooling, and cost (SWaP2C2 ), and sophisticated power management that reduces onboard power consumption is a necessity. Ground payload computing solutions should be cost-effective, built on industry standards, and successfully balance the SWaP2C2 equation.
ADLINK GROUND MOBILE PAYLOAD COMPUTING SOLUTIONS
ADLINK provides a wide range of high performance embedded rugged computing solutions that meet or exceed the ground mobile payload computing functional requirements.
For emerging system-level payload computing opportunities, ADLINK offers its High Performance Extreme Rugged Computer, or HPERC™. Housed in a VITA 75 standard package is a rugged COTS computing platform with a 3rd generation Intel® dual or quad Core™ i7 and NVIDIA GPGPU, up to 16GB DDR3 memory, and up to two terabytes of storage - a combination ideal for UAV image processing, data compression, and storage. The HPERC-IBR is a small form factor, tightly integrated system with VITA 75 standardized outputs provided on MIL-STD 38999 connectors, making GROUND MOBILE PAYLOAD COMPUTING plug-and-play. An HPERC solution deployed today can be easily upgraded tomorrow, without a major platform rework.
Many larger UAV make use of 3U Open VPX computing solutions. ADLINK's 3U VPX3000 Series is a rugged, conduction cooled 3U single board computer (SBC) with conformal coating, and is an ideal solution for existing 3U form factor payload computing designs. The VPX3000 processor blade is a 3rd generation Intel® dual Core™ i7 processor with up to 8GB DDR3 memory soldered onboard, one PCI Express x8 XMC.3 site with VITA 46.9 rear I/O, onboard soldered 16GB SLC SATA solid state drive, and additional rear I/O with audio, video, and storage inputs.
The PC/104 form factor offers standardized multi-vendor I/O and peripheral support. While a PC/104 solution can provide the payload processing required for UAV, its deployment benefit is often the availability of specialized I/O required in the avionics market. Having readily available third-party boards designed with widely supported standards for avionics-specific communication links, such as AIRINC 429 and MILSTD-1553, helps accelerate time-to-deployment. The ADLINK CoreModule® 920 is a PCI/104-Express SBC (Type 1) based on the 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7 processor that provides the highest level of performance for our PC/104 product family.
Extreme Rugged™ CoreModule 920
Man-pak GROUND MOBILE PAYLOAD COMPUTING solutions that require the latest Intel® Core™ i7 processing delivered in the smallest possible industry standard form factor, but delivered in a unique mechanical package, need ADLINK's Express-IBR. The Express-IBR is a Type 6 COM Express® module equipped with either a dual/quad-core 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3 processor, up to 16GB DDR3 memory, and versatile IO support. Used as the processing core of a Payload Computing solution, a COM Express module provides all of the payload performance required, yet delivered in a cost-effective, rugged industry form factor.