Editorial Director Jerry Gipper presents his list of the top 10 VITA critical embedded systems trends for 2012.

Some believe that the Mayan calendar forecasts the end of the world in 2012, but this year promises to have much adventure for VITA technologies. Here are
10 trends to watch unfold in 2012:

1. VPX revenues are projected by industry analysts to match VME in 2012. The numbers are rapidly approaching the crossover. New product announcements featuring VPX are in the majority. Not all systems need the performance of VPX so VME design wins continue, but design wins featuring 3U and 6U VPX products are becoming more common, raising expectations that this is the year.

2. Military programs will take a hit in 2012. Upgrades will be the safe harbor, but they don’t offer much opportunity for companies looking to enter the market, as these opportunities usually go to the incumbent supplier. At the same time, defense programs look to reduce manpower costs by using more automation and robotics, especially in unmanned vehicles of all types. 2012 promises to be a tough year but could offer great opportunities for companies positioned well with products and business strategies to address this automation.

3. Small form factor fever rages on in 2012. Making products smaller while not giving in on capability and performance promises to open up new markets. VITA has four small form factor working groups in play. Which will win is yet to be determined, but we may get a clearer picture by the end of the year. Count 3U VPX in this mix as well.

4. FPGAs are poised to take over the majority of I/O responsibility on single board computers. They offer a cost/flexibility ratio never before possible, and it only promises to get better. FMC technology makes the use of FPGAs very attractive as board supplies look for ways to create niches for their expertise.

5. Intel just bought the InfiniBand product lines and certain related assets from QLogic. InfiniBand dominates the storage connectivity markets, but does this acquisition mean a more prominent role for InfiniBand in critical embedded systems? Will we start to see the dot specifications for VPX and other VITA technologies fill in the InifinBand gaps? 10 Gigabit Ethernet is not going to give any ground any time soon.

6. Optical interconnects have been discussed for decades, but technology breakthroughs combined with eventual approach to copper bandwidth limitations make even more critical the search for optical interconnects that are cost effective and practical. 2012 promises to show some of the first VPX products at least allowing optics to be passed through the backplane using VITA 66 blind mate optical interconnect.

7. With all the focus on small form factors, will we see proposals for smaller mezzanines for blade boards appear in a working group? The technical community has been discussing options, but none of them seem to ever gain any traction. 2012 could be the year we see some serious cards get played.

8. PowerPC processors held the dominant spot on VME single board computers for many years. But Intel architecture processors have since taken over the top spot. Can the mistakes made with Power Architecture be corrected in time to regain some of that market share? QorIQ with AltiVec makes a return in 2012. Keep an eye on the progress.

9. ARM processors are everywhere. With more than 200 licensees, it is impossible to find a processor supplier who does not offer an ARM option. Multicore offerings start to put ARM near the high end of performance. Many I/O boards use some type of ARM processor. Pair these with the low power capability and the multitude of processor options and it becomes only a matter of time before ARM shows up as the primary processor in single board computers.

10. Reliability is a key part of the definition of “critical embedded systems.” The work done by the Reliability Community has received high marks within the DoD. MIL-HDBK-217 needs updating, and VITA 57 can help. Will the suppliers start to use the guidance of VITA 57 to define the reliability levels of their products? Many in the user community would like to see that happen in 2012.

]]> http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/vpx/2012/03/ten-critical-embedded-system-trends-to-watch-in-2012/feed/ 0 http://www.mil-embedded.com/articles/id/?5544 http://www.mil-embedded.com/articles/id/?5544#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000 David Pursley, Kontron http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/vpx/?guid=7d3a0b0f2c313e0213c8da52c982db1a

There are many COTS technologies available for implementing radar and sonar applications, including CompactPCI and VME, and newer switched-serial standards such as VPX and MicroTCA. By using real radar and sonar examples, the author illustrates how the communications topology can point designers toward choosing an optimal COTS architecture, in this case VPX (VITA 46) and CompactPCI.

Radar and sonar are mainstays and pervasive applications for military platforms worldwide. More recently, these Digital Signal Processing (DSP)-based systems provide a sophisticated foundation for missile defense – searching, tracking, and launching with great precision. System demands are increasing even further today, as systems must simultaneously locate and discriminate targets through tracking and identification to launch effective and appropriate countermeasures. At the same time, the Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) of systems is required to decrease; for example, functionality previously implemented by 19" rack-mount servers installed in a pressurized wide-body aircraft must now be implemented in a ½ ATR on an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). DoD requirements add to this growing challenge, mandating that systems are flexible and upgradable to respond to new threats and new applications. COTS-based systems gain an advantage here, as tech insertions to upgrade to the latest CPUs and communication technologies will be necessary during the lifetime of these deployed systems.

In response to this paradigm shift, depending upon the particular application, DSP-based radar and sonar systems can be achieved by using virtually every blade form factor available today; 3U/6U CompactPCI, VME, MicroTCA, or 3U/6U VPX can all be implemented with success. Additionally, contractors and manufacturers are responding to the latest challenges by offering a greater array of technologies for high-end DSP computing, including standards-based CompactPCI and VPX options. While high processing power is a common requirement, one COTS computing architecture does not fit all radar and sonar applications. It is usually the communication topology of the specific radar and sonar applications that suggests the optimal COTS computing architecture. Examples of CompactPCI and VPX illustrate this point.

Digital Signal Processing in action

The bulk of the computation in radar and sonar applications involves DSP. The essence of DSP is to efficiently transform a stream of data into relevant information quickly enough to be highly useful and applicable. In radar and sonar applications, for example, this may mean processing incoming electromagnetic or acoustic signals to determine the location, speed, and direction of potential threats, targets, and terrain while filtering out irrelevant data such as a small bird or fish.

Processing the data in an appropriate timeframe requires a high amount of computing power as well as the ability for each compute node to communicate with other nodes. The amount of processing and communication required is highly application dependent, varies widely, and likely increases with each tech refresh. But the topology of the communication is generally fixed, and that is the most likely discriminator in determining the best COTS architecture for a given application.

Figure 1 shows the communication topology of two real-world DSP applications. Each node in these topologies is a compute node, which is a sequence of transforms and filters implemented on one CPU node. The arrows represent data flow (communication), with darker arrows indicating higher bandwidths. For simplicity’s sake, only the higher-speed data plane communication is shown; each application also used GbE for control plane communication. Topology 1(a) was used for a sonar-based mapping application, while 1(b) was used for a high-end radar application for real-time use in theater.

For each communication topology, an appropriate COTS-based architecture was selected and implemented to meet the application requirements while still optimizing for SWaP.

CompactPCI meets the challenge in underwater sonar

The topology shown in Figure 1(a) for the sonar application reflects a typical “well-behaved” DSP application. The bulk of the communication is essentially a pipeline, with data flowing from one node to the next.

The digitized sonar data from the sensors is front-end processed by the left node, which then passes the data to a bank of three main compute nodes. Each of these implements a series of transforms for beamforming and filtering. The final node consumes all the data and synthesizes it into a spatial representation. The required bandwidth between nodes was less than 1 GBps in the main direction of dataflow [heavier lines in Figure 1(a)], with the backflow and control plane communication links requiring much lower bandwidths.

Given this topology, conduction-cooled 3U CompactPCI was chosen as the optimal COTS architecture for this application based on its small size and relative simplicity. Routinely considered a bus-based architecture, CompactPCI also supports multiple GbE communication links over the backplane, which was essential for this sonar application. Although originally implemented with dual-core processors, the COTS approach and a consistent pinout from generation to generation will allow this deployment to be extended, using multiple quad-core boards if and when higher precision is required for a technology refresh.

6U VPX for military radar

Conversely, the radar application’s communication topology shown in Figure 1(b) is much more complex. It requires many nodes, all able to directly communicate with each other at high bandwidths.

Sensor data is injected via high-speed links (>5 Gbps) in parallel to each six-node cluster. Within each cluster, a mesh topology allows the nodes to operate as a tightly coupled supercomputer, communicating with each other at >10 Gbps bandwidths. The clusters, in turn, require high-speed communication with the other clusters, also in a mesh topology.

The sheer number of high-speed data connections suggests that a switched-serial topology would be required, provided the data switches allowed enough bandwidth for all nodes to simultaneously communicate at full speed. VPX was a logical architectural choice because it allows for multiple high-speed interconnects; 6U VPX was selected specifically because its power envelope and Printed Circuit Board (PCB) real estate allow for two high-performance CPUs to be implemented in a single slot. Thus, each six-node cluster can be implemented with only three slots. This also makes the architecture scalable from a single six-node cluster in three slots up to 6 six-node clusters (36 CPUs in total) in 18 slots.

To handle the hierarchical high-speed communication topology, multiple data plane interconnect technologies were used. Within each cluster, PCI Express links provide high data throughput and a deterministic latency between CPU nodes. Between clusters, 10 GbE provides the required bandwidth and scalability. Figure 2 shows a simplified version of this as implemented on a 6U VPX architecture, including the aforementioned high-speed data plane links and the GbE control plane. Note that the architecture supports more connectivity than strictly needed to meet the requirements. Specifically, multiple 10 GbE links are available for each cluster, and nodes within adjacent clusters can directly communicate via PCI Express. These additional communication links currently go unused, but provide a valuable upgrade path looking forward.

A potential challenge of this type of VPX architecture is software complexity, resulting from the use of multiple high-speed serial communication technologies (PCI Express, 10 GbE, and GbE), each with a different software interface. Kontron VXFabric removes the complexity of these high-speed protocols by providing an API for a thin layer of software that allows IP-based data transport over PCI Express. As a result, from the software’s point of view, each interface looks like a high-speed IP socket, regardless of the underlying electrical implementation.

Determining COTS DSP approaches

It is important to note that both VPX and CompactPCI support multiple communication topologies beyond those highlighted here. However, a convenient rule of thumb is that complex board-to-board interconnect topologies with multiple high-speed connections tend to lend themselves well to a VPX implementation; applications with more “well-behaved” communications tend to use less complex and more pervasive technologies such as CompactPCI. Only careful analysis can determine the optimal COTS architecture for a given application. Specifically, the communication topology is the discriminating factor pointing toward one architecture or another. Regardless of the underlying architecture, the COTS approach will allow future upgrades and seamless tech insertions well into the future.

David Pursley is Product Line Manager at Kontron. He is responsible for business development of Kontron’s MicroTCA, AdvancedTCA, CompactPCI, VME, and VPX product lines in North America and is based in Pittsburgh, PA.

Kontron

800-523-2320

www.kontron.com

]]> http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/vpx/2012/02/radar-and-sonar-applications-find-a-home-in-compactpci-and-vpx/feed/ 0 http://www.mil-embedded.com/articles/id/?5542 http://www.mil-embedded.com/articles/id/?5542#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000 John McHale, Editorial Director, OpenSystems Media http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/vpx/?guid=e9a6fb409d70560a6fec466c8ac29607

Designers of power electronics components for the military market say business is steady, but they continue to be challenged to increase efficiencies while simultaneously shrinking component size. Meanwhile, in the space arena there is a move toward digital devices.

Procurement strategies in the defense world are embracing more open architectures and a greater use of COTS designs in new electronic systems and legacy upgrades. New Department of Defense (DoD) program requirements are also pushing for lower Size, Weight, Power, and Cost or SWaP-C.

Designing low-power systems is trickier than ever as military systems integrate high-energy commercial processors and components.

“Managing power is not a glamorous endeavor, but is essential as military electronics designers continue to add capability to platforms not originally designed to handle the energy that modern electronics expend,” says Bud Jewett, Director of Business Development and Company Relationships at Crane Aerospace & Electronics in Lynnwood, WA. “Every design is unique with unique requirements for packaging, size, and weight.

“Military customers are looking for smaller, lighter, more efficient power devices with a lower total cost of ownership,” Jewett continues.

There is a push from DoD customers for higher efficiency as well as a requirement for wider input voltage ranges and smaller sizes, says Kai Johnstad, Product Marketing Manager for Vicor in Andover, MA. “The usual things,” he adds.

On the application side, the big push is toward unmanned systems, Johnstad continues. In the unmanned market, the demand for smaller power supplies is quite strong as platforms such as small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) continue to shrink, requiring unique size requirements for electronic components, he adds.

“More efficient power supplies also are going to be necessary for high energy producing applications such as high-powered jammers for long-range communications and directed energy weapons,” Jewett says.

Custom versus COTS

“Many of the capability upgrades for existing military systems require unique size and weight considerations, which creates opportunities for designers of custom power solutions such as Crane,” Jewett says. “The various form factor and weight requirements are not conducive to an off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all solution.”

Regarding custom versus COTS, a lot of those decisions depend on the expertise and comfort level of the customer, says Vicor’s Johnstad. The primes have more expertise in design and will typically purchase modules they can design into their systems.

Weight can be just as important as form factor, because many platforms have weight thresholds that cannot be exceeded, Jewett says. Meeting these requirements is challenging because military designs often do not factor in the power conversion considerations until later in the design process, he adds.

In an ideal world, the power design of a system would be laid out first, but that does not happen. Therefore, more customization is needed. If it is done at the last minute, designs become limited as to how much power can be saved.

Whether or not a customer needs a more complicated custom design or a COTS solution really depends on the expertise of the in-house system integrator, Johnstad says.

Many times, customization consists of ruggedizing brick-based designs, Johnstad says.

For more on custom designs by Crane and Vicor, visit at www.craneae.com and www.vicorpower.com.

A COTS product offered by Vicor is the MIL-COTS VI BRICK filter as a compact DC front-end module, either as stand-alone or integrated with the 28 V MIL-COTS PRM, which provides EMI filtering and transient protection, according to a Vicor release (Figure 1). The device meets conducted emission/conducted susceptibility per MIL-STD-461E and input transient surges per MIL-STD-704 or MIL-STD-1275.

Also on the COTS side, engineers at VPT Inc. released a new DC-DC converter for use in commercial avionics, military avionics, and other high-reliability power systems. The DVAB Series eliminates cross-regulation errors and has tightly controlled line and load regulation errors enabled by the use of two independent control loops, according to a company release.

VPT’s avionics “customers demand long-term reliability with extremely tight performance metrics,” says Michael J. Bosmann, Senior VP of VPT. For more information, visit www.vpt-inc.com.

Emerson Network Power’s rugged small digital control devices are also getting design wins in commercial avionics and in-flight entertainment systems, says Shreek Raivadera, Marketing Communications manager at Emerson Network Power in Leicester, U.K. The IFE systems generate a phenomenal amount of power, he adds.

Emerson mostly focuses on the commercial market, but is looking to expand in the military and sees these devices as ideal for military applications such as radar and sonar as well as ground-based Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) applications, Raivadera continues. The products have yet to go through an official mil-standard testing process, but internal testing shows they can handle the extreme requirements, Raivadera says. For more information, visit www.emersonnetworkpower.com.

Power electronics for space

Smaller size and lower weight requirements are also driving designs of power integrated circuits for space. Designers in this market segment also are seeing greater demand for digitization and standardization across different platforms.

The most common trends in the military space market are standardization, TOR compliance, improved performance, and increased demand for digital devices, says Fred Farris, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for International Rectifier’s (IR’s) HiRel Products in El Segundo, CA.

“Customers are interested in standardizing across platforms and payloads to reduce development time and cost, and this standardization is being flowed down to components and power supplies they purchase,” Farris says.

Regarding TOR compliance, Farris says, “Many if not most of the military space programs today are requiring compliance to the TOR – reliability requirements for government space contracts that involve design, development, and test of spacecraft bus, payload, and launch vehicles.

The demand for digital devices also “is expected to climb as the needs for digital and signal processors onboard a spacecraft continue to rise,” he continues. “Other performance trends see bus voltages continuing to increase while efficiency demands on power electronics increase as well.”

One of International Rectifier’s latest digital space power products is the GH Series of radiation-hardened (rad-hard) DC-DC converters (Figure 2). These devices are designed for onboard spacecraft applications with a mission life as long as 15 years. The series is targeted for designs that use new digital signal processors and FPGA technologies that require a supply voltage as low as 1.0 V. Other features include 18 V to 40 V input range, a Total Ionization Dose (TID) of more than 100 kilorads, and a weight of less than 110 g, according to an IR release. For more information, visit www.irf.com.

VPX power solutions in demand

Board designers continue to see more requirements for ruggedization of power components and are also seeing more demand for VPX-related power supplies.

Over the past several years, there has been a demand for 3U CompactPCI power supplies, says Lou Garofolo, Product Manager at the Power Supply division of North Atlantic Industries in Bohemia, NY. North Atlantic has addressed this demand with their 55LQ and 55MQ product lines. “Most recently, we have seen the trend toward higher-density VPX power supplies that are designed per VITA standards – such as form factor, pinouts, and signaling. We are addressing this through our line of 3U and 6U VPX products with either DC or AC inputs.”

“In the military, conduction-cooled power supply market, our customers are typically looking for fully integrated power solutions that include built-in EMI filtering and input transient protection, which require output power ride-through during severe input power transients that take place on military platforms,” Garofolo says. “Today’s smaller, lighter systems require high-efficiency power supplies in the highest power density possible.”

Another trend Garofolo says he sees is for “intelligent power supplies, which can either report status through discrete signals or through detailed reporting via communication buses such as I2C. Common requirements are for monitoring and/or reporting of input status, output voltage, output current, and temperature monitoring/shutdown. Along with intelligence, there are very often requirements for features such as inhibit/enable, current share, and holdup time.

North Atlantic’s VPX product is the VPX55-3 (Figure 3), a high power density 3U VPX power supply with a +28 Vdc input and 6 outputs (per VPX) at a total output power of 300 W. The conduction-cooled device meets MIL-STD 461 EMI requirements when used with additional system filtering. For more information, visit www.naii.com.  

]]> http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/vpx/2012/02/power-electronics-designs-trending-smaller-and-more-efficient/feed/ 0 http://www.vmecritical.com/articles/id/?5508 http://www.vmecritical.com/articles/id/?5508#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0000 Thomas Roberts, Mercury Computer Systems http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/vpx/?guid=0954b7bb3ed4f5ffd68e6c995d591f20

Computing systems used in rugged applications have traditionally been designed from scratch using
semiconductor-level components. As COTS system-level technology has increased in availability and popularity, the designers of these rugged systems have looked for more integrated levels of technology. These designers would like to leverage the cost effectiveness and time-to-market advantages of COTS boards and systems. Until recently, they have had few choices. That is rapidly changing as the list of possibilities grows. One of those compelling and emerging options in the small form factor arena is VITA 73 (Rugged Small Form Factor).

What began as a solution to a network attached storage problem soon turned into one of the newest small form factor system solutions for rugged embedded computing platforms. Struggling to find a suitable method to package a Solid State Disk (SSD) or a hard drive, PCI Systems CEO Claus Gross pondered a 2.5-inch “X-frame” carrier for SSDs that had been sitting on his desk for some time. Suddenly, on a Monday morning, it struck him that this was just the right size and form factor for a next-generation embedded computing platform.

Many customers over the previous months had commented that they could really use a small-sized system package that was conduction cooled and capable of using the latest in high-performance, multicore processors. A set of requirements soon emerged that would inspire the design for a next-generation platform. The modules they required must:

1. Be small yet high performance.
2. Be rugged, conduction cooled, and completely closed for robust shielding.
3. Be usable in blade configuration with a backplane or as a mezzanine on a carrier by simply replacing the interconnect connector.
4. Be able to operate in a stand-alone mode if necessary, precluding the need for other modules.

These requirements expanded the thought process to include developing a platform with an industry leading function-to-size ratio. This ratio or functional density needed to be higher than anything currently on the market in this class of product. The higher functional density would be key to lowering total system costs because fewer modules would be needed.

These requirements led to the development of a specification for a new rugged embedded computing platform. And PCI Systems brought this specification to the VITA Standards Organization (VSO) to complete the work and turn it into an industry standard. A working group was formed in 2010 under VITA 73 to start the process. VITA 73 was submitted as a specification describing a small, rugged form factor for board modules and the associated backplane profiles. Also included was a specification for standard I/O using MIL-DTL-38999 connectors to make the standard even more desirable for rugged deployments.

VITA was chosen as the most appropriate place to conduct this work because of the dedication of the members to develop open standards for the critical embedded computing market. The experience of the members and the recent work on VPX made the decision even easier. VPX was the impetus for the module interconnect methodology and is used as the basis for the interconnection portion of the VITA 73 specification.

Further requirements helped to guide the development of VITA 73. A complete system or box-level solution was highly desirable. Users of this new platform were not to be burdened with the worry of the integration challenges that other architectures often imposed. The combination of primary and secondary requirements quickly led to a box that did not require wedge locks to retain the modules, as those would have used too much of the premium board real estate defined in the small form factor. The box would instead completely enclose the modules, providing both cooling and secure confinement for rugged usage models.

VITA 73 features

How well does VITA 73 match up to its original design requirements? Let’s look at some of the key features of the specification to find out.

Size: VITA 73 modules are 3 inches wide by 4 inches deep. They are designed to be housed in an enclosure that can have from 4 to 16 slots. The total package for an eight-slot chassis is 4.5 inches wide by 4 inches high by 6 inches deep. This certainly puts VITA 73 firmly in the small end of small form factor platforms yet provides plenty of room for expansion when an application calls for a larger system. Also, the ties to VPX give an additional option to expand into a full VPX system if necessary.

Weight: Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) are major concerns for many platforms in a multitude of industries. A VITA 73 chassis, when empty, is no more than 1.5 KG in weight (slightly more than 3 lbs). Fully loaded, with a typical payload of modules, results in a box less than 2.5 KG (5 lbs), making this a very lightweight contender. The clamshell packaging eliminates the need for heavy and bulky wedge locks on the printed circuit boards and saves board real estate for valuable functions (Figure 1).

Power: VITA 73 is specified to disperse up to 120 W in an eight-slot cold-plate-cooled chassis. With its conduction-cooling packaging, it can handle most of today’s highest-performance processors, giving it an edge in both electrical and computing power. Computing performance is maintained between modules by using PCI Express as the module interconnect fabric. Modeled after the VPX specification, it can handle similar data speeds between modules. The connectors chosen for the standard are specified to handle 10 GHz signals. To keep the design simpler, interconnects between modules are limited to a star-only topology. This reduces latency, making the overall system faster. It also simplifies the fabric switching between modules, requiring no switching on the modules. VITA 73 uses PCIe Gen2 with a bus width of four lanes and a possibility for a bus width of eight lanes per slot.

Other advantages of VITA 73

Pin-in-socket connectors are used instead of blade-edge connectors, improving system reliability. Readily available straight connectors can be substituted for the right-angle connector to allow the creation of a family of mezzanine modules using the same exact design.

Zero cables and wires are used to interconnect the modules to the I/O connections. PCI Systems’ “No Wires” strategy is used throughout. Wires in rugged applications are not a solution. They will vibrate in the chassis and eventually break at the solder points. Small printed circuit boards are used instead to route signals between modules and I/O connectors, enabling high-speed differential signaling with carefully matched impedance for the high signal speeds. Additionally, assembly and maintenance are simplified because the interconnect modules prevent missed or wrong connections and reduce failures caused by vibration.

Six backplane profiles are defined to accept processing modules, two types of peripheral I/O modules (single-ended and differential), and RF input modules, SATA drives, and power supplies. Allowing for RF coax inputs provides a very reliable and readily available I/O connection.

There are several bonus features included in VITA 73. A 10 MHz single-ended frequency is defined to aid in systemwide data acquisition and synchronize power supplies. Also a star trigger and other trigger functions are implemented. For next generations of PCI Express, the usage of the PCIe 100 MHz clock is defined for all boards used in the chassis and a separate instrumentation frequency of 100 MHz is part of the specification.

Market needs

The analysis of the current market for military computers has shown that the market interest in very small, ruggedized systems is very high, especially for unmanned aircraft with highly integrated electronic control systems. This has spurred interest in the military hardware community to push for development of a standard for a small form factor system.

A new market

Complimentary to VITA 73, there is also a new VITA 71 working group, which is creating a 3U/6U VPX mezzanine board standard that is also compatible with VITA 73.

The VITA 73 working group is on-time and on-track to position itself as “the standard” for unmanned systems, securing all members’ and interested parties’ early stakes in the new market.

]]> http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/vpx/2012/01/evolution-of-a-small-form-factor/feed/ 0 http://www.vmecritical.com/articles/id/?5481 http://www.vmecritical.com/articles/id/?5481#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:00:00 +0000 Charles Linquist, Dawn VME Products Dawn VME Products Dawn VME Products http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/vpx/?guid=b20fd9fd3ffbc1f154b8ac0f372e8370

As the military modernizes from basic control and text-based systems to nearly autonomous and vision-based platforms, the ever-increasing need for more complexity and processing power has forced military electronics to evolve as fast, or faster than, their commercial counterparts. But unlike the commercial world, where a nonoperational tablet computer is merely an inconvenience, a malfunctioning military system can cost lives. Thus, the old method of “swap it out when it fails” just will not do in the military. In the meantime, the VPX form factor is rapidly gaining traction in the military realm as a replacement for VME, and intelligent chassis management for mission-critical VPX systems as provided under VITA 46.11 is helping to ensure reliable performance when failure is not an option.

Military embedded systems are becoming more complex and expensive. The “black box” approach of replacing a system piece-by-piece until it works is no longer practical because of the costs associated with having two of everything.

Extreme reliability is therefore demanded from military systems, and while simulation and testing are extremely important, they can’t perfectly predict what an actual piece of equipment will be subjected to in the field, or how that equipment will perform on a long-term basis.

To ensure that equipment is not subjected to major environmental conditions that are outside the specification requirements, an intelligent chassis management system is required. In addition, a management system Error Log is indispensable for finding the conditions that led up to any failure, and can provide valuable feedback into the maintenance and design process so that future failures can be avoided.

The VITA Standards Organization (VITA/VSO) has provided the military with this monitoring, control, and logging system in the form of VITA 46.11 – System Management on VPX. This document defines a standard that allows chassis, backplane, board, and system designers to build compatible and interactive monitoring, control, and logging systems. In creating this standard, VITA adapted much from the PICMG 3.X standards.

The widespread adoption of VITA 46.11 will result in lower maintenance costs, quicker repairs, and the greater reliability demanded by military electronics. (Note: VITA 46.11 has not been fully ratified. To date, it is still a draft specification.)

PICMG 3.X is quite complex and very comprehensive, but because it was not designed for military applications, it has several shortcomings when used in a military setting. In commercial applications, the primary focus is to protect the equipment, but in military applications the focus is on protecting the mission. These differing needs affect the decision process that the monitoring and control system makes, but it doesn’t change the type and method of data acquisition.

In both PICMG 3.X and VITA 46.11, the Chassis Management Controller queries PROMs on each board for ID and other pertinent information. The consumer industrial Management Chassis Controller “asks questions and then turns on.” The military Management Chassis Controller “turns on and then asks questions.”

Protecting the mission chassis management

In a consumer-focused system, it might be frustrating if bootup takes several minutes, but it makes no huge difference if that is the case. However, in today’s wars, a battle may be nearly over in 2 minutes. Fast startup is a must.

VITA 46.11 recognized the need for fast startup and made that process much easier by stating that a system could check only a few major items before issuing the Start command. Detailed monitoring is started only after the system becomes operational. VITA/VSO also realized there are some situations where it is imperative that the system remains operational, regardless of any other condition. Such a condition would exist if a ship were under attack. Missiles must be fired even if the equipment is overheating. To provide for such a scenario, military systems usually employ a technique known as Battleshort. This is a mode that, once turned on, amounts to a “run until you melt” command.

VITA 46.11 integrates system management from the modules to the system. An Intelligent Platform Management Controller presents that module to the Chassis Manager. An I2C Intelligent Platform Management Bus, the IPMB link, then presents the modules to the Chassis Manager, which in turn presents the entire chassis to the System Manager. The System Manager can be linked to one or more Chassis Managers via high-speed bus such as Ethernet to form an OpenVPX (VITA 65) system. This high-speed link can be encrypted for security.

The System Manager monitors temperature, voltages, currents, fan speeds, airflow, acceleration, and any other desired parameter variations for which there are sensors. When critical thresholds are reached, programmed actions are taken. It’s important that parameters are logged for future reference of real-time system operability.

Because military contractors may be unfamiliar with the new system capabilities, Dawn VME Products has developed a set of diagnostic hardware tools that can run in conjunction with the System Manager in test or deployed systems. One example is the Intelligent Test Module, the ITM-6973, which is on a 3U board and performs stress tests and facilitates worst-case analyses (Figure 1). Under program control, it can load the system to any percentage of its capacity – including overload – thus proving that the system can handle normal and fault conditions properly while at the same time examining power supply response and temperatures by emulating system boards based on empirical profiles.

Such intelligent test modules are capable of providing dynamic loads to the system that can mimic virtually any board complement. The current loads are FETs, not resistors, which allow for the precise changing of currents on millisecond boundaries. It can also generate virtually any amount of heat – useful for testing cooling systems. Data log files are real-time stamped. The front panel has an I2C bus connector and a micro-USB connector that permits interfacing to a PC.

VITA 46.11: Power to the processor

Current military systems often require processor power not imagined only a few years ago. In drones, for example, several channel of video are gathered, but to send these images back at high frame rates and resolution would require enormous bandwidth. To make this task easier, the processor must compress the data before transmission. In addition, it may also have to encrypt the video stream to prevent access by enemy combatants. Also, onboard processing is required to distinguish the difference between moving and inanimate objects. These are just a couple of examples of increasing complexity and therefore challenges for mission-critical VPX systems.

Additionally, large memories, powerful processors, and other high-density semiconductors present inherent diodes with low reverse breakdown voltages and ultra-small trace insulation with low dielectric breakdown voltages. Voltage differences during power-up might exceed the reverse bias limits of these diodes or forward bias them to cause latch-up. These problems might be solved by writing code to control the order of voltage rails sequencing up or down once the System Manager has identified the particular problem board: VITA 46.11 wisely includes an error log as part of the specification.

Error logs, software upgrades, and system failure

The error log produced by the VITA 46.11 System Manager is extremely important. Design engineers and maintenance technicians must be fully aware of events leading to failure. Conditions in the field can never fully be anticipated by any test.

The VITA 46.11 System Manager is capable of recording virtually any condition. Figure 2 indicates connection paths to modules via the Chassis Manager. For example, during certain processing operations, the system might generate more heat than at other times. The System Manager can then be programmed remotely to increase fan speed during those intervals, thus ensuring that the system is always operating within specification, while at the same time power consumption is minimized by lowering fan speed when maximum cooling is not necessary.

The monitoring system can also provide clues on how the system software may be rewritten to lower temperatures and/or power consumption. Often a problem can be fixed by upgrading the System Manager’s software. This is certainly an elegant solution because this can be performed without moving the units. New code can be attached to an email and sent to the units’ location.

An upgrade in software can warn the System Manager that a particular board is a problem, and if certain conditions are detected, shut it down immediately. Maintenance would then replace the board with a spare. This would be a short-term fix until the particular board vendor fixes the problem.

Moreover, unusual combinations of circumstances such as vibration, temperature, humidity, power cycles, and other parameters over time might cause system failure. It is important that the cause of failure be identified as that of the customer or vendor. If the problem is that of the customer, such as exposing a unit to a harsh environment beyond specification limits, then the customer must modify their procedures or modify their requirements. If the problem is that of a particular vendor, then that vendor must fix the problem.

VITA 46.11: Standardized real-time system monitoring

With the adoption of VITA 46.11, industry has provided the military with a standardized real-time system monitoring capability that can easily be adapted to different situations by means of a large number of programmable parameters. The similarity of VITA 46.11 to PICMG3.X should reduce implementation costs and smooth the adoption process for intelligent chassis management in mission-critical VPX systems. This capability will result in lower maintenance costs, quicker repairs, and the greater reliability demanded from military electronics.

Charles Linquist is Chief Technical Officer at Dawn VME Products. He has 30 years of experience in mechanical, electrical, and software design with telecom, commercial, and military OEMs. He presently designs MIL-Spec-compliant enclosures, backplanes, and intelligent chassis management systems to enable military rugged, high-performance computing applications. He can be contacted at clinquist@dawnvme.com.

Dawn VME Products

510-657-4444

www.dawnvme.com

]]> http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/vpx/2011/12/intelligent-chassis-management-for-mission-critical-vpx-systems/feed/ 0 http://www.vmecritical.com/articles/id/?5423 http://www.vmecritical.com/articles/id/?5423#comments Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:00:00 +0000 Dr. Andreas Engelhardt, Thermacore http://tech.opensystemsmedia.com/vpx/?guid=9fe642b564f798be1a51a08014ef661e

Editor’s note: On this 30-year anniversary of VMEbus, VME and Critical Systems’ Editorial Director Jerry Gipper hit the VITA/VSO “streets,” posing 6 key questions to VME industry experts. The following is a compilation of their mixed bag of responses.

This issue of VME and Critical Systems magazine is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the introduction of VMEbus. We reached out to the VME community to seek comments on the highlights of the past 30 years of VMEbus. To get the ball rolling, we asked the members of VITA the following questions:

• Which enhancement(s) to the VMEbus specification had the biggest impact?
• What was the most unusual or strangest application using VMEbus that you ever saw?
• What was your most difficult design challenge with VME products?
• Which time period in the history of VMEbus was most influential?
• What would your company have done differently regarding its strategy in the VME market?
• What was the most influential product over the past 30 years?

We received a mixed bag of responses with some very interesting insights. I had the pleasure of being in the middle of the VMEbus industry from a front-row seat at the Motorola Computing Group during this period. Motorola was the recognized leader in VME market share for most of the past 30 years, according to VDC Research. I had the honor of being responsible for the marketing of many very successful products during those years. My comments are peppered throughout the responses that I received.

Which enhancement(s) to the VMEbus specification had the biggest impact?

Consensus on which enhancements to the VMEbus specification had the biggest impact reached common ground with everyone. VME64 and VME64 derivatives were mentioned by nearly everyone. VME64 was the first major demonstration that VME could evolve and yet remain compatible with previous generations of products. Over time, this became the single most important requirement for any advancement to wear the VME badge. This same evolutionary migration was key in many of the decisions that drove the development of VPX in more recent times.

“Revision D, the addition of D64 (VME64), demonstrated the power of backwards compatibility and the ability of the architecture to innovate without creating discontinuities in the market or rendering existing products obsolete,” states Shlomo Pri-tal, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at Emerson Network Power, Embedded Computing. Pri-tal was very influential, and his powers of persuasion paid off in making backwards compatibility a prime consideration. We had many long discussions on this topic at Motorola because we had a huge investment in VMEbus to protect.

“On VME, the most important specification enhancement was the evolution to VME64x and eventually to 2eSST. The other major impact was VITA 46 (VPX), which kept the VME form factor but replaced the connectors with high-speed ones and added serial fabrics to move data,” remarks Steve Edwards, CTO for Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing.

“VME64x, because of the 2 mm P0 connector extension and GEOID (geographic addressing),” says Vincent Chuffart, Product Marketing Manager, Kontron.

Michael Munroe, Product Specialist at Elma Bustronic Corporation, mentioned four enhancements that had a big impact: VME64x, PMC, VPX, and Force Computers’ electronic bus grant daisy chain patent. He chose VME64x for the addition of 3.3 VDC signaling, shielded front panels, and the addition of a P0 connector. PMC has become the de facto mezzanine interface for VME and other 6U form factors. VPX gives VME a breakthrough revolutionary migration path for complex systems of the future with hybrid backplane bridges. Force Computers’ electronic bus grant daisy chain patent simplified a challenging problem for VME system designers: Early-generation products required jumpers on the backplane to handle bus grants. This was difficult and error prone, requiring access to the backplane to make changes and leading to errors with missing or misplaced jumpers. The first question asked by technical support was to query you about how the backplane was jumpered, because, most often, a jumper was missing or out of place.

What was the most unusual or strangest application using VMEbus that you ever saw?

VMEbus has found homes throughout our solar system. The list of design wins could go on forever. Here are few of note:

“Without a doubt, the most unusual VMEbus application was the VME technology deployed on the Mars Rovers, Opportunity, and Spirit,” shares Edwards. The Mars Rover Opportunity is still taking photos, sending back data, and roaming the surface of Mars today. Designed for only 30 days of service, it has logged more than 20.86 miles and more than 2,700 Martian days. VME technology actually made its first trip to Mars in 1998 after IBM and Lockheed Martin Federal Systems developed a radiation-hardened VME system that was selected for the Sagan Lander.

“An area where we have seen significant growth in VME is the railway market. While it may not be a ‘strange’ application, it is definitely an unanticipated migration from the harsh environments of avionics to the mobile world of trains and railway systems. The triple-redundant A602 VME single board computer is especially useful in several areas of railway applications, including signaling systems, wayside control, and automated train operation, since failure may result in loss of human life (trains derailing or colliding). In response to this increasing use of VME, MEN Mikro is now preparing a railway certification package for the A602 for safety levels SIL 3 and SIL 4, anticipated to be available at the end of the first quarter in 2012,” explains Barbara Schmitz, Chief Marketing Officer at MEN.

“GDCA manufactured the VME-based Heurikon V4F boards for a company [that] used them in two different and interesting applications. One of them was a screening device that was used by airport security to detect explosives in passenger baggage, and the second one was a precision wood saw mill. It was a good thing they never accidently switched the applications, although some airline luggage looks like they might have done so,” quips Martin Plotkin, founder of GDCA, Inc.

My two favorite applications for VME were as control systems for the “Tower of Terror” at Disney World and in the launch control systems for the Space Shuttle program. It often made me wonder if the two organizations shared design ideas! Other interesting applications were the VME-based voting system in the parliament of China, the Chyron text overlay system for television, and many telecom digital switches.

VME was first used in many industrial applications long before it gained such a stronghold in military applications. Recently, I was driving through New Mexico past the Very Large Array astronomical radio observatory where I saw several of my Motorola VME boards in a dark and dusty lab processing data for the array. Many of these applications are event driven, whereas VMEbus excels over today’s switch fabric architectures that favor data-driven applications.

What was your most difficult design challenge with VME products?

“Because VME is limited in terms of power in a rugged environment, the most difficult challenges involve designing 70-90 W VME processor cards. VPX is more forgiving in this regard since it allows 1" pitch and will allow cards to draw more power from the backplane,” specifies Edwards. Power has always been a challenge, and it was not unusual to see two- and three-slot boards just to get enough power for a single slot.

“Parallel PCI bus extension through P0,” answers Chuffart. Bridging PCI bus has challenged engineers for years as PCI bus became much more than a local processor bus.

“GDCA provides the long-term support for the MVME162 board from Motorola for their end customers. In 2008, we realized that one of the key ASICs on that board was obsolete – with no availability in the market. This was a critical issue for customers since the redesign of their applications was going to have a major impact on their costs and lead time to their customers. GDCA replaced that ASIC with a functionally equivalent FPGA to ensure that, except for a layout change to accommodate the new footprint, there would be no impact on the board design,” details Plotkin.

Thank God for human memory. The early days of VMEbus had many challenges that failed to make the list. I’m pulling this from my own fading memories, but who can forget these issues?

The moving target of the first two or three revisions of the specification caused some conflict. From the introduction in October 1981 to sometime in the 1985/1986 timeframe, the specification was a bit dynamic. Thousands of copies of the specification were printed and passed out, only to have to be redistributed months later. I personally carried boxes and boxes in my car, at times giving up to five seminars a day on VMEbus to rooms packed with engineers. Luckily, there were no major changes and board designers were able to move forward with hundreds of new designs.

The lack of bridge chips to simplify the bus interface was a challenge. Early VME boards could easily use 30 percent or more of the board space for a VME interface. Few could afford ASICs, and FPGAs were yet to be practical. A whole battle ensued for several years in the late 1980’s over who would do a chip and how it would be marketed. In 1987, at the invitation of Joe Ramunni (Heurikon), 12 VMEbus manufacturers met to explore the interest in collaborating for the design and development of a comprehensive VMEbus interface chipset. It was years before anything came of this effort. In the meantime, Force Computers, Motorola, PLX, and others developed their own bridge chips. A VITA consortium developed the VMEbus Interface Chip (VIC), which was marketed and sold by VTC. Eventually Tundra Semiconductor emerged with the Universe chip to save the day.

Another major faux paux in the VMEbus specification was the lack of a defined software architecture to move data along the bus. Being direct memory architecture, this was not considered a big issue in the early days, but as real-time operating systems emerged and the number of devices on the bus exploded, writing device drivers kept a lot of software engineers gainfully employed. Architectures today enjoy the Ethernet, PCI Express, and Serial RapidIO protocols supported by serial switch fabrics and PCI bus.

Which time period in the history of VMEbus was most influential?

When asked this question, the responses were all over the map, and rightfully so. Most of it is dependent on the individual’s perspective and history with VMEbus. Pri-tal was particularly fond of the early days. During that time, his name was synonymous with VMEbus, and many consider him the Grandfather of VME, myself included. Thus his answer to the question is: “The period immediately after the formation of VITA and the establishment of its technical committee as an open forum for all who joined to develop the architecture and drive the industry.” Pri-tal really pushed the open standards concept and fought to prevent trademarks and patents that would slow down the market acceptance of VMEbus or show favoritism to any one company. That sentiment is still felt today in the VITA tagline of “Open Standards, Open Markets” and in its industry-leading ex ante policy.

Other influential periods occurred in the history of VME. Companies focused on the military markets were especially impressed with two specific time periods. “There were two critical periods in the history of VME. The first was in the early ’90s, when VME first started to gain use within military systems, which today is the major market for VMEbus and its derivatives. The Commander Perry memo of 1994 introduced the NDI initiative, which later morphed into the COTS initiative encouraging more use of off-the-shelf products. Later, between the years of 2003 and 2005, the VITA community made the decision to move beyond VMEbus and design a follow-on spec, VPX, which would support serial fabrics. We have seen VPX take over in the past several years, to the point where it is the major bus architecture for new deployed military programs,” details Edwards.

Another colorful period for VME was in the mid 1990’s as the PowerPC architecture emerged and found solid homes on VME single board computers. Chuffart mentions “PREP architecture: PowerPC + PCI bus + VME + Linux. Most current deployments of VME still have this architecture.” PREP became the hardware and software definition for anyone developing PowerPC-based hardware.

The Motorola 88K processor was to be the evolutionary path for the 68K processors, but it had few supporters. When Apple, IBM, and Motorola teamed up to develop the PowerPC Architecture, VME suppliers quickly embraced the technology. Ironically, the Motorola Computer Group was one of the very last companies to fully get on the PowerPC bandwagon. This was because of internal political struggles and a solid family of 88K single board computers that ranged from a single processor to eight processors on a VME computing platform. Once Motorola cleared the internal issues, it was full steam ahead on PowerPC until the AIM alliance fell apart. Fortunately, we had a skunk works team working on a PowerPC project that we were able to launch in a few short weeks.

Munroe points out the years from 1985 to 2001 until CompactPCI came along and gave VME a serious run for its money. Using the same 6U form factor but the PCI bus as the interconnect, CompactPCI was able to better leverage this new parallel bus and eliminate extra bus bridges, thus simplifying designs and improving performance. During those years, we saw all types of attempts to improve VME performance: VXI, RaceWay, SCSA, Autobahn, and 2eSST were but a few of the alternatives developed for VMEbus.

What would your company have done differently regarding its strategy in the VME market?

Most companies were very happy with the strategies that they took. I did enjoy Chuffart’s comment: “Keep 68K products alive a lot longer.” Kontron is an amalgamation of many smaller companies, many of which enjoyed years of success as VME suppliers, most with 68K-based products. I certainly understand the strategy of holding on to 68K processor-based products for as long as possible. VMEbus was built around the 68K processor bus, and as a result, worked best with products built around the 68K architecture. Everything else always required a little extra bus logic to work, and then there were always issues. Who can forget the endian byte order issues between the Intel x86 little endian and the Motorola 68K big endian?

The 68K processors had an average of about three years between major releases from 68000 to 68010 to 68020 to 68030 and finally the 68040. That timeframe was long enough to complete a board, get a few solid design wins, and make some serious profit from the design efforts before moving on to the next generation. Many 68K products are still in production today as evidence of the long life cycles of the 68K generation of VMEbus products. Fifteen years or more was not at all unexpected.

Plotkin still remembers the day he organized the first VERSAbus user’s group meeting – prior to the existence of VME. It was during that meeting that some of the key sponsors of the VERSAbus user’s group left the room and came back later to talk about the birth of the VMEbus standard – VERSAbus in Eurocard format. It is interesting that GDCA now supports the legacy VME products that were originally manufactured by Motorola and others. So Plotkin has not only witnessed the birth of VMEbus, but the company he founded has developed the product legacy management expertise that supports these VME products and keeps them alive as long as customers need them.

The Intel and PowerPC architectures rolled out so much faster, and board designers were always playing catch-up to the latest-generation processors. It has slowed a bit in the past years, as the Intel Architecture has become the dominant processor on new products. Five- to seven-year product life cycles are more typical today, causing some applications to have difficult life cycles to manage.

Many companies tried to make VME a system-level strategy. Motorola was the most successful with a large number of personal and server computer families based on VME technology. This gave them a tremendous market advantage because they were one of the few companies that developed a complete system, allowing them to better understand how a full system worked as other boards were integrated into the backplane. Mercury Computer Systems had some system expertise, but in those days VME was a front end to their much-larger processing arrays.

Today, many companies are wishing that they had hung on to VME a bit longer. During these tough economic times, many applications are upgrading those very durable VME systems instead of doing complete replacements.

What was the most influential product over the past 30 years?

Responses to this question tended to favor the home team, as nearly every company claims to have at least one “most influential product.”

“Curtiss-Wright’s CHAMP-AV6 and VPX6-85: They were the very first VPX products to market and helped to validate the choices made in VITA 46,” remarks Edwards. From my perspective at Motorola, several of the 68K-based CHAMP products gave us a real run for the money.

“Our A602 is a 6U FPGA-based, triple-redundant 64-bit VMEbus SBC that employs a lock-step architecture, keeping software development at a minimum. The redundant lock-step system increases system reliability, so the SEU-resistant A602 runs the same set of operations in parallel to ensure that the programming only views the hardware components once,” explains Schmitz.

“The MVME147 … introduced revolutionary levels of integration and completely changed the industry. As an example, no more memory cards, Ethernet controller boards, etc. The only products were processor boards (e.g., GP, DSP, etc.) with their required complement of I/O,” says Pri-tal.

“The ABG connector, first from Augat,” answers Munroe.

In my many discussions with customers and suppliers over the years, one product in particular continues to quickly come to mind: the MVME147 mentioned by Pri-tal. I have a particular closeness to this product, as it was my first major product in my role as VME Product Manager at the Motorola Computer Group. It was a true VME single board computer. Though not the first in the industry, it was the most integrated and most popular. It used an internally developed ASIC for the VMEbus interface, saving a substantial amount of board space that was then dedicated to other functionality. We often promoted it as the equivalent of five other VME boards: a processor, memory, Ethernet controller, SCSI bus controller, and general purpose I/O board. Originally it shipped with 4 MB of DRAM and an option to add 4 MB more on a full-size 6U board. Today you can’t even buy a single DRAM chip that small. More than 1 million copies of that board were shipped, and it experienced five major redesigns over its active production life as components went obsolete, especially DRAMs. The MVME147 also set new price points for VME boards and even shipped with a lifetime warranty. The MVME147 led to the MVME162 and MVME167 that also reached similar shipment milestones. Hooray for 68K!

VME still a leader

VME has had a very colorful and profitable run in the embedded computing industry. It continues to enjoy a sizable market with the introduction of new technologies like VPX, which give VME a great migration path. I expect to see products with their roots in VMEbus for many years to come.

A big “thank you” goes to the following for their contribution to this article:

Steve Edwards, CTO, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing

Barbara Schmitz, Chief Marketing Officer, MEN Mikro Elektronik GmbH

Vincent Chuffart, Product Marketing Manager, Kontron

Michael Munroe, Product Specialist,Elma Bustronic Corporation

Shlomo Pri-tal, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer at Emerson Network Power, Embedded Computing

Martin Plotkin, founder of GDCA, Inc.

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