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Companys Highest Performance Multi-core Quad PowerPC/Serial Switched Fabric VITA 46 Board Qualified Over Harsh Temperature Ranges, Shock and Vibration Testing
LEESBURG VA — July 28, 2008 – Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, a leading designer and manufacturer of rugged deployed commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) VME, VPX and CompactPCI products for the Aerospace and Defense market (A&D), has announced the successful testing and qualification of its multi-core CHAMP-AV6 VPX digital signal processor (DSP) engine, incorporating the Freescale 8641D dual-core processor. The CHAMP-AV6 successfully passed testing at the highest Level-200 temperature, shock, and vibration specifications, thus setting a new benchmark for processing performance in the rugged COTS market. The CHAMP-AV6s successful test results deliver on the promise of VPX (VITA 46), the new generation of high performance, rugged open-architecture embedded board modules. The VPX standard, collaboratively developed by COTS industry leaders and prime military integrators, delivers a high-speed serial interconnect with a form-factor and feature set specifically designed to meet the most demanding A&D applications.
“The successful qualification of the dual-core CHAMP-AV6 is another significant milestone for the VPX standard, highlighting its suitability for high-performance, high-power applications,” said Lynn Patterson, Vice President and General Manager of Curtiss Wrights Modular Solutions group. “The CHAMP-AV6 establishes a new high-water mark for performance density in rugged environments”
Multi-core software is key enabler
The CHAMP-AV6 is supported with a VxWorks Board Support Package (BSP) that fully exploits the multi-core 8641D processor. By adopting an asymmetric multi-processing (AMP) model, traditional single-core software programs can be easily migrated to the dual-core AV6, which presents eight (8) virtual processors to the application developer. The AMP model allows developers to harness both cores without the burden of re-architecting software to employ Symmetrical Processing (SMP) techniques.
Vigorous, Demanding Tests
The CHAMP-AV6 was subjected to a battery of harsh environment testing to ensure its survivability in A&D applications where extreme conditions may range from the heat of a desert tarmac to the intense cold of high-altitude flight. These tests included operating over the -40°C to 85°C card-edge temperature range. The conduction-cooled card was also subjected to, and successfully survived, 40g shock, 10g sine vibration and 0.1g2 random vibration tests. Full details of the environmental specifications are available on the Curtiss-Wright website, www.cwcembedded.com.
The CHAMP-AV6
With four on-board Power Architecture (PowerPC) processors, this DSP engine is kept cool using Curtiss-Wright latest conduction-cooling techniques to ensure efficient cooling and optimal performance. Curtiss-Wright is an established leader in the development of innovative cooling techniques for embedded A&D hardware and holds several conduction-cooling technology patents. Also helpful in maintaining optimal operating temperatures is the boards use of the 1.0” pitch option defined by the VPX-REDI standard (VITA 48) that enables the use of several enhanced mechanical design elements to achieve higher power dissipation. The CHAMP-AV6 is also available in a Line-Replaceable Module (LRM) variant that comprises front and rear protective metal covers to ensure safe repair and replacement in-the-field.
The CHAMP-AV6s VPX format provides backplane connectors capable of handling signaling speeds in excess of 6.25 Gbits/sec. The VPX connectors also enable multi-gigabit/sec I/O to be handled from the boards onboard XMC/PMC site. The board features four Freescale 8641 single/dual-core processors. The 8641, FreeScales latest Altivec-enabled processor, has dual integrated 64-bit memory controllers and offers vastly increased memory read performance compared to prior generations of PowerPC processors. This enhanced performance translates directly to reduced execution times for user application software. For numeric-intense processing the 8641 offers the powerful Altivec instruction set extension which performs up to 8 floating point operations per cycle. For a dual-core device operating at 1 GHz this is 16 GFLOPS of peak floating point performance.
Multi-processor systems based on the CHAMP-AV6 benefit from the 10 GB/s full duplex bandwidth provided by the boards four Serial RapidIO (SRIO) ports; this represents a data throughput rate approximately 10x faster than prior generation VME/StarFabric implementations. Streaming data applications benefit from the boards 8.5 GB/s memory bandwidth and up to 4 GB of DDR2 SDRAM.
The CHAMP-AV6 also provides board-level support for 2-level maintenance requirements. 2-level maintenance can significantly reduce sparing and logistics requirements, thus reducing the total life-cycle cost of the systems in which the CHAMP-AV6 is deployed. The boards VPX connectors include an ESD protection mechanism that, coupled with top and bottom covers at the module level, enable the board to be safely handled in deployed environments where standard ESD precautions are not practical. This support for 2-level maintenance requirements can significantly reduce sparing and logistics requirements, thus reducing the total life-cycle cost of the systems within which the CHAMP-AV6 is used.
CHAMP-AV6 Performance Features
– Four PowerPC single/dual-core 8641 CPUs @ 1GHz
– Up to 1Gbyte DDR2 SDRAM with ECC per processor
– 256 Mbytes Flash with write protection
– Permanent Alternate Boot Flash
– 128 Kbytes NVRAM
– Multi-board synchronous time-stamping feature
– Real Time Clock
– Temperature sensors
– VITA 48 1.0” pitch format
– VxWorks® BSP
– Continuum Vector DSP function library
– Continuum Inter-processor communications library
– Continuum Insights multi-processor development tools
– Range of air and conduction-cooled ruggedization levels available
CHAMP-AV6 I/O Features
– On-board Serial RapidIO interconnect
– Four Serial RapidIO ports to the VITA 46 core fabric
– Option for PCI Express (PCIe) port to the VITA 46 core fabric
– Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) with on-board switch
– Each processor has GbE connection to on-board GbE switch
– Two ports from GbE switch routed to backplane
– One XMC site with x8 PCIe interface
– Additional x8 PCIe interface to the backplane
– Four EIA-232 serial ports
– Two EIA-422 serial ports
– Sixteen discrete LVTTL I/O signals
Software for the CHAMP-AV6 includes support for operating systems including VxWorks, Linux (planned). Curtiss-Wright provides signal processing libraries and a high performance Inter-Processor Communications Library for message passing and bulk data transfers, extending to multiple boards connected via Serial RapidIO
For editorial information regarding Curtiss-Wright Advanced Multi Computing products or services, contact John Wranovics, public relations director, Curtiss-Wright, Tel: (925) 640-6402; Fax: (510) 530-8563; email: [email protected]; Web site: www.cwcembedded.com.
Sales inquiries: Please forward all Sales and reader service inquiries to Jerri-Lynne Charbonneau, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Tel: (613) 254-5112; Fax: (613) 599-7777; e-mail: [email protected].
About Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing
Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing is the industrys most comprehensive and experienced single source for embedded solutions, ranging from Processing, Subsystems, Data Communication, DSP, and Video & Graphics to the most advanced board level components and fully integrated custom systems. The Embedded Computing group serves the defense, aerospace, commercial and industrial markets and is part of Curtiss-Wright Controls Inc. For more information about Curtiss-Wright visit www.cwcembedded.com.
About Curtiss-Wright Controls, Inc.
Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Curtiss-Wright Controls is the motion control segment of Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW). 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