Dubbing their SBC312 3U VPX SBC the sixth member of the GE Intelligent Platforms VPX lineup, this version has on-paper specs of 4x the performance of earlier versions (as measured by the number of cores). Based upon the Freescale QorIQ 8-core P4080, this SBC delivers oh-so-much-more performance and I/O bandwidth, while keeping a lid on power consumption and heat dissipation. The SBC is designed for small shoebox systems such as UAS platforms or any box demanding gobs of horsepower in a small space.
The P4080 (or optional four-core P4040) is attached to 4 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory. Two x4 PCIe (Gen 2) links can be broken down into four x1 links, one of which can be converted into a 10 GbE port. Also included: an additional 2 1000BASE-T ports, 2 serial, 2 USB2, 2 SATA, and 8 GPIO – just for good measure. The VITA 46 board is also available in other mechanical versions, including a VITA 48 format for two-level maintenance, and there are five air- and conduction-cooled versions. There’s even a PMC/XMC mezzanine site, in case you need even more I/O or processing oomph. A comprehensive set of BSPs and operating systems is available.