New Dual P.A. Semi 1682/Xilinx Virtex-5 Signal Processor Card Delivers Twice the Performance per Watt
LEESBURG, VA – December 20, 2007 — 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 availability of the CHAMP-AV5, its first P.A. Semi -1682 Power Architecture -based DSP VME compute engine. The new 6U board combines the breakthrough performance and power savings of dual low-power 2 GHz dual-core 1682 processors with a reconfigurable Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA co-processor to achieve approximately 100% greater board-level performance/Watt compared to earlier DSP engine designs. The CHAMP-AV5 is ideal for upgrading existing systems that require significantly improved DSP performance.
“Todays high-performance embedded signal and image processing systems require ever larger amounts of processing and I/O to accomplish their missions.” said Lynn Patterson , Vice President and General Manager of Curtiss Wrights Modular Solutions group. “We have many customers who would like to update their systems based on our CHAMP-AV4 product, but can not accommodate any increase in power consumption. The CHAMP-AV5 is an ideal technology refresh solution for these customers. Its designed to fit into CHAMP-AV4 slots, while providing much higher performance at the same or lower power levels.”
The VME64x CHAMP-AV5 compute platform is designed for demanding, high-performance signal and image processing applications including radar, sonar, and signal intelligence.
“We are very excited about working with Curtiss-Wright to bring the low power and high performance of the PWRficient 1682 to the embedded defense and aerospace market,” said Sanjay Iyer, director of marketing, P.A. Semi. “The increasingly demanding requirements of MIL COTS customers are sure to benefit from the PWRficient processors features, aggressive power and performance.”
The CHAMP-AV5 takes full advantage of its high bandwidth PCI Express (PCIe) architecture, with on-board PCIe connections between the dual 1682 processors, the Virtex-5 FPGA node and the dual PMC/XMC sites. With up to 4 Gbytes of Flash and 2 Gbytes of SDRAM the CHAMP-AV5 handles applications with demanding storage, data logging and sensor processing needs.
CHAMP-AV5 Performance Features
Dual 2GHz P.A. Semi dual-core PWRficient™ 1682 Power Architecture processors
Up to 2 Gbytes of DDR2 SDRAM with ECC per processor
128MB boot Flash with write protection
Up to 4GB Flash-based file storage
Protected backup boot Flash
Two Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) interfaces: one per processor
Selectable EIA-232/422 serial ports
Up to four EIA-232 serial ports
Up to two EIA-232 serial ports
User-programmable Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA co-processor node (LX50T/ LX85T/LX110T or SX50T/SX95T)
Power management features include variable frequency processors, board power sensors, thermal sensors and a board shut-off input
PCI Express local fabric with 8GB/s on-board bandwidth
Dual PMC/XMC (VITA 42.3) sites
8-lane PCI Express (PCIe) connection to each site from the PCIe switch.
2GB/s transmit and 2GB/s receive peak bandwidth
64-bits I/O to P0/P2 via Pn4 connector
VME64x interface supporting 2eVME, and 2eSST protocols
Multi-board synchronous timer
Range of air- and conduction-cooled ruggedization levels available
CHAMP-AV5 Software Support
The CHAMP-AV5 is supported with Curtiss-Wrights Continuum Software Architecture with state of the art firmware and VxWorks Board Support Package support. Curtiss-Wright provides Continuum Vector signal processing libraries and Continuum IPC, a high performance Inter-Processor Communications Library, for message passing and bulk data transfers. Software support includes:
Continuum™ Software Architecture (CSA) firmware
Continuum IPC Inter-Processor Communications library supporting local connections over PCIe and board to board connections over StarFabric
Continuum™ FXtools FPGA design kit with highly-optimized IP blocks, development environment, reference designs, scriptable simulation test benches and software libraries
VxWorks® BSP
Continuum Vector Altivec/VMX optimized DSP function library
Continuum FXtools is a rich set of tools designed specifically to ease the developers task of integrating FPGA-based computation into a larger heterogeneous multicomputer application. Using these software packages, which feature high-performance IP blocks, tools, and communications infrastructure, system developers can expect significant time-to-market/time-to-deployment improvements.
For FPGA development the Continuum FXtools package provides a set of highly optimized IP blocks (memory control, serial and LVDS interfaces, etc.), FPGA-specific function libraries (configuration, command bus mappings, etc.) and a scriptable FPGA simulation environment.
Other software packages available for the CHAMP-AV5 include the Continuum Vector algorithm library, which provides a rich set of optimized signal processing functions for the boards 1682 processors, utilizing their AltiVec-compatible VMX units.
Curtiss-Wrights Continuum IPC communications middleware package has been extended to support the CHAMP-AV5 PCIe transport mechanism for local transfers and the use of the StarLink II StarFabric PMC to support multi-board systems.
Ruggedization Levels
The CHAMP-AV5 is designed to operate in rugged environments and is available in a range of air-and conduction-cooled formats.
The CHAMP-AV5 may be used in stand-alone applications, or easily integrated with Curtiss-Wrights other VME products, including the SVME/DMV-183/184 Power Architecture single board computer and the SVME/DMV-1901 Intel architecture single board computer.
Volume pricing for commercial and rugged versions of the CHAMP-AV5 is available. For pricing and availability please contact the factory.
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].
For editorial information regarding Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing products or services, contact John Wranovics, Director of Public Relations, Curtiss-Wright, Tel: (925) 640-6402; email. [email protected]. Web site: www.cwcembedded.com.
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.
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