Size does matter, and smaller is a good thing in applications that are challenged with available space for electronics. The ROCK-3210 is the first member of the ROCK-3 family of rugged VNX mission computers from Creative Electronic Systems (CES). Based on VPX technologies, VNX is a small form factor standard for conduction-cooled modules.
The base VNX 2+1 system consists of a chassis supporting two double-wide 19 mm and one single-wide 12.5 mm VNX modules. One 19 mm site hosts an SBC, initially an AMD G-Series system-on-chip (SoC) quad-core processor with two independent GPUs. The second 19 mm site can host an SBC, image processor, or video conversion module.
The 12.5 mm site is configured to hold either an inertial measurement unit (IMU) with GPS and optional selective availability anti-spoofing module (SAASM) capability, or a dual Mini PCI Express I/O carrier with a variety of mezzanine modules for data bus, discrete, and analog I/O functions including MIL-STD-1553, CAN, and ARINC 429. An I/O transition panel supports MIL connectors for power and I/O connectivity. A rear transition panel supports mSATA storage, as well as optional external high-speed optical interfaces. Internal to the chassis, all modules are conduction cooled. External chassis options include convection, conduction, and forced-air conduction cooling, as well as various mounting features.