With its announcement of a family of products including a single board computer, a graphics accelerator platform and a Gigabit Ethernet switch, Radstone has become the first company to introduce a range of 3U VPX solutions specifically designed for the demanding environments that characterize military applications.
The SBC340 is based on the 65nm 2.0 GHz Core™ Duo T2500 (‘Yonah’) processor which is the successor to the Pentium M processor from Intel and is specifically designed for minimal power consumption: it features the 945GM Northbridge chip set, and takes full advantage of PCI Express’s 16x throughput. The GRA110 graphics board also features x16 PCIe, and supports dual channel video output. The GBX410 Gigabit Ethernet Switch is based on Radstone’s acclaimed CPX24, and features twelve Gigabit Ethernet channels and one 10 Gigabit Ethernet channel to the backplane.
All three boards are expected to ship in the third quarter.
3U VPX is expected to find substantial acceptance among military and aerospace companies for a number of reasons. Small size and low weight are becoming increasingly important considerations in the platforms of the future, such as unmanned vehicles, with growth expected to be driven by programs such as FCS (Future Combat Systems); higher integration levels mean that performance is not compromised by the smaller form factor; and heat/power dissipation remains within today’s thermal performance envelope.