Rugged Computing

8/6/2019 Rugged Computing

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ExEvE BE

ugged computing inaerospace and defenseapplicationsRugged computers are essential or today’s

network-centric military operations on the digital

battlefeld. Computers help military leaders with

command, control, communications, intelligence,

surveillance, reconnaissance, situational

awareness, and mission planning. Sufce it to say

that today’s battlefeld computers contain and

process some o the most important mission- and

lie-critical inormation anywhere. Break one

o these computers, and essential inormation

can be irreparably lost. Making sure the orces

in the feld have computers rugged enough to

stand up to the rigors o drops, bumps, vibration,

water, mud, dust, and other harsh environmental

conditions can make the dierence between

mission success and ailure.

3 Aerospaceand defenseorganizations

18 Rugged tabletcomputers 21 Rugged

computers 41 Military usof consumcomputing

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cots technology.mil credibility.

DRS has elded more rugged military computers than anyone else. At the same

time, we’ve developed the ARMOR line of rugged, highly mobile and connected

tablets for a range of industries. This unique combination of military and

commercial experience makes ARMOR the Commercial-Off-The-Shelf system

of choice for non-combat military applications like aircraft maintenance and

documentation. To learn more and schedule a live demo, call 1-888-872-1100.

Rugged And Ready. That’s Go To.

drsarmor.com/military

P h o t o : U n i t e d

S t a t e s A i r F o r c e / S t a f f S g t . Q u i n t o n

R u s s


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/rugged-computing 3/45Military & Aerospace Electronics :: EXECUTIVE BRIEFING :: sponsored by

Aerospace and deense

organizationstap novel rugged mobilecomputers or mission-criticalapplication

By CURTNE E. HwAR

A large majority of professionals today require fast,

reliable computing platforms — be they desktop,

laptop, or handheld computers, servers, or similar

devices — to get the job done. In the military,

however, a soldier’s rugged computer can mean the

difference between mission success and failure, and even life

and death. A great deal is at stake, and so military leaders make a point to buy

the best computers for each aerospace and defense application.

“Warghters have mission-critical requirements and they deserve rugged mobile

computers that they can rely on,” says Bill Guyan, vice president of programs

& strategy for DRS Tactical Systems Inc. in Melbourne, Fla. “That means ultra-

rugged systems that are designed from the start to meet the most demanding

operational conditions.

“On an increasingly networked battleeld, the reliability of a soldier or vehicle

computer has a direct impact on combat effectiveness,” Guyan continues. “It

is no help to a warghter to have an inexpensive solution that meets a COTS

specication, but fails on the battleeld. Battleeld computers and displays, like

any battleeld system — a weapon, a vehicle, and a radio — need to be selected

for its ability to perform in the worst-case scenarios.”



Aerospace and deense organizations

4

Military & Aerospace Electronics :: EXECUTIVE BRIEFING :: sponsored by

A system’s ruggedness and reliability may top the list of requirements for

mission-critical computers, but they are followed closely by size, weight, power,

and cost (SWaP-C).

SWaP-C has always played an important role in soldier systems, Guyan

explains. “Soldiers already carry heavy loads and they have limited space

for carrying large systems or many sets of replacement batteries. Soldier

systems also have the potential for elding in high numbers, so small unit cost

differences can matter a great deal.”

ize and security

“Size is really important,” acknowledges Fed de Gastyne, federal businessdevelopment manager at Panasonic Computer Solutions Co. in Secaucus, N.J. Mil-

aero users increasingly require ultra-mobile personal computers (PCs), he says. As

a result, Panasonic’s Toughbook U1 and Toughbook H1 are designed to combine

easy portability and small size with the features, performance, connectivity, and

operating system of a laptop.

Soldiers can “walk around an entire day with a Toughbook U1 or H1,” de Gastyne

adds. The compact PCs were crafted with wearability in mind: whether held in

the hand, placed in a pack, or used with a harness or sling offered by Panasonic.

The U.S. Navy and Air Force need hands-free, he says, to climb on and off aircraft.

“If I’m a tech and climbing on an air frame all day long, it’s nice to have a hand

free,” de Gastyne notes. “Using the Toughbook U1, you might not have to climb

down on your entire shift.” The U1 uses a rugged, solid-state drive able to

withstand the vibration of a helicopter. It is employed by the U.S. Navy in aircraft

maintenance and airborne applications, such as acquiring and recording forward-

looking infrared (FLIR) data, supplementing avionics, and other functions of military aircraft.

“The Navy doesn’t want the fastest computer,” de Gastyne observes. “Speed and

storage are always going to be important, but if you have the latest and greatest

computer and you drop it one foot ... they would rather have it rugged, and know

that the hard drive and the display are OK and the data is secure.”





U.S. Air Force personnel use the larger Toughbook 52 rugged laptop for mission

planning. In the future, de Gastyne anticipates military personnel will “take it

from mission planning to mission accomplishment — taking our devices into the

eld and into the ght, not only the barracks.”

The U.S. Air Force also employs the Toughbook H1 mobile clinical assistant,

designed to be durable and lightweight. “We found they like that form factor

and can carry them on C-130s and use them for technical orders,” de Gastyne

explains. “Technicians can stay up on the air frame all day long and go from one

technical order to the next,” saving time and money.

More important than size, de Gastyne admits, is reliability. “If you were to talk towarghters, and I have talked to a lot, they’ll say ‘It’s heavy,’ but then they’ll say ‘It

saved my life.’” In fact, Panasonic personnel such as de Gastyne pride themselves

on the Toughbook’s low rst-year failure rate of four percent, compared to that

of competitors at roughly 25 percent. “If you’re out in the theater and you’re

maintaining a helicopter, what happens if yours is one of the 25 failures?”

Aircraft aid

U.S. Air Force personnel also take advantage of rugged laptops from General

Dynamics Itronix in Sunrise, Fla. “As the U.S. Air Force builds new and replaces

older infrastructure in and around ight lines, they are looking for technology

that will enable faster response time and reduce the cost of their operations,”

explains Amy Tupler, product manager at General Dynamics Itronix.

“Imagine an airman on the ight line has an order to replace a part in a C-5,”

Tupler says. “Rather than get into a vehicle and go to the hangar or maintenance

depot, locate the right maintenance manual and instructions, and return to the

aircraft, the airman res up the notebook either inside or outside of the airframeor in a secure area, searches for the right digitized maintenance manuals,

identies the needed repair instructions, and nishes the job in far less time. He

could even order a new part. The embedded radio technology in the GD8000 saves

time and reduces the cost of a maintenance job, in this example.”

The General Dynamics Itronix GD8000 is a fully rugged notebook computer

designed for the rugged user and tested to military extremes.




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General Dynamics Itronix product managers, such as Tupler, focus design efforts

on communications, in addition to SWaP and rugged characteristics. In mil-aero

environments, “we’re talking about having a GD8000 on a belt or on a ladder, and

crawling through plane or falling from a cart,” Tupler says. “Users want to be able

to maintain the integrity of the signal and hard drives.”

For this and other reasons, engineers stay current with standards and design

notebook computers with shock-mounted hard drives, ensure that the ip

assembly between the display and keyboard survive any shock and vibe,

and make sure the radio architecture is mounted throughout a fall and the

casing around antennae continues to protect the componentry to maintain

communication throughout a job or mission despite a traumatic event.

Mil-aero professionals “fully appreciate a rugged device — not just for rugged’s

sake, but a purposefully rugged device,” Tupler mentions. “About 10 years

ago, Itronix saw a need for an intelligent radio that uses software and related

technologies to enable emerging wireless communications.”

Embedded radio technology in the GD8000 enables users to connect to essential

communications and information networks, even in the most remote locations

— such as on an Air Force base or somewhere else where users are far apart.

“The radio technology we use is considered high-power, up to 300 milliwatts.

Itronix has also opted to embed what we call an intelligent radio into the PC.

By intelligent I mean that we have integrated radio technology into the PC that

enables more than two-way communications. It’s also modular, so users can

swap radio devices without returning them to the factory.”

oad-worthy ruggedness

“In the past several years,” Guyan continues, “SWAP-C has become equally importantto the vehicle system. Increased electronic systems and increased vehicle armor have

really placed space, weight, and power requirements at a premium.”

Many technology companies are working to put reliable, high-performance

computing power in the hands of soldiers in ground combat vehicles. Guyan

explains that DRS is addressing vetronics design constraints by developing and

elding new multifunction platform rugged computers and displays, expanding




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the functionality of already elded systems, and developing new embedded on-

board vehicle power solutions.

“New systems like Joint Battle Command-Platform (JBC-P) and Ground Combat

Vehicle (GCV) require new thinking from industry, so we are hard at work to ensure

that we have the latest solutions available to meet the emerging requirements,”

Guyan states. “The warghting customers’ vision for Unied Battle Command

(UBC) and Victory Architecture certainly serve to guide our innovation efforts.”

DRS Tactical won a contract from Comtech Mobile Datacom for more than 25,000

Military Rugged Tablet (MRT) computers for the U.S. Army Movement Tracking

System (MTS) program. U.S. Army personnel will use the Joint Platform Tablet MRTas its next-generation computing system for new and deployed MTS systems.

According to the $217 million contract, the DRS Tactical Systems business unit is

designing and manufacturing rugged computing systems, including Joint Platform

Tablet MRT computers, keyboards, docking stations, interface cables, and base plates.

“This important order provides a proven ultra-rugged computing system to our

soldiers, with leading-edge dual core computing capability that can be relied upon

for this mission-critical application,” says Mike Sarrica, vice president and general

manager of DRS Tactical. “Additionally, it provides hardware commonality with

other Joint programs, and enables planned Army transformation to Joint Battle

Command–Platform.”

The Joint Platform Tablet MRT is designed with expanded capacity, enabling

upgrades as increased capabilities and future requirements emerge. MRT

capabilities include increased processing speed, a removable hard disk drive,

and an emergency alert button that can signal an urgent situation back to thecommand-and-control center, and a night vision imaging system-capable, 10.4-

inch display. Internal MIL-STD 1275 power ltering eliminates the need for

external power adapters, whereas the modular docking station ensures fast

computer dismounting.

“We are delivering approximately 2,000 systems per month right now for the U.S.

Army MTS program,” Guyan says. “This rugged, dismountable tablet computer




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is in use by the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps, and the U.S. Air Force. It features

best-in-class, ultra-rugged performance, a rugged sunlight-readable touchscreen,

multicore processing, up to 128-gigabyte, solid-state, removable hard drives, and

hot-swappable batteries.”

Ms and mortar

DRS Technologies also won a $3.4 million contract from Elbit Systems of America

in Fort Worth, Texas, to provide MRT systems for the U.S. Army Mortar’s Firecon

program at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. U.S. Army soldiers will use the MRT as the

centralized controller device and computer for the Mortars FireCon system, which

links mortar res capability with the digital battleeld. Deliveries from the DRS

Tactical Systems business unit will continue through 2014.

Guyan describes strong international interest in the system, which he attributes

to its compact size, proven performance, and vehicle-mounted or dismounted

exibility. “It is ideal for battle management systems, vehicle and asset tracking,

remote systems command and control, close air support, and indirect effects

targeting,” he says. ‘It can also serve as a multipurpose vehicle or command post

user terminal operating multiple applications and operating systems.”

omputing in combat

‘The key today is providing the highest embedded computing performance,

coupled with the lowest cost and SWaP,” says Doug Patterson, vice president of

worldwide sales and marketing at Aitech Rugged Group Inc. in Chatsworth, Calif.

It is with these characteristics in mind that engineers developed the Aitech

NightHawk RCU (Rugged Computer Unit), he says.

The NightHawk RCU is designed to deliver small size and weight combined with

natural convection/radiation cooling for a variety of military, aerospace, andrugged commercial environments, including manned and unmanned, ground

or airborne vehicles, as well as low SWaP remote interface unit (RIU) and data

concentrator unit (DCU) applications. The self-contained PC, housed in a mil-

spec enclosure with power drawn directly from the vehicle’s power bus, is

based on the low-power Intel Atom processor and provides up to 2 gigabytes of

DDR SDRAM (double data rate synchronous dynamic random access memory),

8 gigabytes of SSD (solid-state disk) memory, an optional 250-gigabyte SSD for




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application data storage, and the I/O needed for a remote networked subsystem.

A HMMWV-mounted, chemical and improvised explosive device (IED) detection

system–currently under evaluation for immediate use and rapid deployment in

Iraq and Afghanistan–employs an Aitech NightHawk RCU embedded computer as

the RIU/DCU. This rugged application incorporates extreme temperature swings,

in addition to high shock, vibration, and sand/dust

contaminant levels, Patterson describes.

“Because of the super-ne particulates and sand in this

area of the world, and the location of the unit in the

vehicle, the NightHawk RCU utilizes conduction-coolingfor all internal electronics and the stand-alone RIU/

DCU is free-air (radiation and convection-

cooled) without the use of fans or blowers

for assisted cooling to meet the system’s

requirements,” Patterson explains. “The

NightHawk RCU easily meets the low heat

dissipation and low power requirements,

as well as the data throughput needed for the application without burdening the

vehicle’s electrical generator or adding any appreciable heat to the cab’s crew

compartment. Low heat and low power means higher reliability and a longer

lifecycle.”

equired ruggedization

“SWaP is the main issue the military is dealing with, whether in a soldier-borne or

vehicle-borne system,” notes Michael McPherson, director of embedded systems

at Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing (CWCEC) in San Diego. As more

and more digital data is required on the battleeld, an ever-increasing amount of electronics is nding its way into combat vehicles. “It is important to move heat

away from electronics and keep it out of the cabin air and off the soldier’s body.

Reducing the thermal load has become paramount in the battleeld.”

Curtiss-Wright rugged computing systems have been used on a variety of mobile

ground programs, both new programs and upgrades to older platforms, at the

embedded computing level. McPherson has seen greater demand for complete




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systems solutions and integrating electronics in battleeld scenarios.

“We’re seeing increased demand for standards-based, commercial off-the-shelf

(COTS) products at the subsystem level, not just the board level,” says McPherson. A

more deliberate technology-insertion roadmap, to mitigate obsolescence, is evident.

McPherson sees increased demand from prime contractors pursuing unmanned

opportunities for the company’s architecture, perhaps for its SWaP, rapid

time to market, and exibility. He also notes more demand for intelligent

surveillance and reconnaissance, including signal intelligence and radar signal

processing applications. In general, the industry is working to meet demand for

more capability in a system with a smaller footprint that can be put togetherrapidly. “We are all working to upgrade platforms and bring new capabilities

to the battleeld within the next year. Not 10 years, but one year. We have the

technology to enable customers to meet demands now.”

“Given the way the military is ghting current wars, we need to bring new

capabilities into that battleeld daily,” agrees Chris Wiltsey, director and site

manager at Curtiss-Wright in San Diego. “It is no longer about planning 10 years

out, and long development periods. We are best at having technology available

that is rugged enough to deploy into the battleeld now. Whether for a wheeled

vehicle, tracked vehicle, or aircraft — whatever ruggedization is required — we

have off-the-shelf subsystems.”

According to Wiltsey, Curtiss-Wright has gained contracts as a result of prime

contractors realizing the product’s performance and ruggedization, going right

into the vehicle with it, and deploying within weeks of a rst test. “Our focus

is rugged deployed military — everything else takes a second seat as we create

system products,” he says.

adar requirements

A large prime contractor working on a defense contract to deliver mobile, ground-

based radar systems required rugged and robust computers for a major radar

program upgrade. Engineers selected a rugged 6U Open VPX solution from

Mercury Computer Systems in Chelmsford, Mass.




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“The customer was making a ground-based radar system for a combination

tracker/interceptor/launcher mobile application with high compute-intensive and

rugged requirements,” describes Anne Mascarin, product marketing manager at

Mercury Computer Systems.

The rugged computer system needed to withstand a lot of ground movement in arid,

dry environments, Mascarin continues. It also had to be capable of rapid, intense

computations on the move, to locate and track hundreds of targets each minute.

“What suited their needs best was OpenVPX technology,” she says. “Mercury is one of

the chief contributors to the OpenVPX rugged interoperability standard.”

Mercury Computer Systems ofcials initiated the formation of the OpenVPXIndustry Working Group, the primary goal of which is to develop a comprehensive

OpenVPX System Design Guide covering VPX systems for 3U and 6U form

factors. A portion of the Design Guide denes VPX Proles, sets of specications,

and practices, which, when followed, shall result in truly interoperable system

components, describes a representative.

The prime contractor required fast delivery of the rugged computing system,

due to QRC (quick reaction capability) requirements of the contract. Mercury

Computer Systems accelerated the schedule, approximately from 24 months to

12 months. “The OpenVPX rugged interoperable standard, and our Services and

System Integration team, which works with the customer to accelerate system

development for QRC programs, were both big parts of our [contract award] win,”

Mascarin concludes.

eafaring serers

Electronics upgrades are not limited to ground-based combat vehicles and aircraft

alone. Ocean-faring vessels are also the subject of modernization efforts.

The U.S. Navy undertook a mission to upgrade its aoat and airborne command-

and-control systems, to achieve greater exibility, better performance, and a

reduced cost of ownership, explains William Kehret, president and chief executive

ofcer at Themis Computer in Fremont, Calif.

The original program, called Common Enterprise Display Consoles, is now




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abbreviated CDS. “The General Dynamics-AIS team won this competition, using

a Themis designed and supplied common electronics module,” Kehret says. The

Module is a 3RU variant of the company’s CoolShell technology, with all front-

accessible, front-cabled eld replaceable units.

“The CoolShell COTS motherboard-based, bladed systems have the advantage

of bladed system cable management, scalability, RAS, and cost of ownership,”

Kehret explains. Themis is also delivering new payload systems designed for

unmanned aerial vehicle () applications , and bringing lower cost of ownership,

improved scalability, and shorter down time during spiral refresh to high-end

UAV platforms, he continues.

Themis Computer’s “Rugged Enterprise Servers (RES motherboard-based servers)

are widely used for the Canadian Navy’s Halifax Cruiser program,” Kehret adds.

“The Navy, for its aoat computing platforms, is migrating away from distributed

bus-and-board architectures, to the use of more aggregated server-based

services,” Kehret explains. “A full range of compute servers — from stacks of one-

rack-unit boxes, to blade servers with 8 to 12 multi-socket processor blades — are

being deployed on everything from submarines to big-deck ships. These are truly

enterprise-level solutions, at sea.

“At the next level,” Kehret adds, “battle groups have more in common with

today’s distributed enterprises, than with earlier stove-piped, application-specic

computing systems. Themis is bringing a new level of integration to these

enterprise computing environments, with our bladed CoolShell servers.” The

company also offers Rugged Enterprise Servers for these defense platforms, and

is addressing the modernization of bus-and-board applications with board-levelproducts for both VME-64 and VPX ecosystems.

Some requirements — frequent technology refresh, COTS, acquisition cost

and total cost of ownership, SWaP-C, RAS (reliability, availability, and service),

and scalability — are important to all segments of the Department of Defense

marketplace, Kehret mentions.




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ealed from sand and sea

With war fronts in desert environments, Crystal Group in Hiawatha, Iowa, has

seen more requests for sand/dust-proof systems and sealed systems, admits Jaden

Ghylin, technical director at Crystal Group. Company ofcials also have seen more

requirements for the use of non-ammable/non-outgassing materials in designs.

“These requirements are generally driven by the system residing in a location

with a closed air supply, such as a ship or aircraft,” Ghylin says. “These

requirements have allowed our customers to use the SS11 Sealed Server in a

broad array of applications that we would not have envisioned a year ago.”

Crystal Group’s SS11 was initially designed as a submersible computer forground vehicles with fording capability; however, the sealed nature of the

SS11 has proven valuable for airborne applications that have no submergibility

requirements at all, Ghylin explains. “All the electronic materials are sealed

inside an airtight enclosure, which really relieves the concern about outgassing

materials. Airborne platforms also benet from the passive cooling that the SS11

employs, thus eliminating a fan as a possible failure mode and preventing sand

or dust from causing any problems with the system. For these reasons, we are

seeing the SS11 deployed on a variety of platforms ranging from ground vehicles

to airborne applications.”

Crystal Group’s devices have also been selected for common aoat network

applications for shipboard networking. “These applications have required the

latest 5500 series Intel Micro architecture, as well as a solution to the shock and

vibration problems characterized by Navy environments,” Ghylin says. “This

environment tends to be tougher than you might expect; there is constant

vibration, swings in temperature, and shock from normal eet operations.

“Space and power are, of course, huge issues,” Ghylin adds, “which is why we see

virtualization making such a big play in the Navy. We are on the leading-edge of the

virtualization wave, which is being driven in the Navy for cost and size reduction, but

will soon be carried into the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard for size

and weight reduction as the benets become more and more apparent.

“We are working on mobile applications where rugged servers are replacing rugged




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laptops,” Ghylin mentions. “Laptops are great when you need to pick up a computer

and go, but if the computers are xed-mounted, a rugged rackmount server is

much more appropriate. In a similar amount of rack space as a rugged laptop, a

user can install a 1U RS112 server and have access to 8-16 CPU cores at 2.53 GHz,

48 gigabytes of RAM (random access memory), 4 terabytes of storage, and a PCI-

Express expansion slot or a high-end graphics card for manipulating digital maps.

This is 5 to 10 times the capability that a rugged laptop can provide, but it comes in

at a similar price point and similar size prole when rack-mounted.

“A further benet of using a rugged server,” Ghylin continues, “is that it can be

virtualized to replace up to 16 clients. This means that one server can replace up

to 16 laptops through the use of virtualization software. This approach not onlysaves cost, but more importantly for mobile applications, saves substantial size,

weight, and complexity.”

ugged

“Size, weight, and power consumption are key drivers for the mil-aero market,”

describes Nancy Pantone, director of product management, systems & modules at

Kontron in Poway, Calif. “We will continue to see smaller, lighter and less power

hungry products being developed to meet the needs of warghters in the eld.”

Kontron works with customers to make sure that Kontron COTS systems are

highly reliable, easy and quick to repair in the eld, if needed, and that usage

is intuitive, Pantone continues. “Military personnel don’t have the time to read

thick user manuals and troubleshoot system problems day after day. They depend

on their equipment and need high MTBF (mean time between failures), hot-

swappable components, and logical designs.”

Many defense programs, in the U.S. and abroad, have adopted Kontron ruggedcomputing systems and components. One of the most current applications is the

P-8 Poseidon, a maritime patrol aircraft for the U.S. Navy; another aircraft program

includes the Australian Airborne Early Warning & Control or “Wedgetail” program,

Pantone says. “Common among these and other military and aerospace programs

is the use of a wide variety of form factors from Kontron.”

Kontron ofcials see a growing need for mil-aero computing platforms that span




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sizes from rack-mounted to wearable, with performance and power consumption

tuned to meet the application. “We are seeing needs for smaller rack-mounted

industrial PCs and have responded by offering ‘short’ rack-mount congurable

COTS systems suitable for compressed space requirements,” Pantone says.

“We also see increasing demand for COTS Atom-based Box PCs, like our new

Microspace MPCX28, an in-vehicle PC which can support increased video and

communications needs, intralogistics, video surveillance, vehicle tracking, GPS,

and control of automated vehicles at environmental temperatures from -25 to 70

degrees Celsius.”

nleashing the unmannedSWaP is a concern in virtually all mil-aero platforms, but none more so than

unmanned vehicles. Engineers at Getac, a manufacturer of rugged computers

that meet the demands of eld-based applications in Lake Forest, Calif.,

understand well the rugged computing needs of warghters in the eld UAVs.

“Weight and mobility are huge concerns,” John Lamb, director of marketing at

Getac, explains. The environmental conditions for warghters roughly nine

months out of the year require lightweight, rugged systems with a long battery

life and sunlight-readable screens, he says. “Where they are today are perhaps the

brightest spots on the planet.”

Rugged computers from Getac are employed in the control of unmanned drones

and other unmanned vehicles on the battleeld. “It is an increasingly popular use

for our systems,” Lamb says. “In a lot of cases, we are customizing our laptops

with satellite antennae on the sides.”

In fact, Getac provides several options for customizing a rugged computer for aspecic mil-aero environment and application. The company can outt its rugged

devices with: an expandable battery for up to 24 hours of battery life, external

communication equipment, military connectors, GPS, and even a Web camera

for video conferencing and two-way communication in the battleeld. Moreover,

Getac has infused its complete line of rugged notebook and tablet PCs with

Microsoft Windows 7 compatibility.




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“Much progress has been made in the eld of unmanned aircraft systems (UASs),”

says Themis’s Kehret. “Large, high-altitude, long-endurance USAF (U.S. Air Force)

tier II+ UAS, such as Global Hawk, have signicant on-board compute and DSP

capability.”

Themis is seizing the opportunity to add as much computing power as possible

to smaller, more widely deployed medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) USAF

tier II UAS platforms. “Whole new architectures and levels of SWaP optimization

will be required to ‘unleash’ tier I UAS,” Kehret predicts.

uture functionalityBattles today are fought and won not as much with bullets and bombs, as with

information. Soldiers’ lives and missions’ successes rely on the availability of

mission-critical data, delivered via rugged, mobile computers. “The rugged

computer is becoming an increasingly essential element of every warghter’s

daily mission,” Guyan admits.

“As computers and displays migrate from platforms and command posts to

soldiers, we will see increased form-factor variation to include distributed

wearable systems,” Guyan adds. “The commercial market continues to drive down

the cost of ever-improving technologies. We will continue to see smaller, faster

and cheaper multi-core processors.

“The future holds a number of developments for rugged computing,” Ghylin

predicts. “It is no longer acceptable for the military to use decades-old technology

or a hodge-podge of COTS equipment. Our warghters deserve and demand the

best technology available.”



Shock-proof. Vibration-proof.and eVen

future-proof.

Over 115,000 DRS systems have been elded for Blue Force Tracking and

FBCB2. And thanks to a powerful Dual Core processor and exible architecture,

today’s JV-5 is ready for future applications. From the Joint Battle Command-

Platform (JBC-P) and beyond. Which means U.S. joint forces will see returns on

this hardware investment for years to come.Capability For Today. And Tomorrow. That’s Go To.

JointForceSystems.com



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Rugged tablet computers

ride the commercial wave, andcome into their own amongaerospace and deense users

ABE ME B rugged enough for aerospace and defense

applications have been around for decades, yet for much of that time

have been considered somewhat of an oddity. Military computer usersget it when the topic drifts to rugged laptop

and portable computers, but tablets always have been

primarily something someone else might be able to use.

Not so today. What’s changing attitudes about rugged

tablet computers in aerospace and defense circles are the

ubiquitous Apple iPad, iPhone, and other smart phones with

multi-touch screens that have become wildly popular since

their introduction. Now the tablet computer is mainstream

and no longer an oddity, and rugged computer manufacturers who serve the

defense industry are making up for lost time.

“We feel good that we’re in the rugged tablet business, because we see the market

moving in our direction,” says Bill Guyan, vice president of programs and strategy

for rugged computer maker DRS Tactical Systems in Melbourne, Fla. “The tablet

is an elegant way for people to stay connected and do their jobs.” Guyan says

DRS has seen brisk aerospace and defense business not only for the company’sMilitary Rugged Tablet (MRT) computer, but also for its newly introduced

industrial-rugged ARMOR line of tablet computers.

“Tablets are a hot topic right now because of what is going on in the consumer

space,” says Patrick White, vice president of strategic marketing at General

Dynamics Itronix in Sunrise, Fla. “Tablets bring new software capabilities, nger

gestures, and multi-touch capabilities that enable us to reduce the display size on



Rugged tablet computers

9


tablet computers from seven or nine inches, and get the same functionality you

get in a 12- or 13-inch display.”

Interest in tablet computing in the military community mirrors interest in

commercially available tablet computers and the rapidly growing universe of

tablet and smart phone applications from Apple, as well as from open-source

software developers working with the Linux-based Android mobile operating

system.

Android is an open-source mobile operating system based upon the Linux kernel,

and has a large community of developers writing application programs. More

than 70,000 Android applications are available, which makes it one of the mostpopular mobile operating systems.

“The emergence of the iPad and iPhone are getting customers more familiar with

the use of touch screens,” says DRS’s Guyan. “We have made tablets for more

than 20 years, but there was always a preference for a keyboard interface. Now

our military customers are getting more comfortable with touch screens and the

Amrel Computer Division;El Monte, Calif.;www.amrel.com/rugged-computers

Argon Corp.; Great Neck, N.Y.;www.argoncorp.com

Broadax Systems Inc.;City of Industr y, Calif.;www.bsicomputer.com

Cyberchron Rugged Systems;Cold Springs, N.Y.;www.cyberchron.com

Dell Inc.; Round Rock, Texas;www.dell.com

DRS Tactical Systems;Melbourne, Fla.; www.drs-ts.com

Elbit Systems of America C4ISolutions; Tallahassee, Fla.;www.talla-tech.com

General Dynamics C4Systems; Scottsdale, Ariz.; www.gdc4s.com

General Dynamics Itronix;Sunrise, Fla.; www.gd-itronix.com

Getac Inc.; Lake Forest, Calif.;www.getac.com

IBI Systems Inc.;Fort Lauderdale, Fla.;www.ibi-systems.com

Industrial Computing;Waltham, Mass.;www.industcomputing.com

Intel; Chandler, Ariz.;www.intel.com/go/military

Intermec Inc.; Everett, Wash.;www.intermec.com

LogIn Crete AB;Helsingborg, Sweden; www.login.se

MaxVision; Madison, Ala.;www.maxvision.com

NextComputing; Nashua, N.H.;www.nextcomputing.com

Panasonic Solutions Co.;Secaucus, N.J.;www.panasonic.com/toughbook

Roper Mobile Technology;Tempe, Ariz.; www.ropermobile.com

Rugged Notebooks Inc.;Anaheim, Calif.;www.ruggednotebooks.com

Rugged Portable Systems;Santa Ana, Calif.; www.rpseagle.com

Stealth Computer Corp.;Woodbridge, Ontario;www.stealthcomputer.com

TAG; Dulles, Va.; www.tag.com

Trimble Outdoor Computers;Sunnyvale, Calif.;www.trimble.com/Outdoor-Rugged-Computers

Two Technologies Inc.;Horsham, Pa.; www.2T.com

Company listing

http://www.amrel.com/rugged-computers

http://www.argoncorp.com/

http://www.bsicomputer.com/

http://www.cyberchron.com/

http://www.dell.com/

http://www.drs-ts.com/

http://www.talla-tech.com/

http://www.gdc4s.com/


http://www.gd-itronix.com/

http://www.getac.com/

http://www.ibi-systems.com/

http://www.industcomputing.com/

http://www.intel.com/go/military

http://www.intermec.com/

http://www.login.se/


http://www.maxvision.com/

http://www.nextcomputing.com/

http://www.panasonic.com/toughbook

http://www.ropermobile.com/


http://www.ruggednotebooks.com/

http://www.rpseagle.com/


http://www.stealthcomputer.com/

http://www.tag.com/

http://www.trimble.com/Outdoor-Rugged-Computers


http://www.2t.com/

http://www.2t.com/



http://www.tag.com/

http://www.stealthcomputer.com/



http://www.ruggednotebooks.com/



http://www.panasonic.com/toughbook

http://www.nextcomputing.com/

http://www.maxvision.com/



http://www.intermec.com/

http://www.intel.com/go/military

http://www.industcomputing.com/

http://www.ibi-systems.com/

http://www.getac.com/

http://www.gd-itronix.com/



http://www.talla-tech.com/


http://www.dell.com/

http://www.cyberchron.com/

http://www.bsicomputer.com/

http://www.argoncorp.com/

http://www.amrel.com/rugged-computers



20

multi-touch technology to expand or contract a picture and the other kinds of

things you can do with an iPad.”

Some rugged computer manufacturers caution military users against using

consumer-grade devices in the eld, even though these devices are seeing such

widespread adoption.

“You have these guys climbing up into a C-5 [cargo jet], which is like climbing up

several stories in a building,” says Fed de Gastyne, business development manager

for the federal team at Panasonic Solutions Co. in Secaucus, N.J. “My concern is

please don’t take anything up in the aircraft that is not MIL-STD-810G tested.

With a consumer product, heat will kill it, and a drop will kill it. What does amission failure cost? That’s the bottom line.



21

Rugged computers in aerospace

and deense applicationsmust work reliably in harshoperating conditions

By CURTNE HwAR

The advent o a network-centric battlefeld — on which

all platorms are interconnected nodes to deliver mission-

critical inormation to authorized personnel when and

where it is needed — is driving the need or innovative,

rugged computer systems on the battlefeld. Rugged

electronics, whether handheld and laptop computersor embedded computing solutions, are integral to

mission success and, in many cases, survival.

“H

H-EMAE EMBEE M solutions

that serve the current warghter have never been in higher

demand,” says Michael Humphrey, manager of military and

aerospace strategic accounts at Kontron in Poway, Calif. “The

multiplicity of platforms being deployed, together with the applications in play, iscreating an extremely diverse set of capabilities, stretching the

requirements for rugged mobile computers.”

Rugged computing is more relevant than ever before, says Shan

Morgan, senior vice president of Elma Electronic Inc. in Fremont,

Calif., and general manager of Optima EPS, an Elma Company

in Lawrenceville, Ga. “It used to be Elma provided a lot of the




22


central ring and there were relatively few nodes out there. We would put together

computers that sat back in a protected environment and would be used internally

to run SatCom [satellite communications].

“Now they are pushing that compute power right out to soldiers in the eld,” Shan

continues. “There is still that need for the computer to be a step back, where one

computer might handle multiple soldiers or missile launchers; yet, computers are

going into harsh environments much more often than they used to.” Because of

that, the problems of protecting the hardware — from shock and vibration, altitude

and thin air, heat, and other environmental hazards — are multiplied, he admits.

“They need to put a computer in the battleeld or in a shelter and Elma addresses

how to make sure those electronics are protected and work in that environment.”

Elma Electronic engineers certainly are not alone. Various mil-aero technology

rms are upgrading rugged computers and components to meet greater

environmental demands.

“In response to a request from a number of our military customers, General

Dynamics Itronix adapted the fully rugged GD8000 to withstand contact with

uids like solvents, antifreeze, and grease, as well as making it resistant to

extreme acoustic noise like the sound of a jet engine,” explains Patrick White,

vice president of strategic marketing for General Dynamics Itronix in Sunrise, Fla.

“It means that users on ight lines and in maintenance operations don’t have to

worry as much about keeping the computer protected as they do their work.”

Military maintenance

Panasonic rugged computing technology is embedded in ight line maintenance

in the U.S. Air force and U.S. Navy, says Fed deGastyne, federal business

development manager at Panasonic Solutions Company, headquartered inSecaucus, N.J. The company’s Toughbook H1 Field rugged tablet PC has been

used on ight lines and in depots. “One of the problems you encounter with

maintaining and refurbishing aircraft is some of the work is done in the depot

and then you have to walk out into the bright sunshine on the ight line,” he

says. “You need a device that can safely go back and forth between those two

environments, and that is safe around explosive vapors.”




23


Engineers designed the Toughbook H1 Field around depot and ight line

maintenance requirements, delivering hot-swappable twin batteries, sunlight

viewability, a solid-state drive, and an optional insertable common access

card (CAC). Military end users “don’t like proximity CAC cards; they want fully

insertable cards in their device,” deGastyne says. “When we developed the H1

Field 10.4-inch, ergonomic, handheld device for the military, we designed it in

such a way that the CAC totally inserts inside the device and seals. You could

literally drop it in a mud puddle, spill liquid on it, or wipe it with antibiotic

treatment and it will not affect the device.”

Aircraft systems designers at Alenia Aeronautica in Rome needed a rugged tablet

computer to host a portable maintenance unit for the Alenia C-27J twin-enginemilitary cargo turboprop aircraft. They opted to use the ARMOR X10gx mil-

spec tablet PC from DRS Tactical Systems Inc. in Melbourne, Fla., as a portable

maintenance unit to test the C-27J’s onboard systems, to load aircraft software,

and to support ground maintenance and training.

DRS customized the handheld ARMOR X10gx rugged tablet computer to capture

and display technical documents, provide interactive training, display 3D models,

analyze ight data, search for damage, load onboard software, and record

electrical and digital measurements in harsh operational conditions.

The portable maintenance unit is similar in size to an 8.5-by-11-inch sheet of

paper and weighs roughly 4.5 pounds with a sunlight-readable display. Certied

to MIL-STD-810G and IP67, the unit is considered extremely rugged, sealed from

water and sand, and capable of surviving drops and vibration, extreme hot and

cold temperatures, and high humidity.

Alenia Aeronautica is offering the ARMOR X10gx-based portable maintenanceunit on some C-27J airplanes for logistics support. It serves as a replacement for

the previous Portable Maintenance Aid system, which was heavier and provided

less capability. DRS Tactical Systems and Alenia Aeronautica are owned by

Finmeccanica SpA in Rome.

etting testy

In addition to customizing and upgrading rugged computing product lines,




24


technology rms are enhancing in-house, product testing methodologies.

Elma approaches testing from four different directions, Elma’s Morgan notes.

“We start with proven design concepts: shielding to meet MIL-STD-461, gasketing

and sealing, thermal dissipation and cooling, shock and vibration to meet

MIL-STD-810, and environmental considerations like salt, fog, altitude, and

corrosion.” The company runs an in-house test and verication lab to ensure

components and systems withstand electromagnetic interference (EMI), shock

and vibration, and extreme temperature variation. Engineers also perform

computer simulations, outputting extensive computer-generated results related

to computational uid dynamics (CFD) for thermals and nite element analysis

(FEA) for structural analysis. Lastly, products are shuttled to a third-party lab formilitary standard and environmental testing.

Military users should ask how tests, especially for MIL-STD 810G, were conducted,

says deGastyne. “We take one Toughbook computer through the entire suite of

mil-standard tests, and that one will pass all 26 tests. Other manufacturers may

use ve units to get through that test suite. Results can be misleading.” Panasonic

staff also tests beyond MIL-STD 810G for temperature and altitude, he says.

“We drop test all fully rugged computers six feet, beyond the four-foot military

standard,” deGastyne explains. “We pride ourselves on going beyond. Our

tolerances and quality are untouchable: less than a four percent rst-year failure

rate versus 20-plus percent from competitors. What is the

cost of mission failure? What happens if your computer dies

because of dust? Warghters understand that their lives

depend upon it in many cases.”

Warghter wish list The warghters know what they need, deGastyne notes. One

key thing warghters require is a sunlight-viewable screen.

“Sunlight viewability is different from daylight viewability. Daylight-viewable

means I can walk outside and still read the device on a sunny day; sunlight-

viewable means you can comfortably use that product with sunlight shining

directly on the screen.”




25


Performance, capability, and functionality are also key. “The end-users of rugged,

mobile subsystems are demanding higher levels of graphics output, video

capture (e.g., high-denition optical sources), and man-machine interface (MMI)

performance along with off-the-shelf I/O (input/output) elements that provide

real-world interfaces with a minimum of non-recurring engineering (NRE) and

with tight control of recurring costs,” explains Doug Patterson, vice president of

business development at Aitech Defense Systems in Chatsworth, Calif.

“The technology that can change the game is GPGPU technology — general-

purpose computing on graphics processing units—and especially the CUDA

programming language from Nvidia,” says Jay Swenson, director of marketing and

business development at GE Intelligent Platforms in Albuquerque, N.M. Multi-coreprocessors open up new opportunities and today’s GPUs represent the state of the

art in that respect, he says.

“Take the GT240 GPU that’s at the heart of a number of our recently announced

products,” Swenson continues. “It’s a 96-core device, capable of incredible levels

of parallelism—and parallelism is something that’s commonly found in mil-

aero applications, such as signal processing and signals intelligence, sensor

processing, and radar. Obviously, it also has no equal in image processing and

video processing applications. One of our customers achieved a 15x improvement

in performance in a radar application using GPGPU technology.”

The company’s NPN240 6U OpenVPX dual GPGPU (general-purpose graphics

processing unit) commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) board for mil-aero applications

features two GT240s and can deliver 750 gigaops of performance from a single

board. GE has supplied General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) with processors

and graphics boards for the U.S. Army’s M1A2 Abrams tank. “So far, we have

supplied hundreds of equipment sets,” Swenson says.

Wa specics

Size and weight are always a concern, Elma’s Morgan mentions. “The soldier is

going to have to carry it or it will be put in a Humvee. More so than ever, rugged

computers are going forward to the eld and all the issues we’ve always dealt

with are becoming paramount.”




26


“How do we meet the reduced computer hardware size, weight, and power (SWaP)

requirements, while also meeting the demanding processing and communication

needs of military computing systems used in constrained environments?,” asks

Jim Renehan, director of marketing at Trenton Technology Inc. in Gainesville, Ga.

It is a formidable challenge engineers face.

On vehicles, in particular, “the importance to reduce SWaP requirements

continues to gain momentum — especially in the environment of tightening

defense budgets,” says Bill Guyan, vice president of programs and strategy for

rugged computer maker DRS Tactical Systems in Melbourne, Fla. “For years now,

land forces could no longer afford to give up SWaP to accommodate stovepipe,

single-application hardware. Today, there is increasing competition for SWaPallocations combined with new budget realities that cannot afford acquisition of a

single box for a single application.”

Technology rms are meeting the SWaP challenge head-on, replacing several

different systems with one exible computer system capable of a multitude

of tasks and requiring reduced space, power, and cost. Trenton Technology’s

TRC5003 system, for example, incorporates four single-board computers in one

enclosure.

“Four systems in a single chassis enable the original equipment manufacturer

(OEM) and end user to consolidate systems,” Renehan describes. “The major

benet of this system approach is that it enables signicant space savings

and weight reductions in space- and weight-sensitive embedded computing

applications on ships, submarines, ground vehicles, and aircraft.”

The systems can be set up such that each single-board computer operates

independently or as part of a computer cluster. The exibility of the systemdesign enables the same basic hardware platform to be deployed in a wide variety

of mission control stations on a surveillance aircraft, Renehan adds. Trenton

equipment is employed in airborne and ship-based systems for such applications

as airborne surveillance; further, many of its board hardware platforms have

been adapted for vehicle-mounted mobile applications by system integrator and

OEM customers.




27


Engineers at Lockheed Martin Corp. in Bethesda, Md., developed the company’s

TacFleet 8 ruggedized tablet computer for tactical vehicles to enable real-world,

tactical situational awareness exchanges for brigade-and-below forces on the

move. It meets ultra-ruggedized military standards for harsh environments in

combat and civil operations, as well as all Joint Battle Command-Platform and

FBCB2 requirements. The tablet is mounted into a lightweight and compact dock,

and is compatible with current U.S. Army Force XXI Battle Command Brigade-

and-Below (FBCB2) systems.

TacFleet 8 enables users to exchange messages with other terrestrial and airborne

units, employ sophisticated mapping tools, and wirelessly control and stream

imagery from ground vehicles and xed- and rotary-wing aircraft sensors.Lockheed Martin engineers demonstrated this capability in the company’s

Tactical Situational Awareness Demonstration Center using the Gyrocam 15

TS sensor system, which is elded on more than 700 mine resistant ambush

protected (MRAP) vehicles.

Mobile military

“The need for high-performance computing in mobile military

platforms is a growing trend,” says Reg Beer, associate program

leader for radio-frequency (RF) applications at Lawrence

Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. “We see

applications for advanced signal processing in IED detection,

intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR), and

other areas supporting the warghter.” These markets will eventually demand

supercomputer performance extended to tactical military vehicles, predicts Jim

Shaw, vice president of engineering at Crystal Group in Hiawatha, Iowa.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) selected Crystal Group tosupply an advanced, ruggedized signal processing computer system capable

of mounting outside the protected cabin with supercomputer performance for

battleeld applications. Crystal Group and LLNL engineers collaborated, with

the help of U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) funding, to develop and ruggedize

the computing system for multiple tactical vehicle platforms to support sensor

system development programs underway at LLNL.




28


“Crystal Group provided a supercomputer capable of processing 3D sensor data

in real time. The system utilizes power-intensive, dual hex-core Westmere

5600 series processors in a dual socket motherboard and an Nvidia Tesla card

functioning as a GPGPU,” Beer says. The system needed to use military power

and support ground mobile, composite wheeled vehicle vibration in a 55 degree

Celsius sand and dust environment.

“We are bringing processing to the eld. It is going to be operating in the combat

ground mobile environment and so it needed to be ruggedized for high heat,

sand, humidity — the typical harsh environment in which the U.S. military

is operating,” Beer describes. “We went with a custom solution; we had some

specialized computing needs. The collaboration with Crystal Group has gone verywell, and we are looking for other application areas in the DOD space where these

servers can be used.”

Crystal Group provided a sealed system combining two rugged Crystal servers,

a Crystal-designed power distribution unit, a Crystal ruggedized switch, and

self-contained, water-cooled cards and processors. The system underwent

environmental qualication testing in November 2010. Yuma Proving Ground

testing is set for spring 2011. “To date, the reliability and performance of the

system under extreme testing/burn-in conditions has met LLNL’s expectations,”

Beer says.

ompute power

No question, the intense focus is on SWaP, Swenson says. “It has many

implications, but mostly, it means putting the greatest possible processing

capability in the smallest, lightest weight possible space — and ensuring that the

resulting solution consumes as little power as possible, and dissipates a minimal

amount of heat. And, of course, it has to be rugged — capable of withstanding therigors of deployment in constricted spaces that are subject to shock and vibration

and to the harsh environment of the battleeld. That’s an area where GE has real

leadership.

“If you look at recent GE announcements, you’ll see this is a consistent theme: a

continuing emphasis on multicore processors to get the most performance from

a board, and ever-improving performance per watt,” Swenson continues. The new




29


GE PPC10A single-board computer, for example, features Freescale’s P4080 8-core

QorIQ processor. “It delivers a signicant increase in performance compared with

its dual-core predecessor, but without expanding the heat envelope.”

Signicant development work is going on in unmanned vehicles, especially in

increasing their autonomy, Swenson adds. “That will usually mean an onboard

video capability, transmitting intelligence back to base. The bandwidth of the link

back to base will always be inherently limited, which means putting as much

processing power as possible into the video capture device such that it captures

only areas of interest and discards clutter and extraneous images. Then, that

information needs to be transmitted using high-quality codecs that retain the

greatest possible image quality while minimizing bandwidth use.”

hermal considerations

SWaP requirements and increased processing demands exacerbate thermal

management challenges in mil-aero system designs. “Overall, the cooling

challenges and need for conduction-cooled solutions in military system

applications have multiplied due to increased processing performance, smaller

package and system footprints, and the requirement to operate in more

rugged environments,” says Kontron’s Humphrey. “The need for versatile and

sophisticated thermal management solutions is becoming even more of a priority

for designers of embedded computing systems for the military.”

Kontron is responding with scalable, integrated system solutions based on specic

application requirements (i.e., from a very low-power Intel Atom processor-based

implementation to a powerful Intel Core2 Duo processor system) and advanced

thermal design options.

“Dual processors and even more power-hungry boards that have additional eld-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are a challenge for any layout designer, even

in 6U,” Humphrey admits. “Redistributing that amount of power dissipation

into a 3U card with a mezzanine card or module means the design may have

redistributed the volume somewhat; however, the devices on the 3U card will be

radiating directly onto the mezzanine card.”

Kontron engineers modeled a conduction-cooled combination, which




0


demonstrated that a 3U/PrXMC design requires a 40 degree Celsius cold wall

to support two 2.53-gigahertz processors. In the 6U conguration with no

mezzanine, the same amount of processing power could be supported by a 75

degree C cold wall.

“Compute density matters and optimal thermal design can dictate the more

appropriate VPX form factor for the most favorable SWaP metric,” Humphrey

notes. “The choice between 3U or 6U VPX as a target form factor has recently

been given a new variable because of the growing number of dual-processor,

single-board computers and their accompanying thermal challenges.” For non-

backplane solutions, Kontron is expanding the range of extended-temperature

modules due to demand from its military customer base.

GE Intelligent Platforms scientists at the company’s Global Research Center

facilities around the world are researching materials that can more effectively

cool electronics in conned space. “This would allow us to offer even greater

thermal efciencies and take SWaP performance to a new level,” Swenson

predicts.

aw computing

SWaP and cooling continue to be of growing importance as designs focus

more on the needs of a variety of unmanned vehicle programs, which is

contributing to the growing popularity of small form factor modules, such as

COMExpress, Humphrey explains. “Many new platforms for the military are

using 3U as a viable option, and thus designers are turning to VPX to address

the SWaP challenge with higher-speed interconnects, multiple signal planes,

more power per slot, and the inherent ability to leverage multicore processors.”

These characteristics are driving the adoption of VPX-based systems for C4ISR

(command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance andreconnaissance), electronic warfare, radar, unmanned systems, ground vehicles,

and avionics.

Kontron’s investment in the COBALT (Computer Brick Alternative) small-form-

factor system is paying off with program evaluation and adoption. GE’s rugged

solutions are also being deployed across a range of mobile applications, including

the U.S. Army’s Brigade Combat Team Modernization (BCTM) program. “It




1


requires fast, reliable data interchange between computing subsystems on

a range of vehicles, including unmanned air and ground vehicles,” Swenson

describes. GE also delivered rugged 3U Ethernet switches to General Dynamics for

that subsystem.

“Military developers will see a further shift away from the concept of standard

packaging as the location of systems within deployed platforms becomes more

weight and size critical,” Humphrey predicts. “The increasing number of small

and mid-size robotic vehicles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) illustrates the

difculties of employing traditional packaging standards. Further, environmental

and I/O (sensor) requirements will become increasingly signicant factors in

overall system design, equally important as the raw computing requirement.

“Working with prime contractors on a number of unmanned vehicle programs,

survivability must remain a core design objective for any mobile electronics

system used in military applications,” Humphrey continues. “If the system is

not able to operate continuously and reliably within the target environment, no

amount of sophisticated features will be of any practical benet for the mission.

SWaP is also a consistent concern, and has now expanded to include effective

thermal management as part of the equation driving designers today.

Curtiss-Wright Controls Electronic Systems engineers are working on a next-

generation, rugged, ight control computer for a UAV application. The company’s

G4V Viper next-generation control processor incorporates a PowerQUICC III

processor design for increased performance in a lower-cost, lower-power solution

that can be incorporated into a spare slot in an existing avionics chassis without

the need to increase the power supply capacity or additional thermal analysis.

“Emerging requirements for aerospace and defense companies need to addressthe safety and security requirements of mission-critical applications, as well

as the portability and reusability requirements of noncritical applications,”

explains Curtis Reichenfeld, chief technical ofcer at Curtiss-Wright Controls

Electronic Systems in Santa Clarita, Calif. “Next-generation UAVs will require

a ‘sense and avoid’ capability to autonomously navigate in the National Air

Space (NAS) without threats to commercial and civil aviation, and to avoid

collations in crowded battleeld situations.” The G4V Viper uses Wind River’s 653




2


safety-critical control processor software to deliver this UAV “sense and avoid”

capability.

Man-packable and handheld

SWaP is the key concern when it comes to man-portable rugged computers.

“These devices must be small and light enough for a soldier to

carry on his back, and be low enough power to run for up to

six hours on batteries,” notes Steve Edwards, chief technology

ofcer at Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing

(CWCEC) in Ashburn, Va.

“The design of warghter solutions requires determined effortto minimize SWaP, because it can directly impact combat effectiveness, and our

soldiers and Marines already carry too much weight,” says DRS Tactical’s Guyan.

“The cost of any man-worn/carried solution is also important. It’s a simple matter

of the numbers involved. Fielding anything to tens of thousands of soldiers can be

a very expensive proposition. Industry has to design solutions that are affordable

given desired elding densities.”

Several branches of U.S. military forces are using the Military Rugged Tablet

(MRT) from DRS Technologies, primarily for situational awareness and command

and control. “We have just delivered our 25,000th MRT to the U.S. Army’s

Movement Tracking System (MTS) program,” Guyan observes. “These Joint

Platform Tablets (JPTs) will support current MTS asset tracking requirements and

the MTS program’s planned migration to Joint Battle Command Platform-Logistics

(JBCP-Log).”

The U.S. Marine Corps has adopted the MRT as part of the Target Location

Designation Handoff Systems (TLDHS) program, designed to simplify the ForwardAir Controller’s (FAC’s) task in directing ordnance of all types onto targets in

the close ght, Guyan describes. Other applications include serving as the man-

machine interface to control remote sensors and mineeld munitions, and the

display of re control data. “The common theme in all these applications is that

the system provides mission-critical computing for the military, meaning that

these computers must operate in any environment, in every operational problem

set, across the spectrum of conict.”




3


Engineers at DRS are working to design and develop the next generation of

handheld, dismountable devices with the appropriate level of ruggedization

and security. The company funds research in the areas of power management;

sunlight-readable display solutions; emerging display technologies, such as OLED

displays, LED backlights, and optical bonding; advanced battery technology;

wireless communication; information assurance; advanced computers and image

processing; touch-screen technologies; and advanced packaging solutions.

General Micro Systems (GMS) in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., has unveiled its Nano

series of rugged, ultra-small, ultra-low-power single-board computers featuring

Intel Atom processors and the smallest form factor currently produced by the

company. Its compact footprint measures 2.5 x 3.3 x 0.5 inches, and it weighs inat less than three-tenths of a pound. The Nano is intended to “satisfy the intense

demand for an ultra-small computer with full-size processing power,” reveals a

representative. The full-featured rugged computer accommodates 64 gigabytes of

storage via an onboard solid-state disk, delivers high-performance graphics with

3D acceleration, and includes ve USB 2.0 ports and support for two Express Mini

Cards for Wi-Fi, CanBus, or other I/O.

“Designed from the ground up for the defense industry to MIL-STD 810F, Nano

is the perfect SBC for handheld or body-mounted applications where minimizing

weight and heat are primary considerations,” says Ben Shar, president of GMS.

The Nano XPC40x is designed to operate at -40 degrees C to +85 degrees C, with a

maximum thermal gain of 5 degrees C above ambient. Its heat tolerance ensures

it is well suited for applications in which ambient temperature is high, such as

a controller located in an engine compartment or for small robots and UAVs

working in extreme temperatures. Its low power consumption and dissipation (3

watts average, 10 watts peak) imposes little to no impact on the user, eliminatingmany inherent problems with wearable computers, says the representative. “An

additional benet of its small size is security: In situations where storage needs to

be removed for security reasons, now personnel can actually remove the whole

computer.”

GMS is not alone; various companies are endeavoring to reduce the SWaP

required by rugged computers for mil-aero environments. “Warghters have to




4


carry more and more these days. Their packs are getting heavier with all the

gear they are carrying, so our devices are becoming thinner, lighter, and more

ergonomic,” deGastyne points out. “The U1 ve-inch rugged handheld is denitely

a warghter’s computer because it does everything that a PC does but in a very

small, very covert and rugged package.”

High density

The mil-aero end user is looking to gain the most performance in the smallest

package with full rugged capabilities and environmental certications like MIL-

STD 461F and UL1604, while still being very price conscious, describes John

Lamb, director of marketing at Getac Inc. in Irvine, Calif. Rugged, small-form-

factor computers are increasingly nding a home throughout the ight line andaround hazardous materials, such as jet fuel. “There appears to be very clearly

dened areas of focus, all with content-rich information as the centerpiece and

different form factors to meet location-specic environments — from ultra-

portable platforms which reside on the soldier to ensure ‘every soldier is a node

of the network’ and vehicle-mounted solutions keying on display size and in-

transit visibility (ITV), to extremely high-performance TRICARE operations center

(TOC) or command post systems where digital mapping/rendering and situational

awareness are the main applications.”

Getac is the rugged platform standard for the U.S. Air Force, Lamb explains. The

Air National Guard (ANG) purchased 400 units of the company’s V100 convertible

tablet in 2009 for in-ight use. ANG ofcials have since decided to refresh all

existing units in the organization with Getac’s B300 standard rugged notebook,

with 6,500 units to be deployed this quarter as part of the Air Force’s Quantum

Enterprise Buy (QEB) program.

The Getac B300 rugged notebook is powered by a 2.0-gigahertz Intel Core i7processor with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.8 gigahertz. Quality, performance,

and compatibility with the Air Force’s strict security requirements, along with

overall price performance, are factored into the selection of Getac products for

the program.

“Government users seem to be heading in the same direction: content

availability,” Lamb mentions. “Providing hardware platforms that enable access to




5


content anywhere the soldier/user is located is vital to operation success.” Google

Android devices, handhelds, wearable computers, small tablets, and pocket-sized

devices with a screen large enough to view detailed information will become

more prevalent, he predicts. The challenge is making these devices rugged,

powerful enough, and with enough battery to sustain a full day’s operations,

securely and at a reasonable cost.

Etreme aionics

Two major classes of applications — traditional, high-end

C4ISR applications and mobile applications, such as man-

wearable systems — are driving increased demand for

rugged computing solutions. “Not surprisingly, both classes of applicationsare SWaP constrained,” admits Ben Klam, vice president of engineering at

Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) in Middleton, Wis. “While both classes of

applications have to process large amounts of streaming data, the difference

is that the amount of data associated with a single soldier is far less than a

traditional C4ISR application in an aircraft or ground vehicle. Because of the

capabilities of the embedded computing solutions available today, it is possible to

provide direct interaction between a soldier on the ground and ISR systems and

provide scaled down versions of traditional C4ISR systems directly to a soldier.”

X-ES engineers developed the Avionics Development Platform (ADP) in response to

an anticipated need for a 3U VPX avionics application development platform. “The

ADP is unique in several aspects,” Klam says. First, the payload modules used in

the ADP are the same conduction-cooled modules that will go into the customer’s

deployed ATR chassis, ensuring that software developed on the ADP will run

on the deployed system. Second, X-ES has integrated not only its own payload

modules, but also third-party PMC I/O modules (e.g., MIL-STD 1553, ARINC 429,

and ATDS), including driver integration and rear transition module developmentfor I/O. “Our ADP customers have been able to reduce their overall development

schedule and risk by getting a quick start on their software development and by

being able to develop their deployed system hardware in parallel with software

development.”

GE also delivers rugged computing components and systems for avionics

applications, especially in the areas of 1553 and ARINC, says Swenson. GE




7


space vacuum, high temperature and altitude, etc.”

Aitech provided a low-power, radiation-tolerant 3U CompactPCI conduction-

cooled bus avionics card set for ATK Space Systems’ Responsive Space Modular

Bus (RSMB) used on the Tactical Satellite-3 (TacSat-3). Aitech’s avionics solution

for RSMB included its heritage S950 single-board computer, non-volatile Flash

mass memory, customized digital I/O cards providing various serial and

spacecraft bus interfaces, and a communications PCI mezzanine card (PMC)

for the remaining serial interfaces required to communicate with the onboard

sensors and payloads.

“ATK’s RSMB is the core platform of the TacSat-3 space vehicle, and was versatileenough to support AFRL’s three mission payloads,” says Brendan Regan, vice

president of space mission systems at ATK Space Systems, headquartered in

Minneapolis. “Aitech’s low-power, space-proven card set facilitates data collection

and transmission to ensure optimal mission operation.”

“Military operations are increasingly relying on real-time data obtained from

space and transmitted directly to our men and women in service, while trying

to stay within ever-tightening budget constraints and fast delivery schedules,”

explains Roger Rowe, president and CEO of Aitech. “These attributes demand

affordable, exible equipment that will perform for long periods under harsh

conditions and enable cost-effective upgrades to systems and components to

meet the needs of future responsive space missions.”

Aitech has provided two key embedded processing components for the Ares

I Launch Vehicle’s Instrument Unit Avionics (IUA) Flight Computer (FC) and

Command Telemetry Computer (CTC) systems under a contract with Ball

Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Aitech’s S950 single-board computer and S750Gigabit Ethernet PMC are used in a triple-redundant conguration to provide

ight control redundancy in the IUA FC function, including the high-speed relay

of imaging data to the crew exploration vehicle’s solid-state recorder and ground

support system.

“Using Aitech’s components has allowed the program to advance several notches

up the technology scale and will save signicant amounts of development costs.




8


These are two very important aspects of space-related programs,” says Randall

Coffey, Ball Aerospace ARES IAU program manager.

uture functionality

“With the continued increase in processing power,

communication bandwidth, and wireless communication

capabilities, we will see the military continue moving

processing out to the edge and away from a centralized

scheme,” Klam predicts. “This will continue the trend for smaller, lighter, more

power-efcient systems. We will see the need to manage power in systems the

way laptop computers do, being able to shut down components that are not being

used and dynamically power them up as needed.”

“We don’t see our customers’ current focus on size, weight, and power getting any

less,” Swenson says. “They want even more performance in even smaller, lighter

packages that consume less power. Today, that effort is directed largely at manned

Aitech Defense Systems Inc.

www.rugged.com

API Technologies Corp.;www.apitech.com

Crystal Group;www.crystalpc.com

Curtiss-Wright ControlsEmbedded Computing;www.cwcembedded.com

Dell Inc.; www.dell.com

DRS Tactical Systems Inc.;www.drs-ts.com

Elbit Systems of America LLC;www.elbitsystems.com

Extreme EngineeringSolutions (X-ES); www.x-es.com

GammaTech Computer Corp.;www.gammatechusa.com

GE Intelligent Platforms;www.ge-ip.com

General Dynamics C4Systems; www.gdc4s.com

General Dynamics Itronix;www.gd-itronix.com

General Micro Systems Inc.;

www.gms4sbc.com

Getac Inc.; www.getac.com

Hewlett-Packard Company;www.hp.com

Intel; www.intel.com/go/military

Kontron; www.kontron.com

Mercury Computer SystemsInc.; www.mc.com

MobileDemand;www.ruggedtabletpc.com

Motorola Inc.;www.motorola.com

NextComputing;www.nextcomputing.com

Panasonic ComputerSolutions;www.panasonic.com/toughbook

Parvus; www.parvus.com

Performance Technologies;www.pt.com

Quantum3D;www.quantum3d.com

Roper Mobile Technology;

www.ropermobile.com

Rugged Notebooks Inc.;www.ruggednotebooks.com

Stealth Computer Corp.;www.stealthcomputer.com

Systel USA;; www.systelusa.com

Tactronics; www.tactronics.com

TAG; www.tag.com

Talla-Tech; www.talla-tech.com

Themis Computer;www.themis.com

Trenton Technology Inc.;www.trentontechnology.com

Tripod Data Systems, A TrimbleCompany; www.tdsway.com;www.outdoorrugged.com

Two Technologies Inc.;www.2T.com

VIA Technologies Inc.;www.via.com.tw

VT Miltope; www.miltope.com

Company listing




9


and unmanned vehicles, especially unmanned autonomous vehicles, but it’s possible

to foresee it leading to unbelievably high-performance, man-wearable systems.”

Rugged computing is a vital part of the mil-aero marketplace, both present and

future, says Bill Ripley, director of business development, mission and payload

systems at Themis Computer, headquartered in Fremont, Calif. Company

engineers are focusing on 3U and smaller formats, and shrinking systems while

increasing relative performance.

“For small-form-factor and mobile applications, space, weight, power, and

performance are the key characteristics required for the modern warghter,”

Ripley says. “Customers are trying to get as much performance, in as little space,at the lowest power possible. This is driving us towards more highly integrated

CPU solutions, use of GPUs for traditional computing augmentation, innovative

packaging, and more efcient heat dissipation designs.”

Big inestment in small form factors

Industry rms and organizations are investing time and resources in

standardizing and advancing small form factors, which are

of direct benet to mil-aero applications, end users, and

missions. The Small Form Factor Special Interest Group (SFF-

SIG) in Santa Clara, Calif.; OpenVPX Industry Working Group in

Chelmsford, Mass.; and VITA in Fountain Hills, Ariz. are among

the organizations to watch.

“Themis has spearheaded a new proposed standard called

VITA-74,” Ripley enthuses. “This VITA specication takes the best of several

VITA and PCMIG specications, along with some new and innovative packaging,

thermal dissipative, and kinetic management technologies and applies it tosystems that can be scaled from individual man-wearable modules to small ATR-

like systems for unmanned vehicles, ground vehicles, helicopters, and aircraft

where extreme ruggedization, small footprint, and high computing performance

per volume is required.” Systems in work right now range from a soldier-mounted

situational awareness computer to an airborne network attached storage unit, to

a signal intelligence receiver for a UAV.




40


“CWCEC is leading the effort to create a rugged small form factor in VITA 75,”

Edwards says. “This will serve in many applications where more commercial

standards like ComExpress or PC/104 are not suitable.”

Armed with the latest rugged computing innovations, today’s warghter is now

receiving and using more information at higher resolutions than ever before, and

making fast, well-informed decisions, now and for the foreseeable future.



41


Military use o consumer

computing like iPads andAndroid sotware raise concernsor saety and security

By CURTNE HwAR

MA A AE adopting commercial computing devices

such as Apple’s iPad tablet computer for military and aerospace

applications, which is causing concern for safety,

security, and reliability. Some industry players

ponder whether commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) adoption has

gone too far, at the expense of rugged computers designed

specically to operate in the harsh operating conditions of

military applications.

Ofcials at the U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting

Command (MICC) Fort Knox Contracting Center at Fort Knox,

Ky., issued a solicitation (W9124D10IPADS) and contract award worth roughly

$500,000 for 587 computers “equal to the salient characteristics of the 32-gigabyte

Apple iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G,” protected by iPad Defender cases from Otterbox in

Fort Collins, Colo., and two-year AppleCare Protection policies from Apple Inc. in

Cupertino, Calif.

For more on rugged computers, see Rugged computers in aerospace and defense

applications must work reliably in harsh operating conditions.

Additional requirements included 32 gigabytes of storage that operates on

skip-free ash memory; a 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit Multi-Touch display

with ISP technology; as much as 10 hours of battery life, with an 80 percent

fast charge in 1.5 hours and a full charge within 3 hours; the ability to show




42


military occupational specialty (MOS) videos; and on-demand social networking

functionality.

“Everywhere we go, people are bringing up consumer slate tablets like the iPad,”

acknowledges Fed deGastyne, federal business development manager at rugged

computer specialist Panasonic in Secaucus, N.J. “I have been in meetings where

four-star generals suggest placing consumer-grade devices in large transporter

aircraft, for example. There is a ood of high-level support for electronic devices

coming into military and aeronautic use that likely have not passed every MIL-

STD 810G test relevant to aircraft deployments. This brings up some huge

concerns about ruggedness and security.”

Aviators who achieve heights of up to 20,000 or 30,000 feet are concerned with

altitude and thin air, rapid descent (rapid D), foreign object damage (FOD), and

shock and vibration affecting mobile computers. “It’s important that computers

used by airmen have passed every relevant Mil-Spec test for that type of

deployment, as their lives may depend on it,” deGastyne says.

Consumer-grade computers used in mil-aero environments can cause problems,

says deGastyne. “If you drop it, it breaks. If it gets hot, it shuts down.” Security is

also a major concern. FBI agents are investigating an iPad-related security breach

involving Apple and service provider AT&T, in which the user accounts of 114,000

users -- including military ofcials and politicians -- were compromised and

personal information exposed.

“We are seeing the rapid use of commercial technologies for mil-aero

applications,” says Steve Edwards, chief technology ofcer at Curtiss-Wright

Controls Embedded Computing (CWCEC) in Ashburn, Va. “We are starting to see

more use of smartphones, iPads, and other commercial technologies in someapplications. The primary reasons driving this trend are access to numerous

applications and the reduced costs of these types of products, which tend to be

inexpensive and disposable, meaning that when one breaks you just throw is

away and get a new one.”

The Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations System (DFARS), which governs

contracting behavior, includes executive orders and military regulations which




43


say that, by law, contracting ofcers must buy based on total life cycle cost,

deGastyne explains. “Laptops are sometimes seen by procurement ofcers as

commodities. If it’s a big-ticket item like a tank or aircraft carrier, they’re more

likely to consider total lifecycle cost than with laptops.”

Industry pundits recall a time not long ago when pallets of commercial-grade

laptops were dropped in war zones. “When they took those commercial laptops

into theater, their fans sucked in dust and, more than anything else, the dust

in the desert killed them,” deGastyne continues. “They learned that they need

products that can be dropped or used in hot desert conditions and still function.

The warghters understand their lives depend upon it in some cases.

“A customer using our computer for mission planning told me about being on a

C-130 at night in Afghanistan, when someone accidently kicked their Toughbook

out the door,” deGastyne mentions. “It went rolling out and landed in the sand.

The major went ying out the door after it because the mission was on that

computer and he thought they were going to have to abort; thankfully, he

brushed it off, brought it back to the aircraft, and it was ne. Had that been a

basic computer, the result could have been much different.”

The military is very interested in handheld devices and applications that are

available in today’s commercial markets, says Patrick White, vice president of

strategic marketing for General Dynamics Itronix in Sunrise, Fla. “The form and

function of mobile phones has changed dramatically over the past few years.

These devices have evolved from simply making calls, to a highly integrated

mobile device that provides many of the capabilities that were once the domain of

computers.

“Today’s commercial devices are simple to use, can run for days on a batterycharge, have customizable applications, as well as provide real-time information

like global positioning, text and messaging, even streaming video images,” White

continues. “The military is looking for similar devices, only rugged enough to

withstand the rigors of the tactical environment.”

The military market closely follows developments in the commercial electronics

market. “Today’s generation of soldiers and Marines are computer-savvy,” points




44


out Bill Guyan, vice president of programs and strategy at DRS Tactical Systems

Inc. in Melbourne, Fla. “They are comfortable with newer technologies, such as

touch-screens, advanced user interfaces, smartphones, and tablet computers. The

ever-increasing capabilities of COTS hardware drive military system design. Our

soldiers and their leaders want the same kind of capabilities on the battleeld

that they enjoy back at home station: mobility, connectivity, ease-of-use, and

continuously evolving functionality. Our job is to deliver those capabilities in a

way that can be relied upon for mission-critical functions.”



Company DescriptionAbout echnologies

DRS Technologies, headquartered in Parsippany, NJ, is a leading supplier of

integrated products, services and support to military forces, intelligence agencies

and prime contractors worldwide. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of

Finmeccanica S.p.A. (FNC.MI) which employs more than 76,000 people worldwide.

:

DRS Tactical Systems, Inc.

DRS Technologies

Finmeccanica


http://www.drs.com/

http://www.finmeccanica.com/

http://www.finmeccanica.com/

http://www.drs.com/


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