Advancing electronic technologies are essential to the modernization of military forces. Major development programs, such as the U.S.
Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) and the U.S. Navy’s Cruiser Modernization Program, seek
to leverage the best of today’s electronic technology into systems that can take 10 years
or longer to reach production. What follows is a small sampling of the electronic
technologies supporting military modernization efforts.

The Army’s FCS (www.army.mil/fcs) has been called a “system of systems” for its elegance
and complex blend of mechanical and electronic systems. It is designed around a secure
wireless sensor and communications network, using unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned
ground vehicles as troops to avoid putting human soldiers in the line of fire. Not
coincidentally, an FCS battlefield scenario resembles a large-scale video game, with human
soldiers communicating and controlling their robotic counterparts.

The Navy’s Cruiser Modernization Program is a cost-effective means of sustaining or
increasing the naval ship complement, while employing new technologies and capabilities.
As with the efforts of other branches of the armed forces, the Navy wants modernization,
but is also pursuing
every opportunity to reduce cost without compromising combat capability. The futuristic
Navy fleet will include the DD(G) destroyer with an advanced gun system capable of firing
shells guided by a global positioning system (GPS) at distances to 100 nautical miles, the
CG(X) cruiser characterized by a hull designed for stealth operations, and a new
air-defense radar system capable of detecting low radar-cross-section
threats at extended distances. The CG(X) can detect, track, and engage ballistic missiles
at long range and outside the atmosphere. Both vessels are designed for reduced crew size
and operating costs. Additionally, the Navy’s Combined
Engagement Concept (CEC) intends to integrate the defenses of naval forces at sea by
combining sensor information from ships and aircraft within 2,500 square miles. The U.S.
Air Force and Marine Corps are developing similar network-centric systems.

Developments in electronic technology are instrumental to the success of these and
other developmental military systems. A key issue for most electronic systems is
integration:
Military customers require reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP )—even at the IC
level. Suppliers of key electronic components,
such as FPGAs, ASICs, and DSPs, are currently exploring designs in small-geometry
semiconductor processors, such as 65nm silicon CMOS processes, to reach lower SWaP levels.
The higher-level circuit integration with lower power consumption is particularly critical
for portable military systems, such as software-defined-radio tactical radios, but is also
sought for mobile applications such as unmanned aerial vehicles, vehicular systems, and
avionic systems.

Embedded applications in portable, avionic, and vehicular military systems rely on the processing power of single-board computers, with a number of suppliers offering advanced solutions for military and aerospace applications. For example, the Viper SBC from Arcom (www.arcom.com) is designed for power-sensitive graphics and communications applications. It is based on the Intel 400MHz PXA255 XScale RISC processor,
which uses the ARM-compliant Intel XScale microarchitecture with a variety of integrated
peripheral devices, including a flat-panel graphics controller, DMA controller,
interrupt controller, and real-time clock. Compatible with Windows CE 5.0, embedded Linux,
VxWorks 5.5, RT-Linux, and QNX operating systems for embedded and portable applications,
the SBC has typical power consumption of only 1.9W. The SBC is supplied in the PC/104
format, which measures 3.8-by-3.6 inches (96-by-91 mm).

The trend of higher integration for less power can be seen in the VG5 SBC, shown in Figure 1, from GE Fanuc Embedded Systems (www.gefanucembedded.com). It incorporates two complete processor subsystems on one board. The SBC can be supplied with a choice of one or two integrated 800MHz-to-1,300MHz Motorola MPC7455/57 PowerPC processors from Motorola (www.motorola.com). The design lets two independent operating systems run in parallel within one card slot in a system.

The D601 from MEN Micro (www.menmicro.com) is a single-slot, double-sized, conduction-cooled CompactPCI computer, as shown in
Figure 2. The SBC, which is well suited for in-flight aerospace applications, is based on
an Intel 2GHz Pentium M or 1GHz ultra-low-voltage Celeron M processor. It has a 32-b/33MHz
interface to the CompactPCI bus and can be used as a stand-alone computer.
The board’s DDR2 DRAM is soldered for optimum shock and vibration resistance, and the SBC
meets or exceeds requirements for temperature, shock, and vibration per DIN, EN, and IEC
standards.

The Kontron CP307 from Kontron (www.kontron.com) is an SBC based on a 65nm-process Intel Core Duo processor designed for power-efficient computing. The two execution cores, which can run separate operating systems, support multithreaded applications and multitasking. To withstand harsh environments, the processor and memory are directly soldered to the board.

The PowerNode5 from Thales Avionics (www.thalescomputers.com), shown in Figure 3, is a 6U VME SBC designed to provide the same level of performance as the IBM JS20 blade computer. Ideal for embedded applications, the PowerNode5 features two IBM 970FX processors clocked at 1.6GHz and as much as 2GB DDR SDRAM ECC memory. The SBC can be supplied in convection- or conduction-
cooled versions.

The EP8641A SBC from Embedded Planet (www.embeddedplanet.com) is ideal for software-defined radios and image processing.
Based on a Freescale MPC8641D dual-core PowerPC processor operating at clock speeds to
1.5GHz, the SBC can operate as a stand-alone module and boot from its on-board flash
memory.

For those seeking some customization in their embedded board solutions, Ultimate Solutions (www.ultsol.com) offers its PowerQuicc development platforms and embedded modules to help cut development time and cost. The boards include a power supply, serial cable, boot loader, and Linux and eCos ports with source code. The boards are available for a wide range processors in extended temperature ranges.

The TRACE32 Power Tools from Lauterbach (www.lauterbach.com) support development
and testing tasks for a wide range of microprocessors. The modular test tools work with a
wide range of host interfaces, including Windows 98/NT/XP/ME, Linux, Sun, and HP-UX.

In developing high-speed military computing systems and networks, the Tsi57x series of Serial RapidIO switches from Tundra Semiconductor (www.tundra.com) supports the 41-VXS and 46-VPX VITA interconnect standards with as much as 80Gb per second. The RapidIO scheme enables distributed computing through multiple processor architectures with globally shared memory.Of course, advanced computing hardware does little in support of future military systems without software. A number of firms are involved with code development for mission-critical applications ranging from real-time operating systems to specialized simulation and tactical applications.
AdaCore (www.adacore.com), for example, has supplied its GNAT Pro Ada development environment to a wide range of industry and government customers for use in large systems as well as in small-footprint embedded computing systems. The environment can be used for systems employing thousands of modules and millions
of lines of code. It maps Ada tasks to system threads, implements a wide range of compiler
optimizations, and provides efficient run-time libraries.

The RTLinux and RTCoreBSD RTOS from FSMLabs (www.fsmlabs.com) have been used in systems ranging from ship-building robots to the Apache helicopter and by customers
that include Raytheon, Sandia Labs, and NASA. The modular code is designed for real-time
applications even when running
heavy loads on Linux or Windows XP systems.

The RTI Data Distribution Service is communications middleware from Real-Time Innovations (www.rti.com) and used in many time- and data-critical applications, such as air-traffic control and mission-critical
combat systems. It runs on a variety of host platforms, including Windows 2000/XP,
Solaris, and Red Hat Linux.

Part of system development often involves the use of multiple operating systems, and the LynxSecure virtual machine monitor from LynuxWorks Inc. (www.lynuxworks.com) provides a virtualized hardware interface
so multiple guest operating systems can run on a single physical machine. Even in the
shared environment, no compromises are made in the performance levels of the different
operating systems. The scalable code supports applications ranging from embedded avionics
systems, weapons systems,
and critical infrastructure control systems.

For application development across multiple operating systems, the OS Porting and Abstraction Lab (OS PAL) from MapuSoft Technologies (www.mapusoft.com) is a cross-operating system, host development platform that can generate optimized code designed to work across multiple operating system platforms.

For managing the increasingly dense and complex data and information in military systems, the eXtremeDB commercial off-the-shelf database from McObject (www.mcobject.com) is designed to serve embedded databases requiring concurrent access and high availability for such applications
as navigation, targeting, and flight control.

VSI/Pro from Verari Systems Software (www.verarisoft.com) is a powerful mathematics
and signal-processing code library designed for a wide range of processors in both
embedded and cluster computing environments. The tool uses single instruction,
multi-data operations to accelerate the development of signal- and image-processing
applications. It supports windowing functions, 3D FFTs, convolutions and correlations, and
digital filters, such as finite-impulse-response and infinite-impulse-response
filters.

As military system integrators add increased processing power, effective thermal design becomes critical. The 714 Series of ATR chassis from Carlo Gavazzi Computing (www.gavazzi-computing.com) were designed with thermal modeling and simulation software for optimum heat transfer. The series meets MIL-STD-810F requirements for vibration and operating temperatures from –55 to +70ºC. The chassis features an all-aluminum,
dip-brazed design combined with conducting environmental gaskets on the access panels to
provide a sealed enclosure to aid in the thermal process in removing heat generated by the
power supply and board assemblies.

In addition, the VT104 VersTainer from Tri-M Systems (www.tri-m.com) is a rugged aluminum enclosure that can be used as either a PC/104, PC/104+, or EBX enclosure.
Elma Electronic (www.elma.com) offers shock-isolated chassis that complies with STD-461D. It can be equipped with VME, VME64X, VMX, VPX ,or compact PCI backplanes as well as 500- or 1,200W power supplies and fan cooling.

One key trend in electronic test for military systems is adoption of synthetic instruments wherever possible. These modular instruments include such tools as high-speed digitizers that can be software-configured for multiple functions like spectrum analyzers, power meters, or oscilloscopes. Using the synthetic approach, multiple measurement functions can be achieved in minimum rack space. One type of instrument that can perform multiple functions is an arbitrary waveform generator, such as the V375 four-channel VME module from Highland Technology (www.highlandtechnology.com). Designed for low-frequency waveform generation, it is suitable for vibration testing and simulation of rotating machinery. It provides 16b amplitude
resolution and 32b frequency resolution (0.0093Hz resolution to 15MHz), with four channels
capable of ±10VDC outputs.

Laser technology plays an important part of current and future military electronic systems. For example, Boeing (www.boeing.com) recently completed a flight test of the Airborne Laser system for its customer the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. The test, conducted over Edwards Air Force Base in California using a modified Boeing 747-400F aircraft, demonstrated the system’s ability to track an airborne target using the track illuminator laser and fire a surrogate high-energy laser at the enemy aircraft. Northrop Grumman is building the actual high-energy laser.

In terms of display technology, Honeywell Electronic Materials (www.honeywell.com/em) recently launched new materials for flat-panel displays aimed at reducing power consumption and manufacturing costs. The project was funded by a DARPA grant and managed by the Army Research Lab and the United States Display Consortium, a public-private group devoted to promoting flat-panel display technology. The new material,
based on thin-film transistors, enhances the amount of visible light that passes through
the display, while only absorbing less than 1% of the light. The material also achieved
planarity in excess of 90%. The new material supports the design of lightweight and rugged
flexible displays for a variety of airborne and vehicular applications.