DSP and OpenVPX boards based on new Intel 4th gen i7 processor released by Curtiss-Wright
NewsJune 06, 2013
ASHBURN, VA. Engineers at Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions introduced two new products -- the CHAMP-AV9 and the S/DVME-1908 VME single board computer (SBC) -- geared toward rugged, military embedded applications such as sensor processing that take advantage of the processing performance and power mitigation characteristics of the new Intel Core i7-4700EQ processor.
The 6U CHAMP-AV9 is a rugged OpenVPX (VITA 65) digital signal processing (DSP) engine. The CHAMP-AV9 uses the enhanced Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel AVX) 2.0 instruction set to provide 614 GFLOPS per board, which does not include the board's on-chip GPGPU numerical co-processors. This more than double previous solutions. The board also uses a 40 Gigabit per second (Gbps) Ethernet or Infiniband data plane fabric, providing 14 GB/sec full duplex throughput with RDMA to support scalable, distributed, real-time computing. It also offers VxWorks and Linux support, and the accompanying middleware, libraries, and tools. The new Intel Core i7 processors double the CPU floating-point performance with a fused multiply-add AVX instruction; provide the ability to load two and store one operand per clock; and double the L1 and L2 cache bandwidth vs. 3rd generation Intel Core devices.
“We are focused on the numerical processing and take advantage of all the things Intel has done to speed up the processing,” such as twice the gigaflops, doubling the efficiency of the numerical algorithms, says Eran Strod, Systems Architect at Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing. “Because performance is two to four times better, it enables you to use fewer boards to do the same amount of work –reducing size, weight, and power (SWaP).”
It also is important that when you scale up the processing you make sure you scale up the speeds of your fabrics and not be stuck on the 5 GHz generation, he continues. “We are and scaling up to 40 GBit Ethernet and Infinniband to get the data in and out to match the increased potential of the enhanced processing performance.”
The 6U VME64 S/DVME-1908 is a rugged air- or conduction-cooled SBC that is designed for upgrading size, weight, and power (SWaP-C)-constrained legacy systems in applications such as unmanned systems, tactical aircraft, armored vehicles, and rugged naval systems. The board also features typical power dissipation rated at 50-60W. Its contemporary high-speed DDR3 memory subsystem connects directly to the Intel chipset to maximize the Intel AVX 2.0 floating point processing units. The processor’s L3 cache enables it to process larger vectors at peak rates than could be done with earlier processor technologies. Standard memory on the SBC includes 8GB of FLASH and up to 16GB of SDRAM. The S/DMV-1908’s range of I/O includes dual XMC/ PMC mezzanine module sites to support system expansion via either new or old daughter cards.
The device is backward compatible with Curtiss-Wright’s S/DVME-1901 and S/DVME-1905 SBCs. "It also can replace many of our competitor's legacy VME SBCs," says Alan Baldus, Product Marketing Manager at Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions.
For more information, visit www.cwcdefense.com.
