VITA tech healthy, with 3U VPX systems promising long-term growth

Other

January 20, 2014

PHOENIX. The market for VITA standard-based technology is quite healthy with VME still going strong especially in the defense industry. However, over the next five years the VITA standard with the most promise looks to be 3U VPX due to reduced Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) requirements in military systems, according to Toby Colquhoun, Senior Analyst at IHS Electronics & Media. He made his remarks during the Embedded Tech Trends Conference today in Phoenix.

The total selected market for VITA components in 2012 was $480 million with the largest share belonging to VPX system level products, followed by VPX board level products then VME system level products, Colquhoun says. The largest application market for VME & VPX products is defense at 80 percent, followed by industrial & automation, medical, railway, and then commercial communications, he adds.

When compared with PICMG standards such as CompactPCI, CompactPCI Serial, and ATCA, VITA products are more than twice the cost, but Colquhoun says he expects prices to come down as the market matures.

As for the top vendors for VME & VPX products he ranked GE Intelligent Platforms as number 1, followed by Curtiss-Wright Controls, Mercury Systems, Kontron, and Artesyn Embedded Technologies (formerly Emerson Network Power) respectively. This was merchant market only data so it does not account for internal development of boards and systems from prime contractors and system integrators.

When looking at VPX-only products Curtiss Wright Controls tops the list followed by GE Intelligent Platforms then Mercury Systems.

For more information, visit www.embeddedtechtrends.com.