Published in Military Embedded Systems
Written by Aaron Frank
For defense applications, responsiveness, accuracy, and precision have never been more critical to mission success. Expanding the connectivity bandwidth within and between systems enables faster time-to-solution and greater mission capability through higher data resolution and fidelity, all of these with reduced latency.
Curtiss-Wright first introduced its 40 Gbit ecosystem in 2013 with its 6U VPX products that featured 40 Gbit Ethernet and InfiniBand fabrics. The full ecosystem of 40 Gbit interoperable modules – single-board computers (SBC), digital signal processors (DSP), FPGAs [field-programmable gate arrays], and GPU engines, as well as fabric switches, and backplane/chassis systems – was the first to provide system integrators with a complete suite of 40 Gbit building blocks that significantly lowered their integration risks when building high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) systems.
Today, higher-bandwidth connectivity within systems will enable the processing elements to transfer and share more data faster. To take full advantage of 100 Gbit connectivity in an embedded computing system, the processing elements must be able to supply and consume the data at the higher speed without the impediment of other architectural bottlenecks. This is critical for modern sensors which rely on increased volumes of efficiently processed data. Higher-bandwidth connectivity between systems also enables more data and actionable information to be efficiently shared, for increased mission effectiveness and integrated situational awareness.