Steps to building VPX systems with an integrator

April 24, 2014

This article looks at the steps to building a complete system. For many intelligent and critical embedded systems, the integration of the final system happens at the large prime contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and others. The next level of integration is done at an earlier stage in the supply chain by the board and system suppliers. The focus of this article is on that earlier level of suppliers.

The factors to consider when building High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) platforms for critical applications have been increasing exponentially in complexity. With VMEbus technology you could pick an enclosure with relatively few options and shop for the building block processor, memory, storage, and I/O modules to assemble a system. There were relatively few choices to be made on form factor (either 3U or 6U), with an occasional deeper or taller board in the mix. The parallel VMEbus had few options and later bus interfaces supported just about every configuration defined in the VMEbus specification.

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