VPX Boards Target Avionics and Defense Applications
Below are a few of the latest system boards and modules that developers can use in rugged applications ranging from avionics and high-performance drones to industrial and commercial applications with demanding environmental requirements. Some of these applications require support of the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA). The boards are based on VITA’s VPX standards.
Click to see the product list
- Abaco GRA117S 3U VPX Video Graphics and GPGPU Card
- Curtiss-Wright VPX3-536 3U VPX SBC
- WildStar 6E10 6U OpenVPX Switch
- Kratos 3U VPX SBC
- XPedite 8370 SBC
Abaco GRA117S 3U VPX Video Graphics and GPGPU Card
Product: Abaco GRA117S 3U VPX Video Graphics Card
Type: Video graphics card
Company: Abaco Systems
Form factor: 3U OpenVPX
GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5000
Memory: 16 GB of GDDR6 with ECC
Interface: PCI Express Gen 4
SOSA: Slot profile 14.6.11 and 14.6.13 compatibility
Abaco’s 3U VPX GRA117S card is a built around NVIDIA’s RTX 5000 GPU. The GPU has 400 Tensor cores and 12,800 CUDA cores. The OpenVPX card features a SOSA-aligned architecture for enhanced interoperability. It’s typically used to drive graphic displays but can handle artificial-intelligence (AI) chores as well.
Curtiss-Wright VPX3-536 3U VPX SBC
Product: VPX3-536 3U VPX
Type: FPGA SBC module
Company: Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions
Form factor: 3U OpenVPX
FPGA: AMD Versal Premium VP2502
Security: 400-Gb/s high-speed crypto engine
Data Plane: 100-Gb/s and 10G/25-Gb/s Ethernet ports
Control Plane: 10-Gb/s Ethernet
Expansion Plane: 2x 8-lane or 1x 16-lane PCIe Gen4
Backplane: 28 lanes of VITA 66 backplane fiber-optic I/O direct to the FPGA
Curtiss-Wright’s VPX3-536 single-board computer (SBC) packs an AMD Versal Premium VP2502 FPGA into a 3U OpenVPX package targeting SOSA-aligned rugged applications. It also adds a 400-Gb/s high-speed crypto engine.
The VP2502 Adaptive SoC includes AI blocks and compute engines including a dual-core Arm Cortex-A72 and a dual-core Arm Cortex R5F for real-time processing. It can be connected directly to 28 lanes of VITA 66 backplane fiber-optic I/O. The system also has major Ethernet data and control plane connectivity.
WildStar 6E10 6U OpenVPX Switch
Product: WildStar 6E10 6U OpenVPX Switch
Type: 6U OpenVPX switch module
Company: Annapolis Micro Systems
Form factor: 6U OpenVPX
Bandwidth: 6.4 Tb/s
Ports: 26
Ethernet: 1/10/25/40/100 Gb/s
Optical interfaces: 40/100-Gb optical interfaces to VITA 66, optional x4 front-panel interfaces
Cooling: Versions available for air, conduction and liquid cooling
The WildStar 6E10, a VITA 65 OpenVPX 6U switch based on Mellanox Spectrum Switch silicon. is designed to provide high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnects for SOSA-compatible systems. It supports up to 26 ports with link speeds from 1 to 100 Gb/s, and there are wired and optical connectivity options.
The system is optimized for software-defined networking (SDN) and supports the OpenFlow Switch Specification, including remote configurable routing tables. The switch employs dynamically shared, flexible packet buffering. Among the overlay and tunneling features are VXLAN, NVGRE, Geneve, and MPLS. It also supports data center bridging (DCB), e.g., PFC, DCBX, and ETS.
The system employs a pair of AMD Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoCs running at 1.2 GHz. System management works with the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI).
Kratos 3U VPX SBC
Product: Kratos 32-Core Intel Xeon 3U VPX Board
Type: Single-board computer (SBC)
Company: Concurrent Technologies
Form factor: 3U OpenVPX
CPU: Intel Xeon 32-core processor
Memory: 256-GB DDR5 with ECC
Display: DisplayPort
Data Plane: 40/100 Gb Ethernet
Control Plane: 10-Gb Ethernet (optional)
Expansion: M.2 2242 PCIe Gen 4 x4, x16 PCI Express Gen 5
The Kratos 3U VPX board from Concurrent Technologies is built around a high-core-count Intel Xeon processor. It includes display and networking support and the M.2 slot handles NVMe.
The board optionally supports Built-in Test (BIT). The PCIe expansion is optional as well, and works with Compute Express Link (CXL) 2.0.
XPedite 8370 SBC
Product: XPedite 8370 SBC
Type: Single-board computer (SBC)
Company: Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES)
Form factor: 3U VPX-REDI
CPU: Intel Core Ultra processor (Series 3)
Memory: Up to 64 GB of LPDDR5 SDRAM with in-band ECC, 64-MB NOR boot flash, 64-kB EEPROM
Storage: Up to 1 TB of onboard NVMe storage with optional self-encrypting drive (SED) offering AES-128/256 TCG Opal 2.0 hardware encryption support
Video out: DisplayPort
Expansion: x8 PCI Express Gen4 XMC site
Security: Microchip PolarFire SoC FPGA with 256-MB SPI NOR flash
Connectivity: 100GBASE-KR4 Ethernet port to P1.A, up to two 25GBASE-KR Ethernet ports, RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) v2 internet layer protocol support
Management: IPMI Controller, supporting Tier 1 to 3
The XPedite 8370 is a rugged, VPX SBC designed for mission-critical, aerospace and defense systems requiring high reliability and long lifecycles. The Intel processor is supported by an XMC site and Microchip’s PolarFire FPGA that handles system security.
The 3U SBC works with SOSA I/O Intensive profiles like SLT3-PAY-1F1F2U1TU1T1U1T-14.2.16 and the SOSA-aligned AMPS profile MODA3-16.2.15-1-F2C-(E18)(P4F)(2E15-E3)(N-D1-U2-U1-M3/M4/M5-G1).
