Amaro, Italy — Eurotech subsidiary Parvus Corporation will preview a new MIL-COTS rugged mission computer subsystem based on the low-power Intel Atom Z530 1.6GHz processor with gigabit Ethernet and MIL-STD-1553 databus connectivity at booth 1411 of the AFCEA/USNI West 2010 Conference. AFCEA West is the largest defence and technology exposition and conference on the US west coast, and is being held at the San Diego Convention Centre on 2-4 February 2010.
Optimally designed for size, weight, and power (SWaP)-constrained military / aerospace vehicle and aircraft installations, the new DuraCOR 820-A small form-factor rugged processor delivers processing and multimedia performance comparable (or better) to Pentium M-based DuraCOR solutions, but with less power consumption, double the RAM memory capacity, and dual flash solid state disks (SSDs). The system is equipped with a 28V high-efficiency power supply compliant with MIL-STD-1275 and MIL-STD-704 voltages, spikes, and surges, which makes the unit compatible with not only airborne, but also military ground-vehicle platforms.
System I/O includes one gigabit Ethernet, one MIL-STD-1553, three USB 2.0, twoRS-232, two PS/2, eight DIO and VGA, which are brought out through lightweight, high-density MIL-38999-like connectors, making the product an ideal solution for a variety of unmanned and manned command and control (C2) applications.
The DuraCOR 820-A offers a compact mechanical design (3lb weight, 3in height) very similar in form factor to flight-qualified legacy Parvus DuraCOR 820 systems currently deployed in unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) and other military applications. The unit is fanless, conduction cooled and designed for use under an extended temperature range (-40°C to +71°C) and other demanding MIL-STD-810F environmental conditions (thermal, shock, vibration, altitude and humidity).
The new 820-A model offers enhanced ingress protection from dust and water immersion, along with improved filtering and shielding from EMI/EMC conditions. The system is designed to undergo and meet MIL-STD-810F and MIL-STD-461E environmental and emissions/susceptibility qualification testing as it prepares for production.
For application flexibility, the unit comes with a 4GB industrial SSD pre-loaded with a Linux or Windows embedded operating system, as well as a 16GB compact flash disk for file storage. The unit is based on a modular PC/104-Plus open architecture, making it possible to customise/special order and meet program-specific I/O requirements. For programs requiring additional I/O expansion capabilities, Parvus offers the DuraCOR 810 and DuraCOR 810-Duo platforms, which feature up to six PC104(+) expansion slots.
Availability
The DuraCOR 820-A is currently in pre-production. Official pricing is not yet available. MIL-STD qualification testing should begin later in Q1 2010 with production to follow.