6U OpenVPX rugged computer blade for military embedded systems introduced by Mercury

CHELMSFORD, Mass., 7 March 2012. Mercury Computer Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:MRCY) in Chelmsford, Mass., is introducing the rugged server-class Ensemble series 6U OpenVPX HDS6601 embedded computing blade based on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 for military embedded systems such as radar signal processing; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); electronic warfare (EW); as well as for electro-optics and infrared (EO/IR) signal processing.

The rugged computer blade, which uses two of the 8-core Intel Xeon processors E5-2648L, is a 16-core Intel architecture-based module, configured as a symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) cluster. This 16-way 32-thread SMP server blade complies with the OpenVPX standard.

Users can configure applications for the HDS6601, to target the high-performance SMP operating environment, Mercury officials say. Any of the SMP cluster's CPUs can access any region of the 64-gigabyte on-board memory directly. Users also can scale subsystems to several boards with Mercury's OpenMPI/OFED software, switch fabric modules, and Protocol Offload Engine Technology (POET).

Available OpenVPX dataplane configurations include Serial RapidIO and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

Systems designers typically configure small subsystems with one or two HDS6601 modules for as many as 32 cores, while larger systems of as many as 10 HDS6601 modules can be configured with as many as 160 cores. Larger systems can be augmented with several Mercury GPGPU modules and switch modules in a standard 19-inch OpenVPX chassis.

Using the Intel Xeon processor E5-2648L with Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel AVX), the HDS6601 delivers nearly half a teraflop in one standard OpenVPX slot, Mercury officials say. The HDS6601 can be configured in air-cooled or conduction-cooled rugged versions.

For more information contact Mercury Computer Systems online at www.mc.com.