XMC computer for mission- and safety-critical avionics and defense uses introduced by CES

GENEVA, Switzerland, 29 June 2015. Creative Electronic Systems (CES) in Geneva, Switzerland, is introducing the MFCC-8557 XMC single-board computer based on the Freescale QorIQ P3041 processor for mission-critical and safety-critical aerospace and defense applications.

Designed as an XMC mezzanine module with a Computer On Module (COM) approach, the MFCC-8557 is for VPX based systems. The embedded computing module is designed to ease systems upgrades to new microprocessors.

The MFCC-8557 has been engineered for DAL safety certification, systematically applying DO-178C/DO-254 design guidelines. It can be delivered with all documentation, certification evidences and supporting artifacts required to prove compliance with design assurance qualifications of the avionics industry.

"Aerospace and Defense systems are in use over several decades and, over time, the I/O requirement stays basically unchanged while the processing requirements increases with the application", says Yves Mathys, chief operating officer at CES.

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"Upgrading processors is regularly a source of considerable complexity and expenses requiring the re-design of the system." Adopting a COM approach "will follow the availability of more powerful processors and allow for easy system upgradeability," he says.

Embedding a safety-proven Freescale QorIQ P3041 processor with 4 gigabytes of DDR3 and 2 gigabytes of Flash EEPROM, this XMC computer board delivers 15,000 DMIPS of processing power over the -40 to 85 degrees Celsius basecard edge temperature range.

In safety-critical mission mode, the computer board provides 4 PCI Express Gen2 links and a Fast Ethernet interface. For debug and maintenance mode, additional USB 2.0, SATA 2.0 and UARTS interfaces are available.

For more information contact CES online at www.ces-swap.com.