Radar acquisition and scan conversion system on a 6U VME board introduced by Curtiss-Wright

ASHBURN, Va., 28 March 2012. Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions in Ashburn, Va., is introducing the SoftScan/1905 embedded radar acquisition and scan conversion system that combines a rugged 6U VME single-board computer based on the Intel Core i7 processor, XMC-710 graphics controller mezzanine card, and the Curtiss-Wright SoftScan radar scan conversion software for radar acquisition, radar processing, and display as a complete embedded solution.

The system's display controller supports dual-head graphics output on DVI-I single-link (dual-head output) or dual-link (single-head output), with resolutions as fine as 1,600 by 1,200 pixels (single link) or 2,560 by 1,600/2,048 by 2,048 pixels (dual-link, single head).

The SVME/DMV-1905 VME64x embedded computing board for military embedded systems supports as much as 8 gigabytes of SDRAM. The Intel Core i7 processor enables the board to handle applications with demanding storage, data logging and sensor processing needs, such as radar and other demanding digital signal processing.

The SoftScan software runs on PCs for application development and on embedded computers for system deployment. It relies on graphics processing unit (GPU)-accelerated algorithms for scan-conversion while off-loading the host processor, which enables the board's main processor to concentrate on computationally demanding application code.

SoftScan radar scan conversion supports polar format radar data input via its network interface from a Curtiss-Wright radar video processor server or via an optional on-board Osiris radar acquisition PCI mezzanine card.

The card supports plan position indicator, a-scan, and b-scan display formats with rapid pan and zoom. SoftScan's proprietary algorithms eliminate holes or spokes in the displayed image at any range or zoom level, Curtiss-Wright officials say, and displays all single point targets. Users may create several windows, each displaying several radar sources. All windows are movable and resizable in real time.

SoftScan essentially is a set of libraries that enable users to create applications with one or more windows that render radar video in PPI, A-scan or B-scan format. Chart and track symbology video also can be added as overlay and underlay layers. The API provides real-time control of all radar display characteristics from window sizing and zooming to programmable fade and color parameters.

For more information contact Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions online at www.cwcdefense.com.

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