3U OpenVPX embedded computing transceiver cards for EW, SIGINT, and radar introduced by Curtiss-Wright

ASHBURN, Va. – The Curtiss-Wright Corp. Defense Solutions division in Ashburn, Va., is introducing the VPX3-534 and VPX3-535 3U OpenVPX FPGA-based embedded computingtransceiver cards for demanding electronic warfare (EW), signals intelligence (SIGINT), and radar applications.

These transceiver cards offer at least twice the performance of Curtiss-Wright's previous-generation VPX3-530 product. The VPX3-535 has a user programmable Xilinx Virtex VU9 UltraScale+ field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to process dual 6-gigasample-per-second 12b A/D and D/A converter channels on one slot with 6 GHz bandwidth.

The VPX3-535 is Curtiss-Wright’s first publicly announced module to have full compliance to the VITA 48.8 Air-Flow-Through (AFT) cooling standard,and ensures optimal performance in the harshest conditions.

For today’s commercial off-the-shelf COTS 3U and 6U VPX modules that dissipate about 150 Watts, VITA 48.8 provides a low-cost way to cool high-power components. In addition, the VPX3-535 supports an option for VITA 67 backplane RF I/O, which eliminates the need to manage front-panel cables.

Curtiss-Wright also is introducing a conduction cooled variant of the VPX3-534 FPGA module for applications which do not require the highest possible performance or do not require the higher thermal management capabilities of AFT.

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The VPX3-534 has the Xilinx Kintex KU115 UltraScale FPGA. This module supports the same dual 6-gigasample-per-second 12b A/D and D/A converters channels as the VPX3-535, and also supports an option for quad 3-gigasample-per-second A/D converter channels.

Both cards have an onboard Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC FPGA with embedded Quad-core ARM A53 processors. To support extended cold temperature environments, these modules are able to power-up at -54 degrees Celsius, self-heat, and then commence full operation at -40 C.

The VPX3-534 and VPX3-535 are designed to be interoperable with Curtiss-Wright’s family of system-level C4ISR/EW solutions and ensure low latency between inputs and outputs for efficient sense and response performance.

Software support for the VPX3-534 and VPX3-534 modules includes a VxWorks-7 BSP for ARM/MPSoC and Wind River Workbench 4.0. Support for Linux will follow later in 2018.

For more information contact Curtiss-Wright online at www.curtisswrightds.com.

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