Curtiss-Wright Controls announces successful environmental testing of CHAMP-FX2 VPX and XMC-442 FPGA-based application accelerator modules

Summary:
Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing has announced the successful testing and qualification of its CHAMP-FX2 VPX FPGA-based processing board and its XMC-442 FPGA compute module. The CHAMP-FX2 and XMC-44 successfully passed testing at the highest ruggedization Level-200 temperature, shock, and vibration specifications, thus setting a new benchmark for processing performance in the rugged COTS market.

Full Text:
Company´s Highest Performance Heterogeneous FPGA/DSP-based VITA 46 Board and FPGA Compute XMC Module Were Qualified Over Harsh Temperature Ranges, Shock and Vibration Testing

LEESBURG, VA -- June 30, 2009 -- Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, a leading designer and manufacturer of rugged deployed commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) VME, VPX and CompactPCI products for the Aerospace and Defense market (A&D), has announced the successful testing and qualification of its CHAMP-FX2 VPX FPGA-based processing board and its XMC-442 FPGA compute module. The CHAMP-FX2 and XMC-44 successfully passed testing at the highest ruggedization Level-200 temperature, shock, and vibration specifications, thus setting a new benchmark for processing performance in the rugged COTS market. With their successful testing, the CHAMP-FX2 and XMC-442 join the growing ranks of Curtiss-Wright Controls high-performance, rugged VPX and XMC modules qualified for deployment in harsh military environments.

“The successful qualification of our CHAMP-FX2 and XMC-442 modules further enhances Curtiss-Wright Controls´ ability to deliver high-performance, high-power, rugged-deployed FPGA-based solutions,” said Lynn Patterson, vice president and general manager ofModular Solutions, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing. “We are committed to offering the market´s most advanced, rugged reconfigurable computing solutions.”

Vigorous, Demanding Tests
The CHAMP-FX2 and XMC-442 were subjected to a battery of harsh environment testing to ensure their survivability in A&D applications where extreme conditions may range from the heat of a desert tarmac to the intense cold of high-altitude flight. These tests included operating over the -40°C to 85°C card-edge temperature range. The conduction-cooled cards were also subjected to, and successfully survived, 40g shock, 10g sine vibration, and 0.1g2 random vibration tests. Both the CHAMP-FX2 and the XMC-442 were tested together, and their processor and FPGAs were configured to perform very demanding application-like test codes to maximally stress their designs.

Temperature testing for the boards validated their Continuum FXtools IP cores for operation over the full range of military application temperatures. Curtiss-Wright Controls´ Continuum FXtools is an extensive design kit designed to speed FPGA development. It comprises optimized, extended temperature IP blocks for all of the board´s hardware interfaces, enabling the integrator to focus on the productive development, simulation and test of algorithms. Full details of the environmental specifications are available at http://www.cwcembedded.com/3/144/429.html. For further information on the CHAMP-FX2 and XMC-442 test results please contact Curtiss-Wright Controls sales at sales@cwcembedded.com.

High-Density Computing through FPGAs
The adoption of FPGAs into rugged applications continues to increase at a rapid pace thanks to a number of factors including enhanced support for high-speed I/O and improved tools for multiprocessor system development. In military applications such as radar and SIGINT, FPGAs are being used to augment, and sometimes even replace, general-purpose processors (GPPs) or DSPs, thanks to their vastly larger gate counts, specialized DSP units, embedded processors and high-speed serial link. Their flexibility and computational performance per watt also make them an attractive choice for systems with tough size, weight and power (SWaP) constraints.

The CHAMP-FX2
The CHAMP-FX2 is Curtiss-Wright Controls' next-generation FPGA-based computing platform. Utilizing a 6U VPX-REDI form factor, the CHAMP-FX2 harnesses the tremendous computing power of two Xilinx Virtex™-5 FPGAs, combined with the high-performance floating-point capabilities of the Freescale 8641D dual-core PowerPC™ processor and the exceptional performance and flexibility of a Serial RapidIO switching fabric to deliver unprecedented computational densities. With multiple large DDR2 SDRAM and fast QDR-II+ SRAM blocks (>13 Gbytes/sec total FPGA memory bandwidth) and several on-board and off-board RocketIO™ serial ports, the two FPGA nodes provide a balanced mix of processing capabilities with memory, inter-FPGA, and off-board bandwidths.

CHAMP-FX2 Features:


· 6U VPX-REDI



· Two Xilinx Virtex-5 Platform FPGAs (LX110T or LX220T)



· 512 Mbytes or 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM per FPGA in two banks (1-2 Gbyte total on-board) running at 275 MHz, 4.4 GB/sec peak bandwidth per FPGA



· 36 Mbytes QDR-II+ SRAM per FPGA in four banks (72 Mbytes total on-board) running at 275 MHz, 8.8 GBytes/sec peak bandwidth per FPGA



· 4-lane RocketIO connection between the two FPGAs



· 1 GHz 8641D dual-core 8641 processor with 512 Mbytes of DDR2 SDRAM in two banks



· XMC mezzanine site



· On-board Serial RapidIO switch with 4-lane connectivity to the PowerPC and each FPGA and four 4-lane ports to the backplane



· Two 4-lane RocketIO ports to the backplane (one for each FPGA).



· 512 Mbytes Flash for PowerPC or FPGA code or user files



· Support for ChipScope Pro and JTAG processor debug interfaces



· Continuum FXtools developer's kit offers Continuum Firmware and BSP, FX2-specific software libraries, BIT, highly-optimized IP blocks, reference designs, and a scriptable simulation testbench



· Serial RapidIO Endpoint block available



· Camera Link IP block available



· Low and high temperature-qualified IP blocks



· Continuum IPC middleware and Continuum Vector algorithm libraries available



· Air-cooled and conduction-cooled versions



· Priority Signature Support available. See the Technical Support Factsheet for details



The XMC-442

The new XMC-442 mezzanine module combines the flexibility of a Xilinx Virtex-5 SXT (SX50T/SX95T) FPGA, the high bandwidth of serial switched fabrics such as PCI Express and Serial RapidIO (SRIO), and rich I/O options. It significantly speeds the integration of high-performance FPGA-based custom calculation blocks onto embedded platforms that feature on-board XMC sites, such as VPX, VME and CompactPCI boards.



XMC-442 Features:



· Single Virtex-5 SX50T or SX95T FPGA



· One bank of DDR2 SDRAM, 256MB total



· Two banks of QDR-II+ SRAM, 18MB total



· Three high-speed serial connections to the baseboard



· Personality module for customized I/O



· Optimized for ultra-high performance signal processing


· Continuum FXtools developer´s kit: provides optimized and temperature-qualified IP block libraries including memory controllers and a PCI Express core, reference designs, simulation test benches, BIT routines and software libraries

· Serial RapidIO end-point IP available

About Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing
Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing is the industry´s most comprehensive and experienced single source for embedded solutions, ranging from Processing, Subsystems, Data Communication, DSP, and Video & Graphics to the most advanced board level components and fully integrated custom systems. The Embedded Computing group serves the defense

Contact:
Sales inquiries: Please forward all Sales and reader service inquiries to Jerri-Lynne Charbonneau, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Tel: (613) 254-5112; Fax: (613) 599-7777; e-mail: sales@cwcembedded.com.

For editorial information regarding Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing products or services, contact John Wranovics, Director of Public Relations, Curtiss-Wright, Tel: (925) 640-6402; email. jwranovics@curtisswright.com.