Driven by the DoD’s modular open system approach (MOSA), commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) directives and the need to reduce size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C), military and aerospace equipment manufacturers are now adopting open, bladed architectures such as AdvancedTCA, MicroTCA and VPX to meet their high performance embedded computing (HPEC) requirements.

 

At VadaTech, our focus is on creating custom open standards-based solutions for military and aerospace prime contractors, with particular expertise in SWAP-C optimization and life cycle management. In addition to commercial-grade products, we also build specialty IO blades, carrier blades and chassis to help you create innovative, high-performance solutions that operate anywhere, every time. For mission-critical defense applications, VadaTech offers battle short override and cold start extensions to ATCA and MTCA standard capabilities. We also offer both convection and conduction-cooled systems, and options for meeting MIL-STD-810F and 901D for shock/vibration and MIL-STD-461E for EMI.

 

Our large selection of open architecture COTS hardware includes processing technology from Intel, Freescale and Cavium, FPGA devices, PCIe, SRIO and up to 40GbE fabric interconnects. We have a proven track record of leveraging leading-edge silicon technology into COTS form factors, with a long list of firsts to our name.

 

 

Applications
  • RADAR / SONAR Systems

  • SIG-INT Systems

  • C4ISR/Electronic Warfare Systems

  • Communications Servers

  • Airborne Reconnaissance

  • Shipboard Communications and Data Center Consolidation

  • Net-Centric Converged Solutions for voice, video, and data

  

Application Case Studies

Defense

While VPX is a dominant form factor in defense, MicroTCA has gained wide acceptance through the MTCA.1 and MTCA.3 standards, and VadaTech is now supplying MTCA products onto a wide range of platforms, airborne and other.

An existing defense customer looked for the ability to use standard, off-the-shelf AMCs but required I/O through MIL-STD connectors. To support this requirement, VadaTech modified an existing product to generate the VT858. This allowed the customer to gain all the benefits of using COTS modules while still using the required standard of cabling between chassis.

While most ATCA and MicroTCA systems are destined to sit in 19” racks, this is unacceptable in many defense applications. Working with a major customer, VadaTech developed the VT870 to address those applications that require an ATR chassis. When used with conduction-cooled AMCs and MCH, this allows the MicroTCA architecture to be used in extreme environments requiring a high level of ruggedization.

By providing an alternative to a VPX platform, VadaTech was able to fit within a tight space envelope on an airborne platform, while achieving very high compute density in a highly connected, FPGA-based sensor processing sub-system.  More details here:

 

Solution Brief - Compact FPGA-Based Processor

Solution Brief -- RADAR Signal Processing and Data Recording Application

Solution Brief -- European C4ISR Project with MicroTCA Solution

Solution Brief -- MicroTCA Chosen for Naval Towed Array

Products

Related VadaTech Products for the Mil/Aero Market

Chassis Platforms

The VT870 is a 3/4 ATR μTCA Short Tall chassis that provides four AMC mid-size and four compact slots that can accept any AMC.1, AMC.2, AMC.3 and/or AMC.4. It provides Fabric clock (CLK3) to each slot. The VT870 is designed for avionics, space and ground vehicles applications.

The VT872 is 1/2 ATR μTCA.3 Short chassis that provides six AMC mid-size slots that can accept any AMC.1, AMC.2, AMC.3 and/or AMC.4. The VT872 is designed for avionics, space and ground vehicles applications. The VT872 is designed to withstand extreme environmental conditions such as temperature, shock, vibration, chemical, EMI and altitude.

A wide range of our 1U and 5U MicroTCA solutions are used in the Mil/Aero market.  For more ruggedized rackmount applications, the VT950 is ideal for airborne rack, undersea, and vehicle-mount designs.

A/D & D/A Converters

VadaTech's A/D and D/A converters come in both FMC and AMC formats.  The FMC225 boasts a 14-bit 5.7 GSPS DAC and 12-bit 4.0 GSPS ADC.  See our Digital Converters and FPGAs for the range of products.

Power Modules

The VadaTech UTC011 is a 241/460W power module for use in a μTCA ATR chassis (Conduction Cooled chassis). The power module runs at 84% efficiency when running at maximum load. This results in 200/400W (available to the system). It is fully compliant with the MicroTCA.0 revision 1.0 specification.

MicroTCA Hub

The VadaTech UTC003 is the most feature-rich MCH (MicroTCA Carrier Hub) for the Conduction Cooled μTCA chassis in the market. It’s management software is based on VadaTech’s proven Carrier Manager and Shelf Manager. The MCMC manages the power modules, the two CU (Cooling Units) and up to 12 AMCs within the μTCA chassis

Small Form Factor (SFF) Solutions

The AMC form factor is a great fit for many SFF systems.  See our SFF White Paper for application ideas.  

 

Product Locating Tips for Defense

The Rugged COTS section under chassis is a great place to start to find enclosures for Defense applications. See the Related Links under those pages for applicable boards. We can also ruggedize our standard boards. The Product Finder page will also help you find various ATCA and uTCA processors, switch modules, specialty boards, chassis platforms and more.Product Locating Tips for DefenseThe Rugged COTS section under chassis is a great place to start to find enclosures for Defense applications. See the Related Links under those pages for applicable boards. We can also ruggedize our standard boards. The Product Finder will also help you find various ATCA and uTCA processors, switch modules, specialty boards, chassis platforms and more.

 

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