Curtiss-Wright – New packaged COTS (PCOTS) fully-integrated rugged subsystems

Leading designer and manufacturer of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) VME, VPX and CompactPCI products for the aerospace and defence markets, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing has announced the first member of a new family of Packaged COTS (PCOTS) fully integrated rugged subsystems.

The new power Architecture (PowerPC)-based Multi-Platform Mission Computer-9350p (MPMC-9350p) and Intel-based MPMC-9350i PCOTS subsystems are flexibly configured five-slot 3U CompactPCI (cPCI) subsystems housed in a sealed, light-weight, compact chassis fully preconfigured with power supply, and a wide range of I/O. Designed for high availability in the harshest field conditions, the MPMC-9350p and MPMC-9350i deliver a fully-qualified, off-the-shelf solution designed to speed deployment of critical applications for space, weight and power (SWaP) constrained platforms such as combat vehicles, helicopters and UAVs.

“Our new Packaged COTS family of pre-qualified, pre-configured compact rugged subsystems offer the high performance computer power and standard interfaces that a mission computer requires, and the flexibility to exactly meet the needs of deployable systems,” said Lynn Patterson , vice president and general manager of Curtiss-Wright’s Modular Solutions group.

The rugged MPMC-9350 family is designed to meet the harsh environments of many military and aerospace computing applications. To ensure the highest levels of performance, the MPMC-9350 is designed to meet or surpass DO-160E Environmental Conditions for Airborne Equipment. It has successfully passed numerous environmental tests including temperature, altitude, shock, vibration, fluid susceptibility, voltage spikes, electrostatic discharge and more.

Circuit cards installed in the sealed compact chassis (10.72-inch L x 5.11-inch W x 7.62-inch H) are completely isolated from external environmental conditions such as humidity, dust and sand. Optimal system cooling is ensured via thermal transfer between the card edge of its conduction-cooled 3U cPCI cards and the chassis’s side-walls, and a rugged integrated fan provides the necessary cooling air across the walls. EMI filters and gaskets provide increased system security and reliability.

The main processing power of the MPMC-9350p is provided by up to three Freescale 7448 PowerPC-based DCP-124 and DCP-124P single board computers (SBCs). The DCP-124P peripheral-only processor is a variant of Curtiss-Wright’s standard DCP-124 SBC and supports PMC I/O, dual Ethernet channels, and a USB 2.0, RS-232 and dual RS-422 ports.

The MPMC-9350i features up to three Intel Core2 Duo-based DCP-1201 and 1201P SBCs. In addition to running Windows, the SCP/DCP-1201 runs both Solaris 10 and WindRiver GPP Linux 2.6 operating systems. Support for real-time applications using VxWorks 6.x OS is planned, says the company.