Rugged computer runs virtual partitions

With major parts of the industry in an economic slowdown, a growing number of embedded system suppliers are focusing their new product development efforts on military applications. Although most of the products must survive rugged and harsh military environments, there are plenty of high-performance, state-of-the-art projects that appeal to embedded designers. For example, Aitech Defense Systems recently released a 6U VME single board computer targeting applications in radar and sonar communications, vehicle protection subsystems, mission management computers, and heads-up display controllers. The new C160 computer features the latest Intel T7400 Merom Core 2 Duo dual core processor available in either a 2.2 GHz maximum performance version or 1.67 GHz for the lowest power consumption. The rugged, single-slot C160 also uses Intel’s Virtualization Technology (VT), so the board can run different applications simultaneously using multiple virtual partitions. The C160 draws only 25 W and incorporates a custom metal thermal management frame and stiffeners for increased resistance against shock and vibration. The board’s memory arrays provide volatile and non-volatile memory resources including up to 2 GB fast DDR2 SDRAM and up to 8 GB of onboard Flash disk. For man-machine interface applications, the C160 also provides an integrated GM965 graphics engine with 2D and 3D graphics outputs in multiple video formats. The C160 I/O includes two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two SATA II interfaces and two USB 2.0 interfaces as well as legacy serial ports and discrete I/O lines. For local onboard I/O expansion, the C160 provides two standard PMC sites capable of up to 133 MHz PCI-X operation. Operating system support includes Microsoft XP Pro, XP Embedded, Linux and Wind River’s VxWorks. Quantity pricing for the C160 starts at $6,050.