... And the rugged big brothers too!

In the same way that FMC cards are becoming a reality in the COTS world, FPGAs are intruding on more functions in VPX and XMC worlds.  Curtiss Wright Controls has tested its CHAMP series of VPX and XMC application accelerators, based on the Xilinx Virtex-5. The former device uses a 6U VPX-REDI form factor, and marries the FPGA with a Freescale 8641 PowerPC. The latter, XMC-442, is a companion mezzanine that combines an FPGA with a switching fabric.

This week, I wrote an opinion piece for Open Architecture Review, suggesting that DSPs may soon be all but obsolete in ruggedized airborne applications. What first appears to be exaggeration may in fact be understated. Whether the form factor is VME, cPCI, VPX, XMC, AMC, FMC, or MicroTCA, ruggedized designs in the mil-areo realm are largely eliminating ASICs, ASSPs, and DSPs in favor of the FPGA.