June 01, 2008
Rugged Computing Power for Small Platforms
A new class of embedded computing for size, weight, and power constrained applications are optimized for real-time image, sensor, and signal processing and ruggedized for harsh environments.
Defense Tech Briefs
By Thomas Roberts
May 28, 2008
Mercury Cuts System Size
Just as the embedded industry starts to get serious about system size and form factors, Mercury unveiled its smallest system - the PowerBlock 50.
EDN
May 15, 2008
Going to the Well
Accelerated number crunching makes oil and gas exploration more efficient.
Advanced Imaging
May 07, 2008
Mercury Puts 100 GFLOPS in Your Hands
Mercury Computer Systems announced this week that they’ve released a new compute platform that puts 100 GFLOPS in a package you can hold in your hand weighing “less than 10 pounds.”
insideHPC.com
May 05, 2008
Miniature Linux PC Targets Military Apps
Mercury Computer Systems announced a Linux-based engineering development kit (EDK) for a 7-10 pound computer that targets small ground, naval, and air vehicles.
LinuxDevices.com
May
2008
Hot Components and Cool Enclosures
Systems architects and integrators tackle thermal issues with clever chassis designs.
Military & Aerospace Electronics
May
2008
Designing Very High Performance ATCA Systems
The demand for compute power in today’s high-performance applications brings a variety of technical issues, but a standards-based approach can achieve successful solutions.
RTC
By Thomas Roberts
April 17, 2008
Embedded Technology: Designers Choose From the Latest Fabrics
Embedded-system designers are using the latest switched-fabric technology to not only boost data rates, but also dynamically optimize performance, bypass failed subsystems, and coexist with legacy components.
EDN
April 15, 2008
DOD Wants Apps up to Speed
Despite hardware advances, complex code and heavy traffic put a drag on systems. According to some in the indusry, bloated operating systems and applications are preventing military organizations from getting sufficient speed from their information technology systems.
Government Computer News
April
2008
An ATCA-Based Solution for Low-Latency Embedded Applications
Designed for telecoms, ATCA is a very capable standard suited for a much broader range of applications. RapidIO, a lean, low-latency fabric for embedded applications, is gaining traction in embedded control. Not surprisingly, RapidIO and ATCA are being adopted.
Boards & Solutions
By Ian Shearer
March 12, 2008
Software Giants and Startups Tackle Lithography Complexity
Every year at the SPIE Advanced Lithography conference, the EDA sector seems to gain a little more prominence. While the bulk of the presentations still focus on tackling hardware and materials issues, there is no question software is enabling so much of the present-day advances keeping the industry on track.
Semiconductor International
March 04, 2008
Accelerating Persistent Surveillance Radar with the Cell Broadband Engine
Next-generation airborne radar-imaging systems will require increased processing capability while adhering to stringent power and energy constraints. Multicore technology addresses this requirement by providing more operations/watt than clock frequency scaling. The Cell processor, developed for the video-game industry, offers a unique architecture that can be exploited to address this need.
Embedded Technology Journal
By Jeffrey Rudin
March
2008
Computational Complexity
Single-board and mezzanine-board computers deliver expanded functionality in a reduced size. Military systems integrators are endeavoring to pack as much technology as they can on as small a device as possible.
Military & Aerospace Electronics
February
2008
Extending the Life of VME into the 21st Century: A Pragmatic View
Every designer must choose between trade-offs when considering which VME technology to use. For modern, demanding applications, however, standards bodies are conquering the challenge, and VPX and VXS play vital roles in propelling VME well into the 21st century.
VME and Critical Systems
By Anne Mascarin
February
2008
ATCA and RapidIO Meet Demanding Semiconductor Applications
The necessity for highly available platforms supporting dense and complex processing in the semiconductor industry has led to the adoption of Advanced Telecom Computing Architecture (ATCA) equipment for top-end control applications.
RTC
By Ian Shearer
January
2008
Rugged Electronics Empower Tomorrow’s Technology
Technology companies are enabling the military’s net-centric vision through smaller, faster, stronger rugged computers.
Military & Aerospace Electronics
January
2008
Supplier Base for VPX Embedded Computing Begins to Take Shape
The market and supplier base for VPX and VPX-REDI SBCs are beginning to emerge, and several companies are stepping forward to provide embedded computing that adheres to these standards.
Military & Aerospace Electronics
December 15, 2007
Readers Choice Tech Awards: XMC Digital Receiver Supports Multi-Board Coherency
Mercury's Echotek Series ECV4-2 family of mixed-signal PMC and XMC modules was selected as one of the top five Readers Choice Tech Awards for Boards and Modules.
ECN
December
2007
Form-Factor Choices Expand for High-Density Computing
Where once VME was the only game in town, a variety of embedded computing form-factors have emerged suited to high-density military computing needs.
COTS Journal
By Thomas Roberts
December
2007
Comparing Ethernet and RapidIO
Systems designers evaluating communications fabrics for new systems can see two attractive options in Ethernet and Serial RapidIO. Technology enthusiasts may promote one over the other but an even-handed comparison shows both have areas of relative advantage. The designer’s challenge is to evaluate these advantages in light of specific system requirements and choose the best option.
CompactPCI & AdvancedTCA Systems
By Thomas Roberts
December
2007
Software-Defined Radios: The Radios of the future
SDR is an emerging technology that promises immediate upgrades via software, bypassing the need for expensive hardware upgrades. Accordingly, when SDR's benefits are planned for early in the design process, results include improved communications life cycles, increased code portability, and reduced costs.
VME and Critical Systems
By Joshua Noseworthy
November
2007
Software Development Kits Address Challenges
The growth area in the software development kit space for many data-intensive applications will be around a movement from single-core processors to multicore processors.
Advanced Imaging
November
2007
Tech Barriers Fall for Military Satellite Networking
In support of the DoD’s lofty vision for global satellite linked networking, technology providers large and small are making advances in modem, radio and laser comms, and mobile networking solutions.
COTS Journal
October
2007
Mezzanine Cards Push Density and Speed Barriers
Compute and I/O densities continue to ramp for mezzanine products — both in the tried and true PMC, and the fast ascending XMC and AMC mezzanine form-factors.
COTS Journal
September 14, 2007
High Performance 3D Image Reconstruction
Contributed article explains improved performance of high-end platforms accelerates reconstruction times and enhances image quality.
Advanced Imaging
By Dr. Marc Kachelriess, Dr. Michael Knaup, and Olivier Bockenbach
September
2007
Software Defined Radios Adapt to Change
Cover feature discusses how evolving communications technologies require systems that can support many existing and emerging standards. By implementing communication functions in software, designers can build such “future-proof” communications, called software defined radios.
ECN
By Murat Bicer
August 22, 2007
Technology Innovator Mercury Computer Systems Launches New Company Devoted to Medical Imaging
Mercury Computer Systems has launched Visage Imaging, its wholly owned subsidiary for the life sciences and medical businesses.
Medicexchange
August 03, 2007
Mercury Leverages PS3 Cell For Multi-Use SDK
Mercury announced the release of a new software development kit designed to leverage the PlayStation 3's Cell processor order to provide users with low-cost, high-speed computing.
Gamasutra
August 03, 2007
SDK Aims Playstation3 Clusters at HPC Apps
Mercury Computer Systems has ported its multi-core software development kit (SDK) to Sony's Playstation3 gaming console. The company said its "MultiCore Plus SDK for PS3 -- Base Package" lets developers exploit the PS3's powerful Cell processor for general-purpose, low-cost, high-performance computing (HPC) applications.
LinuxDevices.com
August 02, 2007
New Life for Aerial Sensor
Reflecting its continuing need for updated airborne electronic surveillance capabilities, the Army is moving ahead again on its previously cancelled Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) program.
Military Information Technology
July
2007
High Performance 3D Image Reconstruction Platforms
Tomographic image reconstruction is computationally very demanding and the backprojection represents the performance bottleneck. In the past DSPs have been used. More recently, attempts have also been made to use graphic processing units and the Cell Broadband Engine processor.
Boards & Solutions
By Prof. Dr. Marc Kachelrieß, Institute of Medical Physics (IMP), University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Olivier Bockenbach
May 29, 2007
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
The amount of data that must be mined during oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) is enormous.3D visualization has been the key to increased success and efficiency in many areas of E&P.
Advanced Imaging
May
2007
Multicomputer Programming, Cell BE Processor Boost Signal Processing
The high performance levels of multicore processing, combined with multicomputer programming techniques, are delivering the computationally intensive signal processing required in many defense electronics systems.
COTS Journal
By Thomas Roberts
May
2007
Temperature’s Rising: Designers Face Myriad Options to Cool Electronic Systems
Never-ending demands for more electronic and electro-optic systems capability mean military and aerospace systems guzzle more electric power, and that means steadily increasing heat that engineers must get rid of-somehow. Today’s choices include convection-, conduction-, and liquid-cooling options, and tomorrow’s choices will be more complex.
Military & Aerospace Electronics
April
2007
Hurdles Behind it, VPX Hits Its Stride
With VPX now gaining momentum, the debate over next-generation VME has shifted. With VPX/VPX REDI closer to reality, the role of VXS as a “here now” alternative is in question.
COTS Journal
March
2007
Improved Detection with Digital Breast Tomosynthesis
Harnessing graphics processing power yields major cancer screening advance, next-generation programming architecture. The Breast Imaging Division in the Department of Radiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has been instrumental in helping bring new screening approaches to the field. The MGH Breast Imaging Division implemented a new technique called Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT). To make DBT practical, MGH turned to Mercury and NVIDIA.
Scientific Computing
February
2007
Solving Extreme FPGA High-Density Computing with AdvancedTCA
A new initiative authorized by the FCC teams satellites with earth-bound communications systems to significantly improve coverage and capacity for voice and data communications. The key technology to enable this coexistence is antenna beam forming. Mercury leveraged AdvancedTCA to enable a high-speed communications infrastructure – one that delivers the massive computing requirements that make this ground-based beam former a reality.
CompactPCI & AdvancedTCA Systems
By Greg Tiedemann
February
2007
Open-Standard Multicomputers Address Next-Generation Multi-Function Radar Applications
Next-generation radar applications will drive performance demands that will have architectural implications for radar computing and electronics. The performance and ruggedization requirements make it challenging to service multi-function radar (MFR) applications using yesterday's COTS technologies. COTS solutions based on open standards are now meeting these requirements.
Defense Tech Briefs
By James Meyer