Duncan Young —

Built-in-Test (BIT) is more important than you might think in today's critical embedded systems, especially systems assembled from off-the-shelf hardware and software components.

John Wemekamp —

While 10 GbE technology is still in its infancy via the XAUI standard, for example, it has not gained wide traction in the critical embedded market. However, the 10GBASE-KX4 serialized four-lane 10 GbE backplane standard is emerging to solve the challenge.

Dr. Robert Dewar —

Those who think Ada has disappeared from today's technology realm might be surprised to find out it's still alive and well in many large, critical applications.

Chris A. Ciufo —

COTS is plenteous in the military domain and continues to make technology news - for better or for worse.

Sharon Schnakenburg —

A roundup of recent embedded technology news, including: Northrop Grumman rearchitects its C2PC, U.S. DoD reports on China's military, Space Micro and NASA detect space radiation, and U.S. Army expands its WIN-T contract, among other headlines.

Uros Platise —

Wishbone II, a new and improved version of the Wishbone bus, enables an advanced architecture providing separate read and write transactions. This allows many transactions take place simultaneously. The result: bus throughput reaches maximum levels.

David Lippincott —

Though system software performance continues to be a critical factor, environmental issues will often determine the success or failure of integrated computing platforms in mission-critical applications. Accordingly, steps such as calculating the airflow, factoring in impedance, and filtering out the environment are vital to solving the equation.

William Lattin —

The National Security Agency’s (NSA’s) Suite B cryptosystem specification undeniably provides security, but how does performance fit into the picture? Both these considerations are vital in modern military apps, and the "key" just might be in the inherent efficiencies of Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH), Elliptic Curve Menezes-Qu-Vanstone (ECMQV), and the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA).

Hezi Saar —

Truly nonvolatile FPGAs offer faster response times, significantly reduced power consumption, and faster response times than the volatile alternatives. System designers should also beware of hybrid solutions that still render the FPGA array as volatile.

Rob Cosgrove —

Data is the lifeblood of any business. Thus, a full remote backup plan is vital in protecting data - and the life of the business.

An exclusive Q&A with Roger Krone, President of Network & Space Systems (N&SS), a business unit of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS)

Bob Smith —

Technology reengineering and obsolescence management are helping buck the trend against the Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS) issues that plague DoD planners.

Arlin Niernberger —

In the fight against obsolescence in mission-critical systems, opting to remanufacture obsolete systems can be a viable remedy. Hence, startup and materials costs, hardware design, and program planning are key considerations.

Ian Colville —

COTS products are rarely able to meet military project needs on their own. Oftentimes, enabling or add-on technologies must be added; thus, Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) costs should be factored in when adapting COTS products.

Staff —

Though touch screen technology has traditionally been consumer-oriented, it is now making headway into outdoor applications as well. However, choosing the right one can be confusing.

Charles W. Krueger —

Combining Model Driven-Development (MDD) with Software Product Line (SPL) engineering is a simple-yet-elegant blend, enabling organizations to manage product diversity in MDD to facilitate faster development of additional products and features.

Manville Chan —

Striving for both high performance and low power consumption can present several trade-offs. However, steps can be taken to reduce PowerPC SBC board power consumption, mitigating the trade-off.

Christine Van De Graaf and David Pursley —

Multicore technologies, including hyper-threading, virtualization and multi-threading, are helping Small Form Factors (SFFs) meet the tough requirements of modern military applications.

Don Carl Berndt —

Using an RTOS is a popular choice in mission-critical apps, but RTOSs present design, coding, validation, and verification issues. However, many of these issues do not exist in a system comprising a Finite State Machine (FSM) architecture.

Jeffrey VanZwol —

A thorough understanding of battery capabilities and charger architectures, including those with microcontroller control and dedicated charger ICs, is necessary before designing a battery charger for today's military applications.

Chris A. Ciufo —

Editor Chris A. Ciufo provides only brief excerpts from full-length RTOS trends articles and interviews, which appear in their entirety on mil-embedded.com.

John Lin —

Today's military apps demand ruggedization, but is there more to it than just reinforcing the PC against extreme temperatures, vibration, dust, and the like? John asserts the idea that system ruggedization also involves securing data via encryption against battlefield threats, resulting in the ultimate rugged PC.

Don Dingee —

In the past century, countless electronics technologies have shaped defense capabilities: Radar. Inertial guidance. Proximity fusing. Electronic jamming and countermeasures. Phased-array radar. Software-Defined Radio. But what will drive the next great electronics program? The long- and short-term opportunities include technologies to manage, gather, present, and secure it. In the long-term, a new wave of breakthroughs is necessary.

Chris A. Ciufo —

With today's recession, or near-recession, the DoD prefers to buy only technologies with "right now" capabilities.

Sharon Schnakenburg —

Associate Editor Sharon Schnakenburg reports on the latest trends and events in the military embedded systems world.