10 SBC questions to ask

Not all single board computers are created equal. Find out more about how your current supplier’s offering compares with Abaco’s.

It’s not what it costs – it’s what it costs to own.

At Abaco, we prioritize minimizing your cost over a program’s lifetime.

The typical military or industrial program can have a deployed life measured in decades. As such, long term cost of ownership is a critical consideration. Abaco minimizes this in two important ways.

The first is that we have a 30-year track record of developing new products that are form-, fit- and function-compatible with their predecessors – allowing you to upgrade with minimal platform disruption at minimal cost.

The second is our comprehensive, field-proven Product Lifecycle Program (PLM). PLM offers a flexible, comprehensive approach to mitigating the impact of obsolescence, enabling defensive, progressive and mixed strategies; and extended support, including repair.

If it’s not manufactured securely, it’s not secure.

We manufacture in-house to stop the bad guys doing bad things to our boards.

Not all single board computer companies manufacture exclusively in-house. Production in our own plants guarantees that our products cannot suffer from the insertion of parts that can potentially pose a security risk.

To maximize security and reliability, Abaco has a sophisticated counterfeit parts avoidance procedure.

A component source approval process can also provide users with exceptional security and reliability concerns with additional peace of mind.

If you can’t stand the heat – innovate…

We have a long history of applying our imagination and expertise to cooling.

In the SWaP-constrained environments of today’s military and commercial platforms, heat management plays a vital role not only in maximizing reliability but also in delivering optimum performance.

Through its participation in DARPA projects, Abaco has long been an innovator in thermal management, with unique technologies such as Nano Thermal Interface, Thermal Management Technology Bridge and Thermal Ground Plane.

Abaco has begun to transition its single board computer range to the use of heat pipes. Heat pipes have been demonstrated to allow sufficient additional cooling beyond traditional methods that processors can be run at high temperatures yet maintain their peak performance, delivering application predictability.

Any building is only as safe as its foundations.

That’s why our hardware provides what you need to build secure applications.

Secure applications require the support of secure hardware on which to run. The optimum security response starts at the lowest level within the system, and provides the solid foundation on which to build.

Our single board computers include a range of security features designed to assist with user-defined anti-tamper and information assurance strategies, such as volume protection, anti-tamper sensory technologies, encryption and memory sanitization. Also included are trusted boot, an inherently secure FPGA solution (SmartFusion2 from Microsemi), and support for Intel’s Trusted Execution Technology.

When same old, same old is exactly what you want.

We can deliver your original platform throughout the life of your program.

For companies who have invested significant time and effort in detailed system integration and validation, the opportunity to be an integral part of the configuration management/change approval process throughout the life of the program is an important part of their application risk-reduction strategy.

Abaco’s optional Configuration Management Service (CMS) enables customers to be either informed of the changes as they occur, or be party to approval of the changes to be implemented, and management of the configuration baseline.

A further option is ‘change approval’ which is designed for customers who, typically, have completed the development cycle, and are ready to deploy a solution and wish to baseline the configuration.

Rugged: it’s a way of thinking.

Rugged shouldn’t be a bolt-on afterthought. We design rugged in from the ground up.

It is often the case that a supplier will take a product designed for commercial use in a benign environment, make changes – such as the addition of a heat sink – and declare it ‘rugged’.

At Abaco, ‘rugged’ is designed in from the outset. For the most robust reliability, for example, parts are soldered to the underlying printed circuit board – rather than being socketed. Parts are ‘de-rated’ in order to minimize system stress. Considerable ingenuity is applied to heat paths and the use of materials in order to maximize cooling.

And: every board is temperature tested prior to shipment. Abaco also offers extended testing services – such as shock and vibration – to customers with specific concerns.

Trade-offs don’t have to mean compromise.

Our range of processors enables you to make the optimum choice for your application.

Our range of single board computers leverages the technologies of industry leading companies including Intel and NVIDIA.

Long term availability of parts is vital for long term programs. With this in mind, Abaco uses only components for which the manufacturer has committed long term support – from Intel’s embedded computing range, for example.

For many programs, ultimate performance is required. For others, minimal power consumption/heat dissipation are key. We offer a range of performance/watt options designed to deliver the optimum solution.

Sometimes, you need to mix it up to get what you want.

Demanding applications need creative thinking – like combining different kinds of processor.

All of Abaco’s single board computers use either an Intel or PowerPC architecture multicore processor.

For the most demanding or specialist environments, multiprocessor boards are available that significantly enhance performance/slot or that are uniquely suited to applications such as graphics, video, artificial intelligence and autonomy.

Combining two Intel Core i7 processors, for example, delivers up to 665 GigaFLOPS of performance. For applications that can leverage the unique multi-core architecture of graphics processors, GPU and Intel processors are combined for a remarkable 1.4 TeraFLOPS of throughput.

Application deployment faster than a speeding bullet.

With AXIS, you get the tools you need to develop, debug and tune easier and more quickly.

AXIS is a complete development environment designed to minimize the cost, risk and time-to-deployment of scalable and portable high performance embedded computing solutions. It provides a complete set of powerful, flexible, intuitive tools and libraries that support the entire development process, from design through debugging, optimization and testing.

The suite includes an extensive range of tools, including AXIS ImageFlex, an image processing and visualization toolkit; the AXIS Lib high performance vector math, DSP and linear algebra library; AXIS EventView, a high precision event analyser; and AXIS View, which allows a developer to understand how hardware resources are being used in real time.

Customer support for AXIS is provided by our HPEC Innovation Center.

When things have gone wrong, it’s already too late.

Rigorous system testing at start-up enables problems to be identified- before they matter.

Abaco’s advanced Deployed Test capability is the result of 30 years of continuous development – and continues to be enhanced. With two components – Built-in Test (BIT) and Background Condition Screening (BCS), it is highly configurable completely operating system-independent.

BIT tests and collates results for all Abaco boards/daughter boards connected in the system.

Users are able to balance the best depth of coverage for the required maximum execution time, giving a best fit to the application circumstances. Intrusive testing provides the highest possible coverage and confidence, while Fast BIT and Fast Start provide the flexibility to respond to specific requirements.