Search
White Papers

Displaying 1 - 40 of 87
Title: Release Date Description
A Comparison of AXISFlow and MPI Middleware April 2014 This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of Abaco Systems ’ AXISFlow, a proprietary API, and MPI (Message Passing Interface), which is a commonly used open standard API in the HPC (High Performance Computing) industry.
A guide to multi-channel synchronization for MIMO systems September 2018

For MIMO radar, SIGINT, and EW applications, precise channel synchronization within several degrees is essential, but can take months of development to achieve. Our guide details an approach to speeding the synchronization of multiple Gigasample JESD204B ADCs, an auto-calibration scheme, an example case study, and experimental results.

A Guide to the Generic Vehicle Architecture December 2016

Our product development is strongly guided by support for industry initiatives such as VICTORY and FACE. This white paper describes the UK’s Generic Vehicle Architecture which is also designed to improve interoperability and scalability while minimizing cost.

Achieving Reliability to Match Capability December 2019

Maximizing system reliability in military embedded computing is an imperative. Here, we describe the Health Toolkit, the first commercial solution designed to provide the insight that can support that goal.

Addressing the challenges of low latency video system requirements for embedded applications September 2017

Here, Larry Schaffer, Director of Business Development and Haydn Nelson, Director of Product Management, RF and DSP review the sources of latency, and how to minimize it.

Advances in Radar Processing February 2009 With radar systems, as with many other military applications, it is difficult to determine whether the requirement for greater processing capability has driven the development of more powerful hardware and software – or whether radar systems designers have been quick to perceive the opportunities presented by more capable hardware and easier-to-use software. Whichever is the case, it is certainly true that today’s sophisticated radar processing is reliant on three key elements. Click on the white paper link to learn more about the three key elements in which today’s radar processing systems rely on.
AI for Embedded Defense is Here July 2019

Embedded, many-core, AI-capable rugged supercomputing is now ready for defense applications, in a rugged, deployable form factor. This white paper describes how the GVC1001 fulfills the requirements.

Anti-Tamper Technology: Safeguarding Today’s COTS Platforms January 2016 Secure embedded computer and communications systems are critical for mission success in today’s environment of escalating cyber threats. Data integrity must be protected as it is processed, stored, and transmitted. The strategic risk management of these systems is known as Information Assurance (IA), which entails a combination of physical, technical, and administrative controls. At the core of an assured system is an authentic, trusted foundation based on Anti-Tamper (AT) safeguards using layered security features at the hardware, firmware, and software level. Abaco Systems is responding to the need for assured systems by incorporating product features that enable anti-tamper safeguards. This paper focuses on the use of COTS anti-tamper frameworks to support secure platforms and provide information assurance.
ATCA Blades, 6WINDGate Software Pair to Optimize Data Rate Throughput June 2011 As bandwidth needs increase throughout the telecommunications arena, the industry is being forced to look beyond 10Gbit/s data rates to 40 and even 100 Gigabit throughputs. Such high performance forces the use of acceleration features on the hardware as well as the use of bare metal operating systems to best-utilize all available processor cores. This white paper looks at the risks involved in the development of such systems, as well as how the use of Abaco Systems ATCA blades and 6WINDGate software can mitigate those risks.
ATCA Makes the Most of Multicore Processors April 2010 Our recently published white paper describes how ATCA takes advantage of multicore processors to deliver very high compute density, reliability and redundancy. For example, in compute-intensive applications, where a large number of processors must communicate with high throughput and very low latency, ATCA delivers. It also offers computing density — an ATCA system with 14 dual Intel® 6-core "Westmere" processors yields 168 cores within a single ATCA chassis. Communication applications, which likewise demand high throughput and efficient packet processing, also benefit from parallel processing which is where multicore technology shines. An ATCA communication system composed of two Ethernet hubs, two multicore processor blades, and up to 12 dual 16-core OCTEON Plus packet processor blades provides 320 MIPS64 cores (OCTEON devices) and 24 Intel® Westmere devices in one chassis.
Automated Target Tracking July 2012 This paper explores the ramifications of real-time autonomous vehicle performance in cluttered environments. It analyzes the gap between the predictable and the unpredictable, introduces real object tracing, explores the benefits and pitfalls of real-time moving object tracking and introduces possible solutions for uninterrupted operation of autonomous vehicles.
Autonomy Computer for Highly Automated Vehicles October 2017

In this white paper, Kevin Moran, who is Director, Business Development, Autonomy looks at the technologies that are bringing truly autonomous vehicles a reality.

AXIS - Taking the Sting out of Multiprocessor DSP Application Development February 2008 These days a Systems Engineer faces a number of issues when configuring and programming a complex, heterogeneous multiprocessor system for a Mil & Aero application. These include: How to size the system – what compute resources will it take? How to check if the system is configured as it should be? How to maximize the performance of the algorithms? How to move data around the system across widely different interconnects? How to map the application onto the system and how to see the application’s performance in real-time? How to re-scale the application to a different sized system without a major rewrite and how to migrate the application to new processors and interconnects? This white paper will show how a modern tool-chain might address these issues, and result in a much reduced time to solution.
AXIS Software Development Tools July 2021

AXIS is a full suite of integrated software development tools.

AXIS Takyon: a much-needed solution to communication in embedded HPC applications June 2019

Abaco is helping create a new open standard point-to-point communication to address a significant problem in the embedded HPC market. Here, we describe the problem, why it needs to be solved – and how we propose to solve it.

Beyond DVE: Options for Improving Situational Awareness January 2014 This paper explores options for closing the gap between natural vision and indirect vision in all conditions, allowing deployed forces to see, understand, and react to their surroundings in safety even when visual integrity is compromised.
Classification of objects from video streams white paper March 2017

Efforts to replicate the human ability to classify objects have historically been largely academic, lab-bound and isolated; each employs one chosen algorithm, is often coded, tuned and operated on the same platform; and does not apply continuous learning or evolution. In the world of the Industrial Internet, there is an opportunity to have many different machines observing the physical world through a variety of sensors and applying a “collective learning”, such that the experience of the individual machine contributes to the learning of the whole.

Considering the Make vs. Buy Decision for Flight-Certifiable Embedded Electronics April 2022

Some aircraft designers and systems integrators already design computers in-house. For these companies, the question must be asked, just because you can, should you? Anything that distracts you from your core competencies could result in project overruns, delays or failure.

Consumer Market Drives Advances in High-Performance Embedded Computing April 2011 This white paper looks at how the high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) segment of the military and aerospace market is benefiting from technological advances, and how system developers can best leverage the advantages being afforded them.
COTS-Based Computer Systems Reduce Risks to System Developers April 2011 This white paper explores many of the avenues by which risk can enter a system development project, and how a standard COTS-based computer system can be used to advantage to reduce or even eliminate many potential risk issues.
Creating Flexible Hardware Systems with FPGA Partial Reconfiguration October 2019

Partial Reconfiguration allows FPGAs to dynamically change modules without disrupting other parts of the design. This white paper describes the special considerations throughout the design process when using the new Xilinx RFSoC technology.

daqNet - A Better Way to Build a Data Acquisition System March 2007 With the release of the daqNet, Abaco Systems has advanced the state of the art on all fronts – greater fidelity and accuracy of acquired data, improved channel density, a bus architecture which relies on the ubiquitous Ethernet standard, and, most importantly, simplified system integration. daqNet is a 1U, network attached, data acquisition server supporting up to 192 channels of analog input. A complete sub-system, the daqNet comes complete with its own chassis and integrated power supply, with configuration information and acquired data being sent via a dual redundant Gbit Ethernet link. Configuration options allow for many combinations of analog and/or digital I/O, making it a suitable choice for a wide variety of sonar, test and measurement, and other acoustic applications.
Degraded Visual Environment (DVE) Meeting the Challenge December 2020

Solutions that allow aircraft crews to navigate in DVE are a critical need and a key area of interest for military and commercial applications. This whitepaper examines common DVE challenges and some promising solutions.

Design Approaches Impact GPGPU Implementation May 2017 Two approaches can be taken when implementing a GPGPU design: chip-down and mezzanine. Each path has its own characteristics that affect the suitability of that implementation for a particular application. This white paper examines these trade-offs to aid a system designer in making the right choice for their program.
Designing and Manufacturing Rugged COTS Assemblies May 2010 What to look for when designing and selecting a rugged COTS-based product.
DSP Applications to Reap Benefits from Inclusion of AVX in Processors May 2011 This white paper looks at the potential impact that the addition of AVX technology in the 2nd Generation Intel Core i7 processors may have on DSP applications in the military and aerospace arena.
DSP Libraries and Graphical Tools Accelerate Distributed Corner Turn Development March 2008 Virtually every radar application requires many FFTs on a set of radar pulse returns. The FFTs are normally performed in fast time dimension (row data) or in the slow time dimension (column data). However, mathematical operations performed on column data are normally very slow as column data is not contiguous in memory. This means that streaming accesses are not available, and SDRAM pages may need to be opened and closed; it is therefore faster to perform a matrix transpose or “corner turn” on the column data then process the slow time dimension FFTs on rows of data. This matrix transpose operation is extremely straightforward if the FFT processing is performed with a single embedded processor. However, real-time constraints usually mandate the use of multi-computers where the data flow and processing are much more complicated. This white paper will show how DSP libraries and graphical tools accelerate this distributed corner turn development.
Effective Video Handling on Unmanned Vehicles December 2012 This paper describes and illustrates some of the many applications for which the Abaco Systems ICS-8580 rugged video processor is an ideal solution. It has the flexibility and features to greatly ease the system integration burden by providing one platform that can be used in many different ways. The ICS-8580 and the standalone daq8580 are truly unique products in the rugged COTS market. The ICS-8580 and daq8580 are interchangeable for any of the applications cited in this document. Choosing which product should be used is simply a question of optimal system architecture when other processing needs are factored in.
Electronic warfare: an introduction to low latency COTS solutions April 2019

The pressure to deliver leading edge electronic warfare solutions in the shortest possible time has never been greater. Increasingly, that means COTS solutions – more readily available and at lower cost than in-house development. Here, we look at some options.

Embedded Computing Technologies for Unmanned Vehicles August 2010 The range of computing technologies required by unmanned vehicles is broad. The ability to capture and process video information in challenging environments. The ability to process sensor-acquired data. The ability to ensure robust communications onboard the vehicle and with a ground station. The ability to take autonomous action based on the data it acquires. Abaco Systems solutions for challenging military and aerospace applications feature many of those technologies. This white paper looks at some of the technology challenges that have to be overcome in order to maximize the effectiveness of unmanned vehicles.
Enhanced cooling technologies for superior reliability, performance June 2017 Brian Hoden, Principle Mechanical Engineer, explains how the most demanding deployed environments need the most advanced cooling technologies to maximize reliability.
Ethernet switches: why time matters March 2017

A managed Ethernet switch can offer significant advantages over an unmanaged switch in terms of flexibility, availability and security. However: organizations will often compromise on these benefits in favor of the faster start-up times offered by an unmanaged switch. Now, work undertaken by the network engineering team at Abaco Systems means that compromise may no longer be necessary: it is possible to have the best of both worlds.

Ethernet Switching April 2007 In recent years Ethernet and Internet Protocol (IP)technologies have made their way from commercial networks into telecommunications and military networks. Although Ethernet is the most popular communication protocol, it has some considerable shortcomings when applied to these challenging environments. However, network architects are willing to adapt to or work around Ethenet's limitations, and embedded switching is a useful tool in tyhis process. This paper is intended to introduce you to: • Basics of data transmission using Ethernet and IP • Concepts of network layers • Layer-2 switching • Layer-3 switching • Protocols that typically run on Ethernet and IP switches • Redundancy and failover – a critical subject for both military and telecommunication applications. • Applicable examples
Game-Changing Technologies in Electronic Warfare January 2017

The Electronic Warfare operating environment is unique because a system latency difference measured in nanoseconds can mean the difference between mission success or failure. This paper describes how COTS technologies are pushing, the frontiers of the possible in EW.

GPUDirect™ RDMA March 2013 GPUDirect RDMA solves an age-old problem for GPUs by removing the CPU and system memory bottleneck. By doing so, GPUDirect RDMA greatly decreases the latency of streaming data into the GPU from external PCIe endpoints and increases bandwidth through more efficient PCIe intercommunication. This allows the GPU to move into new application domains, like electronic warfare and radar/SIGINT frontends, which were previously inaccessible due to low-latency requirements. Learn how the latest generation of Kepler™-family GPUs and CUDA™ 5.0 from NVIDIA®, along with a new feature called GPUDirect™ RDMA enable 3rd-party PCIe endpoints to DMA directly to and from the GPU, without the use of system memory or the CPU.
GStreamer Optimized Multimedia Processing for Audio and Video October 2015

GStreamer is a platform-independent (Microsoft® Windows®, Linux®, Android™, OS X®, BSD, OpenSolaris) multimedia framework for constructing modular processing pipelines using an extensible plug-in architecture. Applications range from simple Ogg Vorbis playback and audio/video streaming to complex audio (mixing), video (non-linear editing) processing, metadata, subtitles and much more.

Today, GStreamer is used in many open source applications including Totem, Rhythmbox and Songbird as well as being heavily utilized by the GNOME desktop environment under Linux.

High Performance Embedded Computing and Its Impact on Mil/Aero Applications February 2017 High Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) combines the latest processor and interconnect technologies with infrastructures such as OpenVPX and standard software components to allow military programs to pack more computing power into smaller size, weight and power (SWaP) for SIGINT, radar, EW, and many other applications. The drive toward Modular Open Systems Architectures (MOSA) is at the heart of Abaco Systems selection of technologies, and this paper examines how this can positively impact programs.
High-Speed Data Acquisition for Medical Imaging Utilizing SDR Technology December 2008 New medical technologies often hold great promise, but few patients will benefit unless an effective implementation can be brought to market at a reasonable cost. One of the most cost effective ways of developing new solutions is to leverage techniques and equipment developed for other purposes. Medical ultrasound, which borrows heavily from naval sonar, is probably the best known example, but other technology developed for military purposes is also being adapted to medical uses. With the introduction of Abaco Systems ICS-1650, developers of PC-based medical imaging systems now have a native PCI Express slot card that provides high performance signal acquisition capability with leading edge FPGA based DSP resources, at a very reasonable price.
How to address future obsolescence in embedded computer systems September 2020

This white paper discusses well-developed strategies to help you evaluate and strengthen your plan for long-term viability of programs and systems that includes embedded single board computers.

Hypersonic Flight Raises the Bar for Embedded Electronics March 2019

This white paper looks at how hypersonic flight will place radical new demands on the embedded computing systems on which they will rely – in terms of not only new levels of performance, but also of new levels of ruggedness.