Which Video Bus? How ARINC 818 Became the Global Standard

Which Video Bus? How ARINC 818 Became the Global Standard

Military and civilian aviation systems require high-speed video systems for cockpit displays, head-up displays, infrared and optical sensors, and flight simulators, to name a few. Twenty-first century advances require higher bandwidths and greater flexibility. Certification requirements are strict. One high-speed video protocol addresses this reality: ARINC 818.

In the early 2000s, after frustrating and costly integration issues involving proprietary video protocols, Airbus, Boeing, and other OEMs put their efforts into a common avionics video standard. ARINC convened a committee to define such a standard, which included Great River Technology (GRT). The challenge: how to meet ever-expanding resolution and bandwidth requirements while maintaining enough flexibility to handle nearly any video format, update rate, and color-encoding scheme.

The 2006 Avionics Digital Video Bus, ARINC 818-1, gained quick adoption in military and commercial programs such as the A400M and B-787. Today, ARINC 818-2 is employed by dozens of aircraft and upgrade programs. This current version defines speeds to 28 Gb/s, giving it room to grow.

“ARINC 818 has become the de-facto standard for high-speed video for avionics systems,” said Tim Keller, COO for Airborne Products for GRT. “ARINC 818 is now the global standard.” GRT has participated in more than 100 ARINC 818 projects worldwide.

“We’ve created tools to address the challenges,” concluded Keller. “We’ve listened to customers who have used the tools. We’ve used the development tools ourselves and continue to refine them.” (See VPA III illustration.) “By doing so, we let customers know they’ll have a partner throughout program lifecycles.”

C912: 3U VPX SBC for High-bandwidth Applications

The versatile C912 from Aitech is a 3U VPX PowerPC SBC designed for high-bandwidth applications. The board is based on Freescale’s new QorIQ T4 Series SoC multi-core, multi-thread processors with AltiVec and has the option to incorporate the ultra low-power T4xx1 processor family for improved thermal management across a wider temperature range.

Enhanced Functionality. When paired with Aitech’s M596 AMD-based XMC, the C912 serves as the heart of Aitech’s CB912 VideoPac that enhances graphics processing in dense computing applications. Integrated software bundles provide the user with real-world solutions for their mission-critical and flight safety, and the ability for D0-178 Level A imaging, high-end graphics and data processing applications.

Flexible Resources. The wide variety of on-board I/O and large memory resources, including on-board mass storage, in combination with the powerful SoC processor, make the C912 an ideal, out-of-the-box SBC for many other data-intensive rugged applications.

COTS Convenience. An industry standard XMC slot provides flexibility and expandability, along with the availability and cost benefits, of COTS. For improved security assurance, the C912 also includes the latest QorIQ Secure Boot and Trust Architecture 2.0. Its mechanical and electrical designs guarantee operation over the full range of rugged application environments. The C912 is available in industry standard, conduction-cooled and air-cooled form factors.

Curtiss-Wright Showcased Latest Avionics Solutions at Avionics Expo 2019

Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions division displayed its latest avionics products at Avionics Expo, Munich Germany, March 12- 13, 2019 (Booth A17). The products featured in Curtiss-Wright’s booth included:

  • DO-254/DO-178 Safety-certifiable 3U and 6U OpenVPXTM single board computers
  • Rugged airborne video management system solutions including a rugged 21” touchscreen
  • LCD Advance Video Display Unit (AVDU), Video Recorder, Video Switch and Converter
  • Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI) products including the KAM-500 and Axon family of Data Acquisition Units (DAU)
  • The FortressTM Flight Data Recorder, and…
  • An ultra-compact mission processor system (the Parvus DuraCOR 311) and networkingsystem (Parvus DuraNET 20-11).

In addition to a wide range of proven COTS modules and systems, Curtiss-Wright collaborated with other leading technology partners for live demonstrations of open architecture products hosted in the partners’ booths:

Featured in Green Hills Software’s Booth – A64 – “Green Hills Software INTEGRITY-178 tuMPTM for Avionics Systems”
The Avionics Systems Demo features Green Hills Software’s INTEGRITY-178 tuMP DO-178B Level A Safety Certified and Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACETM) Conformant RTOS.

INTEGRITY-178 was demonstrated on a Curtiss-Wright’s safety-certifiable VPX3-152 3U OpenVPX NXP Power Architecture T2080 SBC and VPX3-716 3U OpenVPX AMD E8860 Graphics Processing Module. The demonstration featured Harris Corporation’s popular FliteScene Digital Moving Map software that provides situational awareness for both civilian and military operations. The INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS is the only operating system (OS) certified to conform to the FACE Technical Standard for both the Safety Base and Security Profiles for the C, C++ and Ada programming languages. The INTEGRITY-178 tuMP RTOS is available for all of Curtiss-Wright’s DO-254 safety-certifiable products, including its SBCs featuring Power Architecture, Intel, and Arm processors.

Featured in Lynx Software Technologies Booth – A60 – “Primary Flight Display/Situational Awareness”
The Primary Flight Display/Situational Awareness Demo featured ENSCO Avionics’ IData Tool Suite for advanced HMI toolkit and application elements for development and deployment of embedded software display devices. The demo highlights the features of Lynx Software Technologies’ LynxOS-178 DO-178 Safety-Critical RTOS. The application interfaces to a standard OpenGL SC 1.0.1 DO-178C/ED-12C safety certifiable graphics library suite from Core Avionics & Industrial Inc. (CoreAVI), running on LynxOS-178 high-performance, reliability, safety and security RTOS. Hardware includes Curtiss-Wright’s VPX3-131 NXP P4080 single board computer and XMC- 715 AMD Embedded Radeon E4690 GPU.

Featured in SYSGO’s Booth – A36 – “Avionics Glass Cockpit”

The Avionics Glass Cockpit demonstration featured ANSYS’ SCADE model-based development environment and DO-178C/DO-330 TQL-1 qualifiable code generation toolchain for critical embedded software with an inspection mode. The demo highlights the underlying features of SYSGO’s PikeOS 4.2. The application interfaces to a standard OpenGL SC 1.0.1 DO-178C/ED-12C safety certifiable graphics library suite from CoreAVI, running on SYSGO’s PikeOS 4.2 separation kernel based hypervisor and RTOS designed for the highest levels of safety and security. Hardware includes Curtiss-Wright’s VPX3-133 NXP T2080 single board computer and XMC-715 AMD Graphics XMC.

Featured in HENSOLDT’s Booth – A35 – “CentrionTM Safety Certifiable Mission Computer System running Situational Awareness Software”
This demonstration featured DO-178C/ED-12C safety certifiable digital mapping, tactical information and Synthetic Vision System (SVS) applications running on a DO-254/ED-80 safety-certifiable mission computer. The Centrion mission computer, available from HENSOLDT and Curtiss-Wright, is a rugged ARINC 600 enclosure with re-usable OpenVPX building blocks including the VPX3-150 and VPX3-1220 SBCs, VPX3-716 Graphics and VPX3-611 I/O Card. It features CoreAVI’s OpenGL SC 1.0.1 graphics library suite for the discrete AMD Embedded Radeon high performance GPU for 4k video output. The demonstration is based on HENSOLDT’s situational awareness solution which utilizes standardized software support functions and interfaces. The Centrion uses Wind River’s VxWorks 653 RTOS.

8-Channel Thermocouple and RTD Simulator Boards from UEI

United Electronic Industries (UEI) today announced the release of the DNx-TC-378 8-Channel Thermocouple Simulator board and the DNx-RTD-388 8-Channel RTD Simulator board. Both the boards are compatible with all of UEI’s popular “Cube”, RACKtangle and FLATRACK I/O chassis and further complement UEI’s extensive simulator output offerings which include RVDT/LVDT, Synchro/Resolver and Strain Gage boards. All boards are covered by UEI’s 10-Year Availability Guarantee to ensure long-term success in any application.

The DNx-TC-378 is a high-precision thermocouple (TC) simulator offering 16-bit resolution and offers better than 0.6°C accuracy with most thermocouple types. Each channel is fully isolated from all others and is capable of simulating the full TC range. Built in support for J, K, T, E, N, R, and S type TC is included. The board provides cold-junction compensation so field connections can be made wherever required. The board will simulate an open TC and includes voltage and current diagnostic readback on each channel.

The DNx-RTD-388 simulates 1000Ω RTDs and is based on actual switched resistors, precisely duplicating the behavior of actual RTDs. The board supports 2, 3 and 4-wire configurations with accuracy of 0.26°C (1Ω). The board is an ideal solution for simulator / SIL applications where an on-board device expects an RTD as an input. Both open and short circuit conditions are simulated. The board also has built in diagnostic current monitoring capability. The board is an ideal solution for simulator / SIL applications where an on-board device expects an RTD as an input. The RTD-388 series simulates a 1000 Ω RTD while the standard DNx-RTD-388-100 simulates 100Ω RTDs. Other resistance versions are available on a special-order basis.

Pricing starts at $1,600 for the DNx-TC-378 and $3,000 for the DNx-RTD-388. Call 508-921-4600 or email sales@ueidaq.com for delivery options.

For more information, please visit www.ueidaq.com.

Presagis Award Winning UAV Ground Control Station Avionics Display Runs on Teledyne e2v Qormino Common Computer Platform at Avionics Expo 2019

Presagis joined forces with Teledyne e2v to successfully port Presagis’ award winning UAV Ground Control Station (GCS) Avionics Display to Teledyne e2v’s Qormino® QT1040-4GB. This demonstration is available at Teledyne e2v’s booth A47 during Avionics Expo 2019 in Munich. For more information, check our Teledyne e2v’s latest newsletter.

The demonstration showcases a Presagis’ VAPS XT application on Wind River’s VxWorks 7 platform using CoreAVI’s ArgusCore SC OpenGL SC 1.0.1 graphics suite and running on Teledyne e2v’s Qormino QT1040-4GB. It shows a GCS for a UAV built using VAPS XT entirely with generated code; no hand coding was necessary. The VAPS XT architecture includes a porting layer that allows unchanged application code to run on any system with a C++ compiler: the same code runs on Windows, Linux, Android, iOS VxWorks, etc. Only the porting layer changes.

Qormino technology is a smart, small and powerful packaged common computer platform that combines NXP QorIQ processors based on PowerArchitecture or ARM, with DDR4 memory on Teledyne e2v’s custom substrates, designed to respond to SWaP (Size, Weight and Power) constraints. It offers high performance packed into a small substrate, reduced system design time, improving time-to-market and 15+ years availability for obsolescence management. QT1040-4GB features a NXP T1040 processor running at 1.4GHz, connected to 4GB of DDR4 memory through 64 bits of communication and 8 bits of ECC, on a 44mm x 26mm substrate.

Presagis has provided HMI graphical modeling and development tools to produce state-of-the-art graphics and highly optimized code for both PC and embedded systems for over 30 years. Its flagship product VAPS XT is an open and extensible COTS graphical HMI modeling and development tool for developing real-time applications supporting general HMI and ARINC 661 HMI certifiable and non-certifiable safety-critical environments. It is an easy-to-use yet powerful full-featured software tool for the rapid development of interactive graphical HMI displays for avionics and other applications. It allows a user to capture the design of an HMI, automatically generate source code to implement that design, and ultimately achieve certification up to DAL A for DO-178C.

Presagis Demonstrates VAPS XT Vulkan Drivers GPU Support Capabilities at Avionics Expo 2019

Presagis unveiled at Avionics Expo 2019 in Munich an application built using the VAPX XT tool running CoreAVI’s VKCore SC graphics drivers, a safety critical version of the Vulkan API introduced by the Khronos group in 2016. According to their website, “Vulkan is a new generation graphics and compute API that provides high-efficiency, cross-platform access to modern GPUs used in a wide variety of devices from PCs and consoles to mobile phones and embedded platforms.”

This demonstration provides a clear path for developing Vulkan based graphics when using VAPS XT to design graphical user interfaces. Presagis’ VAPS XT enables application developers to efficiently use Vulkan technology to design high performance graphics by removing any coding intricacies it may bring and allowing them to focus on the design. VAPS XT’s code generation module performs the bulk of the work and allows application developers to leverage the advanced capabilities of the Vulkan API to design high performance user graphical interfaces.

The application built using VAPS XT is supported by CoreAVI’s VkCore SC which is the avionics industry’s first safety critical Vulkan-based graphics and compute driver and is RTCA DO-178C/EUROCAE ED-12C certifiable up to Design Assurance Level (DAL) A. The application is also running VkCoreGL™ SC application libraries which enable customers running OpenGL® applications to harness the enhanced capabilities offered by Vulkan graphics and compute functions, while still using OpenGL, allowing integrators a facilitated transition period to using the full Vulkan API.

“CoreAVI has a long-standing partnership with Presagis to deliver safety critical graphics and HMI tools to the Mil/Aero industry,” said Dan Joncas, Executive VP of Sales and Marketing at CoreAVI. “We are excited that Presagis has chosen to integrate our new VkCore SC graphics and compute driver with their HMI modeling and simulation tool. We look forward to enabling our joint customers with platforms for safety critical applications that allow them to harness the full potential of modern compute and graphics capabilities.”

Presagis has provided HMI graphical modeling and development tools to produce state-of-the-art graphics and highly optimized code for both PC and embedded systems for over 30 years. Its flagship product VAPS XT is an open and extensible COTS graphical HMI modeling and development tool for developing real-time applications supporting general HMI and ARINC 661 HMI certifiable and non-certifiable safety-critical environments. It is an easy-to-use yet powerful full-featured software tool for the rapid development of interactive graphical HMI displays for avionics and other applications. It allows a user to capture the design of an HMI, automatically generate source code to implement that design, and ultimately achieve certification up to DAL A for DO-178C.

Presagis Demonstrates VAPS XT Live Video Support Capabilities at Avionics Expo 2019

Presagis has unveiled at Avionics Expo 2019 in Munich, an application built using the VAPX XT tool running EIZO Rugged Solutions’ Condor GR4 platform – NVIDIA Quadro Pascal based, with 3G-SDI capture and display capabilities. The companies have successfully joined forces to highlight key powerful features of their respective technologies available for today’s market.

The demonstration highlights VAPX XT’s high-quality fonts and graphics rendering for HD displays and embedded platforms as well as live video support capabilities. In addition, it highlights live video including replication, scaling, alpha blending and chroma key support for video manipulation with low resource impact. It allows for matching different data sizes, perform pan and zoom and automatic video sizing. Furthermore, VAPS XT provides support for symbology overlay on video for sensor fusion, navigation support, and tactical awareness as well as the flexibility to change video sources and interfaces after automatic code generation.

VAPS XT’s high performance live video support and capabilities are made possible by EIZO’s Condor GR4 3U VPX GPGPU and video capture card. It enables the application to effectively highlight its live video support features by providing ultra-high performance rugged graphics/capture capabilities. The Condor GR4 3U VPX, based on either NVIDIA’s Quadro P3000 or P5000, offers four 3G-SDI inputs, four 3G-SDI outputs and a DisplayPort output. With NVIDIA GPUDirect™ Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) support, the captured video data is transferred directly into GPU memory for processing and/or display, resulting in extremely low latency. The MIL-STD-810G compliant card supports PCI Express 3.0 (up to 8 lanes) and is available in conduction-cooled and air-cooled variants.

Presagis has provided HMI graphical modeling and development tools to produce state-of-the-art graphics and highly optimized code for both PC and embedded systems for over 30 years. Its flagship product VAPS XT is an open and extensible COTS graphical HMI modeling and development tool for developing real-time applications supporting general HMI and ARINC 661 HMI certifiable and non-certifiable safety-critical environments. It is an easy-to-use yet powerful full-featured software tool for the rapid development of interactive graphical HMI displays for avionics and other applications. It allows a user to capture the design of an HMI, automatically generate source code to implement that design, and ultimately achieve certification up to DAL A for DO-178C.

Teledyne e2v, Wind River and CoreAVI Selected to Provide Processing Technology for BAE Systems’ Mission Computer

Teledyne e2v, Wind River and CoreAVI announced today that they will provide key technologies for BAE Systems’ new mission computer. A mission computer is the central hub that processes all mission critical data on an aircraft. Receiving information from various external subsystems, the mission computer processes the data and presents it to the pilot on various displays in the cockpit. The joint solution includes Wind River VxWorks industry-leading real time operating system running on Teledyne e2v Qormino Common Computer Platform, and CoreAVI supplying its temperature-screened AMD Embedded Radeon E8860 GPUs as well as its safety critical ArgusCore SC1 OpenGL1.0.1 graphics drivers.

Qormino QT1040-04GB is a smart, small and powerful Common Computer Platform from Teledyne e2v designed to respond to SWaP constraints (Size, Weight and Power). It combines a T1040 Quad PowerArchitecture e5500 core running at 1.4GHz, 4GB of DDR4 memory, on a Custom Teledyne e2v substrate, with a 64-bit memory bus and 8 bits of ECC (Error Correction Code), and will run VxWorks on BAE Systems’ platform. More info on Qormio here.

VxWorks provides the base platform that consolidates different applications meant to improve situational awareness for pilots. The real-time avionics system will gather and display information from multiple sources in order to create a comprehensive picture of the aircraft and airspace. The deterministic capabilities of the platform are crucial for the overall system on-board the aircraft that has to provide low-latency response to the pilot.

CoreAVI will supply their ArgusCore SC1 safety critical OpenGL scalable graphics driver in conjunction with their temperature-screened E8860 GPU from AMD’s family of Embedded Radeon GPUs. Available with complete DO-178C DAL A certification evidences, specialized GPU safety monitor and virtualized graphics manager for multicore systems, both the safety critical graphic drivers and temperature-screened GPUs are used today in a wide range of embedded commercial and military avionics platforms.

Wind River, Teledyne e2v, and CoreAVI technologies are perfectly suited to address the multiple challenges that Mission Computer designers are facing today. Together they have published a technical brief highlighting how the rapid insertion of emerging technologies and standards is achievable in a cost-effective way into Mission Computing products, thanks to complementary hardware and software solutions serving the Aerospace & Defence industry and other critical infrastructure sectors. Download the brief here.

“To support the requirements of our customers, our mission computer needs to be capable of providing a high performing, multi-core processing platform while operating in a size, weight, and power-constrained space,” said Neale Osmond, project director at BAE Systems. “By utilizing emerging technologies from Teledyne e2v, Wind River and CoreAVI, we were able to deliver a fully capable, modern mission computer within a challenging timescale, while meeting our customer’s reliability and safety requirements.”

 

2018 Avionics Sales Reached a Record $2.7B

Worldwide business and general aviation avionics sales increased 17 percent year-over-year in 2018, reaching a record $2.7 billion, according to the Aircraft Electronics Association’s year-end Avionics Market Report released yesterday. This total, which was up from $2.3 billion in 2017, includes some $1.5 billion in retrofit sales and more than $1.1 billion in forward-fit sales (avionics equipment installed by airframe manufacturers during original production), the report said.

“With more than $2.7 billion in worldwide sales, [the] industry has recorded the largest dollar amount of year-end avionics sales since the reporting process began back in 2012,” said AEA president Paula Derks. “We have now seen eight-straight quarters of positive year-over-year sales growth dating back to the end of 2016.”

Of the AEA members that break out sales geographically, North America accounted for nearly 78 percent of 2018 sales, with other international markets accounting for the remainder. That compares with a breakdown of 74 percent North American sales and 26 percent international in 2017.

AEA’s data is based on 23 manufacturers that confidentially report their sales to an independent third party. Dollar amounts that are reported are net sales price, not manufacturer’s suggested retail price, and cover all business and general aviation aircraft electronics sales, including all components and accessories in the cockpit and cabin, software upgrades, portables, and certified and noncertified aircraft electronics, as well as all hardware from tip to tail, batteries, and chargeable product upgrades. The sales figures don’t include repairs and overhauls, extended warranty, or subscription services.

Thales Extends Global Footprint with Launch of Engineering Competence Center in Bengaluru

Thales continues its development in India by today announcing the launch of its Global Engineering Competence Center (ECC) in Bengaluru. The center aims to accelerate innovation and digital transformation to serve the needs of both the Indian market, and the Group’s global objectives.

For years, the Indian government has pursued a proactive policy to develop R&D and create high value-added infrastructure. To meet these challenges, India trains hundreds of thousands of highly qualified engineers every year and is positioning itself as the largest engineering resource in the world.

Thales is constantly searching for high value-added solutions to help customers master their decisive moments in an increasingly complex world. With almost €3 billion invested in R&D every year, the Group is a powerhouse of innovation with operations in 56 countries.

With the ECC, Thales seeks to play a major role in job creation and skill development in India as it targets to hire 3,000 engineers in the next three-five years along with its partners. It is a first-of- its-kind Engineering Competence Center in India focusing on software and hardware capabilities in the areas of civil as well as defense businesses, serving Thales’s global needs. P Satish Menon has been appointed to head this Center. He brings with him 30 years expertise in the fields of engineering, R&D, program management.

Initially, the ECC will dedicate activities to high value-added systems in the fields of Air Traffic Management, avionics, cockpit, flight management, inflight entertainment and connectivity systems, radar software, airborne Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance tactical management systems. The ECC will also concentrate on the creation of capabilities in advanced hardware technology such as Radio Frequency/designs for radars and communication equipment, high performance processing units and in airborne digital processing functions.

On the occasion of Aero India 2019, Thales Executive Board Members will welcome dignitaries from the Indian industry and government bodies at the ECC for an inauguration ceremony on 22 February.

“India is an innovative country with a great pool of skilled engineers. This is why we extend our 65 year long journey in the country and our global engineering footprint with the launch of our Group Engineering Competence Center in Bengaluru. This Center is uniquely positioned to serve all domains that Thales operates in and cater to worldwide markets. With our plans of hiring over 3000 engineers in the coming years, we look forward to significantly contributing to the ‘Skill India’ initiative and innovation in the country,” says Pascale Sourisse, senior Executive vice-president, International Development, Thales.