No military embedded system can function until its software development and testing phases are put through rigorous test and development cycles. Military applications put extreme demands on both. This section is devoted to covering trends in operating systems, ruggedized test and security assurance. Articles here focus on EMI/RFI, shock and vibration testing and mitigation, cooling, HALT/HASS and a host of other hardware and software test-related technologies.
Most Recent
System Safety and Reliability Trends
Revamping Methods for Rugged Equipment Testing
Wayne Tustin, President, Equipment Reliability Institute
February 2010
Consider any electronic or mechanical piece of equipment intended for military use. Stating that the equipment is “rugged” is not sufficient. There’s no neat category that defines whatRead More...
Past Articles
System Safety and Reliability Trends
Memory Allocation Strategy in Safety-Critical Mil Systems
Steve Graves, Co-founder and CEO, McObject
February 2010
Developers of embedded software for military and aerospace projects often lack the luxury of knowing the exact amount of memory that program variables will require at runtime. InRead More...
Ethernet: 10 Gbit and Beyond
ATCA and 10 GbE Primed for Military Service
James B. Doyle, Congressional Affairs Liaison, Emerson Network Power Embedded Computing
January 2010
A significant change in the military equipment market is a shift in focus for equipment development. Electronic warfare driven by C4ISR is gaining favor over big-ticket weaponsRead More...
Ethernet: 10 Gbit and Beyond
Case Study: Revving up VPX for 10 Gbaud Operation
Bob Sullivan, V. P. of Technology and Michael Rose, Engineering Consultant, Hybricon, Jason Boh, Applications Engineer, Agilent
January 2010
VPX has become the de facto standard for the current generation of military embedded computing platforms. These systems include high-speed serial fabrics such as Serial RapidIO, PCIRead More...
HALT, HASS for Embedded Boards
HALT/HASS Testing Goes Beyond the Norm
Rob Dixon, Staff Reliability Engineer, RadiSys
December 2009
The increased focus on network-centric warfare in today's military operations has expanded the use of embedded systems in the deployment of mobile, mission-computing andRead More...
Military Simulation & Test Trends
Signal Simulation Aids Testing of Advanced Radar Designs
John S. Hansen, Senior Applications Engineer, Agilent Technologies
November 2009
When characterizing the performance metrics of modern military radar system designs, a variety of test signals are required to accurately simulate the operational environment. In theRead More...
1U Blade Servers Invade Military Designs
1U Rackmount Boards Serve Up a Diverse Array of Solutions
Jeff Child, Editor-in-Chief
October 2009
1U Blade Server computing solutions and other 1U rackmount boards are rapidly finding a niche in a variety of military applications such as SATCOM-On-the-Move systems. Now thatRead More...
1U Blade Servers Invade Military Designs
1U Rackmount Servers Feed High-Density Computing Needs
Dennis Smith, Vice President, Engineering, Themis Computer
October 2009
Government organizations deploy a vast array of servers for mission-critical applications in a wide variety of networks—including enterprise computing, field operations, command andRead More...
Cooling Challenges in Airborne Systems
Airborne Electronic Systems Face Unique Cooling Hurdles
Bob Sullivan, Vice President of Technology Hybricon
September 2009
Modern digital and analog electronics products are finding applications in multiple airborne systems. These applications are as diverse as communications, platform system level controlRead More...
USB and PCI Express in Military Test
USB and PCI Express Revolutionize Military Test
Jeff Child, Editor-in-Chief
August 2009
Fading fast are the days when complex military electronics systems required large racks of boards to implement test platforms for them. Advances in serial fabric interconnects andRead More...
Java and Ada in Real-Time Systems
Ada Language Suits Real-Time Safety-Critical Needs
Benjamin M. Brosgol, Senior Technical Staff AdaCore
July 2009
Developing real-time software for military systems is difficult. In such systems correctness means not only computing the right results but doing so within specified time intervals.Read More...
