Radar is an object detection system that uses electromagnetic waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The term RADAR was coined in 1941 as an acronym for radio detection and ranging. The term has since entered the English language as a standard word, radar, losing the capitalization. Radar was originally called RDF (Radio Direction Finder, now used as a totally different device) in the United Kingdom.
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Serial ATA Stakes out Territory as Next-Gen Storage Interface
Over the past several years, serial interconnect schemes have been steadily pushing aside parallel buses, and that trend has impacted the memory and storage realm just as it has everyRead More...
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System, Board and Panel Innovations Fuel Rugged Display Demands
Leveraging cutting-edge graphics chips developed for the demanding gaming market, military graphics subsystems are now able to offer complex video and graphics functionality in highlyRead More...
COTS Products
Qseven-Based Carrier/SBC Duo Rolls The Qseven connector scheme leads the way on the notion of combining a variety of I/O technologies onto one connection. Supporting that standard,Read More...
The Inside Track
Parvus Awarded Follow-on Contracts for USMC EFV Subsystems Parvus has received new contracts from General Dynamics Land Systems (GDLS) in support of the U.S. Marine Corps’Read More...
Stand-Alone Rugged Boxes Come into their Own
Technology developments that reduce complexity and enhance usability are always a welcome addition to military applications. That need is being fueled by the increasing availability ofRead More...
Multicore Processor Boards Push the Compute-Density Envelope
Processor architectures sporting multiple CPU cores on the same device have moved swiftly from the exotic and into the mainstream desktop and sever realm. Gone now are the days whenRead More...
PXI/CompactPCI Backplanes for Embedded Test and Control OEMs
More than 10 new 3U and 6U PXI/CompactPCI backplanes offer from 4 to 18 slots and work with PXI, PXI Express, CompactPCI and CompactPCI Express modules. Engineers can design customRead More...
The Inside Track
Boeing Gets Contract to Add Virtual Radar to Navy T-45 Trainers The Boeing Company received a $28.3 million contract on Jan. 21 for two Virtual Mission Training System (VMTS) retrofitRead More...
FPGA Computing Solutions Help Radar Systems Keep Pace
Modern radar systems are operating over an ever increasing frequency range. Advances in analog conversion technology–both A/D and D/A converters–have lead to systems becoming highlyRead More...
COTS Products
Controller Adds Graphics to StackableUSB USB for years went underutilized in military embedded applications. That’s starting to change as uses from the technology presentRead More...
End-to-End UAV Messaging over Unreliable Data Links
In the complex software environments of both aircraft and ground station, many applications must communicate. Historically, developers built these as complex independent systems,Read More...
Processing and Musical Chairs
Okay embedded processing technologies, when the music stops I want each of you to grab a chair and sit. Musical chairs is a good way to describe the moving targets that are advancedRead More...
FPGA Boards Deliver DSP Muscle and I/O Flexibility
As FPGAs evolve to ever greater sophistication, complete systems can now be integrated into one or more FPGAs. Board-level product developers continue to ride that wave in two ways. OnRead More...
The Inside Track
Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Demo SEWIP Electronic Attack Capability Navy Lockheed Martin and Raytheon demonstrated a potential electronic attack solution for the U.S. Navy’s SurfaceRead More...
FPGA Boards and Systems Boost UAV Payload Compute Density
Large UAV platforms–like Global Hawk, Predator, Fire Scout, Taranis and others–have a seemingly endless appetite for greater onboard compute density. The payloads aboard those systemsRead More...
MicroTCA Gaining Ground in Military Applications
Deeply rooted in VME and CompactPCI platforms, military embedded design is undergoing a noticeable shift. Modern warfare initiatives are driving designers to find more bandwidth, whileRead More...
COTS Products
3U cPCI Board and Rack Family Satisfies Extreme Thermal Needs CompactPCI, particularly in its 3U flavor, is no longer the new kid on the block in the military market. It’s paidRead More...
“V” is Going and Coming
So here we go. Vacation time is over and we can once again get more than two people at the same time in a room or on a conference call. That also means that business travel willRead More...
Five Game-Changer Technology Trends Facing the Military
Compute-density has become the mantra for many of today's advanced military programs. More and more of system functionality is now implemented as software running on single boardRead More...
Case Study: 24 GHz Short-Range Radar Chip for Mil Vehicles
Military vehicles use radar sensors to enable features such as all-weather operations, weapons control, altimeter measurements, reconnaissance and navigation. In all of theseRead More...
Major Defense Programs Boost Their Appetite for Electronics
Coming in late December, the U.S. Congress approval of the 2011 Defense Authorization bill puts a budget in place for the DoD allowing the Pentagon to spend $725 billion in fiscalRead More...
Serial FPDP Board Roundup
VME Card Provides 24 Serial FPDP Channels Using FPGAs in conjunction with the Serial FPDP (sFPDP) interconnect makes for a powerful combination. Such a solution has enormousRead More...
The Inside Track
GE Intelligent Platforms Lands Contract for AH-64D Apache Simulator GE Intelligent Platforms has received an order for automatic video trackers valued at approximately $1.7 millionRead More...
Signal Simulation Aids Testing of Advanced Radar Designs
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...
Five That Push the Computing Envelope
Somehow every year I find it an absolute shock that the month of January falls immediately after December. You'd think my many years in the publishing industry would help me get wiseRead More...
COTS Products
VME SBC Serves Up Low Power Core 2 Duo The Core 2 Duo has become among the most prevalent CPUs in new embedded computer designs in the past couple of years. Its mix of performance andRead More...
The Inside Track
Raytheon Completes Design Review for CVN 78's Dual Band Radar Raytheon and the U.S. Navy recently completed a critical design review (CDR) for the Dual Band Radar (DBR), which will beRead More...
PCI Express Modules Target Beamforming Apps
PCI Express Modules Target Beamforming Apps High-performance data acquisition was once limited to general-purpose solutions. But as embedded board solutions have evolved,Read More...
FPDP Boards Maintain Niche in High-Bandwidth Apps
Many kinds of high-performance embedded computing systems in the military market have an appetite for high-speed data from sensors. Often such input is presented as one or moreRead More...
Stand-Alone Rugged Boxes Fine-Tune their Feature Sets
A trend has been building in the past couple of years where traditional embedded board vendors are adding stand-alone rugged box-level systems to their military market offerings. TheseRead More...
The Inside Track
General Atomics Selects PT’s Processing Gear for Navy’s Carrier AAG Program General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (EMS) Division has selected PT, the recently rebranded PerformanceRead More...
UAV Payloads Focus on Autonomy, ISR and Comms
As the use, design and planning of military UAVs matures, the DoD has adopted a strategy of closely pairing its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) programs with itsRead More...
The Inside Track
ITT Awarded JTRS Support Contract ITT has been awarded a $22.9 million contract for Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio Systems (SINCGARS) Software In-Service Support (SwISS)Read More...
The Inside Track
Northrop Grumman Demos Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) Aboard F-16 Northrop Grumman in conjunction with the U.S. Air Force has successfully completed a series of demonstrationRead More...
Slot-Card Systems Vie with Rugged Box Solutions
There’s no doubt that there has been a change occurring in the military embedded computing industry over the past five years or so. At the heart of that change is the risingRead More...
FPGA Boards Rev Up for Signal Processing Duties
Military applications like sonar, radar, SIGINT and software radio—all of which rely on heavy amounts of waveform processing—continue to leverage advances in FPGA technology. FasterRead More...
FPGA Processing Boards Roundup
Virtex-5 FPGA PMC Aims at I/O Processing At one time FPGAs served merely as glue logic interfaces. Now they function as complete processing engines. Acromag’s PMC-VFX modulesRead More...
Graphics and Video Advances Feed Situational Awareness Needs
Leveraging cutting-edge graphics chips developed for the demanding gaming market, military graphics subsystems are now able to offer complex video and graphics functionality in highlyRead More...
12-bit ADC Has Two or Six Channels with up to 3.2 GS/s per Channel
A new 12-bit ADC supports either two 12-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) channels at 3.2 GSPS (Gigasamples per second) or six channels at 1.6 GSPS. The Calypso-V5 from TekmicroRead More...
New DoD Goals Boost Preconfigured Subsystem Opportunities
Recent changes in the U.S. military’s mission strategy—following the change of administrations, and reflected in the DoD’s new budget—are shifting the military procurement landscape.Read More...
DSP Architectures Close the ISR Collection-Analysis Gap
Today’s climate of rapidly evolving asymmetric threats is forcing the U.S. military to quickly adapt in order to maintain tactical situational awareness. However, the traditionalRead More...
The Inside Track
Air Force Reserve Contracts SDS for F-16 Trainer Upgrade SDS International (SDS) has been awarded a multiyear contract to provide a full range of specialized operational and technicalRead More...
Embedded Tech Building Blocks Pave Way for a Net-Centric Future
As the U.S. military transforms itself to Network-Centric operations, every node in the networked military will be affected. Gradually, every vehicle, every aircraft, every ship, everyRead More...
Vibration Suppression Approach Boosts Server Reliability
Probably more than in any other industry, networking applications for the military market mandate superior uptime, performance and reliability. That’s pushed manufacturers of serverRead More...
FPGAs Take On Expanded Processing Roles
Once used merely as glue logic, FPGAs are now complete systems on a chip. And now that many of them even have general-purpose CPU cores on them, the military is hungry to use FPGAs toRead More...
Inside Track
Parvus Supplies Payload Interface Computers for MQ-5B Hunter UAV Parvus' DuraCOR 810 mission computers have been integrated into Northrop Grumman's MQ-5B Hunter Unmanned AircraftRead More...
GPGPUs Open New Doors for Mil/Aero Applications
DIGITAL COMPASS Graphics chips have a long history of deployment in mil/aero applications, driving displays in land, naval and airborne applications, including safety-critical primaryRead More...
Processing Solutions Ease Full Motion Video Challenges
In recent years demand for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities has driven a huge ramp up in data collection capacity. While that shows no signs of slowing,Read More...
OpenVPX Strengthens Its Hand for Military Embedded Designs
Military system developers have long faced a conflicting desire to harness the latest and greatest computing technologies versus the need to mitigate the risks inherent in banking onRead More...
COTS Journal’s OpenVPX Solutions Center
Rugged 6U VPX SBC Has Integrated Onboard I/O Resources Aitech Defense Systems has introduced a rugged 6U VPX SBC that offers the selection between PCI Express and Serial RapidIO.Read More...
Ethernet Becomes Entrenched as Military System Interconnect
Ethernet is becoming entrenched as a favorite interconnect fabric in compute-intensive applications like sonar, radar or any application that networks sensor arrays together. SystemRead More...
System-Level Approach Wins for UAV Radar Payload Designs
Over the last decade the use of UAVs has grown from a rarity—strictly in support of high-risk military operations—to virtually commonplace, supporting border security, drug enforcementRead More...
GPGPU Computing Carves Out New Military System Design Territory
The concept of GPGPU computing is beginning to gain traction. This disruptive technology is the emerging idea of using the latest crop of high-performance graphics processors to handleRead More...
XMCs and PrXMCs Open Door to New Levels of Performance
Mezzanine cards have held an entrenched position in military embedded systems since the early days of SBCs and standard backplanes. They enable system developers to mix and match theRead More...
Hybrid Backplanes Weave Legacy Technology into New Systems
The pressure to deliver next-generation defense capabilities faster and to deliver them within the guidelines of recent Department of Defense (DoD) Acquisition Reform mandatesRead More...
The Inside Track
Navy Contracts Lockheed Martin to Construct up to 10 Littoral Combat Ships The U.S. Navy has awarded a Lockheed Martin-led industry team a fixed-price-incentive-fee contract toRead More...
Back to More DoD Budget Drivel
I take one month off from not discussing the DoD budget in some form and I get calls and emails asking why. Talking or thinking about the budget is mind boggling. There are soRead More...
The Inside Track
Raytheon Awarded $84.7 Million for Airborne Radar Contract Raytheon has received an $84.7 million U.S. Navy contract for continued production of ALR-67(V)3 digital radar warningRead More...
The Inside Track
Army Contracts General Dynamics for Battlefield Handheld Computers The U.S. Army has awarded General Dynamics C4 Systems a $2.3 million contract to provide a prototype, handheldRead More...
