FCI (Etters, PA) has released the FCI MezzoStak™ 0.5-mmpitch mezzanine connector, a “mates-to-self” design that uses the same part number for both mated sides. Guidance features assist users with handling, dual-point terminals as - sure redundant electrical contact, and polarization prevents errors in PCB placement and mating. The connector operates in the extreme temperature range of -40 to 125°C. Additionally, its design insures performance up to 50 mating cycles.

Zilog® (Milpitas, CA), a wholly-owned subsidiary of IXYS Corporation, has introduced ZGATE™, a pioneering joint technology solution utilizing Icon Labs’ (Des Moine, IA) Floodgate™ Packet Filter, a complete embedded firewall providing a critical layer of security for networked devices. ZGATE provides Zilog’s eZ80Acclaim™ products, already well suited for today’s wired and wireless applications needing Inte rnet connectivity, with a security layer adding significantly deeper protection against ‘cyber threats and attacks.’ With many more applications, devices, products, and processes demanding increased security, Zilog’s eZ80Acclaim™, embedded with Icon Labs’ Floodgate™ technology, will help reduce the incidence of security breaches for many types of products in defense, telecommunication, utility, transportation, medical, and industrial applications.

QRC Technologies (Fredericksburg, VA) has announced the QPADD™, a customizable, semi-rugged tablet with 55 watt expansion bay. QPADD’s expansion bay provides OEM customers with power and multiple interface/connection options to integrate their equipment.

AdvancedTCA (ATCA) continues to evolve to meet not just the market demands for the telecom central office, but networking, data center, medical, and military communications applications. The two main goals that ATCA suppliers have been trying to solve often conflict with each other: offering more performance in less space, while meeting the specific market and compliance requirements for each industry.

With more than a year under its belt since it was officially ratified by PICMG in March of 2011, CompactPCI Serial (PICMG CPCI-S.0) has proven to be a good example of how an industry standard can be upgraded to meet the needs of evolving computing parameters while protecting the historical investments tied to the original architecture. The fact that it has found a new home in a wider variety of application environments is just one more benefit that this new computing standard offers.

Embedded system designers often find themselves trapped by CPU design choices they made years earlier, since switching costs can be astronomical. Hardware development often involves processor-specific interface chips and board design. Software switching costs can be even more onerous, since CPU architectures drive the purchase of development tools and the requirement for customized software. However, a couple of industry trends have opened up the CPU platform, and system designers are gaining the ability to mix and match CPU suppliers or even change CPU instruction sets to optimize products across a wider range of applications.

Since the 1970’s, military aircraft avionics systems have communicated via the MIL-STD-1553 bus. This has proven to be a very effective method, and is still in widespread use today. MIL-STD-1553 is a time division multiplexed command and response bus with a bus controller initiating all communications on the bus. The bus operates at 1 Mbps, and is dual redundant for reliable operation.

Avalanches pose a significant threat to human life and settlements, so studying them is key to formulating risk zones. Previously, validating models in order to predict avalanche behavior was limited by a lack of high-quality field data. Radar sensors can be used to gather field data, but in their current form, they only provide single-dimension range measurements. The transmitter power also limits them to a range resolution in the order of 50 m, which is too coarse to provide a true representation of the avalanche dynamics.

GE (Towcester, UK) will be supplying General Dynamics UK with subsystems required for the Demonstration Phase of the Scout Specialist Vehicle family of platforms being designed for the British Army. The Scout SV family of platforms will deliver a step change in ground-based ISTAR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance) capability. It is a purpose-designed groundbased intelligence platform with an array of high-performance sensors, coupled with the latest (20 Gbits/second) Gigabit Ethernet intelligent open architecture. This will enable it to capture, analyze, manipulate and store over 6 TeraBytes of intelligence data, including a vast array of still and moving images, and to share this intelligence in real-, or very-near-real-time, depending on requirements. Thanks to this capability, Scout SV’s crew will be able to provide commanders with better decision-making support material than that currently available only from airborne ISTAR platforms or UAVs. Data will be readily passed to other secure C4I systems, including those of US and other NATO allies.

U.S. Army and Marine troops have cultivated a creative, lifesaving technology out of heavy-duty telescoping poles. The CMD fiberglass telescoping push/pull rods, normally used for cable and wire management applications, are being modified by some U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan to create a special tool that effectively locates, digs up, and disables deadly improvised explosive devices (IEDs).