Mercury Computer Systems announced the Ensemble Series 6U OpenVPX LDS6521 and the 3U OpenVPX SBC3510 modules based on the 2nd generation Intel Core processor family. Mercury’s new modules enable best-of-breed subsystem application performance for extremely demanding ISR, defense, and aerospace applications.

Sensors and antennas are delivering images and data with incredible detail, providing overwhelming volumes of high-resolution digital data on both manned and unmanned platforms, often demanding a 5-10X increase in processing capability. Mercury’s 6U OpenVPX LDS6521 module utilizes the Intel  Core i7-2715QE processor, significantly narrowing this gap. The Intel Core i7-2715QE processor doubles the number of cores available on a single device over the previous generation and now supports four cores. Each of these cores includes the new Intel  Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel  AVX) instruction set with only a minimal increase in power consumption. Together, these new features give Mercury’s LDS6521 a 4X improvement in peak floating point computations per slot over previous module designs while maintaining an appropriate SWaP-optimized power profile.

Additionally, ISR subsystems utilizing multiple Mercury LDS6521 modules benefit from POET, Mercury’s previously announced Protocol Offload Engine Technology, enabling fast and low latency data communications between the new Intel Core processor-based modules as system size is scaled up. The combination of 2nd generation Intel Core processor performance and POET interconnect technology makes Mercury’s LDS6521 an ideal choice for sensor-driven ISR subsystems.

In addition to demand for higher performance, defense applications such as Command and Control (C2) for ground mobile vehicles, as well as tactical UAV applications, such as EO/IR and EW, are optimizing for smaller size, lower power and lower cost. Mercury’s 3U OpenVPX SBC3510 meets these requirements, incorporating the dual core Intel  Core i7-2655LE processor, an industry standard XMC daughter card site and diverse I/O capabilities, providing traditional SBC functionality in a small 3U package. Like the four core device, the two core version also benefits from the new Intel AVX instruction set, but with significantly lower power requirements and high MTBF, making it ideal for 3U OpenVPX-based defense applications.

“Mercury is committed to keep pace with the Intel  Core processor roadmap and to deliver superior products and performance that address the most difficult ISR processing challenges,” said Steve Patterson, Vice President of Defense Product Management at Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. “These new embedded computing products exemplify Mercury’s commitment to deliver best-of-breed solutions for demanding radar, EW, and EO/IR applications incorporating the latest Intel processors,” Patterson added.

“The 2nd generation Intel  Core processor family is ideal for embedded computing products with its increase in performance stemming from the new Intel  Advanced Vector Extensions instruction set while maintaining the Intel instruction set architecture (ISA),” said Matt Langman, director of product marketing, Embedded Computing Division, Intel. “The performance and integrated features of our new processors deliver unprecedented capabilities for even the most challenging applications and harshest environments.”

Mercury’s LDS6521 and SBC3510 are available in air-cooled and conduction-cooled rugged versions. The LDS6521 supports two XMC mezzanine sites, an Intel Core i7-2715QE processor, and support via POET for serial RapidIO  Gen 1 and Gen 2 or low latency 10 Gigabit Ethernet to the backplane/dataplane. Typical ISR subsystems combine this module with 6U OpenVPX subsystem components, such as Mercury’s HDS6600 Intel-based high-density server and the SFM6100 multi-function switch module. The SBC3510 combines a single XMC mezzanine site and a dual-core Intel Core i7-2655LE processor, and provides SBC style I/O. On larger 3U systems, these modules are typically configured with Mercury’s FCN3110 FPGA compute module and SFM3010 integrated switch for compute-intensive 3U based ISR subsystems.