GE Intelligent Platforms today announced three new rugged single board computers (SBCs) based on 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ processors. The SBC625, XVR15 and XCR15 bring substantially increased processing power, graphics capability, I/O bandwidth and functional density to customers developing and deploying demanding industrial and mil/aero applications. These include command/control, ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance), radar/sonar and signal processing.

Previous generations of GE’s Intel Core processor-based boards have been widely deployed in a range of demanding applications. A notable example is the Ships Signal Exploitation System (SSEE) developed by Argon ST, which provides advanced data acquisition as part of a shipboard signals intelligence (SIGINT) subsystem for the US Navy. Others include an intelligent display driver that processes ISR data from cameras mounted on a patrol vehicle; an airborne command and communications relay; and astronomical imaging and hyper spectral imaging applications.

“The latest processor technology from Intel is enabling us to provide a compelling improvement in performance and functionality across our product range, and allows our customers once again to maximize the value of their investments,” said Rod Rice, General Manager, Military & Aerospace Products, GE Intelligent Platforms. “For existing customers, there is the opportunity to improve response times and throughput, reduce the thermal footprint of a solution and reduce the number of boards required in a system, minimizing its size and weight.”

“The 3rd Generation Intel Core processors enable companies like GE to bring new levels of performance to demanding embedded computing applications, while responding to the growing importance in those applications of minimizing power consumption and heat dissipation,” said Matt Langman, director of marketing, Intel Intelligent Systems Group. “At the same time, integration of more powerful graphics capabilities is allowing GE and its customers to enable visually compelling user experiences in a remarkably compact design.”

The new platforms – which are 100% compatible with their predecessors, making for a cost-effective, straightforward upgrade path for existing users - will deliver up to 15% greater computational horsepower, and up to 50% improved 3D graphics performance. Some of these new COTS boards offer support for USB 3.0 and provide up to 10x the data transfer throughput of USB 2.0. Power consumption/heat dissipation are identical to those of preceding products, providing attractive performance/watt and making the new boards ideal for environments that are SWaP (size, weight and power) constrained.

The SBC625, XCR15 and XVR15 – designed for 6U VPX, CompactPCI and VME systems respectively – are available in five build levels, from benign (air cooled) to fully rugged (conduction cooled) to provide customers with optimum price/performance.

As well as these quad core-based SBCs, GE expects to announce a broad range of new products based on 3rd Generation Intel Core technology in the coming months; these will feature a range of capabilities, form factors and processor options.

The SBC625, XVR15 and XCR15 are offered initially with the 2.3GHz Intel Core i7-3615QE processor featuring Intel Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel AVX), up to 16GBytes of DDR3 memory and a solid state disk drive of 16GBytes capacity. These enhanced capabilities are offered together with a broad range of I/O options including Gigabit Ethernet, SATA, DVI, VGA and audio. Provision of two mezzanine XMC/PMC sites enables optimum flexibility and expandability. Supported operating systems include Windows® 7, Open Linux®, Wind River Linux and VxWorks®.

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For more information: http://defense.ge-ip.com/products/family/single-board-computers

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Intel and Intel Core are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States and other countries. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. VxWorks is a registered trademark of Wind River Systems. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.