Webcasts

Current Webcasts

Archived Webcasts

VME VXS Systems: High-Value, Cost-Effective Solutions
This webinar will start at a high-level and examine several typical SIGINT and ELINT systems, then drill down into theoretical architectural attributes needed to keep them humming. Finally, examples of real systems will be presented, using actual-deployed Mercury PowerStream, VPA-200, and RF/FPGA production VME and mezzanine products. 

RapidIO in Military System Design
The Serial RapidIO switched fabric provides military electronics designers with high-performance I/O capability for network centric-warfare, radar, sonar, and other throughput-intensive applications. Connecting box to box by working through the backplane, RapidIO is widely in use in military applications where heavy duty moving of raw data within the system is necessary. This webcast in conjunction with the RapidIO Trade Association will cover the latest RapidIO design trends, program wins, technology development, and roadmaps.

Keeping it Cool: Managing Thermals and Power
Thermal and power management is widely considered to be the crucial link in the ability to embrace high-performance computing technology in military system design. Current and future generation processors create escalating thermal demands on military designers. This webcast with industry expert James Robles, will look at the latest solutions for improving power efficiency through cooling chips and boards as well as thermal issues in aging military platforms.

Robles' presentation - "Aerospace Thermal Management Challenges and Solutions, A Boeing Perspective" will discuss how the aerospace thermal management challenge is driven by 1) the user's inexhaustible demand for greater processing capability for Image Exploitation (IE) applications, such as Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) and Moving Target Engagement (MTE), and for high data rate communications both on aircraft and spacecraft; 2) the move to More Electric Vehicles to reduce weight and power consumption by eliminating hydraulic actuation systems; and 3) the need for Directed Energy Weapons (DEW). This presentation will address trends in this area as well as selected potential solutions. Following Robles will be presentations from Richard Jaenicke of Mercury Computer Systems, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, and Tracewell Systems.

Mapping Multi-function Radar Algorithms Across a VPX-REDI System

Advanced multi-function radar systems present enormous challenges, as they must simultaneously provide multi-mode search, multi-target tracking, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, and space time adaptive processing (STAP). These systems will be deployed in some of the harshest and most demanding environmental conditions inside unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), manned aircraft, and ship- and ground-based radar systems.

This webcast will begin by examining the data processing functions needed to support multi-function radar applications. Then three example algorithms will be presented as efficient ways to manage that processing. Lastly, those algorithms will be mapped across three different types of processors - PowerPC, PowerQUICC, and FPGAs - in a rugged, deployable multiprocessor adhering to the new VPX-REDI (VITA 46/48) standards. The focus of the webcast is on providing practical, real-world approaches to addressing complex system issues.

RapidIO for Defense & Military Applications

A comprehensive seminar and tutorial on what the RapidIO high-speed switched serial interconnect has to offer for defense, space, and commercial aviation applications. RapidIO technology is an established, scalable, packet-switched, high-performance fabric specifically developed to address the needs of high-availability and reliable data transfer in military, aerospace, wireless infrastructure, edge networking, storage, scientific, and industrial applications.

The Performance Benefits of RapidIO enabled TI DSPs in ATCA
This webinar will discuss RapidIO based board and system level solutions that will enable OEMs to address of next generation application platforms. In addition, detailed performance data will be presented under various dataflow configurations using either RapidIO or Gigabit Ethernet as the transport mechanism.

RapidIO System Architecture: What Designers Need to Know

RapidIO technology is an established, scalable, packet-switched, high-performance fabric specifically developed to address the needs of equipment designers in the wireless infrastructure, edge networking, storage, scientific, military and industrial markets.
Moderated by Chris Ciufo, Group Editorial Director of Open Systems Publishing, this technical webcast will cover everything today's engineers need to know in the use and implementation of RapidIO technology, and includes presentations from the RapidIO Trade Association, Mercury Computer Systems, IDT, Tundra and Freescale.

Data Acquisition and Processing Systems for Space Constrained and Harsh Environments
High-performance processing in a 3U form factor offers unique capabilities that address the severe size, weight, and power constraints for deployed mission-critical applications such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWVs).

This seminar presents an RF channelizer application example running on the PowerStream® 3000 integrated 3U CompactPCI® multicomputer from Mercury Computer Systems. The system includes a DRTi RFT-2 tuner, a Mercury MCP3 3U processor module, and the X-Midas digital signal processing software tools. X-Midas (X-windows Multi-user Interactive Development and Analysis System) provides a platform-independent environment ideal for developing DSP applications.

Developers and innovators, who are considering using conduction-cooled 3U CompactPCI for their applications, can benefit from this seminar, which will present:

• A summary of the PowerStream 3000 system architecture, including an RF tuner, A/D, an MPC7447A PowerPC® processor, FPGA processing and I/O, and a robust development environment
• A technology demonstration showing a radio frequency (RF) channelizing system implemented under the Linux® OS environment and X-Midas signal processing development tools

Supercharging Your RF Channelizing Technology with VXS

This seminar uses the PowerStream 6100 module set from Mercury Computer Systems as an example of how VXS can supercharge an RF channelizer application. Developers and innovators, who are considering using VXS for their applications, can benefit from this seminar, which will present:

• How VXS enhances VME with a high-speed serial fabric
• A technology demonstration showing a radio frequency (RF) channelizing system using the PowerStream 6100 RF Tuner, A/D, Quad MPC7448 DSP modules, FPGA processing and I/O, and robust development environment
• Leveraging an existing installed base of VME modules while gradually migrating to VXS

An Insider's Look at the New amira 4.0
The latest 3D visualization & analysis application from Mercury Computer Systems.

The amira® product suite offers advanced visualization, data analysis and geometry reconstruction for microscopy, medical research, materials science, scientific visualization, geosciences, mechanical engineering and immersive VR applications. With this new release, the entire amira framework has been integrated in one powerful yet even-easier-to-use interface. Redesigned from scratch, the new interface accelerates the learning curve and, with its very innovative ergonomic techniques, speeds up the process of building visualizations on your data.

• A thorough overview of the amira application with a focus on the product's incredible flexibility & functionality
• A complete description of the amira's new features and enhancements
• A better understanding of how amira will benefit you
• The opportunity to ask questions and get answers concerning amira

Form Factor Face-Off: Which is the Best Form-Factor for Defense Market Customers?

With the advent of new high-speed data fabrics, processors and form factors, which architectures bring the best solution for the embedded market OEM customers?

• AdvancedTCA has a lot of industry momentum, huge industry buzz and is endorsed by major OEM providers, but is it ready for the harsh environments common to field deployments?
• 3U CompactPCI is ubiquitous, has a proven track record, and has reached a high level of maturity, but without a high speed data fabric what kind of applications can it serve?
• VITA-41 (VXS) is rooted in the ubiquitous VME architecture, and is built from the ground up for rugged environments, but is ready for prime time?

This presentation will evaluate three open standard architectures gaining traction in the military, telecom, and embedded space, and will reflect upon the strengths of each.

It will also include the first public preview of Mercury's newest VXS RapidIO (VITA 41.2) multicomputer, the PowerStream 6100.

Using the Cell Microprocessor
Overview: The Cell microprocessor brings significant benefit outside the gaming market. It offers dramatically improved performance for graphic-intensive workloads and computationally intensive applications. Example targets include current and new applications in medical imaging, industrial inspection, aerospace and defense, seismic processing, and telecommunications. This webcast will overview the Cell architecture. In addition we will provide simple program examples to illustrate key Cell development tools. We will contrast the Cell's SPU instruction set with the popular PowerPC Altivec® extensions (which are also found inside Cell). We will talk at a high level about the benefits that Cell brings to a few specific applications that are graphic or computationally intensive.