Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 4

Techtility Design/Adobe Stock
How Thunderbolt 4 Helps Bring
Fault-Tolerant, Distributed
Systems to Market
I
n an embedded world gone SOSA sensational, one might
believe that centralized ATR-style OpenVPX systems are
the best way to architect your next rugged system. While
these chassis are routinely and successfully deployed on
airborne, shipboard, and vetronics platforms, they are big,
heavy, costly, and a real challenge to cool and connect. An
alternate but equivalent rugged, deployable approach uses
one or more small form factor chassis modules, distributed
into any available space in the vehicle, interconnected via
Apple® and Intel's® 40Gbps Thunderbolt™ 4, a commercial
open standard that uses USB Type-C connectors with a single,
thin bi-directional copper or fiber cable.
With 4, 8, even 16 3U or 6U LRU (line replacement unit)
boards inside an ATR chassis, 600 watts is on the low end of
systems that can push well over 2,000 watts in a 200 square
inch footprint or less. Assuming one can find the space for such
a chassis in the vehicle or platform, there's also the issue of
cooling it. Vetronics chassis must be bolted to a cold plate-no
easy challenge in space-constrained armored vehicle interiors.
Other ATR chassis are air-cooled with fans, blowing heater-hot
air from exhaust vents-sometimes too close to operators.
All high performance electronic systems will get hot, and
sub-dividing heat into smaller units is one way to deal with it.
Breaking the system down into smaller, cooler small form factor
(SFF) loads not only improves crew comfort with less heat
per SFF but makes it easier to provide cooling to each lower-wattage
load.
Broken Apart, Connected by Wire
If an eight-slot ATR chassis of OpenVPX modules consists of
a single-board computer (SBC), a multiport Ethernet switch
for in-chassis and out-of-chassis networking, a graphics processing
unit (GPU) or co-processor, mass storage, low-speed
I/O such as serial and 1553, plus multiple high-speed sensor
4
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Aerospace & Defense Technology, September 2023

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Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023

Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - Intro
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - Sponsor
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - Cov1
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - Cov2
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 1
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 2
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 3
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 4
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 5
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 6
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 7
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 8
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 9
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 10
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 11
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 12
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 13
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 14
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 15
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 16
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 17
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 18
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 19
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 20
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 21
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 22
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 23
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 24
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 25
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 26
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 27
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 28
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 29
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 30
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 31
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 32
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 33
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 34
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 35
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - 36
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - Cov3
Aerospace & Defense Technology - September 2023 - Cov4
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https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/24ADT06
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/24ADT05
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/24ADT04
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/24ADT02
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/23ADT12
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/23ADT10
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/23ADT09
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/23ADT08
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/23ADT06
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/23ADT05
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/23ADT04
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/23ADT02
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/22ADT12
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/22ADT10
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/22ADT09
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/22ADT08
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/22ADT06
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/22ADT05
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/22ADT04
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/22ADT02
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/21ADT12
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/21ADT10
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/21ADT09
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/21ADT08
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/21ADT06
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/21ADT05
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/21ADT04
https://www.nxtbook.com/smg/techbriefs/21ADT02
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