SBC takes charge of airborne Ethernet: News from SBS Technologies

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Last week at Avionics Expo Europe 2006 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, SBS Technologies added a new product family to its line of avionics systems by announcing the AFDX-E1000 avionics full duplex switched Ethernet (AFDX) system. The AFDX-E1000 series board is a flexible AFDX end system single board computer designed to support commercial and military flight applications, including safety and mission critical systems, as well as data acquisition. Based on COTS modules, this 6U VMEbus SBC is available with a 1GHz PowerPC processor, 512Mbyte of system RAM and a dual-port AFDX end system.

The AFDX-E1000 is also available with two dual-port AFDX end systems on request.

CompactPCI format and Intel processor versions are also available on customer request.

As an AFDX end system, the AFDX-E1000 provides an interface between an aircraft's avionics systems to ensure reliable data interchange.

The AFDX protocol stack enables each subsystem to communicate in a deterministic manner with reliable point to point transfers, data redundancy and large data packet size.

The AFDX-E1000 uses a hardware-independent, software-loadable, ARINC 664 Part 7-compliant protocol stack that meets commercial and military AFDX subsystem requirements.

Because the protocol stack and driver run on a COTS SBC, the AFDX-E1000 is very flexible and can be upgraded with new software through a simple download for ease of maintenance.

To help protect our customer's investment, the AFDX-E1000 series will follow aviation standards like ARINC664 for future upgradeability.

The AFDX-E1000 is available in commercial, rugged and conduction-cooled versions, allowing the customer to choose the right hardware platform for their avionics applications.

SBS can provide a DO-178B Level A through E certified AFDX system, subject to customer and project requirements.

'SBS Technologies is proud to deliver a flexible AFDX end system solution for flight applications based on COTS hardware', said Adrian Bernhard, Managing Director, SBS Technologies European Operations.

'Because the AFDX software is a loadable stack that is hardware independent, the AFDX-E1000 is easy to maintain and our customers can benefit from progressive protocol changes'.

'A flexible AFDX software stack also lets us offer DO-178B certification on request'.

'The rugged version of AFDX-E1000 addresses safety critical flight and military applications'.

The AFDX-E1000 works with the Wind River VxWorks operating system.

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SBC takes charge of airborne Ethernet

The AFDX-E1000 series board is a flexible AFDX end system single board computer designed to support commercial and military flight applications, including safety and mission critical systems.