Aitech Systems, a leading provider of rugged boards and system level solutions for military, aerospace and space applications, now offers the U-C8500, U-C8501 and U-C8502, three new 3U VPX cybersecurity-enabled single board computers (SBCs) aligned to The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture™ (SOSA) Technical Standard. 

Unique to the U-C850x Series SBCs is the single board combination of three main pillars of modern data processing acceleration: CPU, iGPU & FPGA. A high-performance CPU SoC featuring a strong internal GPU is combined with optional integrated large FPGA, enabling the new SBC series to be used in a wide range of rugged military and aerospace data-intensive applications, including artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML), all while minimizing SWaP-C and without sacrificing performance.

The U-C850x Series fully supports AiSecure™, Aitech’s innovative and proprietary cybersecurity framework that increases survivability and level of confidence by detecting and preventing unexpected attacks. The inherent security features enable both firmware and data protection as well as prevents reverse engineering and tampering with system integrity, while allowing secure transmission and storage of sensitive data.

The U-C850x Series of rugged 3U VPX SBCs features a multi-core Intel Architecture CPU processor, strong GPGPU AI processing and advanced cybersecurity protection. The high-performance Intel 11th generation TigerLake UP3 (TGL-UP3) SoC with four cores/eight threads and an innovative GPU with up to 96 Execution Units enables ground-breaking performance per Watt, with 12 W, 15 and two 8 W TDP options. The boards also feature other advanced I/O options.

The series comes in three different configurations:

• U-C8500: 4x PCIe Gen3/4 Data Plane; XMC slot 
• U-C8501: 4x PCIe Gen3 Data Plane; 4xPCIe Gen4 Expansion Plane; XMC slot 
• U-C8502: 4x PCIe Gen3 Data Plane; 4xPCIe Gen4 Expansion Plane; integrated Xilinx MPSoC FPGA. 

Alex Trigoub, director, Board Level Product Line for Aitech, commented, “The U-C850x Series provides an improved performance-to-cost ratio as well as better performance per Watt than existing Intel SBCs. The boards are also aligned with the SOSA Technical Standard, allowing for much faster, easier integration and upgrades, while improving time-to-market and lowering risk. Having advanced Intel application performance and strong video, AI and ML processing capabilities, as well as a large integrated FPGA on a 3U VPX SBC, without wasting additional SWaP-C on separate GPGPU and FPGA boards, is an impressive combination, one that today’s military systems are demanding.”

Highly integrated functionality and excellent SWaP-C make the new U-C850x Series ideal for several harsh military and aerospace applications that need to reliably process significant amounts of data. These include unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles (UAV/UGV), mission computers and digital signal and image processing as well as signal intelligence (SIGINT) and electronic warfare.

The boards feature support for up to 64 GB LPDDR4X RAM to provide higher performance for graphics and AI/ML applications using the integrated GPGPU as well as PCIe Gen4 support for optimized interconnect to other boards in the system.