Sarsen Technology Chistmas Party 2016 - The Jetty, Christchurch

It's that time of year again. The most wonderful time you might say...!

On Friday 9th December the entire Sarsen team made its way to Mudeford in Christchurch for a slap up meal of the highest calibre at The Jetty.

Photo from The Jetty website

The Jetty is an award winning restaurant set right on the water's edge, serving fresh fish caught daily from Mudeford Quay, as well as seafood including local oysters, lobster and shrimps. Alex Aitken, the Chef Patron, is one of the South of England’s most respected chefs, and The Jetty has just been named Seafood Restaurant of the Year 2016. 

The food was amazing, the staff were friendly and attentive and we all left feeling very fat and happy.

If you'd like to check out some of the pictures (we've kept the really bad ones hidden) you can see the gallery by clicking the button.

BittWorks II Toolkit - Is it Even Necessary for my FPGA Development?

What is a Software Toolkit? 
Putting it simply, a software development toolkit is a set of tools that provides an interface between a hardware platform and a host system. Toolkits are critical if you want fast time to market. This is especially important for BittWare customers...

Why do I Need One?
BittWare has leveraged years of experience to provide a solid base for developers to make a start on their application, and the Toolkit has been an integral part of existing customer's success. They have been able to see first hand the value of the BittWorks tools, because they are so critical in getting projects up and running quickly. This software allows BittWare to properly support our customers.

More: BittWorks Toolkit

The BittWorks II Toolkit is a suite of development tools for BittWare’s FPGA-based hardware. The Toolkit includes drivers, libraries, utilities, and example projects for accessing, integrating, and developing applications for the BittWare board. Utilities and drivers connect the board to the host via PCIe, USB, Ethernet, or serial port, and provide easy access to the board’s system monitoring features and Flash programming.

Extensive libraries provide a consistent, intuitive API for integrating the board into the system and example projects illustrate data movement and provide a starting point for development. The Toolkit supports 64-bit Windows and Linux platforms and is tightly integrated with BittWare’s FPGA Development Kit (FDK), which provides FPGA board support IP and integration for BittWare’s FPGA-based boards.

The Nerdy Stuff
The BittWorks II datasheet is a great tool and clearly outlines what is provided and how it can help you get your application up and running quickly.

View Datasheet

Do I Need To Pay For It?
Well, yes. But BittWare doesn't currently charge for support (unlike some of the other board manufacturers in this market space) and this is only possible because of the development tools available. If a developer has the BittWorks Toolkit BittWare are able to provide the utilities they need to use the board as well as provide known working examples for the customers to leverage.

Toolkit licenses are handled per project/per location.  For a single project at one location there is a maximum of 3 licenses to be purchased. This means is that if there are 10 developers working on Project X you only need to buy 3 licenses.

Tell Me More...
If you'd like more information on how the BittWorks Toolkit and FDK can help speed up your development on both Intel (Altera) and Xilinx FPGA based hardware please get in touch with one of our specialists: info@sarsen.net

PCIe Board with Intel (Altera) Arria 10 GX FPGA Machine Learning Demonstration

BittWare took part in Super Computing 2016 last week, and used the event to showcase their must-see FPGA demos in network packet processing (NPP) and high-performance computing (HPC). If you were at the show you will also have seen BittWare's wide range of the latest Intel (formerly Altera) and Xilinx FPGA-based boards on display.



One of the demonstrations featured BittWare’s A10PL4 board, using Intel’s deep learning IP core loaded on the Arria 10 FPGA.

The A10PL4 from BittWare is an Altera Arria 10 FPGA PCIe board offering plenty of high speed serial I/O interfaces and debug support. Two QSFP cages are available, both connected to the Arria 10 FPGA removing latency in the external PHYs. The A10PL4 supports up to 32GB of DDR4 as well as flash memory with factory default and support for multiple FPGA images.

Find out more - A10PL4

 

Machine Learning

'Machine Learning' is based on the development of computer programs that can learn and create their own rules. In deep learning, a task can be learned by the machine from a vast amount of data, either in supervised or unsupervised manner.

With the Deep Learning IP customers can leverage Intel Caffe in the Data Analytics Acceleration Library (DAAL) and Intel MKL-DNN to build AlexNet- or GoogleNet-like topologies without requiring a recompilation of the FPGA.

Accelerating machine learning applications like these are an excellent fit for FPGAs and OpenCL. Up to 16 A10PL4s can be combined inside a 4U server for a total of 18M logic elements and 512 GBytes of DDR4 memory.

Find out more - Terabox

For more information please speak to one of our FPGA specialists - +44 1672 511166 or send us an email - info@sarsen.net 

www.sarsen.net

Coaxial, Fibre Optic, AV, and Networking Solutions, Oh My!

As part of our ongoing commitment to our customers to provide complete solutions for a wide range of applications, we recently partnered with Milestek - supplier of all things connector, cabling, switching, tools and test equipment.



www.milestek.com

For over thirty years now Milestek has been providing quality products that are used in computer networking, military/aerospace, telecommunications and audio/video markets all over the world. With over 3 decades of experience in this sector they are positioned as one of the best choices when it comes to military R&D and production applications.

The product line includes bus couplers, custom harnesses and assemblies, connectors and connector termination systems, as well as a broad range of related accessories. With AS9100 certification Milestek is ideally situated to serve the military avionics, industrial communities, and government markets.

Milestek product lines:

• Racks & Enclosures
• Networking Products
• Surveillance Devices
• Power Strips & Cords
• Structured Media Centres
• Cable Management
• Label Printers
• Bulk Cable
• Connectors & Adapters
• AV Devices
• Cable Assemblies
• Fibre Optics
• Tools & Testers

For  more information please contact Sarsen Technology.

VersaLogic Releases 'Raven' - Embedded SFF Computer based on Intel Bay Trail Processor

The team at VersaLogic has just announced the release of the Raven - a compact and rugged embedded x86 computer built around the Intel Bay Trail processor.

See Raven datasheet (pdf)

This is VersaLogic's fourth product released in the Embedded Processing Unit (EPU) format. EPU's combine processor, memory, video, and system I/O into an extremely compact full function embedded computer.

The Raven, equipped with an Intel Atom 38xx processor, is designed to withstand extreme temperature, impact, and vibration. It has been engineered and tested to meet the military and medical industries' evolving requirements to develop smaller, lighter, and lower power embedded systems while adhering to stringent regulatory standards.

Available in single-, dual-, and quad-core versions, the Raven provides great performance and I/O features, moderate power consumption (6 to 8W typical depending on model), and a compact package. The Raven provides compatibility with a broad range of standard x86 application development tools for reduced development time.

Features

• Wide Range Voltage Input
  Accepts 8 to 30 volts DC with OVP, reverse polarity protection, and RF noise filtering.
• High-performance Video
  Integrated Intel Gen 7 graphics core supports DirectX 11, OpenGL 4, and H.264, MPEG-2 encoding/decoding. Mini DisplayPort and LVDS video outputs. LVDS backlight control.
• Network
  Dual Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) with remote boot support.
• SATA
  3 Gb/s SATA port supports bootable SATA hard drive.
• Mini PCIe Card Sockets
  Dual full-sized sockets. Supports A/D, Wi-Fi modems, GPS, MIL-STD-1553, Ethernet, flash data storage with auto-detect mSATA flash storage support, and other mini PCIe modules.
• MicroSD Socket
  Supports removable microSD card solid-state drives.
• Industrial I/O
  One USB 3.0 port and four USB 2.0 ports support keyboard, mouse, and other devices. Four RS-232/422/485 serial ports, three 8254 timer/counters, and I2C support.
• Analog + Digital I/O
  On-board data acquisition support. Eight multi-range analog inputs and eight 3.3V digital I/O lines.
• SPI Interface
  Supports SPI and SPX devices, including low cost analog and digital modules.
• Intel Atom "Bay Trail" Processor
  Up to 1.9 GHz clock rate. Quad-, dual-, or single-core options. Low power consumption.
• Fanless Operation
  No moving parts required for CPU cooling in most configurations.
• Trusted Platform Module
  On-board TPM security chip can lock out unauthorised hardware and software.
• RAM
  Up to 4 GB soldered-down DDR3L RAM.
• FLASH
  Up to 8 GB of on-board eMMC flash storage.
• Industrial Temperature Operation
  -40° to +85°C operation for harsh environments
• MIL-STD-202G
  Qualified for high shock/vibration environments.
• Software Support
  Compatible with a variety of popular x86 operating systems including Windows, Windows Embedded, Linux, and VxWorks.

The Raven is a newly released product. It may be available in limited quantities. Please contact Sarsen for more details.

Latest Trenton Systems SBC Delivers Higher Performance with Expanded Data Storage and Media Capabilities

The TKL8255 is the latest single board computer to continue Trenton Systems' heritage of delivering the processing performance, dependability, and SBC longevity you count on to deliver stable computing hardware platforms.

Skylake-S processors provide modern security and performance

This new PICMG 1.3 single board computer is driven by your choice of a long-life Intel processor; developed under the Skylake code name, and features support for DDR4 system memory, native PCIe 3.0 links, USB 3.0, three video ports and an on-board M.2 connector for supporting a plug-in NVMe storage module.

TKL8255 single board computer features:

• Multi-core Skylake-S processors for reliable performance
• All-digital display interfaces for graphically-intensive applications
• On-board RAID supports a 6-drive SATA/600 storage array
• Full x4 PCIe M.2 Slot delivers max. bandwidth to PCIe SSDs
• 5-year product warranty maximises system ROI
• Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 v5 or Intel® Core­­ 6000 Processor Options
• 4 x DDR4-2133 Standard DIMMs
• 1 x M.2 Interface Driven by x4 PCIe 3.0 Link for NVMe Modules
• 3 x Video Interfaces (1, Display Port and 2, DVI-D Headers)
• On-Board HD-Audio Interface Header
• 4 x USB 3.0 and 6 - USB 2.0 Interface Ports
• 3 x Ethernet LANs
• Full-Length Aluminum Backer Plate
• Deployment risks lowered with 7+ Years SBC Availability

Video: TKL8255 Feature Set


In this short (2:20) video we will step you through some of the new SBC interfaces including the x4 PCIe 3.0, M.2 NVMe interface.

The NVMe memory technology continues to evolve, and coupled with the developments in the M.2 module format offers some interesting options for high-speed data storage in a PICMG 1.3 rackmount computer.

Engineering tests with the Trenton Systems TKL8255 single board computer deployed in a typical PICMG 1.3 system indicates that M.2/NVMe storage driven with x4 PCI Express link is roughly:

• 8x faster than traditional SATA HDDs and 
• 2x faster than traditional SATA SDDs.

For more information please take a look at the website - TKL8255 or contact Sarsen Technology to request a quote.

Intel® Xeon® D 3U VPX Single Board Computers with Integrated Security FPGAs Now Available

September 2016

Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) has announced two new 3U VPX embedded single board computers based on the Intel® Xeon® D-1500 processor family. These powerful boards support up to 16 Xeon®-class cores in a single, power-efficient System-on-Chip (SoC) package with native extended temperature support on four, eight, and twelve core-count SKUs.

XPedite7674

The XPedite7674 is an Intel® Xeon® D-1500 processor-based 3U VPX single board computer that can support up to 16 core-count SKUs with native extended temperature support on up to 12 core-count SKUs.

With an integrated, user-configurable, Xilinx Kintex® UltraScale™ FPGA module delivering enhanced performance and security for a wide range of embedded computing applications, the board supports a variety of I/O to the VPX connectors, including dual 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GBASE-KR), SATA port capable of 6 Gb/s, USB 2.0, and RS-232/422/485 serial ports.

The FPGA also provides GPIO, 1000BASE-X Gigabit Ethernet, and High-Speed Serial ports to the VPX connectors. The XMC site supports a x8 PCI Express Gen3-capable port and a SATA port, as well as XMC P16 I/O, mapping P1w9-X12d per VITA 46.9.

XPedite7676

The XPedite7676 is a secure, Intel® Xeon® D-1500 processor-based 3U VPX single board computer
that can support up to 16 core-count SKUs with native extended temperature support on up to 12 core-count SKUs.

The XPedite7676 integrates SecureCOTS™ technology with a Microsemi SmartFusion®2 security System-on-Chip (SoC) for hosting custom functions to protect data from being modified or observed and provides an ideal solution when stringent security capabilities are required.

Dual 10GBASE-KR 10 Gigabit Ethernet, 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, SATA ports capable of 6 Gb/s, RS-232/422/485 serial, dual x4 PCI Express Gen3, and GPIO are all routed to the backplane VPX connectors.



Both the XPedite7674 and the XPedite7676 support the Wind River VxWorks Board Support Package (BSP), coreboot firmware powered by Intel® FSP to enable rapid and reliable sub-2.5 second boot times, and the X-ES Enterprise Linux (XEL) BSP.

Sarsen Technology Now Representing MilesTek in the UK

About MilesTek

www.milestek.com

Since 1981 Milestek has grown to become a global distributor delivering complete connectivity solutions and custom cable assemblies to over 60,000 customers. Milestek offers quality products, in stock for short delivery timescales, and quick turnaround on your custom requirements.

Headquartered in Denton, Texas, the professional sales and technical team supports the rep network to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction to avionics designers, broadcast and DS3/telecom industries, government and military users and industrial networking companies.

Sarsen Technology supplies and supports the full range of Milestek products and solutions, including MIL-STD-1553B cables and adapters, data bus couplers, bus and stub cables, coaxial-RF cable assemblies and triaxial connectors, cables and cable assemblies.

Coaxial, Military and Industrial Networking Solutions, Telemetry Solutions
MilesTek is a global provider for a vast range of connectivity products, patch cords and panels; connectors and adapters; coaxial, twinaxial, and Triaxial cable assemblies, as well as custom cable assemblies and complete harness assemblies for industrial and Military. These products service the industrial, Military and government markets.

Military Avionics and MIL-STD-1553B Solutions
MilesTek has delivered connectivity products and solutions to the avionics industry worldwide for over twenty-five years. Our product offering, used primarily in military R&D and production applications, consists of a complete line of bus couplers, custom harnesses and assemblies, connectors and connector termination systems and a broad range of related accessories.

Join us at the next FPGA Network meet-up on Tuesday 11th October in Swindon!

FPGA experts who care about tools and methodologies can’t afford to miss the next meeting of the NMI FPGA Network... You will find this meeting especially compelling if you are an architect, designer, verification specialist, project manager or engineering manager.

We know how important design tools and methodologies are in creating better FPGA designs and FPGA systems-based, this is why we are excited to be sponsoring this event and would be delighted to see you there too!

On the day we will contribute to the debate with a discussion on ‘FPGA Platform Development Kit Enables Fast TTM’ delivered by Chad Hamilton, VP of Intellectual Property (IP), Software and Support at BittWare.

Chad will join the discussion along with FPGA specialists from other Industry leaders.

Confirmed Speakers 
Synopsys: Flexible debug and visibility techniques to enhance all FPGA design and deployment cycles
BittWare: FPGA platform development kit enables fast TTM
Mentor Graphics: Staying competitive by evolving your FPGAverification methodologies
Bitvis AS: A game changer for VHDL verification: advanced VHDL verification – made simple for anyone
Telexsus: FPGA real-time debug with vastly increased operational capture time – live demo
Cadence: 100M gate designs in FPGAs – fact or fiction?
Altera now part of Intel: Zen and the art of high-speed design
Xilinx: Vivado HLx Design Methodology
ITDev: Static code analysis using Blue Pearl software

See full details (pdf)

We are also very pleased to have Manuele Papais from DAVE Embedded Systems with us, showcasing their Xilinx Zynq based hardware and talking to engineers about Asymmetric Multi Processing on Cortex-A CPU: system integrity and reliability on Linux and RTOS cores.

Find out more and book your place here.

We look forward to seeing you at the FPGA Network Event ‘Design Tools and Methodologies’!

Christos Flouris Nominated for Elektra Awards!

The Elektra European Electronics Industry Awards is a hugely important night, circled in calendars across the entire European electronics industry. Open to any company involved in Electronics the awards cover everyone from manufacturers and distributors to universities and design teams.

On Thursday 1st December the industry will get together to celebrate the most exciting new products, technology innovations and company performances of the year. An independent panel of judges will compare the merits of all the entries and the winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony at Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

We are very excited to announce that one of our Sales Engineers, Christos Flouris, has reached the final shortlist of the Rising Star New Engineer of the Year category. This award is given to a talented young engineer in their first five years in the industry, who has shown an extremely high level of practical skill and ambition which has contributed significantly to the business.

Christos graduated from the University of Bath in 2015 with a MEng (Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree. Since joining Sarsen Technology in September 2015 as a Sales Engineer, Christos has worked on some major projects, specialising in technologies including FPGA , Single Board Computers (SBCs), ARM based System on Modules (SoM) and rugged system level solutions.

Congratulations to Christos, we look forward to the announcement of the winners in December!

BittWare Releases Arria 10 OpenCL BSPs for Altera OpenCL SDK 16.0.2 Release

BittWare has recently announced the availability of Arria 10 FPGA Board Support Packages (BSPs) for Altera's recently released OpenCL SDK 16.0.2, including support for production silicon.

See full press release

BittWare’s OpenCL BSPs allow customers to develop applications for the Altera Arria 10 1150GX FPGA using OpenCL quickly and easily. OpenCL makes FPGA development much simpler by enabling designers to code their systems and algorithms in a high-level C-based framework, directly generating FPGA programming files from a pure software development flow.

FPGAs can dramtically improve speed and increase responsiveness for many system designs, in markets as diverse as defense/aerospace, fintech and life sciences. BittWare offers BSP variants to support High Performance Computing (HPC) as well as Network Processing applications.


"We've worked closely with Altera to ensure that our OpenCL BSPs provide the best quality results possible," said Chad Hamilton, BittWare VP of IP, Software & Support. "For those customers who prefer to code in a C-based framework, our OpenCL BSPs provide the tools necessary to get them up and running quickly and efficiently."

OpenCL Developers Bundle
The BittWare OpenCL BSPs are included in the OpenCL Developer’s Bundle, which includes a BittWare Arria 10 or Stratix V PCIe board, the BittWorks II system development software, the Altera Quartus II soft­ware, and the Altera SDK for OpenCL. This competitvely priced development bundle gives developers access to the latest generation of high-performance FPGAs on a validated PCIe board, while also significantly reducing their time ­to market by using OpenCL to develop their application.

Benefits of OpenCL for FPGAs

• Faster time-to-market using the OpenCL C-based parallel programming language as opposed to low-level hardware description language (HDL)
• Quick design exploration by working at a higher level of design abstraction
• Easy design re-use by re-targeting existing OpenCL C code to current and future FPGAs
• Faster design completion by generating an FPGA implementation of OpenCL C code in a single step, bypassing the manual timing closure efforts and implementation of communication interfaces between the FPGA, host, and external memories.
• Increased performance by offloading performance- intensive functions from the host processor to the FPGA
• Significantly lower power than a GPU or multicore CPU by using the Altera SDK for OpenCL, which generates only the logic needed

Intel Developer Forum - 16th-18th August 2016

The Intel Developer Forum offers everything you could possibly need to make sure you're at the forefront when it comes to the latest technology.

As well as a world class forum schedule, including a keynote address from Brian Krzanich, the Technology Showcase offers you unprecedented access to the world’s most exciting products. You'll have the opportunity to ask your toughest questions, or find an ingenious solution to your design challenges.

Ready to meet you at the IDF will be the team from Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES). You will find them on stand #730, where you'll be among the first to see the latest and greatest embedded boards and solutions, based on Intel's Xeon D, Atom E3800 and Core i7 processors.

Click the button to find out more about the rugged Intel-based boards from X-ES.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

With the acquisition of Altera by Intel, the Altera SoC Developer Forum (ASDF) is now the Intel SoC FPGA Developer Forum (ISDF). ISDF is dedicated to the technology and application of SoC FPGAs across a wide range of design areas, including networking and communications, data centre and cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The theme of this year's event is Acceleration:

• Accelerate your design - with hardware acceleration in SoC FPGAs
• Accelerate your development process - with leading edge design tools and ecosystem support
• Accelerate your learning - by attending ISDF 2016

The ISDF16 event is taking place on day 3 of the Intel Developer Forum, and our friends at BittWare will be there showcasing the new Altera Arria 10 PCIe board platforms alongside their OpenCL solutions, including the popular OpenCL Bundle . The bundle includes a BittWare Arria 10 or Stratix V FPGA-based PCIe board, board support package, BittWorks II Toolkit-Lite system development software, Altera Quartus II software, and the Altera SDK for OpenCL.

For more information about the IDF, ISDF or any of the products from BittWare or X-ES please get in touch with the Sarsen Technology engineering team on +1672 511166 or send us an email - info@sarsen.net

NMI FPGA Network: Design Tools and Methodologies - 11th October 2016

The National Microelectronics Institute (NMI) was created to increase the quality and quantity of electronic engineering and manufacturing in the UK.

NMI provides:

• A focal point for this industry; connecting industry, academia and stakeholders to build a strong eco-system
• A mechanism to work together to address common challenges in engineering and manufacturing sharing domain knowledge and know-how across vertical applications
• Opportunities to raise your profile and develop your business through new partnership and programs addressing business opportunities
• This industry with a voice by building industrial coherence on the strategic issues and opportunities; seeking to inform government and its agencies; supporting their decision-making processes
• A response to your individual business needs

NMI Infographic – Click to view full size

FPGA Network – Design Tools & Methodologies

On October 11th the NMI is hosting an event in Swindon which will allow members to share experiences of how FPGA design tools and methodologies impact build schedules, solve difficult problems, affect quality, optimise architecture and bridge hardware and software communities.

This event is ideal for you if you are an architect, designer, verification specialist, project manager or engineering manager and you care about tools and methodologies to help do a better job of creating FPGA designs or systems based on FPGAs.

Confirmed Speakers:

Synopsys: Flexible debug and visibility techniques to enhance all FPGA design and deployment cycles  
Mentor Graphics: Staying competitive by evolving your FPGA verification methodologies
Cadence: 100M gate designs in FPGAs – Fact or Fiction?  
BittWare: FPGA Platform Development Kit Enables Fast TTM  
Telexsus: FPGA real-time debug with vastly increased operational capture time – live demo  
Altera (now part of Intel): Zen and the art of high speed design

We have 5 free tickets for this event. If you'd like to join us please contact Sarsen Technology to register your interest - info@sarsen.net

Why Should You Pick Trenton Systems As Your Next Embedded Systems Supplier?

Trenton Systems has been in business for almost 40 years, and in that time has become a global leader in the design and manufacture of board level products and integrated computer systems to address the critical needs of a wide range of industries covering government and defense, test and measurement, industrial automation, GPU computing, medical, video display walls, communications, video processing and energy.

As they approach their milestone birthday, Trenton Systems continues to focus on on their ever array of products, including industrial computers, GPGPU computing systems, MIL-STD certified and designed-to-meet military computers, video display wall controllers, single board computers, backplanes, and embedded motherboards.


Trenton Systems Advantages

In addition to their in-house electronic design, mechanical design and custom design capability, there’s a long list of reasons to partner with Trenton Systems on your next high-performance computing solution.

• Trenton HDEC Series and PICMG 1.3 single board computers, backplanes and embedded motherboards carry a full 5-year factory warranty


• System configuration stability is achieved with their long-life board-level products featuring 7+ years of product availability


• Trenton board and system products are built to survive and thrive in demanding industrial computing environments . Tough application requirements are satisfied by designing and building computing solutions that meet the customer's exact specifications


• Trenton motherboards, SBCs and backplanes are designed and built within the U.S. and integrated into their extensive range of system solutions


• Trenton system solutions provide maximum system flexibility to meet both current and future application deployment needs


• Trenton maintains complete system BIOS control on board-level products and provides modifications in support of complex integrated systems


• Trenton builds standard and custom small form factor products to provide short chassis depths or small mounting footprints


• Trenton board-level and system products are designed and built within their ISO 9001:2008 registered facilities located in the U.S.


• Trenton offers “designed to meet” rugged system solutions as well as mil-certified products to standards such as MIL-STD-810 

Trenton Systems has partnered with technology leaders such as Intel, Matrox Graphics and NVIDIA to create application-ready solutions based on your exact system requirements.

For more information please contact Sarsen Technology to discuss your requirements.

Alta Data Technologies Announces the Appointment of Sarsen Technology Ltd as its Distributor in the UK and Ireland

Sarsen Technology is very excited to announce that they have been selected to represent Alta Data in the UK and Ireland.

Based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, Alta Data specialises in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products for MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC avionics network systems. Alta Data offers industry leading technology to provide 1553 and ARINC connectivity for almost any standard computer platform and Ethernet based networks.

See all Alta Data Products

Nigel Norman, Managing Director of Sarsen Technology Limited says, “Providing high-performance embedded computing platforms for avionics applications to the leading UK OEMs is key to our business strategy, and the Sarsen Technology team is passionate about providing the best possible technology for mission critical applications in the mil-aero market. Alta Data’s extensive range of MIL-STD-1553, EBR and ARINC interface cards are the perfect addition to our product line and will further enable us to supply powerful COTS solutions for the most demanding environments”.

Harry Wild, VP of Sales at Alta Data says, “Alta is delighted to have the Sarsen Technology team represent the Alta products. It is a privilege to work with such a talented group of experienced professionals as Sarsen Technology. Sarsen’s product offerings compliment the Alta Product line and help to bring the customer a single point contact for test and embedded products in the UK marketspace.”

Alta has experienced rapid growth from its 2007 start to become one of the leading providers in the industry – all backed with a market-leading 5 year limited warranty.

For more information about the new relationship and how it could benefit your avionics and networking applications please contact Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 511166, or email info@sarsen.net.

Rugged Multi Mission Computer Manufacturer Expands the Family

Here at Sarsen Technology we work with 13 different manufacturers, giving us the ability to provide our customers with a complete solution for almost any embedded requirement. We chose to work with Ecrin Systems, based in France, because they offer rugged, integrated COTS building blocks from Open Standard form factors like PICMG 1.3, achieving the best system performance at reduced cost and shortest time to market.

Founded in 1976, Ecrin Systems designs and manufactures COTS, Mil-COTS and rugged systems for military/aerospace customers, OEMs, system integrators and application providers in a number of domains.

Their leading product, ONYX, is based on leading edge multi-core Intel® Core™ i7 3rd and 4th Gen processors. Pre-Qualified MIL-STD-810/461/1275/DO-160 and in a lightweight, conduction cooled chassis the ONYX is an ideal choice for space constrained applications and harsh environmental conditions.

Ecrin has recently expanded the ONYX product family, and now offers 4 versions for different types of application.

ONYX:
Generic version with one discrete GPGPU MXC site (AMD E8860), one PMC and one miniPCIe mezzanines for I/O and wireless extensions. Suitable for any type of mission in Air (manned/ unmanned Aircraft, Helicopter, UAS, EW), Ground (Ground Vehicle, Radar, ELINT/SIGINT, EW) and Sea (ships and submarines, UUS, drone, Sonar, EW)

ONYX-HD:
For situation awareness with HD-SDI digital inputs/outputs, RS170 Analog inputs, metadata extraction.

ONYX-Datalink:
For Tactical Data link system, IP communication, data concentrator with 2x PMC/XMC, 2x miniPCIe and full spec. USB 3.0

µONYX:
Designed for applications with strict Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) requirements. Compare ONYX previous versions, we reduce the volume by two (3 litres), weight by two (<3kg) and power by two (<40W)

For more information please contact Sarsen Technology - info@sarsen.net or give us a call - 01672 511166

VersaLogic Launches 'Osprey' - Small Powerful Embedded Computer Based on Intel Bay Trail Processor

Press Release

Tualatin, OR – June 28, 2016 
 

VersaLogic Corp., the embedded industry's most trusted computer company, has announced Osprey - an extremely small, rugged, embedded computer. 

This next generation of the VersaLogic Embedded Processing Unit (EPU) format combines processor, memory, video, and system I/O into an extremely compact full function embedded computer. The computer has a footprint just slightly larger than a credit card.

View datasheet

The Osprey was engineered to meet the military, avionic, and medical industries' evolving requirements for smaller, lighter, and more powerful embedded systems. Roughly the size of a credit card and less than 1.1 inches (28mm) thick, the Osprey is a highly-integrated embedded computer. It combines the new 4th generation Intel® Atom™ "Bay Trail" processor, with newer system interfaces, in a form factor designed to withstand extreme temperature, impact, and vibration.

Osprey is available in single, dual, and quad core models. The single core is suitable for lower-cost, lower power systems, while the quad core is ideal for UAV video applications where both higher performance and small size are important.

"We are excited to offer another EPU model with increased I/O capabilities. Adding USB 3.0, an additional half-sized mini PCIe socket, a second Ethernet port, digital I/O, and an I2C port allow our customers to support their I/O needs in one small package," said Gary Harris, VersaLogic's Director of Technology.

The Osprey features an industrial temperature Intel Atom E38xx processor optimized for performance and power balance. Osprey provides compatibility with a broad range of x86 operating systems and application development tools for reduced cost and development time.

Powerful Video Processing

Intel's advanced Gen 7 HD graphics engine provides outstanding graphics performance and is capable of supporting two simultaneous 1080p video streams. On-board hardware acceleration is available for encode/decode of H.264, MVC, VP8, VC1/WMV9, and other standards. The graphics engine also supports DirectX 11, Open GL 4.0, full HD video playback, dual display support, and resolution up to 2560 x 1600 @ 60Hz. Osprey supports a Mini DisplayPort++ output as well as a single-channel LVDS display output.

High Performance I/O Capabilities

Osprey's I/O connectivity includes dual Gigabit Ethernet ports with network boot capability, one USB 3.0 and four USB 2.0 ports, I2C, eight digital I/O's, and two serial ports. A SATA 3 Gbits/s interface supports high-capacity rotating or solid-state drives. Full and half-sized Mini PCIe sockets, a microSD socket, and on-board eMMC (on some models) provide flexible solid-state drive (SSD) options. Systems can be enhanced by leveraging the Mini PCIe sockets with plug-in Wi-Fi modems, GPS receivers, MIL-STD-1553, Ethernet, Firewire, and other mini PCIe cards/modules.

Designed, Manufactured and Tested for Extreme Environments

Designed and tested for industrial temperature (-40° to +85°C) operation, the Osprey also meets MIL-STD-202G specs for impact and vibration.
Osprey's on-board power filtering adds an important layer of protection for glitches caused by dirty or unstable power sources. The wide input voltage range (8 to 17 volts) greatly simplifies system power supply requirements. It is fully compatible with automotive type (nominal 12V) power systems. Soldered-on RAM and fanless thermal solutions provide additional ruggedisation for use in harsh environments.

Long-term Availability

The Osprey is covered by VersaLogic's 5-year product warranty and 5+ year availability guarantee. VersaLogic's Life Extension programs typically keep products available for 10+ years. Customisation services to help customers create unique solutions are available for the Osprey, even in low OEM quantities. Customisation options include conformal coating, revision locks, custom labeling, customized testing and screening, and more.

Pricing and Availability

The Osprey (part number VL-EPU-3311) is now in stock. OEM quantity pricing starts at $709 for the single-core model with 2 GB RAM.

For more information please contact Sarsen Technology - info@sarsen.net

Rugged, conduction cooled XMC Graphics card with two 3G-SDI video outputs and 3G-SDI video capture based on AMD E8860 GPU

New XMC Video Capture Card from EIZO Rugged Solutions

Following their rebranding in April, EIZO Rugged Solutions has announced a new member of the high performance Condor video capture card product family.

The Condor product line offers high performance COTS XMC or VPX form factor graphics and video solutions for millitary /avionics and aerospace markets. Air or rugged conduction cooled variants offer Open GL/3D, H.264, video windowing plus GPGPU capabilities. Linux, Windows and RTOS drivers are supported.

Condor 4107xX XMC Video Capture Card

 Based on the AMD Embedded Radeon E8860 GPU the Condor 4107xX is the latest rugged, conduction cooled addition to the Condor line. The XMC format Condor 4107xX has been designed for seamless integration with VPX single board computers, and offers two 3G-SDI video outputs and 3G-SDI video capture. The board supports video inputs and outputs on the rear XMC I/O connector (Pn6 VITA 46.9, x12d+x8d+24s), and can capture two simultaneous 3G-SDI, HD-SDI or SD-SDI video inputs. The board captures the incoming video data and sends it over PCIe to the host machine as raw data with low latency.

Condor 4107xX is available in various ruggedisation levels, and has been specifically designed to withstand environments with high temperature, shock or vibration (MIL-STD-810g). This makes the board an ideal consideration for defense, command and control, training and simulation, surveillance and radar display environments.

Main Features

• XMC Form Factor
• Rugged XMC Graphics Card with Video Capture
• AMD Embedded Radeon™ E8860 GPU
• 2GB GDDR5 Memory
• 640 Shader Processor, 608/38 GFLOPs Single/Double Precision Performance
• Two 3G-SDI, HD-SDI or SD-SDI Video Outputs
• Two 3G-SDI, HD-SDI or SD-SDI Video Inputs
• DisplayPort, VGA, STANAG 3350 and RGB Sync-on-green Video Outputs
• OpenGL 4.2, DirectX® 11.1, Shader 5.0
• OpenCL™ 1.2, DirectCompute 11 (GPGPU Computing)
• Rugged - MIL-STD-810g Vibration, Shock, Humidity and Temperature as needed
• Rear XMC I/O (VITA 46.9)
• Conduction Cooled
• Comprehensive Customer Support
• Long Term Product Availability
• Windows/Linux (provided by default)
• Real-time Operating System (RTOS) support including VxWorks & Integrity (optional)

For more information on the new board, or any of the products in the Condor line please get in touch with the Sarsen Technology engineering team on +44 1672 511166, or send us an email - info@sarsen.net

EE Journal Feature Article - The x86 Moat: Can Intel Defend the Data Center?

A Data Centre is a dedicated space for housing computer systems and associated components,

including telecoms and storage systems. Data centres stem from the days of the huge computer rooms of the early ages of the computing industry. This arrangement was largely unaffected by the steady reduction in size of the computer as the functionality requirements increased to such an extent that the systems still required the same amount of space. 

During the 1990s, the challenge was deploying enough processing power to meet the rapidly growing web audience. Considering Intel's market share for this industry today, x86-based servers didn't actually exist until the late 90s. But within a decade x86 processors were in the majority of servers being deployed in data centres.


Kevin Morris has written a really interesting article for EE Journal, looking at the role of FPGAs and their potential impact on the EDA industry.


May 31, 2016
The x86 Moat - Can Intel Defend the Data Center?
By Kevin Morris

Read the full article 

Excerpt:

Intel’s data center fortress is defended by the x86 moat.

The single factor that most locks Intel’s hardware into the sockets that sit on the blades that slip into the racks that line the rows of just about every data center on the planet is the x86 moat. Just about every piece of software in the universe was written and optimised for the x86 architecture. There are billions and billions of lines of code out there working every day that have been debugged and tested and proven to work reliably (well, as reliably as software gets, anyway) on Intel’s architecture.

Before any attacker can hope to displace the incumbent supplier, they have to convince the customer that changing processor architectures is really not that big a deal.

Well-designed fortresses are very good at protecting against the expected. For the fortress to be truly at risk - for Intel’s position in the data center to be realistically challenged in a meaningful way - we would need to see a sea change - an event that profoundly alters the nature of the game - a discontinuity.

FPGA-based acceleration is that discontinuity.

If the creation of heterogeneous processors with von Neumann machines sharing the workload with FPGA-based accelerators can improve energy efficiency in the data center by orders of magnitude, we have a compelling event worth an incredible amount of money - and trouble.

End of excerpt


FPGA Hardware
Sarsen Technology supplies and supports a wide range of hardware based on both Xilinx and Altera FPGAs, and can also supply a full range of software development tools and software drivers to get your FPGA system to market on-time and on-budget - www.sarsen.net
For more information please contact Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 511166, or send us an email: info@sarsen.net

3rd DAVIng Event - Learn, Discuss, Eat, Repeat!

Last week Nigel and Christos made the short hop across the continent to spend a couple of days with the DAVE Embedded Systems team in Porcia, Italy.

Following the success of last year's DAVing event the distribution network once again got together to meet and take part in a number of active training sessions as well as share their thoughts and ideas on how they can help DAVE Embedded Systems develop the business over the next 12 months. Sarsen Technology participated alongside Cynetis Embedded, Smart Embedded Systems DAVE Embedded Systems Germany and Digimax S.r.l.

As we know, all work and no play makes one very dull, so although the event was packed with training and interactive discussions there was still a little time for some sightseeing. Pordenone is a town about 15 minutes from the DAVE Embedded Systems offices, and the team enjoyed a tour of the town followed by a beautiful meal at La Ferrata.

Thanks to Eleonora and everyone at DAVE Embedded Systems for organising such an informative and motivating event! We're looking forward to working on some exciting new projects with you all this year.

X-ES Now Offering NXP QorIQ ARM Processor-Based Boards with Up to Eight ARM Cortex®-A53 64-bit Cores

Once again, our friends at Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) are at the cutting edge when it comes to new technology releases.

The latest announcement from the X-ES team is the introduction of their first NXP QorIQ ARM-based boards: the XPedite6401 XMC/PrPMC mezzanine module and the forthcoming XPedite6370 3U VPX Single Board Computer (SBC).

Read full press release

Introducing the NXP QorIQ ARM Processor

The NXP QorIQ ARM processors, built on the revolutionary Layerscape architecture, provide next-generation processing performance and an array of I/O, including multiple Gigabit Ethernet ports, multiple PCI Express ports, USB, and SATA.

The LS10xx and LS20xx processor families on X-ES ARM-based single board computers and processor mezzanines are available in two, four, and eight-core configurations for scalable processing power and minimal power consumption, offering the most advantageous blend of performance.

XPedite6401
The XPedite6401 XMC/PrPMC is the first ARM-based processor module from X-ES. It features the latest NXP QorIQ 64-bit multicore ARM processor, targeting the LS1043A quad-core ARM A53 processor. The board has been designed with a focus on long life cycle support and future compatibility with the recently announced NXP LS1088A octal-core A53 and LS1046A quad-core A72 processors. The XPedite6401 will provide a scalable processing solution to meet a range of project needs and thermal requirements.



Coming Soon - XPedite6370
The XPedite6370 is a 3U VPX-REDI single board computer based on the NXP (formerly Freescale) QorIQ LS2088A processor. The LS2088A offers eight ARM® Cortex®-A72 CPUs, running at up to 2.0 GHz and integrates a 128-bit NEON™-based SIMD engine for each core. Wind River VxWorks, Linux, and Green Hills INTEGRITY Board Support Packages (BSPs) are available.

For more information please contact Sarsen Technology on 01672 511166, or send us an email - info@sarsen.net

WEAF Technology Showcase - April 2016

The West of England Aerospace Forum (WEAF) is a membership trade association that supports the interests of the aerospace and defence industry in the South West of England. WEAF collaborates with partners like UKTI to provide critical support services such as export and marketing opportunities at major international trade exhibitions, like Farnborough and Paris. It also enjoys close links with the MOD.

The WEAF Technology Showcase events are a rare opportunity to get to know who the innovators are, what they are doing and to identify opportunities for your own organisation. If you are seeking the answers to one or more of these questions the Technology Showcase could be for you.

Tony represented Sarsen Technology at the lastest Technology Showcase, held at Renishaw Plc.  It was a great opportunity to learn about new technological developments in the sector, understand how other companies have maximised the benefit of their innovation, and allowed us to showcase selected product lines to developers and engineers who may not have been aware of them before.

Our display included the TRC2008 2U chassis from Trenton Systems, a selection of x86 boards from VersaLogic including the new Bengal 'Bay Trail' based module, and the Lumineq and BORA working model from DAVE Embedded Systems.

Check out the photos from the day below.

For more information on any of the products on display, or if you'd like to know more about WEAF please contact Tony Seal - tony.seal@sarsen.net or give us a call - 01672 511166.

BittWare Announces OpenPOWER CAPI DevKit for Xilinx FPGA-Enabled Accelerator Cards

FPGA platform supplier provides CAPI enabled FPGA accelerator cards for POWER8 processors.

April 2016

BittWare, an industry-leading board supplier for over 25 years, announced today an OpenPOWER CAPI Developer’s Kit for its Xilinx FPGA-enabled accelerator cards. Providing a fast, efficient way to connect the Xilinx All Programmable FPGA to a CAPI-enabled IBM POWER8 system, the developer’s kit includes the FPGA accelerator card, IBM Power Service Layer (PSL) IP to provide the connection to the POWER8 chip, CAPI host support library, and an example CAPI design.

The FPGA accelerator card included in the kit is BittWare’s XUSP3S, which is a ¾-length PCIe board featuring the Xilinx Virtex® UltraScale™ VU095, four QSFPs for 4x 100GbE, and flexible memory configurations with up to 64 GBytes of memory and support for Hybrid Memory Cube (HMC).

Most FPGA accelerators use PCIe to connect to the host processor unit. IBM has developed CAPI (Coherent Accelerator Processor Interface) as an alternative that takes some of the overhead and complexity out of the I/O subsystem by providing a direct interface between the host and the FPGA. Developers can run their specific FPGA solutions as a peer to the IBM POWER8 cores, enabling higher system performance with less programming complexity.

“BittWare is pleased to work with Xilinx and IBM to offer CAPI enabled FPGA acceleration platforms for POWER processors,” said Ron Huizen, VP of Systems and Solutions at BittWare. “Our XUSP3S board is a compelling option for data center applications, and with the addition of CAPI will now allow our customers to develop their applications even more quickly and efficiently.”

“CAPI on POWER8 systems provides a high-performance solution for implementing customer-specific, computation-heavy algorithms on an FPGA,” said Sumit Gupta, VP, High Performance Computing & Data Analytics at IBM. “The IBM solution enables higher system performance with a much smaller programming investment, allowing hybrid computing to be successful across a much broader range of applications. BittWare’s CAPI support brings this innovation to an even wider range of customers.”

“The demand for FPGA acceleration in data centers is increasing, and with that the need for innovative, high performance accelerator solutions,” said Curtis Pulley, data center business manager at Xilinx. “The CAPI-enabled Xilinx FPGA-based offerings from BittWare are a great addition to the OpenPOWER ecosystem and extend our efforts to deliver industry-leading solutions for IBM POWER systems.”

Availability
BittWare’s OpenPOWER CAPI Developer’s Kit will be available in early Q2 2016. Contact Sarsen Technology for details.



About OpenPOWER

BittWare is a member of the OpenPOWER Foundation, an open development community based on the POWER microprocessor architecture. The Foundation includes a growing roster of technology organizations working collaboratively to build advanced server, networking, storage, and acceleration technology as well as industry-leading open source software aimed at delivering more choice, control, and flexibility to developers of next-generation, hyperscale, and cloud data centers. The group makes POWER hardware and software available to open development for the first time, as well as making POWER intellectual property licensable to others, greatly expanding the ecosystem of innovators on the platform.

To learn more about OpenPOWER and to view the complete list of current members, go to www.openpowerfoundation.org.

About BittWare, Inc.

For over 25 years, BittWare has designed and deployed high-end network processing, signal processing, and high performance computing platforms that significantly reduce technology risk and time-to revenue for our OEM customers. Our products utilize the latest FPGA technologies on industry-standard COTS form factors, including PCIe, and are available either as boards or in systems. We also provide a great deal of value-add with IP, software, support, and services. When customer requirements make it difficult to use industry-standard boards, BittWare can provide modified solutions and/or licensed designs. For more information on BittWare and its innovative FPGA platform solutions, visit www.bittware.com/xilinx.

Learn more: Find your solution... Built on BittWare.

NMI FPGA Network: Safety, Certification & Security Event - 19th May 2016

Date:	May 19 @ 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Event:	FPGA Network: Safety, Certification & Security
Venue:	Room A166 and Room A161, Lindop Building, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane Campus - College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB

Programmable devices are one of the most important platforms for electronic system design. In the last few years FPGA devices have become increasingly sophisticated and capable, allowing them to sit at the heart of a wide range of product and system designs. This trend is set to continue into even greater volume markets as performance improves even more.

Because of their extensive market appeal the emphasis on safety, security and regulation through certification for FPGA based designs has become more important than ever. This event will explore technology issues implementing FPGA based systems where safety and security are prime considerations and when standards based certification must be met.

NMI’s network meetups assemble a melting pot of engineers from different sectors to share experience and latest experience. The aim is to educate and enthral and to return to the work place with ideas, solutions and knowledge. The content of the meeting will be geared for a technical audience with ample time for discussion and networking.

Confirmed speakers include:

Would you like to speak? There a few open slots and NMI invites you to propose a topic.
It’s a great way to connect with the industry and to show case the cool stuff your company does.

For more information please contact Pete Davy – 07979 706 357.


About NMI

www.nmi.org

NMI is the Champion for the UK Electronic Systems & Technology Industry. Their mission is to help make the UK a leading location for electronic systems and technology businesses.They aim to support their members’ short-term priorities and the industry’s long-term needs. NMI's work covers innovation, operational excellence, investment, the skills agenda, advocacy and representation.

DO-178C Compliant Drivers for Rugged XMC and VPX Graphics Cards

DO-178B, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification was developed by the commercial avionics industry to create software guidelines for avionics software developers. Although ‘officially’ just that, a guideline, it quickly became a formal standard for developing avionics software systems.

Since its establishment there have been a number of iterations of the guideline. The first version of the document, DO-178, covered the basic avionics software lifecycle. Version two - DO-178A - added avionics software criticality level details and put emphasis on software component testing to measure and maintain quality. DO-178B expanded the avionics software quality requirements with continuous quality monitoring and testing in real-world conditions. At a relatively short 100 pages, DO-178B became the 'go-to' standard for a wide range of developers, making it quite broad in nature and requiring in-depth understanding of intent.

But it wasn't just necessary for flight products. DO-178B had a number of additional benefits, including higher reliability and consistency, greater re-usability, verifiable software quality, much lower lifecycle and maintenance costs, faster hardware integration and greater portability.

DO-178B was created to match the stringent development practices and technologies of its day, but it makes very little allowance for the latest development technologies, including formal methods, Model-Based Development (MBD), and the use of object-oriented technologies.

The DO-178C standard recognises this and was specifically written to help bring the certification of avionics software in line with these 21st-century technologies. DO-178C retains the core information from DO-178B, and updates it where necessary to consider the need for developers to begin testing, or verifying, early in the process. The single most significant aspect of DO-178C is the addition of three technology-specific legs under the “core document” inherited from DO-178B.

Tech Source provides rugged XMC and VPX graphics cards that are available with DO-178C compliant drivers for use in safety critial environments.

The Condor 4000 XMC Series products are leading edge XMC form factor, rugged graphics/video cards for use in applications that require very high-end rugged graphics and computational power.

Based on AMD’s Embedded Radeon™ E8860 discrete GPU, the Condor 4000 XMC Series products offer the highest level graphical and GPGPU performance available for the embedded and rugged market. Its built-in video decoder enables dual HD decoding of H.264, VC-1. MPEG4 and MPEG2 compressed video stream.

Based on AMD’s Radeon™ E8860 GPU, the Condor 4000 3U VPX Series offers ultra high graphics and GPGPU performance for defense (military), avionics and other rugged markets. The 3U VPX form factor allows for operation at full power (45W) because the 3U VPX form factor allows for improved cooling.  This board comes complete with VPX-REDI covers. 

 For more information please contact Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 511166 or send us an email.