SOSA - Sensor Open System Architecture for C4ISR Applications

If you haven’t heard about SOSA, you’re probably not the only one, but it’s big news for Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) systems.

SOSA, or the Sensor Open System Architecture, is a collaboration between government and industry to establish guidelines for C4ISR systems. The United States is currently spearheading SOSA development, but the intention is to encourage the use of SOSA in both government and commercial markets across the world.

Using OpenVPX as its framework, SOSA will ensure improved SWaP-C optimisation, extensive reconfiguration options and rapid technology upgrades within a wide range of applications. The fundamental objective is to give designers maximum flexibility in the initial selection of subsystems that provide sensor data collection, processing, exploitation, communication, and related functions over the full life cycle of the C4ISR system.

Annapolis Micro Systems was an early adopter of the modular open standards model for COTS product development, and is a dedicated SOSA contributor and member.


The 3XBM from Annapolis is SOSA-aligned and VITA 65-compliant.

These boards provide either one Kintex® UltraScale™ XCKU115 or Virtex® UltraScale+™ XCVU5P/XCVU7P FPGA with up to 10 GB of DDR4 DRAM, providing up to 40 GB/s of DRAM bandwidth. WM3XBM - Find Out More

A WFMC+ mezzanine I/O site with stacking support is included, alongside an on-board Zynq Quad ARM CPU and 1Gb Ethernet Switch. High-bandwidth backplane connectivity is enabled by MULTIGIG RT3 interconnects, which deliver 100Gb per Fat Pipe. The new high-density RT3 boosts VPX backplane speeds to a remarkable 25 Gbaud, without sacrificing signal integrity.

For more information please contact the Sarsen Technology Engineering Team who can answer questions about SOSA, Annapolis and any of our other high performance embedded hardware.