Brand New Small Form Factor (SFF) System Features 10 Gb/s Optical Links for High-Bandwidth Embedded Computing

The latest 3U VPX embedded system from Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) sets a new standard for high-bandwidth data acquisition and signal processing in harsh environments.

With multiple high-speed optical links, an Intel® Xeon® D-1500 processor, and a Xilinx Kintex® UltraScale™ FPGA, the XPand6215 offers uncompromising performance and reliability in a SWaP-optimised two-slot system.

High-Speed, Fibre Optic Communications
The XPand6215 is a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) rugged chassis hosting two conduction-cooled 3U VPX modules. One slot contains the XPedite2570, a reconfigurable fibre-optic I/O module based on the Xilinx Kintex® UltraScale™ family of FPGAs.

The XPedite2570 supplies 12 protocol-independent optical transceivers operating at up to 10.3125 Gb/s, along with 8 GB of DDR4 ECC SDRAM in two channels capable of up to 38 GB/s aggregate bandwidth. The transceivers utilise 50/125 μm multi-mode fibre with MT connectors and are qualified over the full -40°C to +85°C industrial temperature range for reliable performance in extreme environments.

These optical links are paired with a user-programmable Xilinx Kintex® UltraScale™ FPGA, which provides a blend of performance and cost-effectiveness that is ideal for packet processing and DSP-intensive processing in embedded applications.

Unparalleled, Multi-Core Processing Power
The other slot of the XPand6215 contains the XPedite7670, a 3U VPX Single Board Computer based on the Intel® Xeon® D-1500 family of processors (formerly Broadwell-DE). Available with up to 16 Xeon®-class cores in a single, power-efficient System-on-Chip (SoC) package, this processor puts the XPand6215 in the upper echelon of embedded system performance. Xeon® D processors with up to 12 cores offer native extended temperature support with an operating temperature range of -40⁰C to +85⁰C.

The XPedite7670 also provides up to 16 GB of DDR4-2133 ECC SDRAM, while an XPort3305 10 Gigabit Ethernet XMC module installed on the XPedite7670 provides a rugged 10GBASE-SR Ethernet port.

Industry-Leading Functional Density in a Small Form Factor (SFF) Enclosure
The XPand6215 makes the most of every pound and square inch, packing maximum functionality into a streamlined two-slot design. Its integrated 28 VDC power supply eliminates the need for an additional power supply slot. It also includes a memory bay for a removable 2.5 in. solid-state drive (SSD), adding the option for up to 1 TB of storage. Fully loaded, the system weighs approximately 4kg, making it ideal for cutting-edge military and industrial applications that require small, lightweight solutions.

Qualified to the MIL-STD-461E/F, MIL-STD-810, and MIL-STD-704F standards, the XPand6215 has passed a battery of tests to ensure reliable operation in even the most challenging environments.

The XPand6200 Series of rugged, embedded systems are available in a diverse range of configurations, making them uniquely-suited to a variety of processing-intensive applications.

Please contact Sarsen Technology to discuss your requirements.

New 2U 19" Rackmount Modular Blade Computer from Trenton Systems

Always striving to be at the forefront of innovative technology, Trenton Systems has designed a brand new modular blade system providing a flexible solution for a wide range of projects.

The MBS2000 supports up to 4 single or dual-processor modular blade cards, and is ideal for those applications needing increased compute density while keeping system size, weight and power (SWaP) to a minimum.

More Information

This 2U modular computer installs into standard 19" racks, and the housing for each modular blade card is enclosed in either a 1U or 2U metal carrier. Each carrier slides into the MBS2000 to support quick system re-configurations that enhances system scalability and flexibility.

MBS2000 2U modular computer features include:

• Secure 4-in-1 modular computer design
• Scalable design allows you to place just the right amount of computing power to work
• Easily deploy 1, 2, 3, or 4 independent, single or dual-processor blade cards
• Single Processor - MBK8257 is a long-life, designed and Made In America single board computer featuring a choice of an embedded Intel® processor
• MBK8257 Intel® Xeon® E3-1275 v5/v6, Intel® Xeon® E3-1225 v5/v6, Intel® Core™ i3-7101E (additional Skylake/Kaby Lake-S options available) 
• Dual Processor - MSL8256 will be available later in 2017 and this single board computer will support dual embedded Intel® Xeon® processor options
• MSL8256 featuring next generation Intel® Xeon® processors (code name: Skylake)
• Built-in expandability enhances and preserves your hardware platform investment
• 2U modular blade option supports up to two PCI Express full-height plug-in cards
• Smart System Management (SSM) software enables remote monitoring
• Standard 5-year factory warranty
• Made In America

Sarsen Technology has the only demonstration unit here in the UK. If you’d like to see the system in action please get in touch with our team and we can arrange a visit.

A 1U version and a modular blade server tower are also available.
Trenton Modular Blade Server Products

Trenton Cryptographic Systems Now Include the Latest IBM Hardware Security Module (HSM)

Latest News from Trenton Systems

U.S. Built Rugged Computers Now Support The Latest PCI Express Cryptographic Co-Processor

Trenton Systems announced that IBM® has approved four of their rugged computers for use with the IBM® 4767-002 PCIe Cryptographic Co-Processor Hardware Security Module (HSM). 

One of these systems is the TCS4504 - an IBM® approved x86 architecture 4U, 19" rackmount server in a lightweight rugged aluminium chassis. The TCS4504 features a dual-processor system host board, PCIe backplane and the IBM® 4767-002 PCIe Cryptographic Coprocessor (Hardware Security Module (HSM)). The TCS4504, like all Trenton Systems products, is designed and integrated in the USA. With 7+ years of product availability this system allows confident long-term data protection and user accountability, with lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

See how these two new Trenton Cryptographic Systems (TCS) merge the crypto coprocessor with a dual-processor SBC

The 2U, TCS2504 and the 4U, TCS4504 combine Trenton's HEP8225 HDEC Series processor board and its dual, Intel® Xeon® processors with the IBM® 4767-002 PCIe Cryptographic Coprocessor Hardware Security Module (HSM). These systems protect the privacy and confidentiality of data in a variety of business, government and military computing applications. 

The Trenton Systems Cryptographic System TCS2504 is an IBM® approved x86 architecture 2U, 19"rackmount server featuring a dual-processor system host board, butterfly form-factor PCIe backplane and the IBM® 4767-002 PCIe Cryptographic Coprocessor (Hardware Security Module (HSM)). Combining the Trenton Systems HEP8225 HDEC Series System Host Board and its dual, Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v4 series processors with the HDB8227 backplane and IBM® 4767-002 PCIe Cryptographic Coprocessor Hardware Security Module (HSM),  the TCS2504 represents a powerful and versatile building block for secure applications.

Rugged Cryptographic Systems Technical Challenges Using PCI Express

Correctly routing PCIe signal traces is a design challenge that few companies can handle well, and taking short cuts in single board computer and backplane designs which utilise the PCI Express interface will always result in suboptimal system performance particularly in rugged cyrptographic systems.
Read more


For more information on Trenton Systems in the UK please contact Sarsen Technology on +1672 511166 or send us an email: info@sarsen.net

Automotive NVH Data Logging for Todays Vehicles

Author - Laura


The Ford Model A was the original car produced by Ford, and was first sold to Ernst Pfennig, a Chicago dentist on July 23, 1903. Only 1,750 Model As were made from 1903 through 1904, until it was replaced by the Ford Model C during 1904.

The car came as a two-seater runabout or four-seater tonneau model with an option to add a top. The horizontal-mounted flat-2, situated amidships of the car, produced 8 hp (6 kW). A planetary transmission was fitted with two forward speeds and reverse, a Ford signature later seen on the Ford Model T. The car weighed 1,240 lb (562 kg) and could reach a top speed of 28 mph (45 km/h). It had a 72 inch (1.8 m) wheelbase and sold for a base price of US$750. Band brakes were used on the rear wheels.

Although Ford advertised the Model A as the "most reliable machine in the world", it suffered from many problems common to vehicles of the era, including overheating and slipping transmission bands. 


Cars today go through stringent tests in the development stage, before they even reach the market. 
United Electronic Industries (UEI)’s popular UEILogger Cube in conjunction with the DNA-AI-211 ICP/IEPE interface and the DNA-AI-208 or AI-224 strain gage interfaces have been used by a wide variety of customers in the study of vehicle NVH (Noise, Vibration and Harshness) characteristics.

The Cube is an ideal measurement platform for in-vehicle automobile NVH testing, being compact, rugged and running off any power supply between 9 and 36 VDC. This combination makes it easy to fit the cube in the boot, engine bay or underneath a seat. As well as logging the NVH data, the UEILogger can also acquire CAN data, allowing simply correlation between the vehicle dynamics (e.g., speed, RPM) and NVH.

All this is possible without writing any code as the UEILogger is programmed by a simple, intuitive Windows GUI. 

For more information please get in touch with our UEI specialist - Tony Seal - on +44 1672 511166 or by email - tony.seal@sarsen.net

Extreme Environments Demand Extreme Engineering Solutions - Rugged SBCs and Systems from X-ES

Author: Laura Biddiscombe

Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) is a leader in designing advanced, embedded computing products for the harsh environments seen in military and industrial applications.

They utilise best-in-class design, test, and manufacturing practices to develop products that deliver reliable operation in the extremes of temperature, shock, vibration, and environment.

Three levels of ruggedization are available for X-ES products, supporting commercial, extended temperature, and conduction-cooled applications. Products may be air-cooled or conduction-cooled depending on the end application. These levels allow our customers to tailor a solution to their application by selecting the range that best suits their needs for thermal, vibration, shock and performance.

Standard Air-Cooled - Level 1
Operating Temperature	0 to +55°C ambient, 300 LFM, per MIL-STD-810F 501.4 Procedure II and Method 502.4 Procedure II
Storage Temperature	-40 to +85°C ambient †
Vibration	0.002 g²/Hz, 1 hour per axis from 5 to 2000 Hz
Shock	20 g, 11 ms sawtooth, per MIL-STD-810F Method 516.5 Procedure I
Humidity	0% to 95% non-condensing, per MIL-STD-810F Method 507.4
Rugged Air-Cooled - Level 3
Operating Temperature	-40 to +70°C, 600 LFM, per MIL-STD-810F 501.4 Procedure II and Method 502.4 Procedure II
Storage Temperature	-55 to +105°C, per MIL-STD-810F Method 501.4 Procedure I and Method 502.4 Procedure I †
Vibration	0.04 g²/Hz (maximum), 1 hour per axis from 5 to 2000 Hz ‡
Shock	30 g, 11 ms sawtooth, per MIL-STD-810F Method 516.5 Procedure I
Humidity	0% to 95% non-condensing, per MIL-STD-810F Method 507.4
Conduction-Cooled - Level 5
Operating Temperature	-40 to +85°C board rail surface temperature, per MIL-STD-810F Method 501.4 Procedure II and Method 502.4 Procedure II
Storage Temperature	-55 to +105°C, per MIL-STD-810F Method 501.4 Procedure I and Method 502.4 Procedure I †
Vibration	0.1 g²/Hz (maximum), 1 hour per axis from 5 to 2000 Hz ‡
Shock	40 g, 11 ms sawtooth, per MIL-STD-810F Method 516.5 Procedure I
Humidity	0% to 95% non-condensing, per MIL-STD-810F Method 507.4

If an application does not fall into one of these three ruggedization levels, X-ES offers extended temperature, humidity, and vibration screening services. Many military designs, for example, have a -55ºC operational requirement. In the case where screening alone is not practical, X-ES has experience with heater tapes and other alternative solutions. Optional features, such as conformal coating, are available.

Contact the Sarsen Technology Technical Team for more information about available options.

Embedded Systems 'R' Us!

Here at Sarsen embedded systems are just what we do. They are our core business, and we’ve got a crack team of manufacturing partners that enable us to help you, the lovely customer, find solutions for your embedded computing requirements. It can be a challenge, so we offer a wide range of high quality, high reliability products that support a lot of different market sectors.

One of our newest additions to the product line, Dave, has risen to the challenge of embedded product development by designing and manufacturing complete devices, including both software and hardware. The result is a complete line of CPU modules, covering x86, ARM and PowerPC architectures, with high-end and entry level models.

Dave’s aim is to help customers save development time and engineering costs, which is why each CPU is available with its own evaluation board and development kit, so you can easily test all the features on the module.

The BORA is the newest high performance CPU module from DAVE, powered by the Dual Cortex-A9 with the FPGA "Zynq" XC7Z010 / XC7Z020 application processor from Xilinx. The BoraEVB-Lite is a carrier board designed to host the Bora system-on-module.
Features Include -

• 10/100/1000 Ethernet
• 1x USB OTG
• Serial port (RS232)
• 1x MicroSD
• External DDR3 SDRAM bank
• +12V power connector
• JTAG
• 2.54mm-pitch pin-strip connectors for Bora PS and PL configurable peripherals (MIO and EMIO interfaces, GPIOs, custom IPs ..)

For more information about the development kits from Dave, or evaluations for any of our products, please get in touch with our wonderful sales team on +44 1672 511166, or email us – info@sarsen.net

Have a great weekend!

Sun is Shining, Weather is Sweet....

That’s right. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, it’s not dark; it’s just your sunglasses. The pain on the back of your neck and shoulders is actually sunburn. It’s summer, people, and we’ve finally had some pretty fabulous weather, with the UK racking up temperatures hotter than Barbados and Tahiti at times.

But take a minute to actually think about the sun. As well as being the giver of tan lines and facilitator of days at the beach it’s also the closest star to Earth, (practically next door at only 149,600,000 km away), and is about 4.6 billion years old. We actually know quite a lot about it, thanks to solar imaging.

BittWare was involved in a project to design a solar image processing system for one of their customers. The processing requirements were quite specific – the customer was looking for adaptive image processing using multi-channel correlation. This called for a very large multi-processor system with a huge amount of I/O bandwidth, extensive integration work, and a very efficient cooling system.

 

BittWare’s solution included ten DSP-based boards, supplying 80 DSPs, and a custom designed chassis to provide efficient cooling. They drew on decades of expertise in digital signal processing design, enabling them to create an 80-DSP system that functioned with no issues, which also cooled properly. Although the hardware used was COTS hardware, significant application-specific design work was needed to ultimately provide the final system to their customer.

Enjoy the sun this weekend!

Trenton and Matrox Provide AV Hardware for Australian Grand Prix

Are you sitting comfortably? I’m going to tell you a true story.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation needed a high performance system to monitor all the camera feeds and logistical information from around the track. It was a big task, so they enlisted the help of P.A People to provide a perfect solution.

That solution came in the shape of a TVC4401 video wall controller system from Trenton Systems. The system was powered by three Matrox Mura MPX-4/4 boards, each featuring four outputs and four inputs, and two MPX-V16s, which capture up to 16 NTSC/PAL/SECAM video channels each. During the race the Mura cards captured feeds from 10 inputs including lap times, race position, etc, and 32 track cameras, managing their display across 12 Samsung 460UX monitors in a 6x2 configuration.

The P.A. People Managing Director Chris Dodds said, “The Mura platform provided an upgrade path between an analog and IP solution, without resorting to a very expensive turnkey solution. By using a Matrox certified chassis solution, the Trenton TVC4401 worked pretty much out of the box”.

The race was won by McLaren driver Jenson Button, with Sebastian Vettel in second place, and former teammate Lewis Hamilton coming in third. The Trenton TVC4401 and Mura MPX Series video wall controller boards captured and displayed Button’s victory from start to finish in the control room, meeting the Australian Grand Prix Corporation’s strict audio-visual needs and budget.

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation was so pleased that they asked The P.A. People to return to the 2013 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix. And they all lived happily ever after....

You can check out the TVC4401 in this video from Trenton Systems.

For more information on any of the Matrox certified products from Trenton Systems please give us a call on +44 1672 511166, or send us an email.

Automated Blood Collections Systems - VersaLogic Helps Make Giving Blood Today Even Easier!

The 14th June, (thats today!), sees countries around the world observe World Blood Donor Day.

Established in 2004, World Blood Donor Day helps to raise awareness of the need for safe blood products, and thanks all the very lovely voluntary unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.

A generous donor giving the gift of blood

VersaLogic have been involved with a project to design and build an Automated Blood Collection System, which collects a combination of red blood cells, platelets and plasma from donors. These highly integrated, computerised systems minimise the need for human intervention, integrate key functions, and provide important data at a moment's notice, maximising the efficiency of blood centre operations.

Blood components separated by a centrifuge - Plasma, White Blood Cells and Platelets, and Red Blood Cells

Driving the FDA-approved system is a VersaLogic EBX single board computer that automates the collection process. The state-of-the-art technology uses cell separators that allow for the division of the various blood components in a high-speed centrifugal field while the device is still connected to the donor. This process allows collection of any combination of red blood cells, platelets, and plasma while returning unneeded components to the donor, allowing more frequent donations.

Automated Blood Collection System featuring boards from VersaLogic

Blood transfusions help save millions of lives every year. They can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer with a better quality of life, and support complex medical and surgical procedures.

So why not do something amazing - give blood.

Cytometry – BittWare Have It Sorted!

Cytometers are instruments that measure the properties of single cells, one cell at a time. They can measure cell size, cell granularity, and the amounts of cell components such as DNA and proteins.

Flow cytometers take in a suspension of cells and run them single file past a laser beam. The laser is used to count different cell populations based on the light that their specific labels emit.

Biological cell classification is a highly complex process, made possible by digital signal processing. In the past, flow cytometry and cell sorting systems have used complex, custom analog circuitry that has remained unchanged for years. BittWare has worked with customers to develop systems that use both DSPs and FPGAs working together to provide the processing. This has created intelligent systems that also provide a high level of flexibility and re-programmability, enabling them to be somewhat general purpose, yet capable of being tailored to the requirements of specific, in this case, medical applications.

BittWare were approached by a customer with a very specific requirement. Their challenge was to provide a very high system throughput - 64 channels of 105 MHz ADC, real-time processing of unpredictable and changing data, a very high level of flexibility for rapid adaptation and updating, along with extended precision and dynamic range.

When the customer started designing their prototype they used DSP, which worked but didn’t give them the flexibility they needed. BittWare took over and created a hybrid signal processing design – DSP + FPGA, which lowered costs and increased flexibility.

Adding an FPGA to the mix meant the number of DSPs could be halved, significantly reducing the overall system cost. The hybrid solution provided the best of both worlds with the DSPs satisfying the need for sustained, low-latency, high-throughput processing, and the FPGAs providing fast, repetitive front-end processing and system flexibility.

For more information on DSP and FPGA technology from BittWare please get in touch - info@sarsen.net.

Have a great weekend!

Conduant's 'Big River NTX16' in the Sarsen Spotlight

This week we're sharing all our trade secrets about the Big River NTX16 PCI Express Recorder from Conduant Corp!

Conduant Corp. designs and manufactures real-time, long-duration digital recording and playback disk systems. But unlike traditional general purpose disk storage, Conduant’s products ensure reliable, guaranteed and sustained performance in increments of 800 MB/s. Now thats something you don't see every day.....

The key to Conduant’s technology is the innovative way data is recorded; directly from a third party source, bypassing the bottlenecks that can occur in traditional recording systems.

The Big River™ NTX16 recording system provides up to 800 MB/s recording and playback performance in a 3U rack mount chassis. The system can operate independently from a host computer with command and control performed over a network connection. Control can be automated from a software application using the StreamStor® software API from a network connected computer.

A cabled PCI Express interface provides high speed connectivity to a host computer for command and control or data access, and can be used to connect to nearly any computing architecture, such as PCI Express, XMC, VME, VPX, VXS, AMC or other mezzanine / backplane environments.

Solutions are even available for connection to notebook computers!

Features include:

• Peer-to-peer PCI Express recording and playback capability
• Performance independent of host load
• Standalone capable operation with network command/control
• Sustained recording and playback at up to 800 MB/s
• Rear PCI Express cabling
• 3U chassis at only 21” deep
• Scalable data storage capacities up to 48TB
• Solid-state or magnetic disk drive media
• Cabled PCI Express (x8) for full speed data access

For even more information on the digital recording and playback systems from Conduant please get in touch with us here at Sarsen. There are 9 different ways... pick any one. But we'll have to whisper it.....!!

T'was the night before Christmas..... by Sarsen Technology!

T'was the night before Christmas, we were still at the shop.
The town was deserted; you could hear a pin drop.
Our families were at home, the egg-nog was flowing,
And outside the window it had just started snowing.

T'here was still work to do, and orders to place
We were working away at a furious pace!
Sarsen Technology was so busy in December,
When last this much to do we couldn’t remember!

T'he team was still smiling (it was more of a scowl),
And our moods were becoming increasingly foul.
When outside the office a roar did sound,
An engine, getting closer. Our heads turned around….

T'he moon was shining on the new fallen snow,
And it lit up the ground and the houses below.
Then what to our tired eyes should appear?
The boss parking his car, full of good cheer!

More jolly than Santa, he strode up the stairs,
And entered the office to a faceful of stares.
Under our breaths we asked “Why's he so cheerful?”
And why was he here? We were suddenly fearful...

Had we not done enough of the workload this eve?
We’d nearly completed what we set out to achieve.
We had no idea about what was his game,
Then to our surprise he called us by name!

Now Laura! Now Colleen! Now Angela and Tim!
And of course not forgetting Robbie and Lynn!
You’ve worked really hard, and you deserve a big cheer,
Take some time off, come back after New Year!

As we packed up our stuff, and put on our coats,
Our hats and our gloves, and wrapped scarves round our throats,
We heard him exclaim, as he drove out of sight,
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from everyone at Sarsen Technology!
We will be back in the office on Wednesday 2nd January.

Putting the spotlight on Danville Signal Processing

Danville Signal Processing, Inc. was founded in 1998 to manufacture products for the communication, audio, military and instrumentation markets using digital signal processing (DSP) technology as their core technology base. Sarsen Technology has represented Danville in the UK for over 10 years.

Solutions include:

• COTS DSP Boards and I/O Modules
• Embedded PCB assemblies
• DSP and FPGA combination solutions
• Standalone products
• Rack mount systems
• Custom board solutions

The dspblok family of products combine an Analog Devices SHARC DSP with the supporting circuits necessary to implement a powerful DSP Function Module.

Danville Signal's dspstak™ Engines are available for the latest Analog Devices SHARC® family processors. These modules generally consist of a DSP Processor, memory, power supplies and standard digital I/O such as RS-232 and USB.

The dsprak™ high performance audio platform is a semi-custom solution for OEMs. The basic 1U system supports 2 to 8 analog and digital inputs and 8 analog and digital outputs. Additional motherboards can be stacked to create larger systems with up to 32 channels.

Danville have also have gathered a number of DSP resources, ADI data sheets and application notes, DSP-related web sites and online tutorials to assist you in your DSP applications. They will continue to add information and resources to their website, to assist developers in gaining the DSP knowledge necessary to make their designs better, faster and more reliable.

Their goal is to become a repository of SHARC Related Resources and Reference Material for the DSP Developer. If you have a DSP trick, SHARC-related Article or Web Site that you'd like to add to Danville's reference library, please contact us and we will be happy to add it to the collection.

If you have any questions about Danville, or any of our other product lines, please give us a call on +44 1672 511166, or drop us an email.

The Sarsen Technology Christmas Party - In Photos

Christmas comes but once a year, and the Sarsen Technology Christmas party was the perfect way to get us all in the festive spirit.

The gang at Komedia, Bath
L-R - Angela, Nigel, Tim, Laura, Lynn and Colleen

There was someone important missing from the party - Robbie couldn't make it unfortunately, but we tried our best to enjoy the evening without his sparkling company....

Angela and Nigel

Tim and Colleen

Laura and Tim

Clive and Lynn

We all had a good time on Friday, thanks very much to Colleen for organising a great night out!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

Yes, its Christmas party time again.

Tonight the Sarsen Team are off to Komedia in Bath to eat, drink and get merry. I mean, be merry.

Its a good time to review the highs and lows of 2012; it's been an interesting year, with successes in new markets, a host of new boards from all our manufacturers, and loads of new brand new technology to get our little heads around.

But there's no rest for the wicked; there will be even more happening in the New Year!

Thanks very much to our manufacturers for their continued support, and we look forward to another exciting year in 2013.

Have a great weekend!

The Twelve Days of Christmas. Sarsen Style.

Today is the twelfth of the twelfth of the twelfth. So we're carrying on the theme and bringing you the Twelve Days of Christmas, in our own special way.

(Feel free to join in....)

On the first day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

A BittWare Anemone

On the second day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the third day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the fourth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the fifth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the sixth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

Well done guys, half way through....

On the seventh day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the eighth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Eight Amazon Streamstors,

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the ninth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Nine Tech Source Condors

Eight Amazon Streamstors,

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the tenth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Ten General Standards boards,

Nine Tech Source Condors

Eight Amazon Streamstors,

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

Nearly there, keep going!

On the eleventh day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Eleven Iguanas,

Ten General Standards boards,

Nine Tech Source Condors

Eight Amazon Streamstors,

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone

On the twelfth day of Christmas,

Sarsen sent to me

Twelve Trenton Backplanes,

Eleven Iguanas,

Ten General Standards boards,

Nine Tech Source Condors

Eight Amazon Streamstors,

Seven Half-length Stratix V boards,

Six RACKtangle chassis

Five Copperheads,

Four dspBloks

Three Cisco Routers,

Two UEI Cubes

And a BittWare Anemone!

Hurrah! Next up, We Wish You a Merry Christmas.......

Sarsen Technology Manufacturer Profile - Tech Source, Inc.

Established in 1987, Tech Source has been a pioneer in high performance computer graphics hardware solutions for 25 years.

The company has evolved over the years, now serving several markets that include Air Traffic Control/Management (ATC/ATM), avionics, military and embedded systems with several COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) and custom products.
The product range includes graphics, imaging and video capture boards, H.264 encoders and high compression video recorders.

From designing graphics processing units (GPUs) and high compression encoders to FPGA targeted special graphics/imaging algorithms the company has a broad range of knowledge and offers product customizations and new product delivery in a matter of months.

Tech Source XMC and PMC graphics products can be used with most Single Board Computers (SBCs) in various form factors such as VME, CPCI, and ATCA that are most often found in military and defense applications.

The Tech Source Condor series of embedded products for Mil/Aero applications consists of high performance COTS XMC or VPX form factor graphics and video solutions. Air or rugged conduction cooled variants offer Open GL/3D, H.264, video windowing plus GPGPU capabilities. Linux, Windows and RTOS drivers are supported. A key product is the Condor 3000x which is based on the AMD Radeon 6760 GPU and offers exceptional performance with immersive desktop-level 3D graphics and outstanding multimedia features.

For more information on Tech Source or any of our other manufacturers please give us a call on +44 1672 511166, or email us.

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Sarsen Technology is here if you need us, Santa!

Things are ramping up at the North Pole....

On the run up to Christmas Eve, Santa has to go through his list of names, and check it twice, to see who has been naughty and who has been nice. He then has to decide which toy each child deserves. It’s a long process, and it could be much simpler, using BLITzEN – the BittWare Low latency Intelligent Toy Evaluation Network.

It’s based on the Altera Stratix V FPGA, provides CPU offload, the highest performance transceivers , and with maximum processing performance per watt to minimize energy and thermal requirements it’s perfect for Santa’s busy Workshop, as it helps him to determine not just what children want but rather what they deserve.

Those Reindeer are an essential part of the process, and Santa knows he needs to make sure they are happy and performing at their best. The UEI Cube is small and rugged, and can be used to measure the tension on their specially adapted harnesses using its strain gauge layers, so Santa knows the second there are any problems. That sleigh is heavy!

Flying around the world in a reindeer-drawn sleigh would be made much easier with a display system running on the Copperhead Core i7 EBX board from VersaLogic. Its performance level allows for the integration of multiple high-bandwidth functions, such as digital signal processing and real-time video processing. The Copperhead features a high-speed memory interface, up to 16 GB on-board RAM capacity, and three independent display outputs, so Santa can check his route, run his aforementioned naughty-or-nice list, and still video-chat with the sleigh-port, an underground facility run by Elves that serves as a command and control centre. 

Phew! Its a busy time for the guys and girls at the North Pole, but don't worry Santa, Sarsen Technology is here to help. Give us a call on +44 1672 511166 or drop us an email!!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas…. With the help of our lovely Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund Christmas Cards

As well as all the other stuff we get up to here at Sarsen, it’s very important to us that we support charities where we can. This year we have chosen to support the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund by buying all our Christmas cards from their wonderful collection.

The Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (PCRF) is a national charity dedicated to supporting research to improve diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer. It was founded in April 2004 by Maggie Blanks, following the death of her husband Alan from the disease in May 2003. The PCRF directly fund research into the disease by offering grants to researchers in universities, research institutes and hospitals in the UK and Ireland.

Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of all cancers – just 3% of those diagnosed in the UK survive for 5 years. It accounts for 5% of cancer deaths but attracts very little research funding. You can find out about the work the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund are doing in their newsletter.

You can buy their Christmas cards here, and the great thing is that with every PCRF Christmas card you send, as well as supporting them financially, you'll be making people aware of the charity and the world-class research it's funding to defeat pancreatic cancer. There are other ways to support the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund - Nigel is also offering his support by volunteering to help with research into pancreatic cancer at St Barts hospital in London. Find out more here.

Why not take a leaf out of our book and support a charity this Christmas - it'll give you a warm fuzzy glow faster than a hot toddy by an open fire!