At Embedded Tech Trends 2017, Alligator Designs announced the next generation of their Falcon II, a rugged Small Form Factor computer for the military, avionics, and rugged industrial markets.
Built to conform to Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) standards, the Falcon II can be configured with a variety of computer and graphics engines. I/O options include MIL-STD-1553B, ARINC-429, AS-5643 MIL Firewire, Video Graphics, Video Frame Capture, Software Defined Radio, RS-232/422/485, Fibre Channel, GigE and 10GigE, Analog and Discrete signals, and FPGA / GPGPU processors in either XMC or MiniPCIe. In addition, options can be added for Inertial Measurement and Navigation, GPS, Wi-Fi, Cellular Modem signals, and multi-drive RAID storage solutions.
“The key advantage of Falcon II is that it was designed intelligently based on Alligator’s Build-in methodology where the focus is on the chassis and midplane thus allowing more flexibility when choosing COTS modules. The Falcon II is not limited to any single COTS vendor,” said Pawan Seth, Director of Alligator Designs, in a press release.
The system architecture also uses standard-based graphics, I/O modules, and connectors, with the standard midplane design available in a variety of COTS types. The I/O passes out of the midplane on I/O Transition Board’s (IOTB) circular MIL I/O connectors.
Alligator Technologies also plans to offer VNX (VITA-74)-compliant rugged COTS computers in the second half of 2017.
Image credit: Alligator Designs
Filed Under: Aerospace + defense