The benefits of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products (they are low in cost, readily available, and take minimal effort to deploy) are why more companies are developing them. The latest is a family of rugged, off-the-shelf systems for a range of military vehicle platforms including UAVs, manned and unmanned ground vehicles and launch vehicles.

The CRS-C2P-3CC1 and CRS-C3P-3CB1 are 2-slot and 3-slot pre-validated, application-ready, CompactPCI®-based computer systems. They are available in a range of application-specific configurations that can be delivered in a rugged, convection- or base plate cooled 3U chassis. These computers are supplied as standard with a Freescale™-based single board computer and the VxWorks® real-time operating system and feature I/O capabilities including Ethernet, serial, USB, MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC 429 as well as discrete I/O.

“These two boxes are just the beginning for GE’s COTS Rugged Systems; we will announce similar systems based on OpenVPX in the coming months,” said Paul Scanlon, General Manager, Military & Aerospace Systems, GE Intelligent Platforms. “With these new systems, you eliminate the frustration, time and expense often associated with designing, integrating, testing and qualifying custom designs – but you retain the configuration flexibility to ensure the best fit with the planned application.”

The CRS-C2P-3CC1 has dimensions of 3.96 in. x 7.15 in. x 9.03 in. (excluding connectors) and weighs 11 lb; and the CRS-C3P-3CB1 has dimensions of 5.60 in. x 4.25 in. x 8.76 in. (excluding connectors) and weighs 9 lb.

GE Intelligent Platforms
www.ge-ip.com/products/family/military-systems

::Design World::