ACADEMIA

CSP Inc. has announced its next generation of switched fabric for the FastCluster product line at the MILCOM 2011 conference in Baltimore, MD. Leveraging the latest technology from Mellanox, the FastCluster 3000 SERIES OpenVPX platforms deliver unparalleled performance and scalability for radar, sonar, and surveillance signal processing applications.

CSPI’s Converged Fabric integrates the Mellanox SwitchX Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) technology – allowing InfiniBand, Ethernet and Fibre Channel traffic to exist on a single “one-wire” fabric. The switched fabric also uses the VITA 66 standard (Optical Interconnect for VPX) to drastically improve performance and weight over previous copper solutions. By defining a suitable family of optical interconnect for VPX plug-in modules and backplanes, the VITA 66 standard provides the flexibility and upgradability required for long-term application in aerospace and defense environments. Future technology refresh for the FastCluster platform is as simple as inserting a new OpenVPX processor or fabric blade, without requiring any change to the backplane.

“The 3000 SERIES Converged Fabric is ideal for existing and future military HPEC platforms requiring high bandwidth, low-latency, and scalability across boards and systems” says Bernard Pelon, CSPI Director of Product Research.

The 3000 SERIES OpenVPX systems are designed to support air-cooled and conduction-cooled thermal management for deployment in harsh environments where Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) are critical. The new platforms will be available for delivery Q1 2012.