Raising the bar for high performance computing architectures

Embracing the trend towards high-performance Ethernet-based backplane networks, Kontron has introduced their new VX305C-40G 3U OpenVPX single board computer. Designed to the soon-to-be-released VITA 65 slot profile SLT3-PAY-1F1F2U1TU1T1U1T-14.2.16 (known as the "I/O Intensive SBC profile"), the VX305C-40G combines the computational power of the 12-core Intel Xeon D-1559 processor with a rich assortment of I/O, most notable being a 40 Gigabit Ethernet Data Plane. This combination makes it ideal for demanding military sensor platforms and other high-performance embedded computing applications. This holds true especially for virtual machine or containerized architectures that can take advantage of the extensive capital and operational efficiencies provided by isolated workloads configured to dynamically share common resources.

"Kontron is committed to providing industry-leading products using the very latest in computing and networking technologies," says Robert Negre, VP of Business Development at Kontron. "Our customers have been calling for a transition to faster Ethernet-based backplane networks, and the VX305C-40G the result. It is the first of what should be a long line of products leveraging ever-faster Ethernet technologies. The result, being, better and more innovative applications and capabilities for the warfighter worldwide."

The Kontron VX305C-40G in Detail

The Kontron VX305C-40G leverages the Intel Xeon D-1559 processor, which provides best-in-class computation performance for demanding signal and image processing applications. The VX305C-40G combines that with a 40 GigaGbE Data Plane, dual 10 GbE Control Plane, four-lane PCI Express (PCIe) 3.0 expansion plane to the backplane for system I/O. Add user I/O including USB (both generation 2 and 3), video (HDMI, with Display Port available in 2019), SATA 3, Serial Ports (TIA-232 and TIA-422), GPIO, an M.2 site for storage or for integration of customized personality modules, and an XMC site with a wide backplane signal map, and the result is a versatile 3U SBC platform in a ruggedized package for harsh size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) constrained environments.

Other features of the VX305C-40G include a Kontron-designed VITA 46.11 compatible Intelligent Platform Management Controller (IPMC) to provide system-wide health management, sequenced system power-up and Temperature/Power/Performance management. To complement this, the VX305C-40G offers a Power-On Built-in Test (PBIT) that give designers a comprehensive package for board and system diagnosis. An additional layered product includes CMON, a lightweight, user-configurable continuous system monitoring tool.