General Micro Systems expands army-specific rugged computer portfolio

“The computing needs of next-generation Army systems requires new levels of processing power, network connectivity and data bandwidth housed within fit-for-environment enclosures,” said Ben Sharfi, Chief Architect and CEO, General Micro Systems. “Our small form factor systems—already deployed in a thousand Army platforms—plus our new X9 Spider modular computers and X9 Venom OpenVPX blade computers were developed specifically with the Army’s next-gen requirements in mind. Adding Dell’s rackmount servers to GMS’s existing rugged servers provides a one-stop rugged shop for all of the Army’s computing needs.”

GMS state the collection of these product categories from GMS and Dell brings proven capabilities that support high-performance, data-driven decision making in harsh, space-constrained environments. Driven by massive amounts of data, “connectedness” and a growing proliferation of processing nodes between in-vehicle, edge and forward command post systems, next-generation computing requires ultra-rapid response times within stringent space and power constraints to win the future fight.

Examples of GMS technologies include the avionics-certified S1202-XVE mission/command computer with NVIDIA multi-head graphics and stand-alone NVIDIA GPGPU AI coprocessor. Launched at AUSA 2022 in October, GMS’s new X9 architecture is a modular open standards approach (MOSA) that uses the COTS Thunderbolt 4 technology. It is also available in 3U OpenVPX and aligned with The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) technical standard. Plans for Army CMOSS (C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards) and CMFF (CMOSS Mounted Form Factor) are underway.

“Whether running in-vehicle AI and image processing systems or ensuring the integrity and security of high-bandwidth networking at the edge, our small form factor and OpenVPX, MOSA and SOSA-aligned embedded solutions set the standard for supporting and protecting units in the field,” said Tom Hazlett, VP of Sales, General Micro Systems. “The S1202-XVE, for example, has enough processing power to replace most 1U rackmount servers and operate between -40°C to +85°C despite its small package, providing substantial benefits for any rugged system needing real-time transmission and analysis of large amounts of very high-resolution sensor and video data.”

GMS systems are used in shipboard, ground vehicle and other joint service and US Army deployments, and the company is the supplier of record for vehicle platforms such as WIN-T on Stryker and rugged smart displays on MRAPs; several airborne programs, including the AH-64 Apache; a U.S. Air Force widebody command and control platform; the Navy’s P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol/submarine hunter, and various other weapons and shipboard platforms.

“The combined solution from GMS and Dell provide a complete answer to unique US Army edge computing challenges,” Hazlett added. “These capabilities offer Dell servers for the heavy lifting and GMS in the field with SFF and OpenVPX SOSA-aligned embedded computers.”