Single Board Computer Takes to the Air
As more military electronics applications, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are designed for air time, the role of the single board computer (SBC) expands to include such functions as data analysis and control of graphics displays. To meet those growing needs, Mercury Systems has developed its BuiltSAFE MFCC-8570 SBC based on the Intel Core i7 Gen5 processor. The SBC is designed as a conduction-cooled switched mezzanine card (XMC) capable of providing a straightforward upgrade path to earlier generations of XMC SBCs while preserving system and sensor input/output (I/O) configurations.
The MFCC-8570 SBC leverages the processing power of an Intel Core i7 Gen5 microprocessor for avionics applications. (Photo courtesy of Mercury Systems)
The MFCC-8570 SBC, which incorporates the Intel Core i7 Gen5 5850EQ processor and its Iris Pro 6200 graphics, is a good fit for video servers and airborne display processors. It is capable of turbo boost rates to 3.4 GHz for each of its four processor cores and can serve as the SBC for high-performance airborne and ground-based applications such as flight computers, mission computers, data links, and ground stations for UAVs and helicopters.
“The MFCC-8570 provides best in class performance per watt,” said Greg Tiedemann, director of product management at Mercury Systems. “This fills out our Intel-based SBC product line, providing customers a choice of XMC, 3U OpenVPX, and 6U OpenVPX, depending on their size constraints.” The MFCC-8570 SBC represents a significant expansion of the BuiltSAFE avionics lineup for handling a host of functions, including graphics, video, and data processing.
