Curtiss-Wright introduces First 11th Gen Intel® Core Open VPX Module

• VPX6-1961 SBC features the new 8-Core 11th Gen Intel Xeon® W (“formerly Tiger Lake-H”) to deliver significant advances in integrated graphics and accelerated AI/ML processing 

Ashburn, Va. 11 May 2021. Curtiss-Wright’s Defense Solutions introduced the VPX6-1961, the industry’s first 11th Generation Intel Core single board computer based on the Intel Xeon W (formerly “Tiger Lake-H”) series mobile processor. With double the number of cores relative to previous generation quad-core processors, the 6U OpenVPX™ module leverages the latest Intel Core architectures to deliver the highest performance 8 core processing SBC for demanding aerospace and defense applications. With more processor cores system designers can now significantly reduce their platform’s size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) by consolidating processing tasks, which would formerly require multiple SBCs, into a single slot.

The 11th Gen processor also features Intel’s latest Gen 12 graphics engine, providing up to three 4K display interfaces with performance that rivals discrete graphics solutions. The 11th Gen Intel Core also provides accelerated artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) processing and doubles the floating-point performance for accelerating math-intensive applications. The VPX6-1961 is ideal for demanding mission computing and virtualization applications in deployed environments.

“We’re very proud to debut the new VPX6-1961, our most powerful and capable single board computer yet,” said Chris Wiltsey, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions. “Featuring Intel’s latest Core processor technology, this powerful processor blade lets system integrators take full advantage of many performance enhancements built into the new 11th Gen Intel Xeon W series processor. For system designers looking to deploy compute intensive AI/ML applications or that want to leverage the benefits of virtualization, the VPX6-1961 provides an ideal, fully rugged and ready-to-deploy processor platform.”

The SBC’s high speed, dual-channel DDR4 memory subsystem is connected directly to the processor and supports up to 64 GB SDRAM. The VPX6-1961 also provides high-speed NVMe on-board SSD memory and includes dual XMC mezzanine sites to support a wide variety of expansion mezzanine daughter cards, including high performance FPGA, GPGPU, and storage modules.

Software Support
The VPX6-1961 supports a wide range of popular operating environments, including Linux® (CentOS and RHEL), Wind River® VxWorks®, Microsoft® Windows®, Green Hills Software INTEGRITY®, and Lynx Software Technologies® LynxOS®.

Powerful Upgrade for Legacy Processors
The VPX6-1961 provides a simple yet powerful upgrade path for many older 6U VPX processing modules. It is pin-compatible with a wide range of Curtiss-Wright rugged deployable Intel SBCs ranging from our very successful Core 2 Duo VPX6-1901 through to our Intel 5th Generation Broadwell-based VPX6-1959.

Curtiss-Wright CMOSS-Compliant Available Hardware
Curtiss-Wright offers a broad complement of open architecture solutions for CMOSS-aligned systems, including high-performance single board computers (SBC), DSP, GPGPU, A-PNT timing, and network switch cards. In addition, Curtiss-Wright provides CMOSS-compliant lab development chassis and rugged, deployable multi-slot chassis. System integrators are encouraged to contact Curtiss-Wright system architects and C5ISR/EW Modular Open Suite of Standards (CMOSS) product managers at ds@curtisswright.com to schedule a discussion about currently available and forthcoming embedded modules.

The Open Standards Leader
Curtiss-Wright is an active contributor to the definition and advancement of the open standards included in CMOSS and those being defined in The Open Group Sensor Open Systems Architecture™ (SOSA). Curtiss-Wright has been a leading participant in the development of the CMOSS and SOSA standards since the inception of both initiatives and is a key participant in several SOSA™ Consortium working groups (including holding a chair position in the SOSA Consortium). In addition, the company has been a leading contributor to the VITA Standards Organization (VSO) that oversees the definition of the OpenVPX, PMC, XMC, and FMC form factor standards that provide the foundation of both CMOSS and SOSA technical standards. This makes Curtiss-Wright ideally positioned to work with customers to help guide the development and success of their CMOSS- and SOSA-aligned applications.