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Curtiss-Wright Controls New Multi-Function Wireless Mezzanine Combines On-board WiFi, Zigbee, GPS and Cryptography

Publication date on this website: 16/10/2009

Category: Boards

Company: Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing

Summary:

Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing has introduced the XMC-660, multi-function mezzanine card that combines wireless, GPS and cryptography to deliver portable, secure in-the-field wireless connectivity. The light-weight, small form-factor XMC-660 is an ideal solution for quickly and easily adding high-performance trusted wireless communications to VME, VPX and CompactPCI embedded systems for applications including luggable computers, manpacks, and secure laptop computers.

Full Text:
New XMC Card Eases Ability of System Designers to Enhance Situational Awareness with Portable Computing <br /> <br />OTTAWA, CANADA – October 6, 2009 -- Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, a leading designer and manufacturer of rugged deployed commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) VME, VPX and CompactPCI products for the aerospace and defense market, has introduced the XMC-660, multi-function mezzanine card that combines wireless, GPS and cryptography to deliver portable, secure in-the-field wireless connectivity. The light-weight, small form-factor XMC-660 is an ideal solution for quickly and easily adding high-performance trusted wireless communications to VME, VPX and CompactPCI embedded systems for applications including luggable computers, manpacks, and secure laptop computers. <br /> <br />“Today’s netcentric battlefield demands enhanced situational awareness using secure wireless communications,” said Lynn Patterson, vice president and general manager, Modular Solutions, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing. “The highly integrated XMC-660 enables system designers to connect portable PCs and wearable systems to access points within ground vehicles, base camps or to other nodes, forming ad-hoc wireless networks that provide the underlying infrastructure to transmit voice, video and data between authenticated users. ” <br /> <br />Designed for rugged environments, the XMC-660, based on the VITA 42 XMC standard, uniquely combines support for WiFi™ 802.11 n/a/b/g communications, Zigbee™ 802.15 asset tracking, and GPS location services on a single plug-in mezzanine card, to deliver an ideal solution for systems integrators building embedded wireless networks. Power dissipation for the card is 7 Watts (typical)/ 8.4 Watts (max). It requires only a 5V power supply from the basecard. All other necessary voltages are generated on-board the XMC-660. <br /> <br />Secure Wireline Interface for Embeddable Rugged Computers <br />Although targeted for multi-function wireless applications, the XMC-660 also provides advanced back-end AES/3DES cryptographic support for secure wireline communications over PCI/PCIe to a basecard. As a modular building block, the XMC-660 can, for example be mounted on a Curtiss-Wright Controls’ VPX3-1100 ATOMIC basecard (uses Intel ATOM® 1.6GHz processor) resulting in a 100mm x 160mm x 2.54 mm lightweight solution embeddable in a manpack or a ground vehicle as a wireless computing end node. <br /> <br />Wireless LAN - 802.11 n/a/b/g <br />To deliver high performance WiFi support, the XMC-660 features a dual band MIMO 2T3R chipset with PCI interface. The chipset consists of two highly integrated RF and baseband/MAC IC modules that are fully compliant with the IEEE 802.11n draft specification, as well as IEEE 802.11 a/b/g standards that operate in the 2.5GHz and 5GHz bands. <br /> <br />WiFi features include: <br />• Optimized Base-band and RF architecture <br />• Wireless connectivity at high through-puts and extended range. <br />• Reverse direction data-flow and Frame Aggression <br />• Wireless Security enabled with WEP 64/128, WPA,WPA2 support <br />• QoS-WMM,WMM-PS <br />• Wake on WLAN feature <br />• PCI interface with 3.3V/5V PCI I/O <br /> <br />GPS Module – SiRF Star-III <br />The XMC-660’s GPS module is a small high sensitivity solution comprising a 20 channel GPS receiver (SiRF Star- III) capable of providing accurate location, altitude, velocity and direction data of moving objects. The module receives spectrum signals from MEO (medium Earth Orbiting) satellites. A low noise RF amplifier is used on the module to achieve the sensitivity below -159dBm and to withstand ESD up to 2000V. <br /> <br />Wireless Zigbee – 802.15.4 <br />The Zigbee interface on the XMC-660 is provided by a single chip TI CC2480 processor running Texas Instruments’ Zigbee Z-Stack. The application running on the base card can make use of this ZigBee stack through APIs provided on the basecard driver. The XMC-660 hardware interface for ZigBee includes UART for data communication and GPIO lines for configuration and control. <br /> <br />Software Support <br />Software support for the XMC-660 includes drivers for the Windows XP, Linux GPPLE, and VxWorks 6.7 (roadmap) operating environments. <br /> <br />The XMC-660 is the newest addition to Curtiss-Wright Control’s broad family of rugged network embedded boards designed to enable netcentric computing for the war fighter. It joins other leading edge products such as the VPX3-1100 ATOMIC, VPX6-684 FireBlade, SVME/DMV-682, the 6U VME 680, the 3U CompactPCI 681 and the SwitchBox I and SwitchBox II fully integrated switch/router subsystem. It also complements Curtiss-Wright’s wide range of Single Board Computers, Digital Signal Processors, Graphics and Communications and IO products. For more information about Curtiss-Wright Controls networking solutions please visit www.cwcembedded.com. <br /> <br />Pricing for the XMC-660 starts at $4,600 in single quantities. Targeted availability is scheduled to begin in Q4 2009. <br /> <br />About Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing <br />Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing is the industry’s most comprehensive and experienced single source for embedded solutions, ranging from Processing, Subsystems, Data Communication, DSP, and Video & Graphics to the most advanced board level components and fully integrated custom systems. The Embedded Computing group serves the defense, aerospace, commercial and industrial markets and is part of Curtiss-Wright Controls Inc. For more information about Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, visit www.cwcembedded.com. <br /> <br />About Curtiss-Wright Controls, Inc. <br />Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Curtiss-Wright Controls is the motion control segment of Curtiss-Wright Corporation (NYSE: CW). With manufacturing facilities around the world, Curtiss-Wright Controls is a leading technology-based organization providing niche motion control products, subsystems and services internationally for the aerospace and defense markets. For more information, visit www.cwcontrols.com. <br /> <br />Note: All trademarks are property of their respective owners. <br />

Contact:
For editorial information regarding Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing Multi Computing products or services, contact John Wranovics, Director of Media Relations, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Tel: (925) 640-6402; email: jwranovics@curtisswright.com. Web site: www.cwcembedded.com. <br /> <br />Sales Inquiries: Please forward all Sales and reader service inquiries to Jerri-Lynne Charbonneau, Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Tel: (613) 254-5112; Fax: (613) 599-7777; e-mail: sales@cwcembedded.com. <br />