Mercury Systems, Inc., announced the EnsembleSeries SFM6126 OpenVPX PCI Express (PCIe) gen 3 switch with capabilities for creating a true composable data center edge processing architecture for aerospace and defense applications. This represents a data distribution building block for Mercury’s comprehensive embedded data center compute architecture, ensuring availability in space-constrained, harsh environments. The rugged 6U modules are distinctive in their ability to switch both the control and expansion planes to support the inter-module data distribution architecture required by high-performance OpenVPX high-performance embedded edge computing (HPEEC) subsystems.

“One of the latest trends in commercial data centers is to use a composable infrastructure which allows the computing, storage, and switch fabric resources to be individually changed – aggregated, disaggregated, and composed – based on an application’s precise needs, giving system architects much greater flexibility in deploying and reconfiguring resources as needed,” said Joe Plunkett, Mercury’s Vice President and General Manager for Sensor Processing Solutions. “We have applied that approach with our new EnsembleSeries SFM6126 switch, using PCIe switching to embed a composable data center ‘I/O distribution architecture’ in size, weight and power (SWaP)-constrained harsh environments. This fundamental capability enables our customers to equip our military with the smarter, more capable platforms and systems they need to detect and defeat emerging threats from adversaries, and once again showcases the power of Mercury to make commercial technology profoundly more accessible to aerospace and defense.”

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Why they matter
Artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous platforms, cognitive electronic warfare (EW) and sensor fusion demand huge processing resources that can be well served by leveraging a composable data center architecture. The hardware challenge for deploying these applications at the tactical edge pivots around making data center technology sufficiently small, lightweight and power-efficient. Additionally, these processing resources should be rugged for survivability and run cool for reliability. An embedded composable architecture is ideally suited to demanding processing-intensive applications, giving warfighters greater situational awareness to counter sophisticated threats.

What they deliver
EnsembleSeries SFM6126 switches are a key component of a truly composable HPEEC solution, which include EnsembleSeries HDS6605 server blades and streaming IOM-400 I/O modules. Collectively, these modules influence and scale the latest data center processing technologies to accelerate demanding workloads in the harshest, most SWaP-constrained environments.

Customer benefits

  • Get data center-level performance without the data center – Deploy next-generation autonomous platforms, cognitive electronic warfare (EW) systems, compute-intensive electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR), active electronically scanned array (AESA) Radar, artificial intelligence (AI) and sensor fusion applications that require data center-class capabilities closer to the source of data origin – at the edge.
  • Increase data throughput – Process and distribute massive amounts of streaming sensor I/O data over a distributed heterogeneous PCIe-enabled architecture.
  • Scale and influence data center IP from the cloud to the edge and common compute architecture that integrates the latest commercial capabilities for affordability and low program risk.
  • Deliver more processing power by pre-integrating other EnsembleSeries HPEEC building blocks including server-class processing blades (EnsembleSeries HDS6605), FPGA and NVIDIA® GPU co-processing engines with a wideband, low-latency and universal PCIe HPEEC architecture.

EnsembleSeries HPEEC Solutions – Embedding the Data Center Anywhere
EnsembleSeries OpenVPX modules and related pre-integrated subsystems are protected with Mercury’s proven fifth generation of advanced packaging, cooling and interconnects. Collectively, these technologies shield electronics from the harshest environments, keeping them cool for long, reliable service lives while enabling consistent switch fabric performance across a broad temperature range. For extreme environmental protection, optional modified-off-the-shelf (MOTS)+ technologies are available. These technologies leverage enhanced commercial components, board fabrication rules, and subsystem design techniques for extra durability and the ability to withstand extreme temperature cycles and mechanical excitation better than other rugged designs.

Availability
Designed, manufactured, coded and supported in the USA from DMEA-certified facilities, EnsembleSeries SFM6126 switches are expected to be available in the first quarter of CY2020 in conduction-cooled, Air Flow-By and Liquid Flow Through options.

For more information, visit www.mrcy.com/SFM6126 or contact Mercury at (866) 627-6951 or info@mrcy.com.