NEW AITECH MIL-STD-1553B PCI MEZZANINE CARD
OPTIMIZED FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS

Chatsworth, CA, April 2006 – A space qualified, off-the-shelf PMC I/O card accommodating dual redundant MIL-STD-1553B ports on a standard single-slot PMC is now available from Aitech Defense Systems, Inc, a world leader in the development and manufacture of board and subsystem level products for harsh environment defense, aerospace and space applications. The Aitech S703 MIL-STD-1553B I/O PMC – compliant with the PCI 2.1 interface and optimized for minimum traffic on the host PCI bus – provides fast, high speed access for dual redundant 1553B channel (BC/RT/MT) for low earth orbit (LEO) and Mars terrestrial applications, with an option for Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO) environments.

Fully radiation qualification tested to well over 35K Rad (Si) (unshielded), the S703 is categorized as a single-function PCI device, with separate dedicated register sets accessible from the PCI bus to control each of the functional modules integrated on the card. And, with even a minor amount of spacecraft outer shell or mission computer enclosure shielding, the S703 can survive the radiation rigors of deep space.

The 1553B interface includes a space-rated DDC SpaceAce hybrid device, featuring a dual encoder/decoder, complete MIL-STD-1553B protocol, 32K or 64K words of shared RAM, memory management logic for all three modes (BC/RT/MT), a backplane hardwired or software RT address, and integrated built-in test capability. The 1553B channels can be specified as direct coupled or transformer coupled, with I/O available from the backplane.

The onboard, rad-hard, anti-fuse FPGA and resident interface circuitry can be made to support additional serial port communications capabilities, which could include up to four general-purpose universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) ports with an RS-422 interface. These user-configurable ports can feature independent programmable port configuration, and the UART logic also features an interrupt mechanism on the PCI bus.

All 1553B bus (and/or optional serial signals) on the card are routed to the PMC I/O connector. All boards ship with a BC/RT/MT driver library for WindRiver Systems, Inc. VxWorks.

The S703 PMC is available in three environmental formats: an air- or conduction-cooled engineering software development unit per IEEE 1386-2001 and ANSI/VITA 20-2001 for installation onto commercial and rugged air-cooled carrier boards; a conduction-cooled space qualified unit; and a conduction-cooled model flight unit for installation onto spaceflight-ready IEEE 1101.2 conduction-cooled carrier boards. The cards are available in three levels of ruggedization – as an engineering development unit, qual (test) unit and flight qualified unit.

High-power components are cooled by an aluminum heatsink, which also adds to radiation shielding and higher radiation tolerance.