Kontron has announced the availability of its new multi-mission rugged computer system ApexVX specifically designed for the rapid deployment of a broad range of military and avionics applications.

Based on Kontron's leading edge 3U OpenVPX computing technology and smart software including VXFabric, VXControl and PBIT system test solution, it integrates all components required for the early evaluation phase up to long term deployment.

With Kontron's time and cost efficient two step approach of development and deploy, the pre-qualified Kontron ApexVX provides a proven basis for OEM's who need to develop reliable solutions within strictly limited time and cost budgets.

The Kontron ApexVX comes in a fully sealed half ATR style chassis (5" w x 6" h x 13" d) suitable for harsh environments with scalable thermal solutions. This enables OEMs to directly deploy their development system, battle ready, to field trials and gain a critical time-to-market advantage. Kontron supports customers in optimizing the configuration a comprehensive portfolio of proven and tested 3U conduction cooled OpenVPX building blocks.

Kontron's offer ranges from 3U PowerPCs and Intel Core i7 x86 SBCs to Gigabit and PCI Express switches as well as PMC and XMC carriers and FPGA boards. Furthermore, the ApexVX is backed up by Kontron's long-term supply program, making it an ideal fit for long-term projects with 25+ years secured availability. A dedicated support hotline ensures direct access to Kontron experts, to simplify and accelerate the development process even further.

These features make the new Kontron ApexVX a true application-ready platform which improves the development of an extensive range of mission-critical applications in airborne systems, mobile military vehicles, precision-guided munitions, electronic warfare, UAVs and C4ISR.

The Kontron ApexVX in briefThe Kontron multi-mission, rugged computer system ApexVX comes with a pre-configured Linux distribution and can host most Linux-based applications without code change.

Packed in a half ATR style 3U chassis, the Kontron ApexVX integrates an OpenVPX backplane with four payload slots and one switch slot. A sample multi-purpose configuration integrates two conduction-cooled Kontron VX3030 SBCs, the Kontron Virtex5 FMC carrier VX3830 and the Kontron PCI Express and Ethernet hybrid switch VX3905.

Common to all potential system configurations are Kontron's intelligent add-ons required by OEMs to build optimized and highly reliable applications: Kontron VXFabric offers hardware assisted TCP/IP on PCIe for data flow applications to implement efficient inter-board communication at ultra-high speed.

VXControl uses the onboard controllers interfaced through the standard System Management Bus (SMB) of the VPX backplane for sophisticated Out of Band Health Management. VXControl includes system monitoring and control of critical parameters such as temperature, airflow/fans and power supply.

Kontron's PBIT provides an in-depth system diagnosis including all peripheral components across the backplane. Its system-wide test solution can be used from early lab trials up to deployed systems to check whether the computer configuration matches a pre-recorded reference.

Kontron PBIT can also identify and record transient errors in order to increase quality and reliability. The system can be ordered as a pre-qualified system compliant to relevant MIL and AERO standards such as MIL-STD810 E for shock, vibration, humidity, salt fog and MIL-STD461-E for EMC/RFI. First samples of the new Kontron multi-mission, rugged computer system ApexVX are available now.