COTS graphics systems to power combat simulators

Alenia Aeronautica/Finmeccanica has purchased Concurrent's iHawk graphics systems powered by RedHawk Linux for its next generation COTS-based unmanned combat air vehicle simulation platform.

Alenia Aeronautica/Finmeccanica has purchased Concurrent's iHawk Intel Xeon graphics systems powered by RedHawk Linux for its next generation COTS-based unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) simulation platform.

Alenia Aeronautica plans to use the high-performance iHawk multiprocessor systems as the real-time host and graphics system for the visual system for its next generation UCAV simulator.

To reduce engineering time and labour costs, Alenia will use Concurrent's Linux-based NightStar toolkit, a standards-based set of real-time software development tools that enable system builders to maximise productivity in real-time application development.

NightStar tools are specifically designed to allow integrators to intelligently identify problems early in the project lifecycle - and correct them faster.

According to Warren Neuburger, Concurrent ISD President: "We are extremely pleased to be selected by Alenia Aeronautica, a recognised leader in the aerospace industry with a long-standing tradition of technology innovation".

Neuburger added: "Alenia Aeronautica's engineering success in UCAV applications and its use of COTS-based products, including RedHawk real-time Linux as an alternative to more costly proprietary IG (image generation) solutions, is truly ground breaking".

iHawk systems are powered by up to eight Intel Pentium Xeon processors, up to 4Gbyte of memory, and PCI I/O in rack-mount and tower enclosures.

iHawks are true symmetric multiprocessors that run a single copy of Concurrent's RedHawk Linux real-time operating system.

In image generation applications, the iHawk 860 can be configured with a variety of Nvidia dual-monitor capable AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) and PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) graphics controllers.

Combined with popular 3D visualisation software such as OpenGL, OpenSceneGraph, Vega Prime and GL Studio, the iHawk is the ideal COTS based imaging platform for today's simulation, imaging and modelling applications.

RedHawk Linux provides fast response to external events, optimised interprocess communication, and high I/O throughput needed for time-critical applications.

RedHawk Linux, compatible with the popular Red Hat distribution, has gained acceptance as a leading real-time Linux operating system for high-performance, mission-critical applications by customers throughout the world.

Concurrent recently delivered the industry's first real-time Linux for the AMD Opteron processor for the development of next-generation, 64bit real-time applications.

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