Customers // Case Studies - General Dynamics
General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GD-AIS) is a leader in transformational command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission solutions. Among its key offerings are command and control for tactical/strategic weapons, information operations, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
The Challenge:
GD-AIS was seeking an advanced engineering team to work in close collaboration with their technical group to provide comprehensive board, FPGA and low-level software designs for a next generation radar processor. Central to the project was the use of open interfaces and commercial standards for all communications paths, as well as for the system backplane. But the complexity and very high speed of the design not only required leading-edge technical abilities, but also a close, strategic partnership with GD-AIS.
"ADI Engineering's technical performance has been outstanding in providing developmental products and engineering services to our Surface Warfare Systems programs at General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems,” said Larry Smith, SWS Radar Group Program Manager and Technical Director. “We view ADI Engineering as a key strategic partner on these open architecture programs in helping ensure our successful on-time delivery of high quality systems and solutions to our customers."
The Solution:
ADI engaged early in the project, and quickly identified optimized architectures and design approaches that met the highly complex, demanding technical requirements. AdvancedTCA (ATCA) was selected by ADI as the format for the DDM incorporating a total of six 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports to accommodate the high-speed payload data. Multiple Xilinx Virtex-II Pro and Virtex-4 FPGAs support real-time signal processing on the high speed data stream. An AMCC 440GX processor with dual Gigabit Ethernet ports was employed as a control and command processor.
The DDM design is very high speed, and showcases ADI’s leading edge hardware design capabilities. With many digital signals on the board operating from 333 MHz to 3.125 GHz, ADI delivered a comprehensive timing constraints-driven design methodology and thorough signal integrity analysis. The result was a first-pass success, with fully functional boards delivered on time and on budget.