New Artesyn Server Blade brings Latest Processors to Military, Aerospace and Government Networked Systems

Artesyn Embedded Technologies today launched a powerful new packet processing and high performance server blade, the ATCA-7540, based on dual Intel^® Xeon^® Scalable processors (codename Skylake), which were recently announced.

The ATCA-7540 provides a migration path and future-proof platform for defense applications in air/shipborne data centers, ground control stations, network data analytics, ad-hoc mobile networks and other C4ISR tasks. The selected processor family combined with Artesyn’s engineering and supply chain expertise provides a performance and longevity-of-supply improvement over existing server blades. Artesyn expects its selected processors to have a 15-year life cycle.

Designed for compute-intensive tasks such as deep packet inspection (DPI), firewalls, intrusion prevention and data encryption/decryption, the ATCA-7540 server blade targets high performance network requirements in commercial, government and defense communications networks.

Built around commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technologies, the AdvancedTCA® (ATCA) bladed architecture follows the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) modular open systems approach (MOSA). With scalable performance, ease of maintenance, reduced cabling and multivendor interoperability, Artesyn’s ATCA technology has been selected for multiple applications in military deployments. Several DoD branches, prime contractors and system integrators have adopted the ATCA architecture for a range of centralized compute systems on board ships, aircraft or in transit cases for command and control tents.

Software

The CentOS operating system will be available for the Artesyn ATCA-7540 and the blade is designed to support other open source and commercial operating systems thanks to pre-installed BIOS, IPMC firmware and Artesyn’s Basic Blade Services (BBS) software.

The blade will also support RedHawk Linux RTOS, an industry-standard real-time operating system selected by the U.S. Navy as its open architecture operating system for a long list of programs.

The ATCA-7540 can be configured for virtualization using Linux KVM or VMware ESXi, and is designed to operate with the Intel® Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK).

Technical Details

The blade design has been optimized for unmatched computational performance, featuring two new Intel Xeon Gold or Intel Xeon Silver processors, allowing for scalable performance.
Data paths to main memory and I/O are highly optimized by the use of six memory channels per processor which support DDR4 memory.
Fast network performance, which optimizes 48 high speed PCIe Gen 3 lanes per processor.
Memory capacity can scale up to 384 GB using 12 VLP DIMM sockets, allowing for cost optimized configurations as well as for applications with demanding memory requirements as needed in routing decisions or pattern matching.
The blade can be combined with optional hardware accelerators directly connected to the CPUs. The accelerators are optimized for assisting encryption/decryption algorithms and can greatly enhance throughput of encrypted data in security applications.
A dual-star 40G Ethernet fabric interface enables high-speed data transfer.
The blade supports up to two on-board M.2 non-volatile sold state memory disks (up to 1TB total capacity)
Artesyn offers a wide range of compatible rear transition modules (RTMs) to expand I/O and storage options to meet customer application needs.

About Artesyn Embedded Technologies

Artesyn Embedded Technologies is a global leader in the design and manufacture of highly reliable power conversion and embedded computing solutions for a wide range of industries including communications, computing, consumer electronics, medical, military, aerospace and industrial automation. For more than 40 years, customers have trusted Artesyn to help them accelerate time-to-market and reduce risk with cost-effective advanced network computing and power conversion solutions. Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, Artesyn has over 16,000 employees worldwide across ten engineering centers of excellence, four wholly-owned world-class manufacturing facilities, and global sales and support offices.