The following is the original article from Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions, written by Rick Hearn and Mike Slonosky, Senior Product Managers, and Lisa Sarazin, a Marketing Portfolio Manager from Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions, and Geoffrey Waters, a Senior Systems Engineer from NXP Semiconductors. For the original content, please click here.
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In recent years, Arm processors have made a quiet, understated entry into military and aerospace markets. With a well-established reputation in commercial applications for bringing high performance to low power mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets and wearables, it’s no surprise that Arm’s potential has been recognized in an industry where size, weight and power (SWaP) constraints heavily influence technology selection.
Even so, Arm chips are far from ubiquitous in the mil-aero industry, a world that has been long dominated by Intel and Power Architecture processing units. These incumbents offer rugged processors that are optimized for maximum performance, have been implemented in boards with a minimal physical footprint, and have been proven to maintain reliability in harsh environments. What’s more, Power Architecture processors manufactured by NXP have been proven in a wide range of DO-254 safety-certifiable applications, both commercial and defense, often to the highest design assurance level (DAL). But with no NXP Power Architecture devices planned for introduction after the currently released QorIQ T-series of products, a new opportunity has arisen for both Arm and Intel processors, especially in programs with DO-254 requirements.
Figure 1: Processor architecture performance and power consumption comparison
In this white paper, we look at whether Arm’s commercial success can translate to defense and aerospace markets in order to meet the highest DO-254 requirements and fill the Power Architecture void. Download the “Is Arm the Future for Airborne Platforms in Military and Aerospace?” to learn more about:
- Arm processors
- DO-254 safety certification
- NXP Arm cores
- Arm technology in automotive and aerospace applications