Small footprints. Less weight. Signal integrity over longer distances. Scalability. Upgradeability. These and other factors are driving the adoption of optical engines in embedded computing.
Annapolis Micro Systems, a leading FPGA board and systems supplier, and Samtec have collaborated to integrate the Samtec FireFly™ Optical System in multiple COTS embedded computing platforms. FireFly enables maximum signal density and SI over longer distances.
New FireFly Applications
“The FireFly enables our FPGA boards to rapidly process huge volumes of data from an optical network,” said Noah Donaldson, Annapolis Micro Systems Chief Technology Officer. “With converters increasingly positioned close to the sensor, optical I/O is becoming more prevalent in multi-function EW, phased array radar, cybersecurity network processing, and high-performance financial computing.”
“The Annapolis Micro Systems embedded computing portfolio maximizes FPGA bandwidth density with our optical FireFly™ Micro Flyover System™,” said Arlon Martin, Sr. Director of Marketing, Samtec Optical Group. “Our collaborative approach to system design enabled Annapolis as an early adopter of our new 28 Gbps per lane optical transceivers.”
Four Annapolis embedded computing platforms include FireFly:
- WILD FMC+ TO00 Serial I/O Optical
- WILDSTAR 3XB1 3U OpenVPX FPGA Processor
- WILDSTAR 6XB2 6U OpenVPX FPGA Processor
- WILDSTAR 6XBU 6U OpenVPX FPGA Processor
All boards supplement Annapolis’ WILD100™ EcoSystem. The EcoSystem is an interoperable portfolio of rugged high-performance OpenVPX and PCIe COTS boards and systems that are used for challenging data acquisition, digital signal processing, and data storage applications.
Samtec FireFly™ Optical Engines
Annapolis Micro Systems chose Samtec’s FireFly™ Optical Engines to connect the FPGA transceivers across their platforms. FireFly™ Micro Flyover System™ is the first interconnect system that gives a designer the flexibility of using micro footprint high-performance optical and low-cost copper interconnects interchangeably with the same connector system.
FireFly™ copper and optical cable systems provide the flexibility to achieve higher data rates to 28 Gbps and/or greater distances by flying data over lossy PCB, simplifying board design and enhancing performance.
For more information on COTS boards from Annapolis Micro Systems, please visit here.
For more information on FireFly™ solutions, please visit www.samtec.com/firefly, download the FireFly™ Application Guide or e-mail Samtec’s technical experts at [email protected].