14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes down to military and aerospace applications not all computers are created equal, these environments demanding specialized solutions like GE's SBC312 3U VPX rugged SBC, designed for use in space and weight-constrained devices, unmanned vehicles being a high priority on GE's list.
Based on the 8-core Freescale QorIQ P4080 processor, this OpenVPX-compliant single board computer delivers substantial processing performance while maintaining power consumption and heat dissipation at the level of GE's previous dual core 3U VPX solution, a truly impressive feat for such a device.
Moving on, GE says this is available in five air and conduction-cooled ruggedization levels, depending on the customers needs, the SBC312 3U VPX being equipped with 4 GB of dual channel DDR3 memory as well as two x4 PCI Express Gen2 links that can be split in x1 lanes for added flexibility, GE saying they can optionally configure one link as a 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection.
This could be added to the already decent number of connectivity options available in the SBC312 3U VPX as this unit also comes with dual 1000BaseT Ethernet ports, two serial ports, two USB 2.0 ports, two SATA connectors and up to eight GPIO ports.
“The SBC312’s support for eight processor cores will allow many legacy applications to be re-implemented in enclosures that are smaller, lighter and more cost-effective, reducing multi-slot configurations to a single slot,” said Rob McKeel, President, Military & Aerospace at GE Intelligent Platforms.
“For new applications, it supports the development of very compact, high throughput solutions with optimum performance/watt characteristics.”
Add to these features the wide number of operating systems supported and you can be sure that GE has a winner on their hands.
When it comes down to availability and prices there isn't much that I can tell you since GE hasn't released any such info, but then again pricing isn't that important in the defense sector.