A security-enabled SBC (single-board computer) features up to 16 lanes of PCIe to handle increased data processing requirements, while protecting the board from data attacks and cyber threats. The new C878 is a 3U VPX board that provides Intel Xeon D level processing in a rugged, industry-standard form factor.
Equipped with double the Gen3 PCIe Data Plane lanes as Aitech’s C877, the rugged SBC was specifically designed using a modern, high-bandwidth bus architecture and can accommodate an increased amount of backplane traffic. This makes it a candidate for compute-intensive mission critical applications found in harsh environments.
Another variation over the C877 is that, instead of supporting an XMC site, the new SBC includes a GPU to provide a
more intuitive interface via a 128-bit 2D graphics engine. These HMI capabilities allow the user to interact and control the application graphically or display pertinent data/video or other info on a monitor/screen. The hardware video decoder in the GPU supports many popular video outputs, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VC-1, H.264 MVC/AVS+ and JPEG/MJPEG.
The C878 uses the same cybersecurity architecture as the C877—Aitech’s proprietary AiSecure—to provide secure transmission of sensitive data. Intel security includes Trusted Platform and Secure Boot as well as a BIOS Guard based on TXT TPM 2.0 and BIOS security. The onboard SATA SSD, up to 1 TB, supports write protection, secure and quick erase in addition to disk data encryption using AES 256 keys. A battery-backed tamper detection signal ensures system level protection.
Standard cybersecurity features are enhanced by an optional, onboard Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ FPGA that offers a variety of inherent protection tools as well as options for customizable security features and data encryption.
A variety of onboard I/O interfaces, including USB 3.0/2.0, SATA III, PCIe Gen2, serial, discrete, DVI out and Ethernet, as well as custom I/O via the FPGA, are available on the OpenVPX-based SBC. The board also offers up to 32 GB of DDR4 SDRAM with ECC at 2133 MT/s to meet storage requirements.
The C878 comes in conduction- and air-cooled versions and features several board resources, such as watchdog timers, a real-time clock, temperature sensors, an elapsed time recorder and VITA 46.11 Tier 1 and Tier 2 IPMI. Supported operating systems are Windows, WindRiver VxWorks and Linux.