company confidential - copyright 2009 1 cots computer systems in military & aerospace...
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Company Confidential - Copyright 20091
COTS Computer Systems in Military & Aerospace
Applications
Company Confidential - Copyright 20092
COTS
Terminology• COTS – Commercially off the Shelf• MOTS – Military off the Shelf• MOTS – Modified off the Shelf• Wikipedia:• COTS is a term for or hardware, generally technology
or computer products, that are ready-made and available for sale, or license to the general public. They are often used as alternatives to in-house developments or one-off government-funded developments. The use of COTS is being mandated across many government and business programs, as they may offer significant savings in procurement and maintenance.
Company Confidential - Copyright 20093
Military/Aerospace COTS
• Military and Aerospace grade computer electronics has shrunk from around 10% of the overall market in the 1980's to well below 1%
• Its safe to say COTS is here to stay. • Its not for ALL applications but its
definitely for many• More applications become viable and
affordable with COTS
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COTS Driver #1 - Availability
AVAILABILITY• COTS is increasingly the only form in
which the required high tech computing components are available
• The military/aerospace market is too small in volume for Military Spec Equivalents
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COTS Driver #2 - Value
COTS based computer systems provide the best commercial value for increasingly complex applications and equally stretched defence and aerospace budgets
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COTS Driver #3 - Timetable
DEVELOPMENT TIMETABLE• COTS can substantially reduce
development timelines• COTS is not normally a 100% solution• In many applications its near enough so
there is still a small gap of extra development, but shorter, cheaper & easier to manage
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COTS Drivers – ICT Technology
• Technological advancements are at their most prolific in the consumer, commercial computing and gaming sector
• Micro-processors are now nano-processors with multi-core & cell processors we are at 35nm Technology
• The race to 0nm is on! Electrons will become the transistors
• Digital vision, graphics, communications, storage, network connectivity and many other technologies, are all driven by consumer markets
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Computing Drivers - Processing Power
• When I entered my career over 30years ago the 8086 & 6800 were the staple diet
• Moore’s Law – Doubling of transistor density every 12-18months (CPU & Memory)
• Commercial computing is consistently delivering unprecedented processing power
• Xeon 5500 (Nahalem) = 6 Cores/ 12 Cores with Hyperthredding
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Computing Drivers - Processing Power
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MIP Benchmark
• 1 MIP = IBM System/370 – 1972 (Extremely Expensive - $1m+)• 0.5 MIP = VAX 11/780 – 1977 (Expensive - $250K+)• 1.8 MIP = 286 PC – 1982 (The dawn of Cheap Computing - $2K)• 9,800 MIP – Pentium 4
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Graphics
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Graphics
GPUs are getting as powerful as CPUs
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COTS Technology Trends
• The same trends can be seen in a multitude of other COTS components
• Networking – 1Mb … 10Gb Ethernet• Storage – 1MB … 2TB Magnetic Drives• 100-300GB Solid state drives now
commercially viable• Displays 100”+• Etc…..
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COTS Software Standardisation
• Love them or hate them Microsoft have introduced software standardisation
• Complex warfare/avionics systems are increasingly Intelligent Distributed Interconnected
• OS & Software standardisation is required• Centralised/remote embedded device/system
management & maintenance is required
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Real-Time & Deterministic
•Hard real-time control logic executes on dedicated cores•No dedicated hardware components (eg. DSPs or FPGAs)
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Managing the Forest• COTS Software already exists for managing
forests of complex technology ecosystems eg. Microsoft System Center
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COTS Hardware + Software
•COTS Hardware +
•COTS Software =
Solutions and enablers for a multitude of complex applications previously technically and commercially un-
feasible
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Technology Market Drivers• Consumer components are: • Notorious for having short product life
cycles to meet consumer demand for faster, cheaper, in forever smaller footprints.
• Notorious for being un-reliable. Quick to market, little time to fix bugs,
quickly move to next generation• Barely reliably operational in benign
environments, let alone hostile ones• BUT there are NO MIL-STD equivalents
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Managing & De-Risking COTS
COTS needs to be supplemented with managed processes based on specialist
know-how & experience
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Challenge is Managing COTS• Challenge 1• Ensuring that the COTS parts satisfy the
performance requirements of the application as closely as possible
• Achieved through Best of Breed Component Selection Close relationship with the Manufacturers &
Supply Chain management Rigorous testing and technical/performance
benchmarking Ensuring that best of batch selection is
undertaken through up-screening testing
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Best of Breed Component Selection
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Challenge in Managing COTS
• Challenge 2• Engineering in additional mitigating
protection to compensate for shortfalls and remain fit-for-purpose particularly in areas such as shock, vibration, thermal management, ingress protection for water/sand/dust, etc…
• Bridging the gap between a commercial operating environment and a significantly more hostile one
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Protecting the Technology
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Challenge is Managing COTS
• Challenge 3• Compensating for lack of Certification of
Conformity and Origin by FMEA reviews Rigorous component testing Record keeping Disciplined inspection Change control management regime
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Compliance & Certification
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Challenge is Managing COTS
• Challenge 4• Ensuring continuity of component
supply/spares through: Whole life component management planning Selection of components from long term
(Embedded) Roadmaps Extensive best practice obsolescence
management Close partnerships and controls of the
supply chain Storage management
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Qualified Batch not Component• Challenge 5• Qualification process for up-screen testing of
lower grade devices to elevated specifications• The result is a qualified batch, not a qualified
component • The qualified batch is then controlled and
managed with appropriate safeguards• These can then be used to compensate the
lack of traceability provided by COTS manufacturers
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Change & Obsolescence
• Challenge 6• Military projects with development
phases that can last up to tens of years, and in-service lifetimes of greater still
• Built with components with lifecycles measured in months.
• COTS change & obsolescence management is possible but requires specialist know-how and experience
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COTS Management Strategy
• Whole life component management planning becomes a critical function
• Must ensure adequate supplies of fit-for-purpose computing systems throughout the Concept, Assessment, Development, Manufacture, In-service, and Disposal cycle
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Need to define a COTS strategy• Central to COTS strategy and business
approach is maximizing the value of the computer system investment by reducing through-life cost of ownership, minimizing impact of obsolescence and de-risking in-field failures.
• Seeking to maximise backwards compatibility from one generation to another (fit, form & function).
• Coupling with periodic technology refresh opportunities that increase performance without disruption to the existing hardware or software environment.
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Summary• The trend to COTS is set to continue unabated• To deploying COTS in military/aerospace
systems roadmaps offers significant cost benefits
• Requires a specialist model of deployment• Need to bridge the technical and performance
gaps between the demands of the operating environment and the capabilities of the technology to operate reliably within it
• Need to manage COTS through best practice, to leverage its benefits and mitigate its shortfalls