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Multi-function mezzanine cards provide secure wireless connectivity

Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing has introduced XMC-660, a multi-function mezzanine card that combines wireless, GPS and cryptography to provide portable, secure in-the-field wireless connectivity. The card is suitable for VME, VPX and CompactPCI embedded systems. The card enables system designers to connect portable PCs and wearable systems to access points within ground vehicles and base camps, forming ad-hoc wireless networks that can transmit voice, video and data between authenticated users. The single plug-in card based on the VITA 42 XMC standard supports WiFi 802.11 n/a/b/g communications, Zigbee 802.15 asset tracking and GPS location services. Power dissipation for the card is 7W (typical)/ 8.4W (maximum). It requires only a 5V power supply from the basecard. All other necessary voltages are generated on-board the card. The card provides advanced back-end AES/3DES cryptographic support for secure wireline communications over PCI/PCIe to a basecard. As a modular building block, the card can be mounted on the VPX3-1100 ATOMIC basecard resulting in a 100x160x2.54mm solution embeddable in a manpack or a ground vehicle as a wireless computing end node.