Mercury Systems, Inc successfully demonstrated the Model 8256 Sensor Open Systems Architecture™ (SOSA) aligned Development Platform at the U.S. Army - FACE™ and SOSA Technical Interchange Meeting, proving true heterogenous interoperability with SOSA aligned products from several suppliers. This Phase 2 platform highlights additional signal acquisition, time and frequency displays and includes expanded system management capabilities.

“SOSA is about interoperability, multi-vendor solutions, reuse, and affordable solutions for the government without vendor lock,” said Paul Mesibov, vice president engineering, Mercury Mixed Signal. “Showing a system in action and using products from multiple vendors—all aligned with SOSA—is proof that the SOSA initiative is working. Model 8256 further solidifies our dedication to developing open standards and delivering on our commitment to Innovation that Matters.”

This Model 8256 development platform consists of an Elma Electronic 3U VPX chassis, Crossfield Technology IPMI software and ChassisBerry chassis manager, an Interface Concept backplane switch module (ComEth4590a), a Concurrent Technology TR H4C single-board computer and one Mercury Quartz® Model 5550, an eight-channel A/D and D/A converter 3U OpenVPX board based on the Xilinx® Zynq® UltraScale+ RFSoC, all aligned with the SOSA Technical Standard.

“Learning a new standard can take time to understand and implement correctly. It is much easier to start with a working system pre-configured to meet the objectives of SOSA,” said Ken Grob, director of embedded computing, Elma Electronic Inc. “The Model 8256 being demonstrated enables engineers to immediately start working on their applications while minimizing the risks encountered when working with new technology and standards. We are very pleased to be part of the Model 8256 development platform.”

“The Model 8256 development platform not only provides access to high performance hardware but does so with open-standards-based chassis management capabilities," said Terry Hulett, products general manager, Crossfield Technology LLC. “We are pleased to offer the system software that delivers the common access and interfaces into system management functions for all of the platform components to be truly interoperable with each other.”