GE to supply high performance embedded computing systems to AFRL

GE Intelligent Platforms (GE) has been awarded a contract for delivery of a high-performance embedded computing (HPEC) system to the US Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Information Directorate (RI).

Awarded by AFRL’s High Performance Systems Branch (RITB), the contract covers delivery of 20 HPEC systems, which are expected to enable the development and deployment of advanced neuromorphic architectures and algorithms for adaptive learning, in addition to large-scale dynamic data analytics and reasoning.

Designed to provide real-time processing for high bandwidth data derived from radio frequency (RF) sensors, the system leverages NVIDIA GPU accelerators, which are based on the NVIDIA Kepler computing architecture, to deliver maximum performance.

"When combined with GE’s HPEC system, AFRL will have access to unprecedented levels of computing horsepower to tackle even their most demanding computational challenges."

Housed in a 6U OpenVPX rack mount chassis, the scalable system is capable of delivering 20 teraflops in computing horsepower, and can also be expanded to include additional racks and compute nodes.

NVIDI ATesla GPU Accelerated Computing general manager Sumit Gupta said the GPU accelerators facilitate clearer and faster insights through dramatic acceleration of signal and video processing, while minimising system size, weight and power consumption.

”When combined with GE’s HPEC system, AFRL will have access to unprecedented levels of computing horsepower to tackle even their most demanding computational challenges,” Gupta said.

GE Intelligent Platforms Military & Aerospace Products general manager Rod Rice said, ”GPUs deliver an unbeatable combination of very high performance computing with minimal power consumption and heat dissipation in constricted spaces – characteristics that were key to AFRL awarding GE this order.”

AFRL RITB HPS programme manager Mark Barnell said, ”This embedded system, provides a path forward to apply large scale neuromorphic computing models for Air Force’s state-of-the-art ISR platforms and systems.”

The HPEC system is modular in design, with each rack comprising five SBC625 single board computers featuring quad core Intel Core i7 processors, and RDMA-capable Mellanox 10GB Ethernet/InfiniBand adapters.

Primarily designed to support the US Department of Defense’s (DoD) high-performance computing modernization program (HPCMP), the system is also expected to support the development of next-generation radar programmes, including Gotcha wide-area synthetic aperture radar (SAR).