Introduction

The latest generation of supercomputers achieves unprecedented performance by harnessing the parallel processing capabilities of today's multi-core Graphics Processing Units (GPU) and combining them with high-performance multi-core CPUs. Aitech's COTS A191 High-Performance Embedded Computer (HPEC) RediBuilt™ system works in exactly the same way, by combining a conventional CPU with a GPU – the CPU provides overhead functions while the GPU does the heavy lifting. Following this design philosophy, Aitech's engineers have achieved unprecedented processing capabilities in the A191 that are greater than the sum of the two individual processors. Performance is nearly an order of magnitude greater than can be accomplished with CPUs alone and at roughly the same level of power consumption.

In Aitech's A191, the CPU is a 4th Generation Intel Core i7 processor on their latest generation C873 SBC, and the GPU is your choice of NVIDIA GeForce or AMD/ATI Radeon on their C530 General Purpose GPU (GPGPU) board. Rounding out the complement of boards is an Aitech Frame Grabber mezzanine (M571 or M577), providing video input capture.

The A191 provides extensive I/O, including various video formats, Ethernet, serial, and USB ports. The system includes onboard Flash mass storage, eliminating the need for external storage or mechanical/rotating media drives.

With its small footprint, moderate power consumption, and exceptional processing capabilities, potential applications for the A191 are wide-ranging and include: Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance, including wide-area surveillance and automatic target recognition (ATR), multispectral sensor fusion, IED detection and countermeasures, synthetic aperture radar processing, and more.