Recently a major OEM came to us with an interesting computer system design dilemma. They were looking for an engineering design partner that could provide an industrial rackmount computer that met the following parameters:
- Consolidate as much computing capability as possible into a single rackmount enclosure
- Enable multiple single board computers within a common rackmount enclosure to run individual applications when necessary
- Use the same multi-SBC approach within a common enclosure to scale computing hardware requirements to match individual application software requirements
- Minimize weight by reducing the total number of rackmount computer enclosures needed for the total system solution.
- Operating in an airborne environment, the industrial computers must be able to withstand the rigors of flight, and do so without adding unnecessary weight
- The Mil-COTS end user needed U.S. made computers that met the military’s requirements for hardware availability, stability and longevity.
That was a long wish list for any industrial computer supplier, and the OEM tried other suppliers, but came to us because of our ability to design a system from the ground up that satisfied their unique application requirements.
Trenton engineers worked with the OEM engineers and end-user representatives to develop a system concept around a lightweight, 5U rackmount enclosure, made of aluminum, with a short 18” (45.7cm) depth dimension. Developing a rugged and lightweight chassis solution is one thing, but reducing the total aircraft hardware weight load something more was needed. We needed to figure out how to consolidate computer capabilities within each rackmount enclosure in order to reduce the overall hardware footprint. What would you do?
Trenton TRC5000 Rackmount Computer
Fortunately for our OEM and end-user customer, that in addition to system integration, Trenton also designs and manufactures long-life embedded motherboards, single board computers & backplanes. To pack as much computing capability as possible into one lightweight computer enclosure, Trenton engineers devised a four-segment backplane that we call the Trenton BP4FS6890. This backplane enables the OEM to put up to four, high performance computer boards or SBCs inside the enclosure. The SBCs could be single processor boards like the Trenton TQ9 or even dual-processor SBCs like the Trenton JXT6966 system host board featuring two quad-core Intel® Xeon® C5500 series processors.
Trenton BP4FS6890 4 Segment PCIe Backplane
The TRC5000 rackmount computer system solution could not have been possible without:
- Trenton’s ability to listen to the customer needs and design a custom solution
- The capability of producing a COTS board solution like the BP4FS6890 backplane
- Our ability to manufacture the boards and integrate the total industrial computer solution in our ISO certified facilities located in the U.S.
The BP4FS6890 backplane, as well as other products discussed, are ready for deployment in your applications. If you have a unique program requirement, especially in the Government & Defense sector, call us at 800.875.6031 or 770.287.3100 and we’ll design a customer-driven computing solution for your project.
