Vi-ta [vee-tuh]
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By Tim Tews, General Manager, TEWS Technologies GmbH
New standards like VITA 90 (VNX+) and VITA 93 (QMC) are important steps in bringing MOSA principles to even the smallest and most limited edge platforms without making trade-offs. Together, these standards create multi-layer modular systems that support scalable, flexible, and future-ready designs for many defense applications.
Full article in Military & Aerospace Electronics
In rugged embedded computing, it’s tempting to treat every new form factor as a replacement for the last one. VNX+ is often described that way, as “the next VPX” or “VPX, but smaller.” That framing misses the point. VPX (ANSI/VITA 46/48/65) and VNX+ (ANSI/VITA 90) were never meant to compete for the same slot in the same system. They were designed to solve two different halves of the same SWaP (Size, Weight, and Power) problem, and, critically, to interoperate. A system architect can put both standards in the same chassis, on the same backplane, in the same program, without redesigning either one around the other.
This article looks at why that’s true: the size and power envelopes that define each standard, the markets each one targets, and the mechanical reality that makes it possible to drop a VNX+ module directly into a VPX chassis using a passive adapter, a product SundanceDSP offers today, the VNX+ to 3U VPX Adapter.
Read the full article . . .
Written by: Josephine A. Vitella Technical Content Writer, Marketing, Wolf Advanced Technology
In defense and aerospace computing, one constant remains: everything is getting smaller, lighter, and expected to do more with less. The holy trinity of SWaP — size, weight, and power — has become the gatekeeper of what flies, rolls, or orbits. Every extra gram, every cubic centimeter, and every watt matters.
For years, VPX boards have been the backbone of modular open systems. The 3U and 6U VPX modules have shouldered the load for high-performance embedded computing, while mezzanine cards have provided flexible, feature-level upgrades. But as platforms shrink and mission profiles demand greater agility, even the smallest VPX cards can feel like bringing a sledgehammer to tighten a watch.
Enter VNX+ — the VITA 90 standard. Think of it not as a challenger to VPX, but as its nimble younger sibling. One-third the size of a 3U VPX, VNX+ extends modular open standards into domains where VPX simply can’t fit: small UAVs, satellites, smart munitions, and handheld systems. It is rugged, open, and built for the edge cases where “just a little smaller” can make or break the mission.
This whitepaper explores how VNX+ reshapes the conversation. It’ll examine the SWaP constraints pushing system engineers to rethink integration, compare VNX+ directly with VPX and other form factors, and show how WOLF Advanced Technology is leading the charge to bring this small form factor from concept to deployed capability. Most importantly, this whitepaper will illustrate why VNX+ isn’t just another standard — it’s the missing puzzle piece in the modular ecosystem that makes tomorrow’s missions possible.
Read the full whitepaper
By: Mark Littlefield, Director of System Products, Elma Electronic
At the GVSETS conference in Detroit in August 2024, I presented a white paper titled "VNX+ for Ground Vehicle Applications” that examined how VNX+ (VITA 90) and its related content captured in the latest version of the SOSA® Technical Standard can be applied to ground vehicles. This blog is a summation of that paper.
Applying VNX+ to Autonomous Ground Vehicles
Vehicle electronics have always been constrained by space, weight, and power (SWaP). Given the huge increases in bandwidth and processing demand seen in recent years across autonomous vehicles, this is especially true for high-performance sensors and communications electronics.
Additionally, the systems needed for unmanned vehicles often require more onboard functionality, such as vehicle navigation and control electronics, as well as the sensor payload and yet are significantly smaller than those found in manned vehicles.
VITA 90, also known as VNX+, offers an alternative form factor to 3U OpenVPX for these SWaP-constrained applications, offering the same technical features, but in a form factor about 30% of the size. Adding to its utility, VNX+ is now a fully supported form factor in the latest snapshot of the Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) Technical Standard.
VNX+’s Useability Across Different Platforms
With an eye on supporting high-performance, but SWaP-constrained, sensor platforms, VITA, with input from SOSA, crafted several VNX+ slot profiles to become the building blocks for these systems (Figure 1). They include:
Figure 1. Most slot profiles are based on a profile template defined by VITA 90.0 to maximize design reuse in both PIC and backplane designs. Pictured are the 400-pin payload (L) and the 320-pin network switch (R) profiles.
Aside from the high-density radial clock, all slot profiles support the same utility functions and most of the communications protocols found in OpenVPX (some of the older protocols have been dropped due to obsolescence).
To further increase design reuse, VNX+ incorporates common I/O ports in predictable locations in the payload profiles. Typical power management for a VNX+ system is in the 35W range for conduction cooling, with opportunities for higher densities using more innovative chassis designs and cooling approaches.
The control plane and data plane have individual command/data inter-PIC paths that are identical to OpenVPX, making them easily integrated into open standards-based DOD architectures, like VICTORY. The control plane is based on Ethernet.
These attributes mean that system designers and integrators can build high-performance sensor systems much like with OpenVPX, but within the SWaP constraints needed for smaller systems, a task impossible to do with OpenVPX. This is particularly attractive to autonomous platforms in ground vehicles.
The following seven documents contribute to the definition of VITA 90’s form factor and infrastructure:
Advancing Application Capabilities Through VNX+
VITA 90 VNX+ is expected to be applied to ground vehicle applications in the coming years – most especially in autonomous ground vehicles, where systems will be much more compact and space-constrained. Applications such as 360° situational awareness systems, active protection systems, SIGINT/EW, software defined radios, and network processors are all good candidates for VNX+ implementations.
As we move into 2025, new VNX+ products will be hitting the streets, giving integrators more options to create smaller, open standards-based systems using interoperable components, saving cost, time and engineering resources.
By John Keller, Military+Aerospace Electronics, February 27, 2023
The next generation of open-systems small-form-factor embedded computing is nearly ready for industry, and is likely to become part of the upcoming Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) 2.0 industry standard that should see ratification later this year or early next.
It's called VNX-plus -- written as VNX+. Its computer modules should be about the size of a deck of playing cards, and will be a downscaled version of 3U VPX embedded computing boards and backplanes, which are described in standards of the VITA Open Standards, Open Markets trade association in Oklahoma City.
The small size of VNX+ will fit into a five-inch tube to accommodate small-yet-powerful applications, including 100-millimeter cubesats, stealthy unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), and artillery-launched sensors for long-term monitoring of contested areas.
Read the full article.
Even before it’s official ratification in December 2017, VITA 74, or VNX, had been rapidly gaining traction for a number of distinct embedded computing markets. The need for this standard was two-fold. First, designers of small form factor (SFF) systems needed a way to make sense of the fact that the well-known form factors just weren’t going to cut it anymore as component density increased, package size decreased, and thermal management concerns kept rising. Next, as the industry embraced a more compact computing structure, end users were still looking for the interoperability and modularity they’d come to expect in the larger, standards-based systems. The same principles of cohesion and cost-consciousness still applied. Many old timers may recall the early days of embedded computing, where an altruistic concept was created, then thrown to the industry with some loose parameters, resulting in multiple ‘standard’ versions of the same computing concept. Hence the proliferation of well-defined platforms, such as 19” rack mount systems, 3U and 6U Eurocard, VME and later VPX-based systems, etc. As SFFs emerged, they fractured the notion that systems needed to adhere to commonly-accepted 1U, 3U, 6U, etc. dimensions. This SFF industry fragmentation, instead, needed a method of adopting a means of moving these high-performance systems forward in a way that would benefit the industry as well as the individual companies involved. Repurposing the Wheel, Not Reinventing It
While addressing these needs, VNX draws from certain tried-and-true concepts of the more mature VPX standard as well as leveraging many successful System on Module (SOM) form factors widely in use in the commercial and military marketplace. At the same time, it incorporates the necessary adaptations to make VNX applicable for these applications where SFF computing is required. This allows the standard to capitalize on a mature market and knowledgeable user base. VNX provides the means and structure to build its own community to construct low cost, high reliability SFF systems with minimal investment and risk. Below is a quick highlight of some aspects of VNX. A more detailed overview, a downloadable reference design and other supporting information is available at the VITA VNX Community page. Some commonalities:
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