Dot21 Real-Time Systems - Typical Projects

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Area 3.2 - Engineering, System Engineering, and Process Engineering Support

When the Navy needed to deploy the AN/SPS-48E air search radar on at least fifteen new ships, they were faced with a major problem. The ADP (Auxiliary Data Processor) included in the AN/SPS-48E was based on obsolete computer processor boards and custom hardware - the parts to build fifteen new units were no longer available. The Virginia Beach Detachment of the NSWC (Naval Surface Warfare Center) PHD (Port Hueneme Division) selected Dot21 to upgrade the ADP.

To upgrade the legacy ADP, Dot21 prepared a performance study establishing that the processing, which required twenty obsolete processor cards, could easily be accomplished using two modern processor cards. The custom front-end hardware could be replaced by an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). The new ADP architecture developed by Dot21 contains two COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) processor cards, an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), and several interface PMCs. Dot21 also developed a modern, graphical, radar maintenance display. The simplified architecture (one bus and three cards) made both the ADP and the AN/SPS-48E radar much more reliable and decreased both acquisition and life-cycle maintenance costs. As a result of this technical solution, acquisition costs were reduced by $480,000 per unit. Fifteen units are currently planned, leading to a savings to the Navy of over $7,000,000.

The legacy ADP contained a custom high-speed parallel interface for receiving raw data from the radar. That interface contained obsolete, unprocurable parts and was also not very reliable. The process of upgrading the ADP included characterizing this interface, preparing system specifications for the FPGA that provides this interface in the new ADP, and updating the software requirements documents. Then, Dot21 developed a software driver for the interface, ported the ADP software to the new processor cards, integrated the ADP software with the new interface, and successfully completed formal certification testing on the upgraded ADP. The new FPGA interface solves the reliability and acquisition problems posed by the old interface and will be maintainable in the future. Dot21 specified the system requirements for a new maintenance display, specified display interface requirements and produced a software requirements specification. The diagnostic features specified greatly enhance the ability of technicians and engineering personnel to isolating system faults. Dot 21 then developed the new display in three stages, using our spiral development process. This ensured that the Navy was closely involved in determining that the new display met mission requirements. The new maintenance display has been through formal software certification and will be deployed first on four Kidd-class destroyers being sold to the Taiwanese Navy.

Our performance on the ADP upgrade demonstrates Dot21's ability to technically support development of significant alterations to existing Navy systems to satisfy existing Surface Ship Combat System requirements. The successful deployment of the ADP upgrade validates our ability to systematically and successfully apply our engineering processes to plan, design, code, test, integrate and deliver high-quality software products at significant cost savings to Navy programs. This work was performed under contract N63394-02-D-3106.