A174 | SFF I/O Expansion Subsystem

Aitech’s A174 I/O Expansion Subsystem is a small add-on unit specially designed to expand I/O capabilities of existing avionics systems. With its high variety of I/O interfaces, small form factor, and low power dissipation, the A174 can be used to expand the I/O of any avionics computer with a standard Ethernet interface.

The A174 can be connected to a Multiple-Client-Multiple-Server system architecture, with any number of A174 (servers) and avionics computers (clients) on a single Ethernet network. Each client can access and control I/O resources on any of the A174 units on the network, and each A174 can be accessed simultaneously by any of the clients on the network.

Each client can have any processor architecture (PowerPC, ARM, Intel), and can be running any OS. All I/O interfaces are implemented in the unit’s FPGA, with only the physical layers being dedicated devices. This minimizes power consumption, and enables convenient customization of the unit to meet specific applications. To ensure highest reliability, the A174 includes extensive Built-in Test (BIT) capabilities.