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General Micro Systems Wins Two 2024 Military & Aerospace Electronics (MAE) Innovators Awards for New X9 Spider Systems

Recognized as Platinum Honoree for Superb Innovation for the X9 Spider Server and Gold for Excellent Innovation for X9 Spider Workstation I/O

General Micro Systems Wins Two 2024 Military & Aerospace Electronics (MAE) Innovators Awards for New X9 Spider Systems

Chris A. Ciufo
360-921-7556
cciufo@gms4sbc.com

Kelly Wanlass
HCI Marketing and Communications, Inc.
801-602-4723
kelly@hcimarketing.com

General Micro Systems’ X9 Spider modular, scalable and distributed architecture for aerospace and defense applications continues to collect accolades, this time with two 2024 Military + Aerospace Electronics (MAE) Innovators Awards. This week, MAE recognized the X9 Spider Server as a platinum honoree for “superb innovation, characterized by a groundbreaking approach to meeting a need, and/or a new level of performance, efficiency, ease-of-use or other beneficial quality.” As a gold honoree, the X9 Spider Workstation I/O was recognized as an “excellent innovation” that makes a substantial improvement over previous methods employed, approaches taken, or products/systems used.

The X9 Spider Server and the X9 Spider Workstation I/O are among the family of palm-sized X9 Spider modules (6” x 4.75” x2” and 2.1 pounds) that reduce barriers to developing applications that require rugged high-performance computing, high-definition video, sensor processing, artificial intelligence (AI), battlefield edge processing, storage, display and Workstation I/O in a rugged enclosure with unprecedented performance per dollar per watt. All X9 Spider products use the GMS Thunderbolt™ 4 technology and a patented LightBolt™ 40Gbps connection in copper or fiber, with optional 100W per port power for up-/down-stream sensors and system expansion.

“These two X9 Spider systems offer more capabilities in an ultra-small, lightweight yet extremely rugged package, meaning they can power and connect all sorts of systems to share data to and from the battlefield without taking up much space,” said Ben Sharfi, General Micro Systems’ CEO and chief architect. “Not only do these modules offer numerous industry firsts in terms of hardware, mechanical, interconnect and thermal innovations, but they are the smallest, most dense and most portable systems available for these applications. These awards for innovation and technology advancement are further validation that we’re providing what no one else can.”

X9 Spider Server: The world’s smallest, fully rugged server with vast I/O expansion

With over 26 patents pending, the X9 Spider Server’s ultra-small, high performance CPU board, I/O bandwidth (455Gbps) and unique stackable mechanical design enable the X9 modules to be configured into any system imaginable. The X9 Spider Server features include:

  • An Intel® Xeon® D processor and an NVIDIA’s flagship GPU RTX-A4500 MXM module
  • Dual 100GigE ports for RDMA data transfers from sensors or between X9 Servers
  • Two Thunderbolt 4 ports, each providing 40 Gbps of I/O to displays, network and peripherals that can be daisy chained while providing 100W to power to peripherals such as displays, disc drives and I/O up to 50 meters away.
  • Patented RuggedCool™ technology to provide four-sided cooling for balanced heat transfer and low thermal gradient for full operation at up to +85°C

X9 Workstation I/O: Ultra-compact, fully rugged workstation system with vast I/O and removable storage

The X9 Workstation I/O (WSIO) is an integral function of the X9 system architecture. Whether on battlefield, lab or command and control stations, a user interface with features such as displays, network, input devices, local dedicated secure storage and custom application specific I/O is needed. Further, those I/O ports must accommodate over industry standard connectors, yet be rugged, sealed, dust and waterproof, to withstand the rugged environment for years of reliable operation.

The X9 WSIO is connected to the X9 Spider Host computer via a Thunderbolt 4 interface and may be powered directly from the Host up to 50 meters away. Further, these WSIO workstations may be daisy chained to an unlimited number of stations. The WSIO features include:

  • A vast array of expansion I/O that provide up to twelve expansion sites for additional I/O and sensors.
  • A single removable U.2 storge device that may be a 2.5” NVMe™ drive, SATA, 2x M.2 or a secure NSA approved SSD. This drive may be encrypted and can be easily removed to archive the data.
  • Two Thunderbolt 4 ports for daisy chain and for user I/O and system expansion. The user interfaces are one 10GBase-TX via a sealed RJ-45 connector, mini display port, five USB-C (3.2) ports each with 10Gbit/s data transfer, and up to 15W (5V @ 3A) of power delivery to the peripherals.

Datasheets with all features for the X9 Spider Server and X9 Workstation I/O can be found at the links here:

X9 Spider Server
X9 Workstation I/O

NOTE: 2024 MAE Innovators Award winners are chosen by the qualified judging panel chosen by the editorial staff at Military + Aerospace Electronics.

About General Micro Systems:

Over 45 years, General Micro Systems (GMS) has built a reputation as the industry expert in highest-density, modular, compute-intensive, and rugged small form-factor embedded computing systems, servers and switches. These powerful systems, all built in America, are ideal for demanding C5ISR defense, aerospace, medical, industrial, and energy exploration applications. GMS is an IEC, ISO, AS9100, NIST-800-171, and MIL-SPEC supplier with infrastructure and operations for long-life, spec-controlled, and configuration-managed programs. For more information, visit www.gms4sbc.com.

General Micro Systems' X9 Spider Server & X9 Spider Workstation I/O receive Innovators Awards from @MilAero. These palm-sized, light weight, fully rugged computing modules have been recognized for their unprecedented battlefield performance. #X9Spider