SwiftIOS

TASC B737 SwiftIOS Instructor Station running

Shows SwiftIOS in operation using the local option, without connection to the Simulation host and using local displays rather than running with the displays on the flight deck

The Dupont Pixel GiP was a state of the art graphics device (in the early 90's). It provided fast operation, nice fonts and was based on a bitplane architecture. It supports multi channel output, with each GiP having upto four video channels. Originally based on a PC bus interface to the cardset (originally freestanding deskside box but eventually crammed into a 6u rackmount enclosure). The VME interface is one per GiP, so for an 8 monitor system two GiPs and two cards would be required.

The SWIFT IOS is interfaced to the CRDS UNOS graphics via an emulation layer within TASC (rsgraph.vme). This layer talks directly to the XServer and replaces the VGME2000. This technique for emulation is much more efficient.

Within the graphics layer, there is a special function available which is called to render directly to a window. This routine can be added to the map page to add geographic or navigational features.

The nature of the upgrade makes the pricing dependant on the currently installed system, the prices below are based on a reasonable estimation

Supported Hardware

• Standard PC architecture (x86, ia64, multi-core)
• Sun SPARC
• Silicon Graphics (N32, N64, IA)
• Minimum config: 512mb memory, 1gb disk, network adapter, 1ghz CPU.

Host comms

• Compro RMS PCI
• Standard Serial Communications (19.2k or 9.6k depending on Host)
• Native Zaretto Ethernet reflective memory (requires host changes, best suited to MVME197 (1338) installations
• Scramnet

Architecture

SWIFT IOS is based around the concept of Contained Process Emulation, there are good reasons for this. CPE works by having a native wrapper process which loads UNOS (COFF or .REL) executables, and runs them via a MC68000 emulator. The CPE translates UNOS syscalls into native calls, maps filenames, provides emulated RMB hardware, device support via /dev, and graphics capability via an X display.

The SWIFT Instructor Station upgrade is a complete replacement for Instructor Stations using Charles River Data Systems computers and the UNOS operating system.

SWIFT uses COTS Intel Architecture PC using Linux (OpenSUSE 11). All of the components of the IOS are run as native tasks within which a UNOS environment which is emulated along with a MC68000. The graphics hardware is emulated at the VME ShortIO level and drives standard X11 displays.