Diamond Systems GEODE

The GEODE rugged modular mission computer system platform offers easy customization and quick availability for rugged computers due to its novel architecture that includes pre-integrated expansion connectors for easy addition of I/O, plus the use of COM Express modules to support flexible CPU choices. The COM is thermally coupled to the top surface of the enclosure with a conduction cooling heat spreader and mounting plate. (Heat spreader removed for illustration purposes, normally present in the open rectangle in the mounting plate.

With Diamond Systems’ GEODE you can add up to 3 I/O boards in the system without requiring any change to the enclosure or cabling. The elimination of custom enclosure and cabling design effort dramatically reduces up-front costs and delivery times, and the resulting use of common components across multiple product configurations helps keep production costs down and facilitates the production of small quantities for pilot or small-run programs. The entire system is housed in a rugged 3-part enclosure that eliminates all T joints and includes seals at all joints to ensure IP67 compliance.

A MIL-grade rugged power supply with MIL-STD-461, -704, and -1275 compatibility and wide input range is available with both isolated and non-isolated output configurations. As a cost and weight reduction alternative, a MIL-STD-461 filter circuit can be built right into the connector board, eliminating the separate power supply. Both the processor and power supply are direct-coupled to the enclosure for efficient conduction cooling.

Internal cables are a leading cost, leadtime, and size driver for rugged systems, as well as usually the most failure-prone element in the design. With Geode, most I/O connectors are mounted on a circuit board that plugs directly into the main computer board and eliminates most internal cables. This design reduces cost, reduces failure, reduces size, increases ruggedness, and simplifies assembly. Attachment points are provided for optional dust caps for all connectors. The rightmost connector is on a breakaway portion of the circuit board and can be removed to support smaller systems that have lesser I/O requirements. One front panel I/O connector is reserved for cable connection to allow flexibility and support high speed interfaces such as USB 3.0, high speed graphics, and 10G Ethernet. The default system configuration provides USB 3.0 in this position.

Mass storage is provided by an M.2 2242/2280 size solid-state disk module with capacity up to 2TB. Additional storage can be provided with an add-on drive using the built-in SATA connector. I/O expansion is readily accomplished with the use of PCIe / USB minicards as well as PCIe/104 I/O modules. The PCIe/104 socket supports up to 4 x1 links and 1 x16 link, depending on the installed COM. A Core i7 or lower performance COM will typically support 3-4 PCIe x1 links. A Xeon or higher COM will typically support the x1 links as well as the x16 link.