Fremont, California-based CPU Technology Inc is developing an avionics processor in a contract with US Air Force. The processor, called the Advanced Avionics Processor 3, will replace the 20 year old MIL-STD-1750A standard but will not require existing software to be re-compiled. Using the iAPX-86 processor instruction set, Avionics 3 will be a 64-bit processor that CPU Technology will license to semiconductor companies to manufacture although none have yet been signed. Current avionics processors are fabricated by a number of companies including Milpitas, Califonia-based LSI Logic Corp and Texas Instruments Inc of Austin, Texas. Increases in processing speed will be acheived by pipelining instructions, unlike existing avionics processors. It is being developed using CPU Technology’s Behavioral Verification Technology which, according to CPU Technology, cuts the cost and time required to validate processor compatibility. It also reduces the number of functional errors so that the Avionics 3 will have the fewest number of errors currently possible, says the company. Although the primary application for the processor will be military, CPU Technology stress that commercial aeroplanes also rely on the same 1750 standard. CPU technology says the processor architecture design has been completed and Avionics 3 processors will be available in two years.
