The PC/104 bus and form factor were originally devised by Ampro in 1987 and later standardized by the PC/104 Consortium in 1992. Its name derives from the 104 pins on the inter-board Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) connector in the original PC/104 specification and has been retained in subsequent revisions, despite changes to the connectors. PC/104 (or PC104) is a family of embedded computer standards in which both form factors and computer buses are defined by the PC/104 Consortium. Examples of these bus-based architectures are COM Express, PC104, and VPX. This pretty much defines the concept of a centralized computing architecture. There currently exist a variety of bus-based architectures in which a collection of bus-based boards is gathered in a single chassis. Beware! As is usual with electronics in general, and especially with anything to do with the military, there is a motley morass of acronyms we’re going to have to wade through, so let’s all don our rubber wellington boots before we proceed (as fate would have it, I’m already wearing mine).

Ben says the X9 Spider boasts the most innovative, rugged, and reliable computing technologies available for the next-generation Army.īefore we venture into the lair of the X9 Spider, let’s first set the scene.

The reason for my interest in hearing that the folks from General Micro Systems (GMS) had won these “Best of Show” awards is that, just a week or two before the show, I was chatting with GMS CEO and Chief Architect Ben Sharfi, who was regaling me with details about the new X9 Spider modular and super-dense X9 distributed architecture from GMS. As they say on their website: “AUSA provides a voice for the Army, supports the Soldier, and honors those who have served in order to advance the security of the nation.” This year’s AUSA 2022 annual meeting and exposition boasted 33,000+ attendees, 650+ exhibitors, 150+ sessions, and 80+ countries (I’m not 100% sure as to exactly what the last number relates, but it’s certainly a lot of countries). On the off chance you don’t keep your ear to the ground regarding this sort of thing, the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) is a nonprofit educational and professional development association serving America’s Army and supporting a strong national defense. A couple of weeks ago as I pen these words, I heard that the folks from General Micro Systems had taken home three “Best of Show” awards from the recent AUSA 2022 annual meeting and exposition, which was held 10-12 October in Washington DC, and whose purpose was to highlight computing innovations for building the Army of 2030.

Chief architect product key x9