Product | A-Stack

If you are producing avionics products that need to connect to an AFDX network or to a safe, deterministic switched Ethernet network, A-Stack offers some advantages over other potential options that are unique. A-Stack is a software implementation of an (ARINC 664 Part 7) AFDX network stack that has been written from-scratch by Embvue in accordance with the underlying Airbus AFDX patents and RTCA/DO-178B Level A. Embvue is fully licensed by Airbus to sell A-Stack to customers world-wide for use in end system applications. A-Stack supports both Airbus and Boeing versions of AFDX today and can be adapted to support other versions as they arise.

If you are looking to deploy an AFDX or other safe, deterministic switched Ethernet network end system, or if you have an existing system that you need to integrate with such a network, or if you need to implement such a network in a harsh operating environment, A-Stack is the product for you.

Even outside of the aerospace and defense markets where AFDX and AFDX-like implementations are becoming the norm, there is a growing demand for safe, deterministic switched Ethernet networking. A-Stacks heritage and adaptability make it ideally suited for these applications also.

A-Stack is a software-only product that can be hosted on virtually any hardware and/or operating system platform. As such it offers customers the usual advantages over hardware solutions, namely:

It provides product opportunities
As a software product, A-Stack can be readily hosted on a wide range of different hardware platforms, enabling anybody who wants to field an end system product the ability to develop it on their own hardware quickly, reasonably and with the assuredness of success.

It is cheaper to maintain
As a software product, A-Stack is immune to obsolescence issues and can be ported over to replacement hardware quickly should the need arise. Also, customers can avail themselves of readily available COTS processor solutions upon which to host A-Stack so they are not tied to a single, potentially expensive, supplier for repairs.

It is portable
A-Stack has been written to be portable with a well-defined and adaptable hardware/operating system interface layer. It has already been ported to several hardware (both customer's own and COTS) and RTOS platforms and Embvue can readily port it to others. This means that customers can avoid being tied to a specific hardware or RTOS supplier if they chose to.

It is flexible
As a software product, A-Stack can be customized to account for project-specific or customer-specific applications much more readily than a hardware implementation can. This gives customers the ability to more easily create discriminators for their products and the ability to deliver a solution that is truly adapted for a particular project application. A-Stack can interface with an RTOS in a number of different ways and it can be hosted on a CPU along with the end system application, or separately on a mezzanine card if customers want to avoid having to account for AFDX overhead on the existing host CPU.

It is scalable
A-Stack is modular and can be delivered with only the modules that a customer actually requires.

It is future-proof
Additional features can be added downstream as the customer's requirements change or as their product gets applied to other projects that have different needs. As AFDX evolves and support for additional features such as security and increased network bandwidth arise, A-Stack will be adapted and Embvue will market upgrades that account for the general market trends.

It is deployable in harsh environments
AFDX is being used in more and more places, including some that require that the end system operate in harsh environments. This presents a problem for customers using a hardware network solution because the ASIC must be certified for use in such environments. A-Stack, since it can be re-hosted readily, provides an excellent solution, allowing customers to host the network stack on existing, available processors that have already received the necessary certification.

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