ALTA ANNOUNCES MIL-STD-1553 “NLINE” PRODUCT FAMILY

Alta Data Technologies, LLC (Alta) announces the development of a new family of products: NLINE™.  As the name suggests, Alta has embedded their industry leading MIL-STD-1553 protocol engine technology directly into cable assemblies for real-time Ethernet, Thunderbolt™ and USB 3 interfaces.  Combined with their AltaAPI software development kit (SDK), and advanced signal capture o-scope capabilities, these products will offer unmatched functionality and ease of deployment for aerospace platforms.  The first NLINE product for Ethernet, NLINE-E1553™, releases this month with Thunderbolt and USB 3 scheduled for early 2021.
 
“We’re really excited about the NLINE product family,” states Harry Wild, VP of Sales for Alta. “These new 1553 products for real-time Ethernet, Thunderbolt and USB 3 will provide incredible system design choices for our customers.  Our team did an amazing amount of R&D to develop new packaging techniques to embedded our 1553 design directly into MIL-810G/461F qualified cable assemblies.  Now customers can literally just connect-up and go.”
 
“The NLINE products are a logical extension to the very successful ENET, and recently released, Thunderbolt and USB 3 appliances.  For deployed systems, ENET and NLINE products provide an unmatched breadth of 1553 integration options.  From saving card slots, or removing worriers about future hardware and OS versions, these products simplify 1553 integration.  The Thunderbolt product will allow PCI Express capability, which means even real-time hardware interrupt applications can be done via a cable. And there is signal capture, which is an o-scope capability built-in to help troubleshoot cabling and possible security issues.  We really hit a demand nerve with this concept and already have several customers awaiting deliveries.”
 
Jake Haddock, Alta CTO, adds “The NLINE products are something we’ve been thinking about for a long time, and new packaging techniques have really made this possible.  We made significant time and capital investments to ensure we can manufacture and test these products to produce the most flexible, rugged in-line 1553 capability possible, even operational water immersion testing.  With our own injection molding capability, we can produce a wide variety of cable requirements for programs. If the customer has a particular cable or connector requirement, we can provide that product very quickly”
 
Almost every avionics or communication system implements an Ethernet topology, but most 1553 Ethernet converter products are processor/Linux based with unsecure IP network stacks that greatly slow down Ethernet communications.  ENET and NLINE designs are FPGA hardware-based UDP thin servers that provide real-time Ethernet/1553 bridging/conversion, reducing threats of viruses or internal hacking. These products provide all the advanced controls of traditional 1553 interfaces, and can simultaneously auto bridge time-stamped 1553 UDP packets without any programming.  There is a fast auto-boot feature where 1553 and MIL-1760 RX controls can be managed through standard socket communications as implemented in almost every OS, even DO-178 compliant systems.