Rugged Smart Displays

June 1, 2017

General Micro Systems, Inc.
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
800-307-4863

General Micro Systems, Inc.'s SD19 rugged smart display is being deployed for use in modernizing select U.S. Navy ships. This smart, all-in-one display will be distributed throughout the Navy's fleet to replace an existing “dumb” display that had been facing end-of-life challenges. The display will actually combine two functions into one: a rugged, 19- inch LCD with special electrical, mechanical and environmental characteristics; and a rugged Intel^®-based single-board computer running Microsoft^® Windows.

Rugged Smart Displays from General Micro Systems, Inc.

The technical challenge was maintaining one hundred percent backwards compatibility with the existing display system while still adding the complete computer subsystem within the same physical space. The GMS SD19 SmartView™ is roughly 3.5-inches thin and very rugged due to the company's patent-pending RuggedCool™ technology, which conducts the heat from the Intel^® 4th Generation Core i7 processor (Haswell) directly to the SD19 case where, depending upon the location in the ship, the heat is either radiated into the environment or conducted away from the SD19 unit. This innovative cooling technology alleviates the need for cooling fans, which are a reliability weakness.

The SD19 SmartView™ smart display also features a hardened 4:3 aspect ratio touchscreen and night vision-capable LCD, with finely controlled, Navy-specified brightness settings from full-on to complete dimmed darkness. Other unique requirements for the SD19 include multi-display operation that allows the SD19 to output to other shipboard displays, while other displays can output to SD19 simply with a bezel button push. The SD19 also successfully passed the “hammer test” per MIL-STD-901D, which simulates a projectile striking the ship while the ship's systems must continue to operate. The SD19 SmartView™ unit withstood well over 100G in all three axes while operating and successfully passed the test.

According to the U.S. Navy, programs such as the “AEGIS Modernization Program (AMOD)...introduces computing system upgrades via the Advanced Capability Build (ACB) and Technology Insertion (TI) process for both cruisers and destroyers.” In that example, COTS computer systems are specified in the AEGIS Baseline 9 (BL 9) development effort. More upgrades are planned across the 84 ships in service with the AEGIS Weapons Systems installed (22 Cruisers and 62 Destroyers). Other Navy programs similarly specify COTS upgrades including the GMS SD19. For the ships being equipped with GMS SD19 SmartView™ displays, many use multiple instances of the SD19 smart display system and are installed inside or out on deck, depending upon the ship's configuration.

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