The Enduring Value of Highly Optimized, Non-Standardized Systems

March 1, 2026

The roles of aerospace and defense engineers have profoundly changed. Systems integrators and acquisition programs require “standardized openness” while also wishing for boxes that take up less space, weight, and power. Despite the push towards Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA), Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA), and similar open standards, there are still opportunities to use non-standardized, small form factor (SFF) designs.

As outlined in the project examples below, a purpose-built SFF module can address technical system requirements better than any current approach focused on open standards.

Purpose-Built vs. Plug-and-Play Systems

The need for real-time, connected, and feature-rich systems stems from warfighters wanting faster, more informed decision support for military C5ISR applications. Open standards adopters see the battlefield value of plug-and-play commonality between boards, interfaces, and other components to power advanced computing needs. However, this enforced flexibility often means programs acquire systems with unnecessary features for battlefield applications and pay for them in additional size, weight, and power (SWaP) demands.

Consider that before MOSA and SOSA, VME-based systems were built to work using components from different vendors inside small enclosures with a common backplane. Boards were application-specific, optimized for the system with “just enough”, yet could be swapped out to meet lifecycle needs. While the newer OpenVPX standard was designed to bring greater interoperability, flexibility and scalability to programs, mandating its use often leads to over-capable systems and greater procurement and upgrade costs.

The Benefits of Non-Standardized Designs

Non-standardized SFF systems deliver similar compute and connectivity capabilities in small, fit-for-purpose packages. Optimized for specific tasks rather than carrying often superfluous-in-that-application features required by open standards, they take up less space than traditional computing systems and are often lighter, increasing their physical flexibility and portability. Because SFFs contain only the features required for the application or system, they save weight and consume less power, thus reducing the heat load.

Contrasted with a chassis-based design like OpenVPX, the standards’ ecosystem requirements may include unused features such as backplane infrastructure signals that add complexity and consume more power. As well, an ATR is a large package which requires more space in a vehicle or airframe.

In contrast, engineers use SFF SWaP advantages to develop innovative ways of fitting smaller boxes into vehicles and platforms, such as by leveraging existing unused spaces or distributing functions across multiple, smaller modules. It’s easier to tuck a 2 x 4.75 x 6 inch SFF (under 60 cubic inches) than a 1/2 ATR (short) of nearly ten times the volume.

And just because an ATR using OpenVPX is considered an open standard doesn’t mean that an SFF can’t also follow an open standard. SFF modules and systems that interconnect with other sensors and systems using Ethernet are indeed both interoperable and upgradeable — any processing element that performs its functions and connects using the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard is by definition “open”. Similarly are SFFs using COTS standards USB4 or Apple/Intel Thunderbolt™ 4, for example.

The following use cases illustrate some real-world applications of optimized SFF platforms.

Consolidating Existing Systems into Fewer Non-Standardized Boxes

Figure 1 - A WIN-T-equipped High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) has less available space for electronics than earlier platforms. (Image: GMS)

The Warfighter Information Network-Tactical (WIN-T) program is the U.S. Army’s “mobile internet” backbone for secure, on-the-move communications, mission command, and situational awareness for commanders and warfighters. WIN-T Increment 2 reconfigured tactical nodes from five-ton ground vehicles into smaller packages installable on Strykers and Humvees (Figure 1). One issue was that the larger system took up space formerly used to seat a crewmember.

The following excerpt from a previous March 2017 WIN-T Program Update provides further details on the modification addressed this issue: “The Tactical Communications Node-Lite (TCN-L) and Network Operations and Security Center-Lite (NOSC-L), which are undergoing developmental testing, are now integrated on HMMWVs instead of five-ton FMTVs. Both platforms feature a greatly reduced footprint and improved transportability for expeditionary operations (C-130 roll-on/roll-off and CH-47 sling loadable). They will provide the same networking and network management capability to command posts while reducing the complexity to install, operate and maintain the network.”

Figure 2 - WIN-T system consolidation using optimized SFF modules shows dramatic SWaP reduction. (Image: GMS)

Working with General Dynamics Mission Systems (GDMS), the Army consolidated eight ruggedized computing boxes — five for classified (red) networking and three for unclassified (black) operations — into one SFF box each for red and black domains using a General Micro Systems S2002-SW. In collaboration with GDMS and the Army, in contrast to an OpenVPX/ATX box approach, SFF designs meant perfect-fit components, lower SWaP footprint, and no unused slots. And it freed up space to put the crewmember back into the vehicle (Figure 2).

Redesigning Boxes to Fit Available Space

How do engineers fit boxes meeting standard requirements, such as OpenVPX or an ATR housing VME, into non-standard spaces such as tucked next to a bulkhead in an aircraft? SFF designs allow engineers to build systems that fit into the available space when necessary, without sacrificing battlefield capabilities.

The S1202-XVE workstation modules from General Micro Systems serve as one example. The customer initially wanted rackmount server performance from a box that had to fit inside the space of a small avionics bay in a military fixed-wing aircraft. As the size of standard OpenVPX ATR chassis was too large and infeasible, the project chose instead to modify a SFF box housing high-performance Intel® Xeon® E3 Kaby Lake processors, Intel® HD Graphics cards, Gigabit Ethernet, and USB ports, among other capabilities.

Figure 3 - Two Kaby Lake small form factor workstation-class modules with optional A4500 NVIDIA® GPU. (Image: GMS)

To ensure the box footprint matched the vehicle configuration and to allow future feature growth, the box was increased to 1.5x the length of the standard SFF’s form factor (Figure 3). The same SFF processor board was used — making this a modified COTS design — but the carrier board was stretched to leave room for additional add-in co-processor cards. The customer had envisioned adding an extra GPU for vector and artificial intelligence (AI) processing during the next aircraft upgrade.

This bespoke SFF is to be contrasted to a small OpenVPX chassis such as a 4-slot 3U box. The -XVE described is not only smaller by at least half, it’s lighter weight, uses less power, has additional growth capability (for the second GPU), and includes a removable drive — something not common with OpenVPX or VME. The SFF was a success and was later re-used by the customer in other airframes.

Distributing Functions Across Multiple Boxes

This is one of the small form factor cross domain systems introduced by GMS at AUSA 2025. Based upon the GMS VENOM line of 3U OpenVPX, SOSA-aligned MOSA-inspired single board computers, switch cards and I/O, the RAPTOR NanoATR is a standard-size ½ ATR (short) conduction-cooled chassis with GMS-unique per-slot cooling. A patent-pending radiator assembly provides efficient per-slot conduction cooling which allows the 4-slot 3U chassis to dissipate up to 800 W. (Image: GMS)

The U.S. Army’s Next Generation Combat Vehicle (NGCV) included a demonstration program to investigate the use and benefits of artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous capabilities on the battlefield. Early on, the program’s designers wanted to use commercially available NVIDIA GPGPU cards for the system’s AI co-processing and multi-function video displays, as they were industry-proven and cost-effective. However, the two-slot desktop cards were too large for the available space in the vehicle’s embedded server box. As well, no such GPGPU was available on VME or OpenVPX due to size, weight and technical feasibility.

The program’s engineers decided to distribute capabilities in the vehicle, such as connecting all the sensors used for autonomous operation to a network and converting proprietary sensor interfaces into network traffic physically close to the sensors. To process the sensor data and create a picture of the environment where the vehicle operates (objects, terrain, threats, friendlies, etc.), a massive amount of AI processing was needed. The NVIDIA GPGPU cards were converted into “embedded” cards housed within custom co-processing boxes and distributed them for space and cooling purposes. The boxes were designed to daisy-chain and create a distributed processing “AI farm” within a ground vehicle.

Conclusion

Using highly optimized SFF systems in military applications is not a retreat from progress but a strategic choice toward less waste and cost. As open systems and standards continue to grow, engineers and system designers should not overlook the benefits of non-standardized SFF designs.

As these real-world use cases show, non-standardized SFF systems aren’t going away. In fact, they will likely see more use as expanding battlefield applications meet the physical constraints of vehicles.

This article was written by Chris A. Ciufo, President and Chief Technology Officer, General Micro Systems (Rancho Cucamonga, CA). For more information, visit here .