COTS Embedded Systems and Link Budgets

The days of proprietary embedded computing systems in military systems are numbered.

The days of proprietary embedded computing systems in military systems are numbered. Proprietary systems, with the attendant vendor lock-in, tend to be platform specific, increasing the development and long-term maintenance costs. New platform: new design. The military has realized that this is an untenable approach.

Electronics are increasingly more sophisticated, more prevalent, and more mission critical. The ideal approach is to create standards for open-architecture systems that leverage commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology and provide the flexible building blocks to meet a wide range of needs. Systems should be modular, allowing a module to be upgraded without requiring other modules to be replaced.