Cambridge Pixel to provide SPx solution for Norwegian Coast Guard ships

Exelis has awarded a contract to Cambridge Pixel, a developer of sensor processing and display solutions, to provide SPx radar and video distribution and display software to upgrade the Norwegian Coast Guard ships.

Under the contract, Cambridge will deliver SPx radar and video distribution and display software to replace a legacy radar and video display sub system and provide enhanced capabilities and improved reliability for the ships.

In addition to interfacing to three radar signals, the system provides real-time data to a couple of triple-screen multi-function consoles, where it would be displayed with scan converted radar, overlay maps and tracks aboard a coastguard ship.

Exelis Radar, Reconnaissance and Acoustic System senior programme manager Steve Hill said that the Cambridge Pixel’s software-based solution has enabled Exelis to reduce the specialised hardware content in the new command & control (C2) upgrade, thereby delivering improved reliability and ease-of-maintenance for our customer.

Cambridge Pixel managing director David Johnson said the SPx solution makes use of standard PC processing hardware on the client displays to simplify the system architecture by using multi-core processors and GPU processing to accelerate the real-time data display.

"This upgrade program has taken standard servers and library software from our SPx product range and allowed Exelis to replace their legacy radar and video display sub-system with a modern, scalable and efficient solution," Johnson added.

"A key feature of our SPx software is the intelligent division of tasks to the CPU and the GPU which is then able to carefully manage the flow of data to ensure that the real-time radar and video is displayed in real-time." The SPx suite of software libraries and applications offers highly flexible, ready-to-run software products or modules-of-expertise for radar scan conversion, visualisation, radar video distribution, plot extraction, clutter processing, target tracking and track fusion.