Aerospace & Defense Technology - February 2022 - 36

Tech Briefs
adaptation in changing circumstances
to reward success, while allowing, but
eventually eliminating, failure. Since this
approach is agile, flexible, quick reacting,
and thrives on change, it contrasts
with strategic planning in which systems
are developed in a planned and orderly
fashion to meet future requirements. A
planned system is rigid, slow to react, and
resists or ignores change, which contrasts
with how the military traditionally develops
weapon systems.
One word that distinguishes between
evolutionary and planned development
is " chaos. " Chaos, like risk, is unavoidable,
and hence should be managed rather
than avoided. Indeed, a certain degree
of chaos is desirable because it generates
the necessary set of adaptations and
ideas that can eventually be " selected "
for evolutionary improvement. The
Darwinian concept of " survival of the
fittest " can be applied to ideas, systems,
and organizations that seek to maintain
a competitive advantage.
A simple example that illustrates this
line of thinking is IBM's failure to anticipate
the switch from mainframe computers
and remote terminals to smaller,
standalone, personal computers, which
often is cited as an example of poor strategic
planning. In terms of an evolutionFPGAs
and HPC
A study conducted to determine how suitable Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), which are
well suited for applications involving bit manipulations performed on a continuous stream of data, are
for for use in high performance computing (HPC) applications.
Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
F
PGAs are devices programmed using
languages and methodologies originally
developed for describing the circuit
layouts used in today's integrated
circuits. As such, they are well suited
for applications involving bit manipulations
performed on a continuous
stream of data. However, their general
applicability to HPC applications is
open to debate.
An FPGA is a chip designed to emulate
a user-specified integrated circuit. As such,
FPGAs can be very useful in prototyping
efforts. More recently, they have been
36
incorporated into add-on boards which
frequently consist of the following:
* One or more FPGAs
* A small to moderate amount of fast
memory (static random access memory
[SRAM])
* Optionally a larger amount of dedicated
onboard memory (dynamic random
access memory [DRAM])
* An interface for connecting the board
to the system that will be hosting it. At
the time this research was conducted,
that was based on either the peripheral
component interconnect (PCI) or
www.aerodefensetech.com
the peripheral component interconnect
extended (PCI-X) standards
During the period when this research
was conducted, Xilinx and Altera were the
major manufacturers of the FPGAs. Many
of their products included additional features
such as the following:
* A small amount of on chip fast memory
* A complete embedded PowerPC processor
*
Specialized circuitry such as analog-to-digital
converters
* Digital signal processor (DSP) slices,
from which entire DSPs and other types
Aerospace & Defense Technology, February 2022
ADT Tech Briefs 0222_1.indd 36
Intro
Cov
ToC
+
-
A
µ
ary paradigm, the argument is that it was
so impossible for IBM to logically deduce
such a radical development that no strategic
plan could have succeeded. Instead
of focusing on poor planning, an important
conclusion for IBM is to develop an
organization that is sufficiently chaotic to
develop all relevant fields, while adapting
quickly when the " fittest " systems survive.
Since chaos is not usually associated with
IBM's culture in the 1980's, its failure is
not surprising from an evolutionary standpoint.
If we substitute the Department of
Defense (DoD) for IBM and the fall of the
Berlin Wall for the computer revolution, a
similar story emerges for national security.
The argument is that the radical shift to an
information-based society might provide
a better guide for military modernization.
The two critical terms here are " chaotic "
and " evolutionary. " Chaotic does not
imply total unpredictability or " a state of
utter confusion, " but should be thought
of in terms of the science of chaos theory
in which order and stability can be
derived from inherently unpredictable
states. It is useful, therefore, to think of
chaotic as " unplanned " or " other than
planned. " At the same time, evolutionary
development does not necessarily
imply a " process of gradual and relatively
peaceful advance, " but is the adaptation
of systems to a changing environment by
an unbiased selection process that rewards
success. It can lead to radical, as well as
gradual, shifts in a system.
To understand the potential of chaotic
evolutionary development, consider
the historical example of military
systems whose development exhibited
chaotic evolutionary traits, specifically
the development of infrared systems for
tactical aviation. First, the development
of IR systems proceeded in a relatively
unplanned manner and exhibited many
chaotic and evolutionary aspects. Second,
IR systems are relevant to current
U.S. Air Force (USAF) operations. Third,
IR systems can be examined in terms of
combat, which is the ultimate test of military
systems. Fourth, and perhaps most
importantly, the evolutionary development
of IR systems can be compared
with the more traditional development
of radar systems, which also exploit the
electromagnetic spectrum for many of
the same military tasks.
This work was done by George B. Hept,
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF, for the Air War
College. For more information, download
the Technical Support Package (free
white paper) at www.aerodefensetech.
com/tsp under the Optics, Photonics &
Lasers category. AFIT-0003
1/25/22 3:00 PM
È

http://www.aerodefensetech.com/tsp http://www.aerodefensetech.com http://info.hotims.com/82318-811

Aerospace & Defense Technology - February 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aerospace & Defense Technology - February 2022