From SOSA® Alignment to Conformance: The Next Phase of Open Architecture Mission Computing

From SOSA^® Alignment to Conformance: The Next Phase of Open Architecture Mission Computing

As SOSA^® Conformance develops and AMS GRA adoption grows, Open Architecture programmes need more than standards-aligned hardware. They need verification, digital engineering and processing technology designed to make integration and future capability insertion easier.

Open Architecture has already changed the way defense programmes think about mission computing. Common interfaces and defined hardware profiles make it possible to design systems around modular components rather than proprietary architectures. But the industry is moving to the next phase.

The focus is increasingly shifting from whether a product has been designed in alignment with an Open Architecture standard to how that alignment can be demonstrated, how the hardware fits into the wider mission architecture and how programme teams can understand that relationship earlier in the engineering lifecycle.

For Concurrent, that means working across several connected areas: the SOSA^® Technical Standard, emerging SOSA^® Conformance processes, AMS GRA, Model-Based Systems Engineering, and the next generation of 3U VPX processing technology.

From SOSA^® aligned to SOSA^® Conformance

SOSA^® aligned has become familiar terminology across the embedded computing industry. Formal SOSA^® Conformance introduces another level of rigor.

The emerging verification framework is intended to demonstrate that products meet applicable requirements within the SOSA^® Technical Standard, rather than relying solely on a supplier’s statement that a product has been designed in alignment with it.

Concurrent has participated directly in this developing process through multiple SOSA^® Conformance dry-runs.

Those exercises have helped work through the documentation, artifacts, testing processes, and verification infrastructure needed to support formal conformance.

That experience gives our engineering teams direct insight into the information and evidence customers are likely to need from suppliers as SOSA^® Conformance matures.

For program and systems teams, this brings greater clarity to an important question: how can the Open Architecture characteristics of the hardware be independently demonstrated?

Connecting SOSA^® hardware with AMS GRA

Verification is one part of the integration challenge. Understanding where the hardware sits within the wider mission system is another.

Concurrent is developing its understanding of how relevant SOSA^® hardware maps into those architectural roles, including Level 2 Digital Payload Processor functions and Level 3 switching and Processor Chassis and Backplane functions.

SOSA^® defines requirements for standards-based hardware interfaces and profiles, while AMS GRA provides a broader mission-system architecture in which those hardware elements can be represented and integrated.

Understanding how the two relate can help systems integrators make more informed hardware decisions within the context of the wider architecture.

Designing for post-quantum security

Defence platforms can remain in service for decades. The security architecture therefore has to account for threats and cryptographic requirements that will change during the life of the platform.

The PolarFire FPGA Secure Enclave supports post-quantum cryptographic functionality alongside anti-tamper monitoring, security-event logging and sanitisation.

Locating that functionality within a dedicated FPGA-based security layer provides separation from the host processor and makes security part of the underlying hardware architecture.

For long-life programmes, processor refresh and security refresh cannot be treated as entirely separate considerations. Both need a route for future capability insertion.

Adding digital engineering to the hardware conversation

The physical hardware is only part of the information an integrator needs.

Concurrent is also evaluating how Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) models can be developed to align it’s hardware products with AMS GRA requirements.

The aim is to provide architectural information that can help systems integrators understand how hardware relates to the wider system earlier in the engineering lifecycle.

This work remains in development, but the direction is important.

As programs make greater use of digital engineering, suppliers increasingly need to provide more than a specification sheet. Functions, interfaces, and architectural relationships need to be represented in ways that can form part of the broader system model.

For Open Architecture programs, that creates an opportunity to connect standards-based physical hardware with the digital engineering information used to design, integrate, and sustain the system.

The processing technology has to keep moving too

Standards and digital engineering provide the framework, but Open Architecture still has to deliver useful capability.

Concurrent’s latest generation of SOSA®-aligned 3U VPX processing products, Hermes II and Magni II, are based on Intel^® Core™ Ultra Series 3 technology, formerly known as Panther Lake.

The two products address different mission-processing requirements.

Hermes II is designed for I/O-intensive applications using a 14.2.16 SOSA^® profile. It combines a 16-core Intel^® Core™ Ultra Processor 366H Series 3 with 100GBASE-KR4 Data Plane connectivity, PCIe Gen 4 Expansion Plane capability, and secure storage options.

Magni II uses a 14.6.11 SOSA^® profile for compute-intensive applications, where greater onboard processing is the priority.

Both are designed to support programs that need to insert newer processing capability while maintaining alignment with modular Open Systems Architecture principles.

Hardware-rooted security as part of the architecture

The latest processing generation also introduces a dedicated PolarFire FPGA Secure Enclave.

The architecture places a hardware security layer below the host processor, allowing protection to begin before the operating system or application software is running.

Capabilities supported within the security architecture include:

security-event logging
anti-tamper sensors
hardware-triggered sanitization
support for post-quantum cryptographic functionality

Post-quantum cryptography is one capability within the wider Secure Enclave architecture rather than its sole purpose.

The Secure Enclave is designed to complement Concurrent’s existing Guardian security framework, which provides protections across BIOS, firmware, storage, and system configuration.

Together, they provide a layered approach spanning trusted boot, platform configuration, firmware integrity, and physical tamper response.

That becomes particularly relevant for long-life platforms where processing and security requirements are likely to evolve over time.

From plug-in card to deployable system

Open Architecture becomes more useful when the same principles carry through from the processing card into the complete system.

Hornet is Concurrent’s compact, rugged two-slot SOSA®-aligned mission computer.

It combines a sealed, conduction-cooled enclosure with processing, payload expansion, removable storage, mission I/O, and Open interfaces. One slot can provide mission processing using Hermes II, while the second supports FPGA or GPGPU payload capability.

That creates a direct path from a SOSA^® aligned processing card into a deployable mission-processing platform without changing the underlying architectural approach.

For systems engineers, the discussion therefore moves beyond selecting a processor card. Processing, payload, storage, I/O, and the physical platform all need to work together as part of the target mission architecture.

Open Architecture is becoming a broader engineering discipline

The next phase of Open Architecture is not being driven by one technology.

SOSA^® Conformance is creating a route toward independently demonstrating that products meet applicable requirements within the Technical Standard.

AMS GRA is providing a wider architectural framework in which physical processing, switching, and system hardware must operate.

MBSE is creating a way to represent that hardware within the digital engineering environment.

And new generations of SOSA^® aligned processing technology continue to increase the capability that can be inserted into those systems.

These areas increasingly need to be considered together.

Concurrent’s work across SOSA^® Conformance, AMS GRA, MBSE, next-generation 3U VPX processing, and hardware-rooted security is focused on doing exactly that: helping customers translate Open Architecture into deployable capability.