RAPID Prototyping Technology

In order to stay competitive in the high-tech electronics consumer market, companies must continue to offer new products with superior capabilities, higher power efficiency, and smaller form factors at accelerated design schedules. For example, consumers upgrade their cell phones about every two years. Manufacturers are thus challenged to rapidly develop and produce phones that offer more advanced capabilities and smaller form factors at lower costs to meet consumer demands. Military applications also require high-performance systems that can be developed at low cost and function within stringent size, weight, and power (SWaP) budgets. Furthermore, the asymmetric warfare aspect of our current defense needs has accelerated the requirement for high-performance, embedded processors to incorporate state-of-the-art hardware and software capabilities. As a cost-saving strategy, many military applications rely on commercial technologies (e.g., games, communications , medical equipment) in the development of new systems. These devices, which evolve rapidly because of the potential high-volume markets and thus high profits, are also used by adversaries to support their activities, such as the remote detonation of improvised explosive devices. It is thus critical that leading-edge hardware and software be incorporated rapidly and effectively into our defense systems to maintain an advantage. Lincoln Laboratory has been contributing to rapid capability development in recent years and has pioneered a prototyping methodology called Rapid Advanced Processor In Development, or RAPID. This methodology systematically reuses previously proven hardware, firm-ware, and software designs to compose application-specific embedded systems. The RAPID technique provides Rapid Advanced Processor In Development (RAPID) is a prototyping technology that accelerates the development of state-of-the-art processor systems, particularly those involving custom boards and firmware. This technology enables large productivity gains in prototyping and a significant reduction of development times from system concept to operation.