Annapolis Micro Systems, a leading FPGA board and systems supplier, is now shipping its first COTS Chassis and Backplane with 100Gb capability. The new design is 2.5X faster than existing technology, and enables PCIe Gen-4, 100 Gbps Ethernet, and InfiniBand high-speed bandwidths.

The WILD100 16-Slot 19″ Top-Loading Beamformer 6U OpenVPX Chassis and Backplane (WC6C40) was designed and optimized for high-performance beamforming. Its superior bandwidth and speed addresses the most challenging real-time phased array radar surveillance, telemetry data collection, and high-resolution processing.
WC6C40 is a rugged 6U OpenVPX rackmount chassis that incorporates slots for:
- 10 FPGA-Based Payload Boards
- 1 Switch
- 1 Clock Card
- 4 VITA 62 Power Supplies, supplying up to 3,840W
High-bandwidth backplane connectivity is enabled by MULTIGIG RT3 interconnects. The new high-density RT3 boosts VPX backplane speeds to a remarkable 25 Gbaud, without sacrificing signal integrity.
“Annapolis is the first company to bring 100Gb bandwidth to OpenVPX, and not a moment too soon,” said Noah Donaldson, Annapolis Micro Systems Chief Technology Officer. “Our first customer for this chassis and backplane has a demanding requirement for hundreds of synchronized ADC/DAC channels, with high sampling rate and resolution.”
The Payload and Clock support blind mate optical (FireFly™) and/or RF, per VITA 66/67, for faster board insertion and removal.
The Chassis and Backplane are tested and qualified for 0 to +55°C operating temperatures via air cooling, and thrive in challenging humidity, vibration, and shock environments.
WC6C40 is part of Annapolis’ growing WILD100 EcoSystem™, an interoperable portfolio of rugged high-performance 100GbE COTS boards and systems. Other notable WILD100 products include:
- Baseboard: WILDSTAR 6XB2 6U OpenVPX FPGA Processor (WB6XB2)
- Storage (6U): WILDSTAR 6SN0 6U OpenVPX Storage (WB6SN0)
- Storage (3U): WILDSTAR 3SN0 3U OpenVPX Storage (WB3SN0)
- Clock: WILDSTAR Radial Clock Distribution Board (WP6C20)
Synchronization within a single chassis is managed by the WP6C20 Clock Board. It is powered by a Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+™ MPSoC Motherboard Controller and allows for synchronization of up to 20 ADC/DAC WFMC+ Cards.
For large deployments, synchronization across multiple chassis is controlled by the WP9CC0 Clock Module. It allows for sync of up to 12 backplanes worth of ADC/DAC WFMC+, providing the capability to synchronize up to 960 ADC/DAC channels.
In addition to beamforming, Annapolis high-performance products are designed for advanced HPC, ISR, and multi-function EW applications, including phased array radar, cybersecurity network processing, DRFM, beamforming, sensor processing, wireless communication, and radar signal processing.