Posted by John Keller 

FARNBOROUGH, England, 21 July 2010. Time-Triggered Protocol (TTP) avionics specialist TTTech in Vienna is introducing the TTP Star Coupler flight assembly that separately protects each branch of a star-topology avionics databus. 

TTTech is introducing the TTP Star Coupler at the Farnborough International Airshow this week in Farnborough, England. Protecting each branch of an star-topology avionics databus separately enables avionics designers to improve fault isolation and produce architectures with higher availability than traditional bus topologies, TTTech officials say. Using star topologies in avionics systems enables designers to reduce the amounts of cable they use, and decrease weight, TTTech officials say. 

The Time-Triggered Protocol is a widely accepted avionics networking standard for mission- and life-critical systems aboard military aircraft and commercial aircraft. TTP, for example, provides engine control on the Lockheed Martin F-16 jet fighter, as well as the electronic systems and cabin pressure control on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner passenger jet. 

The TTP Star Coupler offers short circuit protection and branch traffic to help isolate faulty branches without affecting other network traffic, TTTech officials say. In addition, the TTP Star Coupler can enable designers to change topologies from bus to star with one or several nodes on each branch of the star without changing application software. Only the communications layer is affected. 

Key features include 16 ports, one port available for traffic monitoring, RS 485 physical layer, flight housing and board prepared to be certified to DO-160F, board prepared to be certified to DO-254, and weight of slightly more than 2.2 pounds. 

Physical layer features include cable lengths per branch as long as 164 feet, as many as seven nodes per branch, less than 30 nanoseconds end-to-end skew, common mode voltage range of plus-or-minus 4 kilovolts, lightning test level 5, and cable bundle tests to WF4 and WF5A. 

For more information contact TTTech online at www.tttech.com.

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