In today’s mission-critical environments, unwavering reliability and performance are essential to operational success. The 3U VPX Liquid Cooling Air Transport Rack (ATR) system, built on OpenVPX architecture, features a rugged, modular enclosure engineered to withstand the most demanding defense and aerospace conditions. Its versatile design supports a wide range of customizable configurations and is scalable to multi-CPU/GPU requirements, leveraging proven components and design techniques to meet diverse mission needs.

Equipped with a hybrid conduction cold plate, based on VITA 48.4 Liquid Flow Through standard, and 7StarLake’s own IP Liquid Flow Through Chip Cold Plate Kit, the 7StarLake 7SL-3500 supports up to 500W TDP capacity within a self-contained, liquid-to-air sealed system and is optimized for high-speed signal processing and compute-intensive workloads. The system also integrates custom and standard 3-slot backplanes with VPX and SOSA-aligned slot profiles, ensuring seamless compatibility and scalability for modern military computing applications.

The innovative liquid cooling system ensures stable operation under high thermal loads, eliminating the risk of overheating, a leading cause of system failure and mission disruption. By maintaining peak performance in harsh conditions, the 7SL-3500 empowers warfighters to execute rapid, data-driven decisions, enhancing operational effectiveness, survivability, and mission success.

Why Self-contained Liquid Cooling is Crucial for VPX Systems?

Effective thermal management is critical to unlocking the full performance of VPX systems—safely, reliably, and consistently. In advanced ground vehicles and aircraft, self-contained liquid cooling offers optimal thermal management, delivering superior reliability and performance over traditional air cooling.

1. Maximum Compute Power in Minimal Space (High SWaP Efficiency)

Military platforms like fighter jets, UAVs, submarines, and tanks have extreme constraints on size, weight, and power (SWaP). A liquid-cooled 3U VPX ATR chassis enables deployment of powerful CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, in a very compact footprint, delivering data-center-level performance in battlefield environment

2. Superior Thermal Management for Mission-Critical Reliability

The ATR form factor is already widely used in aerospace and defense. Combining it with liquid-cooled modules enables plug-and-play integration with open standards such as OpenVPX and SOSA.

7SL-3500 maintains optimal operating temperatures even under extreme environmental conditions, ensuring 100% compute performance without throttling. This is vital for real-time processing of high-bandwidth sensor data.

3. Rugged, Deployable, and Modular Design

The ATR form factor is already widely used in aerospace and defense. Combining it with liquid-cooled modules enables plug-and-play integration with open standards such as OpenVPX and SOSA. 

What Problem Does 7STRALAKE’s Liquid Cooled ATR Address?

Modern military platforms, such as large-size drone, radar systems, and autonomous vehicles, require extremely powerful onboard computing for artificial intelligence (AI), sensor fusion, and real-time decision-making. These computing systems rely on high-performance processors like GPUs and FPGAs, which generate enormous amounts of heat in very small spaces. However, traditional air cooling methods (like fans or heat sinks) are no longer sufficient in these compact environments, particularly in rugged military systems where airflow is limited or environmental temperatures are extreme. Overheating leads to throttling, reduced performance, system failure, or permanent hardware damage.

7SL-3500 offers a compact, rugged, and efficient solution to thermal challenges by integrating a fully closed-loop liquid cooling mechanism directly into the computing module:

Compared to existing solutions:

Delivers up to 10× greater thermal efficiency than conventional air-cooled systems of similar size. Maintains full performance of high-wattage components (e.g., 250W+ GPUs) in scenarios where air cooling would otherwise cause throttling or shutdown. Enables reliable operation in sealed or zero-airflow environments, where air cooling is ineffective or nonfunctional.

Key Advantages of a Self-Contained Liquid Cooling VPX System for Military Ground Vehicles and Large Drones:

7StarLake’s scalable, customizable, and rugged VPX ATR system is engineered for compute-intensive, SWaP-constrained mission-critical applications, making it ideal for deployment in the most demanding military and aerospace environments.

Liquid Cooled to Air

7SL-3500 hybrid conduction cold plate assisted by liquid cooling sets with aggregate power demands over 500W

Internal recirculation fans ensure liquid cooling set is across conduction cooled payload modules, minimizing hot-spots and dissipating heat homogeneously

 

• NVIDIA Ampere Architecture
• PCIe Gen4x16 interface
• 16GB GDDR6 Memory, 256-bit Bandwidth
• 5888 CUDA Cores, 17.66 TFLOPS SP Peak

 

Specification

 Specification