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AnonTechie [soylentnews.org] writes:

In eastern Ukraine, government forces have to face an array of conventional threats. Snipers, artillery and machine gun fire to name a few. On top of that, Ukrainian troops also have to contend with electronic warfare. The separatists, well-supplied and trained by Russia, have the ability to jam drones and communications — seriously hindering battlefield operations for their opponent.

What is happening in Ukraine has major implications for the future of U.S. warfare. Russia and China, both seen as “near-peer” adversaries, have robust electronic warfare capabilities. And while the U.S. is trying to expand its electronic warfare suite, it has been slow going because of budget restrictions and a shrinking military.

Enter a new chip from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that would give the U.S. military a much needed boost when it comes to operating in a combat environment where communications and radar can be jammed by the enemy. This chip — an “exceptionally high-speed analog-to-digital converter,” known as an ADC — would benefit U.S. equipment that operates on the electromagnetic spectrum (radios, radar, etc) by increasing the ability to process portions of the electromagnetic spectrum at a drastically higher rate than current jamming and anti-jamming equipment.

How fast is fast? The new ADC samples and digitizes spectrum signals at a rate of over 60 billion times per second (60 GigaSamples/sec). That’s fast enough to directly detect and analyze any signal at 30 GHz or below—a range that encompasses the vast majority of operating frequencies of interest. Whereas scanning through these frequencies today requires costly application-specific hardware with long development cycles, the new ADC can provide a “one-stop shop” for processing radar, communications and electronic warfare signals.

According to DARPA, the only issue with the chip is the amount of power and processing speed required for it to operate. To rectify the issue, DARPA is working with the company GlobalFoundries to create a smaller processor that uses less power but is still able to compute the data required for the chip to work.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/01/12/this-new-darpa-chip-could-give-u-s-a-leg-up-in-electronic-warfare/ [washingtonpost.com]

[Source]: New Chips Ease Operations In Electromagnetic Environs [darpa.mil]

[Also Covered By]: DARPA's New Chip Will Create Un-jammable Communication Devices [gizmodo.com]

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