• Reduces avionics weight, volume and wire count
• Accommodates the varied requirements of different customers without major redesign
• Improves performance and functionality over older avionics systems
• Flexible and easily incorporates universal changes
• Increases reliability and lowers total cost of ownership
• Contains comprehensive sensor and internal monitoring
• Supports IOC and MDS upgrades
• Select systems capable upgrading I/O map and maintenance tables via field loadable software

The Integrated Avionics Processing System (IAPS) assembly provides the infrastructure required to interconnect and manage the various avionics subsystems in the airplane. The cabinet may be considered a part of the airplane wiring that physically houses some avionics line replaceable modules (LRMs). The IAPS consists of a fully wired card cage containing the following:

• ICC - IAPS Card Cage
• IEC - IAPS Environmental Controller
• PWR - Power Supplies
• IOC - Input/Output Concentrators
• CSU - Configuration Strapping Units
• OCM - Options Configuration Module
• FGC - Flight Guidance Computers
• FMC - Flight Management Computers
• MDC - Maintenance Diagnostic Computers

The ICC contains hardware to mount and interconnect all resident LRMs. An internal motherboard provides interconnection between all units that reside in the card cage. The IEC controls the temperature for the ICC. The IEC monitors temperature transducers in both halves of the ICC and operates heaters or cooling fans to control the IAPS environment. The PWRs provide independent power to the LRMs and isolated power to each stabilizer pitch-trim potentiometer. The IOCs provide data management functions by acting as a central data collection and distribution point. These concentrators receive data bus inputs from each major line replaceable unit (LRU) on the aircraft, process the data words and then transmit only the words of interest to each receiving LRU. The CSUs, along with the OCMs, provide a matrix of configuration shunts that configure the IAPS with optional features.

The FGCs are part of the autopilot system that provides three-axis autopilot/yaw damper, dual flight director, and automatic pitch trim functions. The FMCs are part of the flight management system that provides flight management functions. The MDCs provide computation and storage of maintenance parameters for the avionics and aircraft system LRUs.

The IAPS contains several subsystems in a common cabinet (card cage) that is used in place of discrete LRUs and mounting trays. The basic enclosed subsystems are:

• Dual ARINC 429 serial data concentrators
• Dual flight guidance systems providing three-axis autopilot/yaw damper operation
• Single or dual flight management system
• Optional maintenance and diagnostic computers for system troubleshooting

The IAPS card cage (i.e. cabinet) is an LRU that contains LRMs. The ICC functions as the mount for several IAPS subsystems and provides interconnections between external (aircraft) subsystems and the internal mounted IAPS modules. The ICC provides lightning and High-Intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF) protections, as well as EMI emission filters, for all subsystems mounted within the ICC. Several versions and options are available. The ICC contains a single circuit board with two functionally identical sides, with the only physical difference being that the right sides is configured with the MDC module interconnection. This two-sided circuit board is divided into left and right sides to provide adequate segregation of data. The ICC printed circuit boards contribute to aircraft wiring reduction as LRM-to-LRM wiring is performed internal to the cabinet. The aircraft interconnect connections are provided by the cabinet.

The IEC is a fan module that provides increased subsystem reliability by controlling the temperature for the IAPS cage. The IEC monitors temperature transducers in both halves of the cage and operates heaters or cooling fans.

The IOCs are the ARINC 429 serial data processors. They are utilized to reduce aircraft wiring by having a common input/output data collection point that re-transmits multiple sensor input buses to various internal and external subsystems. The FMS and FGS subsystems share these common I/O LRMs resulting in a reduction of volume, weight, and power compared to each having their own dedicated I/O functions. This also greatly reduces the installation cost, connector volume, and wiring weight within the aircraft.

The PWR modules are used in association with the IOCs. They provide two separate power sources that independently power the left FGC, left IOC, right FGC, and right IOC. One PWR powers the left side LRMs and associated portions of the ICC. The other PWR powers the right side LRMs and associated portions of the ICC. The PWRs also reduce the weight, volume, and system power by having a multi-system use.

The FGCs provide independent flight guidance computation and operate together to provide flight guidance, 3-axis autopilot, automatic pitch trim, and yaw damper functions. The FGC receives critical AHRS data directly from the AHRS computer and receives air data, navigation sensor, and FMS data from the IAPS concentrators.

The FMCs provide coupled vertical navigation (VNAV) and NAV-to-NAV capture, Navigation Aid (NAVAID) data base storage, burst radio tune capabilities, and several control/planning functions.

The MDCs receive diagnostic words from the airplane LRUs through the IOCs. The MDC processes and records data for fault messages and LRU fault history. Additional storage is available for engine trend/exceedance data and maintenance data from other airplane systems. The stored maintenance data can be downloaded with the Collins Portable Access System (CPAS) or database units (DBU).

The CSUs contain a strapping matrix that defines the system configuration for each side of the IAPS. The CSU contains DIP switches that are set to program system operation for the airplane. They provide centralized strapping for various internal and external subsystems as well as customer strapping of optional equipment (e.g. third inertial reference system or third COMM). The OCMs mount to the CSUs and provide protected strapping for configuration strapping word-0.