Multi-Protocol MIL-STD-1553 and/or ARINC-429 Appliance is Industry’s First SuperSpeed Product
Dimac Red and Alta Data Technologies (Alta) are pleased to announce an innovative USB MIL-STD-1553 (1553) and ARINC-429 product: USB-MA4. This product connects notebooks, desktops and servers with 1553 and ARINC networks via USB 3.0 SuperSpeed – A first in the industry. The USB-MA4, which is about the size of a deck of cards, provides 1-2 dual redundant 1553 channels, and/or 8 ARINC-429 channels. In addition to 1553/ARINC full RX/TX message controls, USB-MA4 can generate or capture (o-scope) raw bus signals for protocol and electrical troubleshooting. The USB-MA4 is available now for immediate delivery.
“Alta’s USB-MA4 product is the latest peripheral interconnect technology for 1553 and ARINC avionics buses (networks). A USB 3.0 SuperSpeed 1553/ARINC product has been eagerly awaited in the market as current USB 2.0 interfaces can have serious throughput issues. Along with Alta’s real-time Ethernet (ENET) converter and Thunderbolt appliances, and industry leading interface cards, Alta now has the most complete 1553 and ARINC product offering in the industry,” announces the Product Manager at Dimac Red.
Harry Wild, VP of Sales for Alta adds, “Upon releasing our Thunderbolt™ 3.0 appliance, TBOLT™, that provides near PCI Express backplane performance, we tested native USB 3.0 SuperSpeed and determined the throughput rates were acceptable for most moderate to high packet rate 1553 applications. While not backplanes speeds of PCI Express (XMC) or PCI (PMC) interface cards, our USB-MA4 3.0 SuperSpeed product provides customers the convenience of a USB appliance without packet drops of typical USB 2.0 products. Along with our flexible, layered SDK, AltaAPI, and our AltaView Windows Analyzer, customers can quickly integrate the USB-MA4 for their avionics application. For most applications, the customer can port existing Alta applications to the USB-MA4 product with little or no code changes.”

Key features of this ARINC Interface are:
- Unlike all the other USB products on the market this one can perform Dynamic 1553/ARINC Bus Control and doesn’t need to be put into a Program Mode to update Data for either Tx or Rx Commands/Labels.
- It basically works just like our eNet products, but uses USB 3.0. With that said it is VERY important that any prospective customer plans to use USB 3.0 and NOT a USB 2.0 I/F for our product. Just like ENET, USB only supports Polling Interrupts (no HW Ints).
- Yes it will work with USB 2.0, but it will be much slower than USB 3.0.
About Dimac Red and Alta Data Technologies
Established in 1979 dedicated to serving the market with High Reliability electronic products, DIMAC Red offers a wide range of passive, active and now packaging products in the Aerospace, Telecom, Medical and Industrial sectors.
Alta is a rapidly growing company that provides industry leading 1553 and ARINC interface products with over $125M of similar COTS products sold. Alta’s products are offered in high-density channel configurations, IRIG Time Code Decoder, Triggers, Discretes and the advanced AltaAPI, AltaView Analyzer and SAE AS4111 5.2 AltaRTVal software packages. Operating system platforms include MS Windows (7-10), Linux, National Instruments’ LabVIEW/Windows. Thunderbolt and the Thunderbolt logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. For more information, contact our experts at dimacred@dimacred.com