[Blog] Lattice Avant, the Universal Translator Behind Modern Defense Upgrades

Modern defense platforms are caught in a familiar bind. Many of the mission computers still in service today were designed decades ago, and in many cases, they are doing exactly what they were built to do. They rely on interfaces like MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC 429 because those standards have proven reliable and predictable over time. They are deeply embedded across airborne, ground, and naval platforms, and replacing them is far from simple.

What has changed is everything around them. New sensors, diverse payloads, and data converters bring dramatically more capability, but they increasingly depend on high-bandwidth, low-latency interconnects such as PCIe^® Gen 4, 10 GbE TSN, and JESD204B/C with maximum safety, security and deterministic latency.

The challenge is not a lack of innovation. It is figuring out how to add modern capability without tearing out systems that still work. For many programs, the default response has been a full system redesign. In practice, that usually means higher cost, longer schedules, and new vendor dependencies. It can also run counter to the U.S. Department of Defense’s Modular Open Systems Approach, or MOSA, which is intended to favor open, reusable architectures over tightly coupled designs. When platforms still need to deploy and stay operational, replacing mission computers is rarely a realistic option.

So, the real question becomes this. How do defense teams modernize legacy systems without touching the mission computer everything depends on?

Bridging Old and New Without Redesign
A growing number of teams are starting to frame interface incompatibility as a translation problem, rather than a system problem. Instead of redesigning avionics, engineers insert an interface bridge between legacy buses and modern subsystems. That bridge handles protocol conversion (or translation) in real time, allowing new sensors or payloads to talk to existing infrastructure without forcing changes upstream.

Lattice Avant^™ is a low power FPGA platform built for exactly these kinds of interface-intensive roles, where connectivity, determinism, and power efficiency matter more than raw compute. It offers the most power efficient compute engine in its class with features including class leading 25 Gbps SERDES, hardened PCI Express and external memory PHY interfaces, and high DSP counts for the latest AI/ML and computer vision algorithms. With a Lattice Avant FPGA, engineers can implement a universal protocol translator that connects legacy interfaces such as MIL-STD-1553 and ARINC 429 to modern interconnects like PCIe, Ethernet TSN, and JESD204.

Lattice Avant, Purpose-Built for Defense Interface Bridging
In defense systems, an interface bridge only works if it fits the realities of where it is deployed. Platforms such as UAVs, missiles, and man-portable systems operate under strict size, weight, and power constraints. While mid-range FPGAs can deliver the needed performance, they often do so at power levels that force tradeoffs elsewhere in the system. Lattice Avant^™-E and Lattice Avant^™-X FPGA devices are designed to deliver interface bridging at much lower power, making upgrades possible in platforms where power headroom is limited.

Lattice Avant is also MOSA-compliant which brings flexibility over the life of a platform. Its open, standards-based IP allows teams to swap sensors, upgrade payloads, or introduce new subsystems without redesigning hardware or locking themselves into a single vendor’s ecosystem, offering true hardware portability. When an interface bridge is portable and reusable, it becomes something that can move across programs and refresh cycles instead of being rebuilt each time.

With a wide range of pre-validated reference designs for common legacy-to-modern bridge configurations, Lattice Avant helps reduce design cycles from months to weeks, accelerating time-to-deployment.

Real-World Modernization Scenarios
Instead of redesigning an entire system to upgrade or add a sensor, engineers can use a Lattice Avant FPGA to bridge the new sensor to the existing mission computer. The FPGA acts as a universal protocol translator, converting between legacy and modern interfaces in real time, within the platform’s power and space budget.

To look at this in a real-world lens, on legacy fighter aircraft, high-speed AESA radars can be integrated with Avant by bridging JESD204B or C data streams to existing mission buses, avoiding the need to rewire avionics. On rotorcraft, next-generation electronic warfare processors can connect to ARINC 429 systems using Avant’s Ethernet TSN feature to support deterministic, real-time data exchange. Unmanned aerial vehicles can be upgraded leveraging Avant’s PCIe Gen 4 IP to enable multi-spectral sensors at ultra-low power while maintaining compatibility with legacy command and control links. And, in ground vehicles, a single Avant FPGA can replace multiple discrete bridge chips, consolidate interfaces, and reduce board space up to 40%.

In each of these cases, Lattice Avant serves as the universal translator that allows old and new systems to work together.

Accelerating Deployment with Purpose-Built IP
Interface translation is not just a hardware problem, but also a speed of deployment problem. Lattice offers a growing library of pre-validated, MOSA-aligned IP cores and reference designs targeted specifically at defense interface bridging. Optimized for Lattice Avant and tested against MIL/ARINC protocol specifications, these include bridges between MIL-STD-1553 and PCIe, ARINC 429 and Ethernet TSN, JESD204 controllers for high-speed data converters, and multi-protocol I/O hubs for lower-speed interfaces.

By starting with proven IP rather than building from scratch, engineering teams can reduce design cycles from months to weeks. That speed matters when upgrades must align with deployment schedules.

Turning MOSA Into an Advantage
MOSA mandates open and reusable architecture, but compliance alone does not guarantee success. Lattice Avant FPGAs don’t just comply; they amplify the mandate’s value. By serving as the universal translator between any legacy interface and any modern interconnect, a single Avant-based bridge card becomes a reusable platform asset that travels across programs, platforms, and upgrade cycles.

No proprietary ASICs. No single-vendor dependency. Just open, portable, low power bridging silicon that can evolve as interfaces change, travel with sensors as they move between platforms, and extend the useful life of legacy systems without constraining future upgrades.

Modernization does not always require starting over. Sometimes, it just requires the right translator.

To learn more about how Lattice Avant FPGAs can modernize your legacy defense systems, reach out to our team today.