What Interface Concept does

Interface Concept SAS is a French privately-held company founded in 1987 and headquartered in Quimper (Finistère, Brittany) that designs and manufactures high-performance embedded boards and systems for defense, aerospace, and industrial applications. Its product portfolio spans four main categories built on open industry standards — 3U/6U VPX, VME, cPCI, and PMC/XMC — and includes Single Board Computers (Intel Xeon W/D and NXP Layerscape/QorIQ processors), FPGA processing boards (AMD Kintex, Virtex and Versal devices with FMC/FMC+ mezzanine sites), managed Ethernet switches and routers (1G through 100G Layer 2/3), and I/O modules including high-speed ADC/DAC front ends and storage. The company maintains a proprietary technology stack consisting of FPGA IP cores (PCI Express-to-VME bridge, SFPDP, ARINC 818, HDLC, on-board Layer 2 Ethernet switch), in-house UEFI firmware, the MULTIWARE hardware-abstraction software suite, the SWITCHWARE Layer 2/3 switch management software, and a complete signal-processing reference design for FPGA boards.

Interface Concept's primary customer segment is defense and aerospace — air, ground, and naval applications — serving systems integrators on use cases including ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance), electronic warfare, radar and mission computing, image processing, and data recording. Cited customers include Airbus, Boeing, Dassault Aviation, Thales, Safran, and Raytheon. A secondary industrial segment addresses smart-grid command and control, air traffic management, automation/machine control, and test and measurement. With approximately 35 R&D engineers out of a total of 11-50 employees, the firm emphasizes COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) and M-COTS (Modified-COTS) delivery with multi-year lifecycle commitments and obsolescence management targeting long-lived defense platforms.

The business model is centered on quote-based B2B sales of board-level products priced by configuration, temperature grade (Standard through Conduction-Cooled), and customization, supplemented by engineering services and long-term support. The go-to-market combines direct sales from French headquarters for major accounts with a global channel network of 15+ authorized distributors spanning Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa, anchored by Elma Electronic in the UK/US/Israel. Marketing is primarily technical-content driven — LinkedIn, YouTube, email, and standards-body participation — supported by active participation in major defense exhibitions (Eurosatory, DSEI, AUSA, AOC, SEA FUTURE, RADAR Conference). The company holds ISO 9001:2015 certification and complies with RoHS, REACH, and WEEE; it is family-controlled with €283,256 in share capital, no disclosed institutional investors, and no subsidiaries.

Name

Interface Concept

Legal name

Interface Concept SAS

Website

https://interfaceconcept.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1987

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Interface Concept SAS designs and manufactures rugged COTS and Modified-COTS embedded boards — single-board computers, FPGA signal-processing boards, and managed Ethernet switches — for global defense, aerospace, and industrial system integrators using VITA, SOSA, and VPX form factors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Embedded Computing Boards

NAICS

Computer and Peripheral Equipment Manufacturing (33411)

SIC

Computer Communications Equipment (3576), Electronic Computers (3571)

akta.pro primary industry

Industrial Embedded Computers (Box PCs) (HDACALAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Embedded & Industrial Network Interfaces (PCIe/M.2/SOM/SoC NICs) (HDAFAEAI), Network Hardware Components (ASICs/NICs/Transceivers) (HDABAFAN)

Keywords

• Embedded computing boards
• VPX single board computers
• FPGA signal processing
• Rugged Ethernet switches
• Defense electronics hardware

Headquarters

HQ city

Quimper

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Hardware Product Sales: Sale of COTS and M-COTS (Modified COTS) embedded board-level products including Single Board Computers, Ethernet Switches, FPGA boards, and I/O modules. Products are sold as building blocks for system integration with long-term support commitments.
2. Customization and Engineering Services: Custom product development, MCOTS (Modified COTS) customization, long-term product support, obsolescence management, and technical support services throughout system integration and deployment.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels15 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Interface Concept designs and manufactures high-performance COTS and M-COTS embedded boards and systems for defense (airborne, ground, naval) and industrial applications. Its portfolio covers Single Board Computers (Intel Xeon and NXP Arm layerscape processors in 3U/6U VPX and VME), FPGA processing boards (AMD Kintex, Virtex and Versal FPGAs with FMC/FMC+ sites), managed Ethernet switches and routers from 1G to 100G, and a range of I/O, ADC/DAC, networking and storage modules on PMC/XMC mezzanines, all backed by in-house firmware and software (MULTIWARE, SWITCHWARE, UEFI) and long-term lifecycle support.

Product overview

Interface Concept designs and manufactures high-performance embedded boards and systems for defense and industrial applications. The product portfolio includes Single Board Computers (Intel-based Xeon and Arm-based NXP processors in 3U/6U VPX and VME form factors), FPGA Processing Boards (AMD-based with FMC/FMC+ mezzanine sites for signal processing), Ethernet Switches and Routers (1G/10G/25G/40G/100G managed Layer 2/3 switches in VPX, VME, and cPCI form factors), and I/O modules (XMC mezzanines for Ethernet, ADC/DAC, and storage). Products are COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) or M-COTS (Modified COTS) with standards compliance including VITA, SOSA, VPX, VME, PMC/XMC. The company also provides in-house software including MULTIWARE (processor/memory abstraction) and SWITCHWARE (switch management), along with technical support, customization, and lifecycle services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• IC-INT-VMEd 6U VME Intel Xeon W Single Board Computer 6U VME Single Board Computer based on Intel Xeon W (Tiger Lake-H) with up to 32GB DDR4 ECC, VME64x interface, 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports, 2 PMC/XMC slots, and DisplayPort video output, designed to extend the lifetime of legacy VME systems for defense and industrial integrators.
• IC-INT-VMEc 6U VME Intel Xeon D Single Board Computer 6U VME Single Board Computer based on Intel Xeon D-15xx processor with up to 32GB DDR4 ECC memory, 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports and multiple serial interfaces for rugged embedded defense and industrial systems.
• IC-ARM-VMEa 6U VME Arm Layerscape Single Board Computer 6U VME Single Board Computer based on NXP Layerscape LX2160A Arm processor with up to 32GB DDR4 ECC, 6 rear Giga and 2 front 10G Ethernet ports, 1 PMC/XMC slot and 1 XMC slot with open FPGA.
• IC-INT-VPX3l SOSA-Aligned 3U VPX Intel Xeon W Single Board Computer SOSA-aligned 3U VPX Single Board Computer based on Intel Xeon W (Tiger Lake-H) with DDR4 ECC up to 32GB, 1 100G Ethernet port, and PCIe x4 expansion plane, targeting modern defense sensor and mission computing systems.
• IC-INT-VPX3k 3U VPX Intel Xeon W Single Board Computer 3U VPX Single Board Computer built around Intel Xeon W (Tiger Lake-H) with DDR4 ECC up to 64GB, featuring 16 PCIe lanes configurable as x16, x8/x8 or x8/x4/x4 for high-performance embedded computing systems.
• IC-ARM-VPX3c SOSA-Aligned 3U VPX Arm Layerscape Single Board Computer SOSA-aligned 3U VPX Single Board Computer based on NXP Layerscape LX2080A/LX2160A with 16 Arm Cortex-A72 cores, featuring 10/25/40/100 GbE interfaces for high-throughput networking and signal processing.
• IC-PPC-VMEb 6U VME QorIQ Single Board Computer 6U VME QorIQ Single Board Computer with on-board switch and FPGA, supporting single or dual QorIQ T2081/T1042 processors with up to 8GB DDR3 ECC per CPU.
• IC-FEP-VPX6e 6U VPX FPGA Board 6U VPX FPGA board with two AMD Kintex UltraScale/Virtex UltraScale+ FPGAs, NXP QorIQ LS1046A processor, Gen2/3 PCIe switch, Giga Ethernet L2 switch, and 2 FMC+ sites, for high-performance DSP and signal processing.
• IC-FEP-VPX3f 3U VPX VITA 66.5 FPGA Board 3U VPX VITA 66.5 FPGA board with AMD Kintex UltraScale FPGA, 2 DDR4 banks up to 4GB each, 1 FMC+ site, and AMD Artix-7 control node for high-bandwidth signal processing.
• IC-FEP-VPX3h SOSA-Aligned 3U VPX Versal FPGA Board 3U VPX VITA 65 FPGA board with AMD Versal FPGA, 2 DDR4 banks up to 8GB each, 1 FMC+ site (VITA 57.4), targeted at sensor processing on SOSA-aligned platforms.
• IC-ADDA-VPX3a SOSA-Aligned 3U VPX ADC/DAC FPGA Bundle 3U VPX VITA 65 FPGA board bundle combining a quad 12-bit 20 GSPS ADC and dual 16-bit 28 GSPS DAC with an AMD Versal FPGA in a SOSA-aligned form factor.
• IC-MPS-XMCa AMD Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC XMC Board AMD Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC XMC board (ZU4CG) with 2GB DDR4, 4 Ethernet 1G BASE-T ports, RS232/422, CAN and USB ports for embedded processing mezzanine integration.
• IC-ADC-FMCd FMC A/D Converter Module FMC A/D converter module with 16-bit resolution and quad 310 MSPS sampling, VITA 57.1 HPC compliant, intended for FPGA carrier integration in test, measurement and signal acquisition applications.
• IC-ADC-FMCPa FMC A/D Converter Module FMC ADC module with 14-bit resolution, quad 2 or 2.5/2.6 GSps (option 3 GSps) sampling, VITA 57.4 HPC compliant.
• IC-ADDA-FMCPa FMC ADC/DAC Module FMC module with dual 16-bit 28 GSPS DAC and dual 12-bit 20 GSPS ADC, featuring JESD204C interfaces and SMPM connectors.
• IC-XGE-XMCa 10G/40G Ethernet XMC Module 10G/40G Ethernet XMC module with 2 QSFP+ cages supporting up to 2 40GbE or 4 10GbE ports via PCIe Gen2/3 interface.
• IC-RBP-XMCa Network Redundancy XMC Module Active network redundancy XMC module with 4 Ethernet channels and PRP/HSR redundancy protocols for mission-critical networking.
• IC-CMC-VPX3b SOSA-Aligned 3U VPX PMC/XMC Carrier Board 3U VPX PMC/XMC carrier board with PCIe/PCI-x bridge, up to 3 M.2 slots, SOSA-aligned and compliant with VITA 65 slot profiles, for expanding VPX systems with mezzanine support.
• ComEth4341e 6U VPX 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch 6U VPX managed Layer 2+/3 Ethernet switch with up to 32 ports supporting 10/100/1000BASE-T and SFP+ interfaces (1G/10G).
• ComEth4582a 3U VPX 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet Switch and IP Router 3U VPX 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet switch and IP router with VITA 65.0 SLT3-SWH-6F6U-14.4.1 slot profile.
• ComEth4081e 3U VPX 1/10/40 Gigabit Ethernet Switch 3U VPX 1/10/40 Gigabit Ethernet switch with VITA 65.0 slot profiles, up to 22 ports with 10GBASE-T and 40GBASE-KR4 support.
• ComEth4342-VPX6e 6U VPX 1/10/25/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet Switch and IP Router 6U VPX 1/10/25/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet switch and IP router with up to 72 ports supporting 100GBASE-KR4 and QSFP interfaces.
• ComEth4420e SOSA-Aligned 3U VPX Dual-Plane PCIe and 40G Ethernet Switch 3U VPX Dual-Plane Gen3/4 PCIe and 40 Gigabit Ethernet switch, SOSA-aligned, with up to 11 Ethernet ports and 12 PCIe ports.
• ComEth4690e SOSA-Aligned 3U VPX Dual-Plane 100G Ethernet Switch 3U VPX Dual-Plane 100 Gigabit Ethernet switch with up to 40 ports supporting 100GBASE-SR4, SOSA-aligned.
• ComEth4682e 3U VPX 1/10/25/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet Switch and IP Router 3U VPX 1/10/25/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet switch and IP router with up to 57 ports including 24 optical ports.
• IC-SR-BOXa 19-inch Rackmount 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet Switch 19-inch rackmount 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet switch based on the ComEth4000e Layer 2/3 switch, available in Extended and Rugged versions for industrial and defense deployments.
• IC-VRS-BOXa 19-inch Rackmount 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet Router 19-inch 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet rackmount router with Layer 2/3 switching, VPN, firewall and IPsec capabilities for secure network aggregation.
• pLinesES4-8 High-Performance Communication Computer High-performance communication computer in a 1U 19-inch rackmount form factor, based on an MPC8270 processor, with 3 Ethernet ports and 8 synchronous/asynchronous serial ports.
• MULTIWARE Software Suite In-house software tools providing high-level abstraction of hardware for inter-processor, memory and board communications, simplifying integration on Interface Concept embedded platforms.
• SWITCHWARE Management Software In-house management software for Ethernet switches and routers providing comprehensive Layer 2 and Layer 3 configuration of ComEth and IC-SR-BOXa products.
• M-COTS Customization, Long-Term Support and Obsolescence Management Services Custom product development, Modified-COTS customization, long-term product support, obsolescence management and technical support services delivered throughout system integration and deployment for defense and industrial customers.

Quantifiable outcome

• Products designed and manufactured in-house with rigorous testing and quality control

Named customers6 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• AMDcoreTechnology or IntegrationTechnology partnership for FPGA devices. Interface Concept uses AMD Kintex UltraScale, Virtex UltraScale, Virtex UltraScale+, and Versal FPGAs in their product line. AMD FPGAs enable high-performance signal processing and DSP-intensive applications.
• IntelcoreTechnology or IntegrationIntel Gold Partner status. Interface Concept develops single board computers based on Intel Xeon processors (Tiger Lake-H, Broadwell-DE, Xeon D-1500 series) and Intel Core i7 processors for embedded applications.
• NXP SemiconductorscoreTechnology or IntegrationNXP Registered Partner. Interface Concept uses NXP QorIQ and Layerscape processors (T2081, T1042, LX2080A, LX2160A) for communication and networking SBC products.
• Wind RiversupportingTechnology or IntegrationTechnology partnership for embedded operating systems and software development tools supporting Interface Concept products.
• VITAcoreTechnology or IntegrationStandards organization membership. Interface Concept participates in VITA standards development for VPX, VME, and other embedded computing standards. Products comply with VITA 46, VITA 65 (OpenVPX), VITA 66, VITA 67 standards.
• PCI-SIGsupportingTechnology or IntegrationPCI Special Interest Group membership for PCI Express standards compliance and implementation in embedded products.
• SOSA (Sensor Open Systems Architecture)coreTechnology or IntegrationSOSA-aligned product development. Multiple Interface Concept products including IC-INT-VPX3l, IC-FEP-VPX3h, IC-CMC-VPX3b, ComEth4420e, ComEth4591a, and ComEth4690e are aligned with the SOSA Technical Standard for sensor systems.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Kontron (S&T Group): Diversified European embedded computing vendor offering SBCs, switches and COM modules across industrial and defense; broader portfolio than Interface Concept but overlapping on rugged SBCs and Ethernet switches.
• Elma Electronic: Swiss-based manufacturer of rugged enclosures, backplanes and embedded boards including SBCs and networking; also serves as Interface Concept's primary distribution partner for UK/USA/Israel markets.
• Mercury Systems: Major US defense electronics company providing mission-critical processing, RF and EW subsystems — competes with Interface Concept at the board/subsystem layer inside larger defense primes.
• Curtiss-Wright Defense Solutions: Large incumbent offering VPX, VME and SOSA-aligned embedded computing modules, switches and subsystems across all major US/NATO defense primes; overlaps Interface Concept's portfolio as a much broader portfolio player.

Direct peers

• ADLINK Technology: Taiwan-headquartered embedded computing vendor offering VPX, COM Express and rugged boards for defense, transportation and industrial — adjacent product overlap on SBCs and embedded Ethernet.
• VadaTech: Manufacturer of VPX, VME, MicroTCA and FMC-based embedded boards with strong Ethernet switching, FPGA, and SBC lines; competes head-to-head with Interface Concept in 3U/6U VPX SBCs and switches.
• Pixus Technologies: Provider of rugged enclosures, backplanes and VPX/OpenVPX system-level platforms closely tied to the same embedded computing ecosystem in which Interface Concept sells its boards.
• X-ES (Extreme Engineering Solutions): US-based designer of rugged VPX, VME and cPCI single board computers, FPGAs, and switches for the US defense market — direct overlap in form factors, FPGA offerings and SBC product lines.
• Abaco Systems (Ametek): Pre-acquisition standalone provider of rugged SBCs, FPGA boards and embedded networking for defense and aerospace; overlaps directly with Interface Concept's VPX/VME/SBC portfolio.
• Concurrent Technologies: UK-based specialist in 3U VPX, 6U VPX and VME single board computers for defense and industrial markets — closely comparable scale, customer base and product mix to Interface Concept.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@Interface-Concept
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/interface-concept

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Interface Concept