To The Editor:
I just finished reading your article entitled "Where custom meets COTS: Modular architectures rolled out for made-to-order systems" in the January 2002 issue of Military & Aerospace Electronics. The article did a great job of highlighting the realities of the use of COTS in the military market and the need for adapting COTS technology to rugged requirements. These military requirements are what sets the traditional COTS suppliers apart and differentiates vendor products.
SBS Technologies, a leading supplier of customized COTS products, was noticeably missing from your list of Who's who in custom-design rugged computers. Maybe this was because SBS has historically been recognized for its leadership in 1553 and ARINC-based boards. But SBS offers a portfolio that delivers much more. Our customers like Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and BAE Systems are testimony to this. I felt your readers should be made aware of SBS' capabilities in providing customized designs as well as standard product offerings.
SBS Technologies is organized into business units to service the Commercial, Communications, and government market segments. The Government business unit is focused on embedded military and aerospace applications where commercial, extended temperature, and conduction-cooled solutions are required. The Government business unit has the unique ability to draw upon the technology design centers across the corporation to service our specific technology requirements, such as high-performance SBC's, I/O, networking and communication, and systems integration. This approach to product development allows the customers to benefit from a wide breadth of products that can be adapted to specific requirements.
Our customers expect that to utilize COTS products effectively they have to be customizable to specific military requirements when required. Having products that can be customized to meet performance, environmental, shock and vibration, testing, and qualification is what sets SBS apart. Take our SBC product offering as an example. We offer both Intel and PowerPC processors, VME and CompactPCI, 3U and 6U, and all are available in air-cooled commercial, air-cooled rugged, and extended temperature, as well as conduction-cooled. We also offer a full complement of I/O PMC modules at the same ruggedization levels. The diversity of these products is what allows SBS to package custom products and meet the time-to-market needs of our customers.
Another significant area of our business is in systems integration where the use of standard, custom, and 3rd party products are required to meet specific application requirements. Our customers who elect to outsource this capability are looking for single source procurements, lower program risk, and reducing overall cost. Again, having the ability to address program life cycle requirements gives our customer and end users lower ownership cost.
SBS, just like Military & Aerospace Electronics, must constantly strive to communicate our message to the military and aerospace market on our capabilities and products. It's publications like this that affords us the opportunity to do this and I thank you.
Frank T. Willis
vice president of business development SBS Technologies Government Group
Raleigh, N.C.
[email protected]
