Astro-Med offers military-grade Ethernet switch
Leaders of Astro-Med Inc. of West Warwick, R.I., are offering an 8-port Ethernet switch that exceeds military standard requirements for shock, vibration, and temperature extremes. The ToughSwitch supports 10BaseT and 100BaseT Ethernet, and complies with IEEE 802.3 and 8.2.3u fast Ethernet operation. Integrators can connect as many as eight network devices to the ToughSwitch, which as an uplink port for network expansion. The device weighs less than 3 pounds, is less than 7 inches wide, and has military environmentally resistant connects. ToughSwitch meets the guidelines of MIL-STD-810C for temperature, shock, vibration, and altitude, as well as MIL-STD-461 for electromagnetic compatibility. For more information contact the Astro-Med Test and Measurement Product Group by phone at 877-867-9783, by e-mail at [email protected], by post at Astro-Med Industrial Park, W. Warwick, R.I. 02893, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.astro-med.com/.
OSE releases latest version of its real-time operating system
Leaders of OSE Systems in San Diego an enhanced release of their OSE Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) and development environment. The OSE 4.5 software is based on a message-passing model for fast, asynchronous interprocess communications for fault-tolerant or high-reliability real-time applications. Real-time embedded systems are becoming more complex, often require nonstop operation, and must operate over several different processors. At the same time, development costs are increasing and time-to-market is extending, company officials say. Sufficient tools and functionality are necessary to develop these systems and conventional RTOS might not supply them. For more information contact OSE by phone at 866-844-7867, by fax at 858-720-0150, by post at 12760 High Bluff Drive, San Diego, Calif. 92130, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.ose.com/.
Micro-Tronics unveils drop-in filters for military aircraft use
Officials of Micro-Tronics of Sonora, Calif., are offering drop-in filters for military aircraft applications. Bandpass filter model BPC13217 passes 14 GHz to 18 GHz with 1.5 dB maximum insertion loss, 1.50-to-1-voltage standing wave ratio, and 60 dB minimum rejection over DC. The filter meets or exceeds all applicable requirements for shock vibration, and operates over the applicable military specifications for temperature range, company officials say. The filters come in sealed aluminum packages measuring 2.3 by 0.55 by 0.45 inches. The filters can come with pins, and with removable or fixed SMA or SMP connectors. For more information contact Micro-Tronics by phone at 209-532-1008, by fax at 209-532-1009, by post at P.O. Box 4375, Sonora, Calif. 95370, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.micro-tronics.net/.
BAE Systems set to buy Advanced Power Technologies
Leaders of BAE Systems North America in Rockville, Md., are set to bolster their company's capabilities in RF and optical engineering, data exploitation, and knowledge creation with their pending acquisition of Advanced Power Technologies Inc. in Washington. BAE officials signed a definitive agreement to buy Advanced Power for $27 million in cash. Advanced Power focuses on intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance exploitation, and information processing for defense, civil, and commercial uses. The company's core competencies, according to BAE officials, are radio frequency and optical engineering, communications and networking, signal and data exploitation, and knowledge creation. Among the company's other disciplines are microwave engineering, antenna design, optical sensors, plasma and shock physics, advanced ordnance systems, non-destructive testing, signal and image processing, and digital control systems.
DDC unveils 10-megabit-per-second 1553 interface
Data Device Corp. of Bohemia, N.Y., is introducing an enhanced-bit-rate (EBR) 1553 PC/104 card with DDC's enhanced mini-ACE 1553 core. The enhanced-bit-rate 1553 is a 10-megabit-per-second version of the MIL-STD-1553 data bus with the SAE Miniature Munitions/Store Interface or MMSI standard. The BU-65580 is based on DDC's ACE-core architecture, packaged in a field programmable gate array. Systems integrators can program the EBR 1553 channel for BC, RT, or RT/MT modes of operation. The BU-65580 is compatible with earlier generation ACE and Mini-ACE (Plus) series software libraries, as well as DDC's dataMARS/dataSIMS software. Applications for the BU-65580 include embedded avionics, flight computers, and avionics systems, as well as mission and weapons computers and radar systems. For more information contact DDC by phone at 631-567-5600, by fax at 631-567-7358, by post at 105 Wilbur Place, Bohemia, N.Y. 11716-2482, or on the World Wide Web at http://www. ddc-web.com/.
Mercury Computer Systems uses FPGAs to boost PCI Race++ speed by 50 times
Mercury Computer Systems Inc. of Chelmsford, Mass., is offering a RACE++ VantageRT FCN module with a signal- and image-processing system that integrates field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) and PowerPC microprocessors into a RACE++ multicomputer. Certain types of computational operations run 10 to 50 times faster on an FPGA than on a PowerPC microprocessor, company officials claim. This system can direct portions of applications that employ simple, compute-intensive repetitive operations to the FPGAs to enhance performance and save space, weight, power, and money, Mercury officials say. More complex portions of applications can run on PowerPC processors, which are easier to program than FPGAs. The VantageRT FCN system is for applications in defense electronics, where it will go near the front end of radar applications, with similar uses planned in signals intelligence. Other candidate applications include medical imaging and computed tomography. For more information contact Mercury by phone at 978-256-1300, by fax at 978-256-3599, by e-mail at [email protected], by post at 199 Riverneck Road, Chelmsford, Mass. 01824-2820, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.mc.com/.
Northrop Grumman to build prototype airborne laser imaging system for DARPA
Northrop Grumman Corp. engineers are set to craft an airborne demonstration of a synthetic aperture laser radar sensor that generates high-resolution two- and three-dimensional imagery. The so-called "Synthetic Aperture Ladar for Tactical Imaging program — SALTI for short — is in progress at Northrop Grumman's Systems Development and Technology (SD&T) Division in Baltimore for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in Arlington, Va. Managing the program will be the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory's Sensors Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, which is serving as technical and program execution agent for DARPA's Advanced Technology Office. Key subcontractors on the SALTI program include Coherent-DEOS of Bloomfield, Conn., and Rockwell Scientific of Thousand Oaks, Calif. For more information contact Northrop Grumman on the World Wide Web at http://sensor.northropgrumman.com/.
IERC offers aluminum heat frames to ruggedize military circuit boards
Component designers at International Electronic Research Corp. (IERC) of Burbank, Calif., are offering a line of custom aluminum heat frames for use with ruggedized military and industrial circuit card applications. The frames can fit boards as small as daughter cards, and as large as 9U VME boards. They may be fitted with a bottom plat to stiffen circuit boards and provide additional cooling. IERC officials say these frames improve component cooling by providing conduction cooling to the circuit card edge; have integrated finned heat sink when forced convection cooling is provided; reduce circuit card deflections by raising the natural frequency of the assembly for shock and vibration hardening; act as a Faraday cage to shield sensitive components from electromagnetic interference; are built to order to fit unique card sizes; and come in a variety of surface finishes such as chemical film, anodize, and electroless nickel. For more information contact IERC by phone at 818-842-7277, by fax at 818-848-8872, by post at 413 North Moss St., Burbank, Calif. 91502, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.ctscorp. com/ierc/.
Harris RF demonstrates Sierra crypto chip in Joint Tactical Radio
Integrators at the Harris Corp. RF Communications Division in Rochester, N.Y., demonstrated their Sierra-based cryptographic module for secure communications during the recent demonstration of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Step 2C radio system. The radio is from the BAE Systems Communication, Navigation, Identification, and Reconnaissance group in Wayne, N.J. The demonstration the U.S. Army Electronic Proving Grounds at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., used as many as 10 JTRS Step 2C radios to simulate a battlefield environment, and then tested to validate performance as a wireless network. Among other things, the test successfully illustrated over-the-air, dual-channel, secure communication among all nodes, Harris officials say. Sierra is a miniaturized printed wiring assembly that is embedded in radios and other voice and data communications equipment to encrypt classified information prior to transmission or storage. Sierra is certified by the National Security Agency for the protection of voice traffic up through the Top Secret level, and for the protection of data traffic up through the Secret level. The module also performs advanced key management functions. The ability to reprogram Sierra in the field for different encryption needs greatly simplifies equipment upgrades for the user. For more information contact Harris RF by phone at 585-244-5830, by fax at 585-244-2917, by e-mail at [email protected], by post at 1680 University Ave. Rochester, N.Y. 14610, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.rfcomm.harris.com/.
StarGen offers StarFabric bridge for broadband digital communications
Officials of StarGen Inc. of Marlborough, Mass., unveiled samples of their SG3010 TDM-to-StarFabric Bridge for access communications equipment engineers who design voice, data, and video systems. The SG3010 enables designers to connect TDM devices such as digital signal processors (DSPs), framers, and voice processors, and the H.110 TDM bus, directly to StarFabric serial switches. It can connect as many as 128 H.110 bus segments for capacities as large as 128 times the voice processing capacity of today's typical standards-based H.110 products, company officials say. It uses the PICMG 2.17 CompactPCI StarFabric specification. The SG3010 is for voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) gateways, voice-over-broadband systems, wireless base stations, and other high-density communications network equipment. StarFabric helps with deterministic delivery of real-time voice traffic simultaneously with packet data and control traffic. StarFabric also provides an in-band 8KHz system reference clock for system synchronization between line cards and across chassis. For more information contact StarGen by phone at 508-786-9950, by fax at 508-786-9785, by post at 225 Cedar Hill St., Suite 22, Marlborough, Mass. 01752, or on the World Wide Web at http://www.StarGen.com/.
