ASHBURN, Va., 3 April 2013. Curtiss-Wright Controls Defense Solutions in Ashburn, Va., is introducing versions of the company's CHAMP-WB rugged 6U OpenVPX single-board computers with the TDAC-25 10-bit 25-gigabit-per-second digital-to-analog converter from Tektronix Component Solutions in Beaverton, Ore.

PORT HUENEME, Calif., 2 April 2013. U.S. Navy shipboard weapons technicians are making an urgent request to electronic parts distributors to provide recently discontinued 1.5-volt Virtex II field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) from Xilinx Inc. in San Jose, Calif.

Avionics designers at Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. in Stans, Switzerland, needed open-architecture mission computer subsystems for the avionics suite of the Pilatus PC-21 high-performance turboprop military trainer aircraft.

Electronic warfare (EW) experts at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington needed mixed-signal digital receivers for prototype EW for aircraft and surface ships. They found their solution from Mercury Systems in Chelmsford, Mass.

Spacecraft designers at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., needed a radiation-hardened space digital processor to demonstrate laser communications relay technology to establish optical communications between geosynchronous satellites and Earth. They found their solution from SEAKR Engineering Inc. in Centennial, Colo.

In August 2012, a notification was posted on the Defense Logistics Agency Internet Bid Board System (DLA DIBBS) that all FSC 5962 product sold directly to DLA would require DNA marking beginning November 15, 2012.

Rugged data storage specialist Phoenix International Systems Inc. in Orange, Calif., introduced the rugged RPC24 4000 information storage system for bandwidth-intensive data recording applications, such as high resolution imagery, video recording, and radar data acquisition.

Rugged computer specialist andersDX in London is introducing the MicroSVR fanless, robust, low-energy, rugged server based on the 3rd Generation Intel Core i7 processor for space-constrained and remote or unattended environments

Emerson Network Power in Tempe, Ariz., is introducing the PCIE-8120 PCI Express media processing acceleration card to add voice and video to network server applications.

WinSystems Inc. in Arlington, Texas, is introducing the PCM-CAN-2-ISO PC/104-compliant, dual channel, isolated Controller Area Network (CAN) module.

The new breed of radar and EW can sense the RF environment and adapt itself in nanoseconds for the best possible performance, which is placing new demands on digital signal processing and digital conversion technology.

I think our industry has been ready for some good news for quite a while now. Aerospace and defense since last fall has been hit with a relentless barrage of sequestration horror stories, fiscal cliff negotiations that go nowhere, and all-but-certain impending Pentagon budget cuts that collectively have morale in a tailspin.

U.S. Navy officials are carrying out a plan to upgrade the mission systems computer (MSC) for the U.S. Marine Corps Boeing AV-8B Harrier II attack jet with industry-standard interfaces that meet the guidelines of the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE).

GE Intelligent Platforms in Huntsville, Ala., is introducing the RAR15- XMC multi-protocol embeddable avionics module.

U.S. Air Force and NASA experts are kicking off a program to define a next-generation, radiation-hardened microprocessor for space applications based on anticipated space computer needs from 2020 to 2030.

ARLINGTON, Va., 1 April 2013. Military researchers have released a formal solicitation for an effort to develop a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for long-term maritime surveillance that can launch and recover from relatively small ships to provide airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and strike mobile targets anywhere, around the clock.

DAHLGREN, Va., 1 April 2013. U.S. Navy researchers at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) Dahlgren Division in Dahlgren, Va., needed field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based Ethernet embedded computing boards for a variety of naval weapons research. They found their solution from Orange Tree Technologies Ltd. in Didcot, England.

CAMARILLO, Calif., 1 April 2013. Nallatech in Camarillo, Calif., is introducing the 395 field-programmable gate array (FPGA) accelerator card for data-intensive network and co-processing applications such as signals intelligence, network security, and algorithm acceleration.

Holt Integrated Circuits in Mission Viejo, Calif., is introducing the HI-8435 3.3-volt, 32-channel, discrete-to-digital sensing integrated circuit (IC) for aviation sensor applications, such as "hatch open" and "wheels up" indicators.