Google Hangout discussion this week ponders if high-rel industry needs a new term for COTS

March 25, 2014
NASHUA, N.H., 25 March 2014. Join a panel of embedded computing experts at 3 p.m. eastern time on Thursday 27 March 2014 for a Google Hangout discussion of the term COTS -- short for commercial off-the-shelf -- and whether it's time for a new term to describe today's new generation of high-reliability COTS components.
NASHUA, N.H., 25 March 2014. Join a panel of embedded computing experts at 3 p.m. eastern time on Thursday 27 March 2014 for a Google Hangout discussion of the term COTS -- short for commercial off-the-shelf -- and whether it's time for a new term to describe today's new generation of high-reliability COTS components.

On the panel will be Mike Macpherson, vice president of strategic planning at the Curtiss-Wright Corp. Defense Solutions division in Ashburn, Va.; Malcolm Campbell, executive director of international sales at VPT Inc. in Blacksburg, Va.; Jerry Gipper, executive director of the VITA embedded computing trade association in Fountain Hills, Ariz.; as well as John Keller, chief editor of Military & Aerospace Electronics, and Ernesto Burden, publisher of Military & Aerospace Electronics.

COTS describes perhaps the most significant paradigm shift in military procurement since the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) was founded more than six decades ago. At the time the term was coined to differentiate between commercially developed technology and custom-designed military components.

Unfortunately too many still interpret COTS to mean consumer-grade electronics, rather than the high-reliability COTS components that are available today for aerospace and defense systems, that are every but as rugged and reliable as yesterday's MIL-SPEC components.

Panelists will discuss a wide variety of suggestions for terms that better reflect today's high-reliability reality for COTS components.

Check back here Thursday for a link directly to the Google Hangout discussion. The video also will be available on the Military & Aerospace Electronics Website at www.militaryaerospace.com/rapid-fire.

About the Author

John Keller | Editor

John Keller is editor-in-chief of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine, which provides extensive coverage and analysis of enabling electronic and optoelectronic technologies in military, space, and commercial aviation applications. A member of the Military & Aerospace Electronics staff since the magazine's founding in 1989, Mr. Keller took over as chief editor in 1995.

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