LONG BEACH, Calif., 17 Jan. 2006. As military designers continue to press for smaller, lighter embedded computing platforms, they will soon adopt the emerging VPX standard, say leaders at Radstone Embedded Computing.
The company today announced the formation of a new Systems Applications Integration business unit. The new unit joins the Radstone Digital Processing, ICS Sensor Processing and Octec Image Processing units within Radstone Embedded Computing, and is tasked with developing innovative customer solutions that leverage the breadth and depth of the technology, expertise and services that exists within the organization.
"This new business unit is our response to the growing demand from our customers for their suppliers to deliver more value," said Peter Cavill, president of Radstone Embedded Computing.
"It is especially true that the arrival of VPX-based products later in the year will present our customers with both opportunities and challenges with respect to the underlying infrastructure, and our Systems Applications Integration business will be ideally placed to help them leverage the benefits of VPX technology. Our plan is that we will help them focus on higher level integration issues, allowing them to rely on us to provide complete, integrated subsystems rather than products that need to be integrated," he said.
Radstone has previously announced its strategic commitment to developing both VME and VPX (VITA 46) products, to integrated bridge processor architectures such as the MPC 8641 and to the 3U form factor. The company expects to announce, nearer the date of planned shipment, a range of VPX single board computers (including multiprocessor products), graphics processors, Ethernet switches and Software Defined Radio blades based on the 3U form factor.
Specifically, Radstone believes the benefits to customers of VPX will be:
* compatibility with VME,
* easier migration of legacy systems via hybrid chassis,
* high speed I/O,
* access to switched fabrics, and
* two-level maintenance.
Radstone expects that the 3U form factor will become increasingly important in the future as a result of the rapidly increasing demand for systems that are smaller, lighter and consume less power -- and that integrated bridge processor architectures will deliver the functionality density to allow 3U solutions to achieve levels of performance previously only thought possible with 6U solutions.
"VPX is an important factor in our decision to establish this new business unit" said Ken Armitage, director of Radstone's Systems Applications Integration business. "However, the main driver is to satisfy our customers who are increasingly asking us for help in leveraging the extraordinary breadth of our product line -- a product line that is unmatched elsewhere in the industry. We are uniquely capable of integrating software radio platforms, image capture platforms, communications platforms, video tracking platforms, graphics platforms and digital signal processing platforms to provide complete 'plug and play' subsystems that will allow our customers to focus on their own, higher level added value."
The Systems Applications Integration business unit will feature a network of Application Centers to enable 'front line' development and support activities across the North America and ROW territories. The Applications Center located at Radstone's North American headquarters in Billerica, Mass., will comprise a cross-functional team of application-focused engineers and support staff, and will be the primary point of contact for all US customers requiring Radstone solutions which cannot readily be provided from the Radstone standard product catalog -- notably, solutions in mission computing, radar and sonar.
The Billerica office, which has grown substantially since it was opened late in 2004, is already home to a group of engineers tasked with the development of AXIS (Advanced Multiprocessor Integrated Software), a unique software tool designed to enable complex, powerful multiprocessor systems to be designed and deployed. It is expected that the Systems Applications Integration business unit will be fully operational by the end of the first quarter 2006.
For international customers, Applications Centers will be located in Radstone's Towcester, UK office, and in Ottawa, Canada which will provide unique focus towards the data acquisition, data recording and Software Defined Radio markets.
Radstone Embedded Computing is a global provider of market-leading embedded computer products and services to major defense and aerospace contractors worldwide. The company designs and manufactures high-performance embedded computer products based on leading-edge commercial technologies: products include the most innovative and rugged single board computers, sensor and digital signal processors, graphics and imaging processors, networking and communications modules. For more information, see www.radstone.com.
