by Jerry Boyle
Military & Aerospace Electronics, the leading source of information on commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) design trends in defense, aviation, and space applications, is sponsoring COTScon `98, an intelligence-packed two-day conference on the latest COTS issues of crucial importance to design engineers.
The conference is May 28 and 29 at the McLean Hilton in McLean, Va., just outside of Washington. The conference will tell those attending what they need to know about operating safely and profitably in the COTS marketplace.
This conference places its heaviest emphasis on how designers are making COTS work in real-world applications. Speakers and exhibitors will highlight the lessons they have learned about designing with COTS subsystems, components, and software - on what they have done right, and on where they need to improve.
Speakers and exhibitors are operating on the premise that COTS is a fact of life in military and aerospace systems design. The days of debating whether COTS is the best way to proceed are over. Designers, program managers, and users are adjusting the "how COTS" issues, rather than the "whether COTS" issues.
Although the speakers list is being finalized, those attending will hear from Defense Department leaders on the latest COTS thinking in the Pentagon, from prime contractors on how they are successfully implementing COTS-based designs, from board vendors on how they are making COTS work in severe environments, and from integrated circuit suppliers on how they are ensuring reliability at the chip level.
Military & Aerospace Electronics has been the leader in providing engineers and engineering managers with the information they need about designing with COTS since then-Defense Secretary William Perry issued his edict that military program managers must use COTS components unless they can present compelling reasons not to.
Military & Aerospace Electronics, which has highlighted the latest COTS developments every month in its exclusive COTS Watch section for the past three years, has been the authority in COTS longer than any other publication, and is in a unique position to extend its incisive news coverage and opinion into an interactive conference format.
The cost of COTScon is $550 per person - $495 per person when registering by April 17. For more information, contact Nuala Kimball of COTScon by phone at 603-891-9490, or by e-mail at [email protected]. Those interesting in exhibiting can contact Jerry Boyle by phone at 603-891-9292 or by e-mail at [email protected].
