http://www.rugged.com/ Aitech Newswire Technology Tech News en Copyright 2007 sales@rugged.com (Aitech Defense Systems, Inc.) Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:46:30 GMT Wed, 10 Oct 2007 20:46:30 GMT RSS DreamFeeder v 2.1.0 http://www.rugged.com/news1648.htm Tuesday, June 9, 2009 10:37 AM Chatsworth, Calif. June 2009 – Aitech Defense Systems Inc., the world’s first and largest independent manufacturer of open architecture electronic boards and subsystem level products for harsh, environmentally-demanding defense, aerospace and space applications, has provided a low-power, radiation-tolerant 3U CompactPCI (cPCI) conduction-cooled bus avionics card set for the ATK Space Systems’ Responsive Space Modular Bus (RSMB) used on the Tactical Satellite-3, which was successfully launched on May 19, 2009. Weighing less than 400 kilograms (880 pounds), the TacSat-3 will demonstrate a first generation modular bus providing the adaptability for a range of future small satellite missions. At the core of Aitech’s avionics solution for RSMB was Aitech’s heritage S950 single board computer (SBC) that provides 128 MB of SDRAM arranged in a triple voting architecture. Aitech additionally supplied non-volatile Flash mass memory and customized digital I/O cards providing various serial and spacecraft bus interfaces. The Aitech solution also incorporated communications PMC for the remaining serial interfaces required to communicate with the onboard sensors and payloads. Brendan Regan, vice president space mission systems at ATK Space Systems, said, “ATK’s RSMB is the core platform of the TacSat-3 space vehicle, and was versatile enough to support AFRL’s three mission payloads. Aitech’s low-power, space-proven card set facilitates data collection and transmission to ensure optimal mission operation.” Roger Rowe, president and CEO of Aitech, noted, “Military operations are increasingly relying on real-time data obtained from space and transmitted directly to our men and women in service, while trying to stay within ever-tightening budget constraints and fast delivery schedules. These attributes demand affordable, flexible equipment that will perform for long periods under harsh conditions and enable cost-effective upgrades to systems and components to meet the needs of future responsive space missions.” TacSat-3 is the first small satellite to participate in a formal payload selection process, and consists of three distinct payloads: The first and the mission’s primary experiment, the Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer hyperspectral imager (ARTEMIS HIS) will rapidly supply target detection and identification data as well as information related to battlefield preparation and combat damage assessment. Second, the Office of Naval Research’s Satellite Communications Package (SCP) trial will collect data from sea-based buoys and transmit information back to a ground station for expeditious communication to the war fighter. Lastly, the AFRL-designed Space Avionics Experiment (SAE) payload will validate plug-and-play avionics capabilities using reprogrammable components to integrate the experiment and the spacecraft structure. http://www.rugged.com/news1651.htm Thursday, June 4, 2009 9:00 AM Chatsworth, Calif. June 2009 – Aitech Defense Systems Inc., the world’s first and largest independent manufacturer of open architecture electronic boards and subsystem level products for harsh, environmentally-demanding defense and aerospace applications, now offers full board support packages (BSPs) for Green Hills INTEGRITY version 5.0 real-time operating system (RTOS) to facilitate system integration and reduce development time for designers. The BSPs are available for a number of Aitech’s boards and systems. Containing prebuilt kernel images, the BSPs employ the latest in RTOS technology to enable interaction with advanced graphics and communication interfaces. Also included is installation documentation that details how to set up the development environments for both target and host as well as information on building and downloading a custom kernel image and running customer-specific application code. Most recently, the BSPs supporting INTEGRITY version 5.0 were added to Aitech’s high performance, rugged 6U single-slot VME C108 singleboard computer (SBC) with an 8GB USB SSD (solid state drive), used in both new and legacy military embedded applications. For newer applications, the C108 offers up to 1.4 GHz of processing power via the PowerPC (PPC) MPC7448 processor, the highest performing Freescale PowerPC. For legacy applications, the SBC features pin-to-pin backplane and I/O compatibility with previous Aitech processor boards employing the PPC MPC74xx processor family, allowing easy, cost-effective upgrades to newer technology. The low power, single-width M705, a compact, multi-I/O PCI mezzanine card (PMC) that provides a variety of configuration options for the highest levels of flexibility in different I/O environments, also benefits from the new BSPs. The M705 features an unprecedented level of PMC density with up to five dual-channel, dual-redundant MIL-STD-1553B channels, 16 ARINC-429 receive channels and eight ARINC-429 transmit channels, up to six RS-232/422/485 serial channels and eight opto-isolated digital discrete input channels, all of which reduce the number of I/O cards required when developing subsystems. The latest version of INTEGRITY, a secure RTOS, uses hardware memory protection to isolate and protect both itself and user tasks from incorrect operation caused by accidental errors or malicious tampering. Its object-oriented design allows precise access control and verification of the security and integrity of data, communications, individual components and the system as a whole. With strict adherence to provable resource requirements, INTERGRITY allows an embedded system designer to guarantee resource availability while ensuring real-time performance for security and protection, unlike other memory protected operating systems. http://www.rugged.com/news1650.htm Tuesday, May 25, 2009 9:00 AM Chatsworth, Calif. May 2009 – Aitech Defense Systems Inc., the world’s first and largest independent manufacturer of open architecture electronic boards and subsystem level products for harsh, environmentally-demanding defense and aerospace applications, recently announced that Peter Mantarakis joined the company as director of operations.  Responsible for overseeing all aspects of the manufacturing and procurement processes for Aitech’s line of rugged computers and integrated subsystems optimized for harsh environments, Mantarakis will manage the company’s assembly, quality and testing, planning and purchasing departments. Mantarakis brings over 25 years of experience in strategic planning, operations and engineering to Aitech. Most recently, Mantarakis worked as a consultant, providing operational audits and systems implementation services to clients such as California Instruments, Pioneer Electronics, North American Die Casting, Creative Automation, and Advanced Global Technologies. Additionally, Mantarakis has held president, vice president and general manager positions for several companies in the aerospace, computer, electronics and telecommunications markets. Mantarakis received a bachelor of science from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), a master of science from the University of Arizona, and an executive program MBA from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He also holds 10 patents for various mechanical product innovations. http://www.rugged.com/news1622.htm Tuesday, May 05, 2009 8:10 AM Chatsworth, Calif. May 2009 – Aitech Defense Systems Inc., the world’s first and largest independent manufacturer of open architecture electronic boards and subsystem level products for harsh, environmentally-demanding defense and aerospace applications, has introduced a new 6U VME single board computer (SBC) using Intel’s latest T7500 low power, high performance Merom Core 2 Duo dual core processors. The new C160 is designed for rugged, mission critical mobile applications requiring exceptionally low power and high processing throughput. The new single-slot C160 now offers clock frequencies up to 2.2 GHz for the high performance version and 1.67 GHz for the low power version, which draws only 25 W. The new board also uses Intel’s Virtualization Technology (VT), enabling the board to run different applications simultaneously using multiple virtual partitions. The fully featured C160 incorporates a custom metal thermal management frame supporting an array of integral stiffeners for increased resistance against high shock and vibration. This makes the board ideal for rugged and harsh military environments such as radar and sonar communications processors, autonomous vehicle IED and RPG protection subsystems, mission management computers and heads-up display controllers. The newest addition to Aitech’s extensive family of high performance SBCs, the C160 offers 2eSST and 2eVME functionality as well as VME and PCI legacy support via a Tundra Tsi148 bridge. The bridge’s decoupled architecture can handle simultaneous transactions and the large FIFOs (first in first out) to prevent PCI/X to VME deadlock conditions for better, more reliable data throughput. The board offers large memory arrays providing extensive volatile and non-volatile memory resources. These include up to 2 GB fast DDR2 SDRAM operating at 667 MHz and up to 8 GB of onboard Flash disk (NAND Flash) with IDE controller eliminating the need for externally attached mass-storage media. Additional onboard, non-volatile mass storage for convenient, local program and data file storage is provided by a solid state disk (SSD) with up to 16 GB of memory as well as auto-wear leveling to ensure long media life. For man-machine interface applications, the C160 also provides an integrated GM965 graphics engine with 2D and 3D graphics outputting in either CRT (RGBHV) or composite NTSC, PAL or RS-170 video formats. Graphics language support includes Microsoft DirectX 10 and SGI OpenGL 1.5/2.0. The C160 offers a comprehensive range of I/O resources including two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two SATA II interfaces and two USB 2.0 interfaces as well as legacy interfaces consisting of two 16C550-compatible RS232/422/485 serial ports and eight discrete I/O lines. For local onboard I/O expansion, the C160 provides two industry standard PMC sites capable of up to 133 MHz PCI-X operation for expanded flexibility and integration. All PMC I/O is routed to the backplane’s P0 and P2 connectors per ANSI/VITA-35. Additional board features include high definition audio interface, onboard/on-chip temperature sensors, an onboard SuperCap and Li-Ion battery-backed real-time clock, 32/64-bit and two 32-bit timers/counters as well as an avionics-style, windowed Watchdog timer are provided for real-time, hard deadline, mission critical applications. BIT (Built-in Test) and POST (Power-On Self Test) firmware are supported in BIOS to allow the C160’s easy integration with other Aitech VME and PMC I/O products, enabling flexible configuration of reliable subsystems. Operating system support includes Microsoft XP Pro, XP Embedded, Linux and Wind River’s VxWorks and others by request. The C160 is available in two basic processor configurations, optimized for either maximum performance (2.2 GHz) or for lowest power consumption (1.67 GHz). The board comes in either air-cooled or conduction-cooled versions, per ANSI/VITA 1-1994 and IEEE 1101.2, respectively. http://www.rugged.com/news1603.htm Sunday, February 01, 2009 9:00 PM Chatsworth, Calif. February 2009 – Aitech Rugged Group, Inc. the parent company of Aitech Defense Systems, Inc. and Aitech Systems Ltd, announced today that Stephen Motter has been named to the newly-created position of chief technical officer (CTO) of the corporation. The new position was created in response to the continued steady growth of the Aitech Group and the need to increase and coordinate the organization’s technical products and services within and beyond the company. Motter will report directly to Aitech CEO Roger Rowe, providing the Aitech Rugged Group with technical input on technology changes, process improvements and customer reporting as well as supporting special projects and investigations. As CTO, Motter will be responsible for developing, presenting and tracking the corporation’s long-term technical strategic plan as it relates to both technologies and products. In addition, Motter will organize key technology data, and provide sales and marketing with input required to understand and help predict the Aitech Group’s customers’ future product requirements. Motter will also be responsible for building relationships and strategic partnerships, along with enhancing Aitech’s visibility within the industry through publication and presentation of technical papers authored by Aitech engineering and technology experts. Prior to his appointment as CTO, Motter was vice president of engineering at Aitech Defense Systems, where he managed the execution of Aitech’s product and sub-system development process. Before joining Aitech, Motter was director of engineering at VISTA Controls where he successfully managed its COTS VME product development programs. Prior to entering the COTS open architecture industry, Motter held the position of lead systems engineer at Lear Astronautics Corp., where he developed fault-tolerant, safety-critical flight control systems. Motter holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics. Click here for electronic copy. http://www.rugged.com/news1592.htm Thursday, January 22, 2009 9:00 PM Chatsworth, January 2009 - Aitech Defense Systems Inc., the world’s first and largest independent manufacturer of open architecture board and subsystem level products for harsh environment defense, aerospace and astronautics applications, is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2009 as a leading provider of rugged embedded computing components and systems to a variety of military, aerospace, harsh and mission-critical systems designers. Since its founding in 1984, the company has led the embedded industry in performance and innovation for real-time, hard deadline computing systems with particular emphasis on providing the highest on-board functionality, the widest temperature range, exceptionally low power consumption and the quickest time-to-market. Aitech is the only company that still provides true Mil-Spec temperature operational performance (-55°C to +85°C) through its extensive component screening and pre-qualification process as well as via both pre- and post-production qualification testing. Roger Rowe, CEO for Aitech, noted, “Aitech has a long and very rich history of ‘firsts’ in our industry — a testament to our ongoing commitment of improving technology for the benefit of our mission critical customers. In 1985, we developed and delivered true military SAVA (Standard Army Vetronics Architecture) compliant, 6U x 160 mm VMEbus SBCs three years earlier than any other company in this new and emerging market. And, we were the first company that supplied, and internally radiation-qualified, multiple VMEbus products for use on the International Space Station (ISS). In fact, over 100 of our SBCs and PMCs are still in use on the ISS today...demonstrating the long-term reliability of our products and sub-systems.” Rowe continued, “Aitech also developed the first true radiation-tolerant 3U CompactPCI COTS embedded computing products for use in Earth-orbit satellite and manned space vehicle applications, giving system designers in ultra-harsh environments, such as aerospace and military applications, access to cost-effective, reliable embedded computing solutions.”