NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Web Page sponsor Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
18 Dec 07. Tech giants form tiny chip group. Seven of the world’s leading chip makers are collaborating on chips which contain transistors with features just 32 billionths of a metre wide. IBM, Toshiba, AMD, Samsung, Chartered, Infineon and Freescale have formed the alliance to cut development costs. More transistors on a chip equals more processing power, but the development process is highly expensive. Analyst Malcolm Penn of Future Horizons said the alliance was an example of “pre-competitive collaboration”. Mr Penn said: “The industry needs a huge amount of money to reinvent itself every two years.” He likened the cost of building a new chip factory to buying a fleet of more than 12 A380 Super Jumbos. The seven companies have agreed to work through 2010 to design, develop and produce the chips using tiny circuitry. (Source: BBC)
17 Dec 07. The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force successfully flight tested its first Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN – News)-built Standard Missile-3. The SM-3 Block IA missile engaged and destroyed a medium-range ballistic missile target more than 60 miles above the Pacific Ocean. Personnel at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai launched the ballistic missile target while the crew of the Japanese destroyer JS KONGO (DDG-173) fired the intercepting missile. “Today’s intercept truly paves the way for Japan to deploy a sea-based ballistic missile defense system,” said Ed Miyashiro, Raytheon Missile Systems vice president. “The U.S. has gained an important ally that can now defend itself against the threat of ballistic missiles.”
17 Dec 07. Raytheon Company’s Compartmented High Assurance Information Network (CHAIN) and Multi-Level Secure Voice Conference technology has been recognized by the U.S. Joint Forces Command as one of the most promising technologies at the Coalition Warrior Interoperability Demonstrations (CWID). During CWID 2007, Raytheon successfully demonstrated sharing information across multiple networks of potentially different security classifications and access control requirements. Raytheon’s solution enhances a commander’s capability to command, control and coordinate across joint and coalition forces, government and non-government agencies and first responders. CHAIN allows users to share documents, instant message, teleconference, and video conference and initiate collaborative discussions while protecting information from unauthorized scrutiny. Warfighters assessing the system agreed that CHAIN was intuitive and user friendly and supported fielding the system for its ease of use, reliability and effectiveness as a communications tool. CHAIN is a commercial off-the-shelf-based secure architecture that provides a compartmented environment for data and information sharing across multiple coalition communities of interest. Depending on an individual user’s security clearance level, special access caveats, and need to know, CHAIN will facilitate policy-based collaboration between users, providing tools and safeguards to prevent the unauthorized access and disclosure of information. This integrated capability is linked to Raytheon’s Defense Red Switch Network technology to provide an integrated voice, video and data network capable of handling communications at any security level.
17 Dec 07. Raytheon Company achieved a significant milestone on the Zumwalt-class destroyer program with the successful design review of the ship’s electro- optical/infrared (EO/IR) system. With this success, the U.S. Navy has given Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems approval to advance the design into the production phase. Raytheon’s EO/IR system delivers critical Zumwalt capabilities, including 360-degree, 24-hour situational awareness for the ship, automated mine-like object detection, and guidance for ship self-defense gunnery.
17 Dec 07. The first flight of the HAD version of the Tiger (HAD S/N