NEW TECHNOLOGIES
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15 Nov 04. ICS Ltd., a member of the Radstone Group, announced the PMC571, a fully rugged COTS single channel software radio mezzanine. The PMC571 is the world’s first rugged PMC to offer wide bandwidth analog to digital and digital to analog conversion capabilities at software radio frequencies. Combining it with Radstone’s market-leading PowerPC and DSP capabilities will allow customers to create multi-function blade products offering analog to digital and digital to analog conversion, FPGA, DSP and processing in a single slot configuration. At the heart of the PMC571 is a powerful four million gate FPGA which provides the platform for application-specific software development within a Xilinx Virtex II environment. Its 64-bit/66 MHz PCI interface ensures compatibility with the latest generation of Radstone Quad PowerPC Signal Processor boards in addition to VMEbus PowerPC and CompactPCI single board computers. The PMC571 is available across all of Radstone’s five ruggedization levels. The PMC571 is backed by the broad range of Radstone support services collectively known as ‘Whole Program Life COTS™’. These services include application and technical support; repair; and ‘Product Lifecycle Management’, which gives customers a high degree of control over the issues associated with component obsolescence and over configuration management.
16 Nov 04. Harris showed BATTLESPACE its new RF-6010 Tactical Network Access Hub during the recent visit to its Winnersh plant. RF-6010 and the FALCON® II radios form the basis of the Harris Tactical Network that allows radio operators to send and receive phone calls and allows radio outstations to have wireless Internet Protocol (IP) connectivity. Telecommunication and local/wide area data networks (LAN/WAN) can now be easily extended down to the tactical radio level. The Harris Tactical Network is also secure, using the Harris Citadel® to provide digital encryption for all voice and data communications.
Nov 04. New Flight Control Technology Comes to Market. The flightTEK(TM) is an ultra-compact flight control system that its manufacturer, Geneva Aerospace, says will ‘turn unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) into powerful, “smart” tools’.
The company goes on to say that through additional development, flightTEK will be able to perform highly complex autonomous behaviours previously impossible for UAVs. These include autonomous moving-target tracking and following, autonomous obstacle collision avoidance, autonomous take-off and landing for high-end UAVs, agile manoeuvring and multi-UAV collaborative control.
Because of its compact size, this system has already been installed in a UAV as small as 3.5 feet long and 6 inches in diameter.
(Source: Geneva Aerospace)
11 Nov 04. Armor Holdings, Inc’s Aerospace & Defense Group has entered into a cooperative research and development initiative with the Florida Advanced Center for Composite Technologies (FAC2T) at Florida State University, whereby the two organizations will participate in joint research projects involving advanced materials and composites in an effort to rapidly develop new personnel safety products that improve soldier protection and survivability.
12 Nov 04. The Boeing Airborne Laser (ABL) team fired a laser beam for the first time using the flight laser modules in the ABL System Integration Lab at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Boeing is the team lead and system integrator for the ABL system under contract to the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, and involves placing a megawatt-class, high-energy Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) on a Boeing 747-400F aircraft to detect, track and destroy ballistic missiles in the boost phase of flight. ABL can also pass information on launch site, target track and predicted impact point to other layers of the global ballistic missile defense system.
09 Nov 04. Northrop Grumman Corporation has used