NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Web Page sponsor Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
09 Aug 06. Radstone Embedded Computing announced an addition to the AFIX (Additional Flexible Interface Xtension) family of plug-on daughter cards with the AFIXM. Designed for use with Radstone’s single board computers, the original AFIX cards, announced in April 2005, featured single/dual channel dual redundant MIL-STD-1553 (AFIX 1553), and 8- or 16-bit SCSI and Graphics Adapter (AFIXSG). The AFIXM features non-volatile (Flash) memory, and uses Embedded TrueFFS technology for full hard disk emulation in sizes between 512 Mbytes and 2 GBytes. The AFIX family of daughter cards is designed to extend and enhance the functionality of Radstone single board computers by providing features that are not natively supported by the host card, and allowing systems integrators the opportunity to add features to a host card without using a PMC site. The cards are specifically designed to allow the implementation of wholly new functionality in less time and at lower cost than would otherwise be possible. Radstone’s strategy is to not only make available ‘off the shelf’ AFIX cards such as the AFIXM, but also to use the AFIX philosophy and architecture to develop a custom response to unique customer requirements that would otherwise be expensive and time-consuming to fulfill.
09 Aug 06. Team Simoco Launches TETRA-G Technology. Leading radio communications company Team Simoco has announced the launch of its new TETRA-G technology, a fully TETRA-compliant, scalable architecture for IP-switched TETRA, with voice and data system integration and network management facilities built in. The company claims that TETRA-G removes traditional scalability and cost barriers to TETRA deployment for customers deploying either single site or multisite digital radio systems. It features integrated connectivity with land-line telephony and IP network traffic, giving maximum operational flexibility. The first TETRA-G solution, the TETRA-G Base Station, is the World’s first truly scalable single-carrier TETRA solution with integral PBX teleconnect as standard. The Base Station can expand seamlessly from a single base station to a national network.
10 Aug 06. The U.S. Army’s new Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) – the Bell ARH-70A – produced by Bell Helicopter and equipped with the Rockwell Collins Common Avionics Architecture System (CAAS) – successfully completed its first test flights on July 20, 2006. The flights took place from Bell’s Arlington, Texas XworX facility. The flights delineate the ARH program as one of the fastest “contract-to-flight” programs ever completed and set a new standard for such acquisitions. The software design, development and test of the avionics system were completed seven months after the contract agreement was signed. The program is valued at approximately $130m to Rockwell Collins over its duration. The ARH-70A cockpit is based on Rockwell Collins’ CAAS, which is also being installed in the U.S. Army’s Special Operations and CH-47F fleets and is in the early integration phase for the Army’s UH-60M fleet. The system incorporates common, reusable processing elements in each piece of hardware, and employs an open systems architecture based on commercial standards. The commonality of hardware and software components is expected to provide lower total life cycle cost and lower costs for technology insertion and supportability. The cockpit features two Rockwell Collins’ 6- by 8-inch active matrix liquid crystal multi-function displays, control display units, as well as helmet-mounted displays and general purpose processing units. Integrated Logistics Support for the avionics systems will be provided by Rockwell Collins Services.
09 Aug 06. AV – Energy Technology Center Projects – Exoskeleton Fuel Cell. AV, as part of a design team led by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), provided the power generation and management system for Objecti