Sponsored By Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
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12 Dec 19. Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced today a teaming agreement with TC Energy in which the two companies will identify and develop large-scale, long-duration energy storage projects using GridStar® Flow, Lockheed Martin’s innovative flow battery technology. This cutting-edge energy storage system is capable of storing six to 12 hours or more of energy and dispatching it as needed.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with TC Energy to bring long-duration energy storage to TC Energy projects in North America,” said Dan Norton, vice president of Lockheed Martin Energy. “GridStar® Flow provides the durability, flexibility and safety necessary for project success, ensuring that TC Energy can customize systems to fit their needs and operate them for many years.”
“We are excited to work with Lockheed Martin on this initiative, which exemplifies TC Energy’s long history of embracing innovation and leading-edge technology in its operations,” says Francois Poirier, Executive Vice-President, Corporate Development & Strategy, and President, Power & Storage and Mexico. “This technology also strongly supports our commitments to sustainable development, including the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the energy value chains.”
GridStar® Flow will enable TC Energy to address the growing requirements for large-scale, long-duration batteries to provide flexibility and resiliency as electric grids move away from fossil fuel generation and incorporate increasing levels of intermittent renewable energy.
Unlike conventional batteries, GridStar® Flow allows customers to optimally size power (megawatts) and energy (megawatt hours) independently and maintains its energy capacity without degradation throughout project life.
About TC Energy
TC Energy and its affiliates deliver the energy millions of people rely on every day to power their lives and fuel industry. Focused on what we do and how we do it, we are guided by core values of safety, responsibility, collaboration and integrity. Our more than 7,000 people are committed to sustainably developing and operating pipeline, power generation and energy storage facilities across Canada, the United States and Mexico. TC Energy’s common shares trade on the Toronto (TSX) and New York (NYSE) stock exchanges under the symbol TRP. Visit TCEnergy.com and connect with us on social media to learn more.
11 Dec 19. Cobham Unveils New Open Source Processor IP Cores. New LEON5 supports SPARC Instruction Set Architecture and new NOEL-V implements RISC-V allowing widely available, high performance and reliable platform for system developers.
Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions announced today that it has introduced two new offerings to its Cobham Gaisler family of Open Source IP Cores. The new LEON5 IP core implements the SPARC V8 32-bit Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), a 32-bit architecture. Based on VHDL, Cobham’s LEON5 super-scalar dual-issue processor provides software backward compatibility with previous generation LEON processors, while increasing performance both in terms of maximum achievable operating frequency and amount of computations performed per system clock cycle. Cobham’s new NOEL-V supports RISC-V, an open, free ISA that enables a new era of processor innovation through open standard collaboration. Cobham, a Gold-Level Member of the RISC-V Foundation, plans to introduce a wide range of RISC-V offerings. NOEL-V, Cobham’s initial RISC-V solution, is a RV64GC compliant processor Intellectual Property (IP) core, a 64-bit architecture, written in VHDL. Both of Cobham’s new Processor IP Cores will be available for initial download into Xilinx UltraSCALE FPGAs. Cobham is a world leading supplier of advanced processor products, providing them both as fault-tolerant IP cores for integration into custom microelectronics, and as radiation-hardened high-reliability components for the space market. Cobham also supplies ready-to-use single board computer, flight software such as boot loaders and drivers, and advanced software development tools such as debuggers and simulators. Their processor solutions combine high performance with low power consumption, and their IP cores support portability between technologies.
“Cobham has a longstanding tradition of delivering open source solutions in order to expedite the development of next-generation computing devices for the space industry. For nearly 20 years, Cobham’s LEON processors, which are based on the SPARC ISA, have been used in RadHard and High Reliability microelectronics solutions in hundreds of spacecraft and terrestrial applications due to their rich feature set and dependability,” said Kevin Jackson, vice president and general manager, space and semiconductor solutions, Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions. “Our new LEON5 achieves a major improvement in terms of compute performance, while simultaneously allowing a smooth upgrade path and software re-use for our existing LEON user base.”
“Xilinx’s collaboration with Cobham Gaisler allows us to bring some of the latest scalar processor technologies to our space-grade FPGA product families,” said Minal Sawant, System Architect, Space Products, Xilinx. “Their new LEON5 processor IP core complements Xilinx’s existing portfolio to provide the broadest IP solution to our space customers. Prior LEON series processors continue to be supported on many previous generation Xilinx FPGAs, while the new LEON5 state of art spaceflight processors, when implemented on our forthcoming new space parts, will provide unprecedented flexibility to meet varying on-board processing needs on next generation high performance sophisticated payloads systems.”
“Cobham is delighted to add our first in-house implementation of a RISC-V processor core to our existing processor portfolio,” said Sandi Habinc, General Manager, Cobham Gaisler solutions. “The addition of a product line of RISC-V processors strengthens Cobham’s abilities to offer reliable processor solutions to customers also outside the space domain.
“Xilinx is pleased to see Cobham Gaisler expand its offering with NOEL-V to bring the RISC-V ISA to its processor IP portfolio,” said Simon George, Director Embedded Platforms Marketing, Xilinx. “As an emerging open source processor architecture, NOEL-V is now a viable option for soft core processing in our space focused FPGA portfolio.”
Both processors will be fully integrated with Cobham’s GRLIB VHDL IP core library. GRLIB offers a plenitude of interfaces and functions such as high-speed serial interconnect, encryption, compression, etc., to which the RISC-V processor can interface. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
10 Dec 19. AFRL and AFLCMC demonstrate monitoring devices for F-16s. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) have performed flight demonstration of prototype cockpit monitoring devices to the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base. The 20th Fighter Wing made a request to AFRL earlier this year to assist with assessing oxygen concentrations, cabin pressure and ‘possible hypoxia-like’ symptoms experienced by F-16 pilots.
In September, AFRL and AFLCMC embarked on a flight demonstration mission to showcase the devices to the 20th Fighter Wing.
The monitoring devices meet the needs of the Fighter Wing and, as a result, it requested the AFRL-AFLCMC team to assist with the use of the devices on the F-16 aircraft, said AFRL 711th Human Performance Wing Airman Systems Directorate Airman Sensing and Assessment Product Line Project Lead 2nd Lt Dominique O’Brien.
O’Brien added: “In response, the team initiated a rigorous safety assessment. The team accomplished a battery of lab and ground integration tests that culminated in a ‘Safe-to-Fly’ recommendation, and subsequent airworthiness approval for two devices, all within six months of the initial meeting.”
One of the devices demonstrated during the flights was the ‘Slam Stick’, which is used to measure tri-axial acceleration, humidity, temperature, and cabin pressure.
The second device, known as Insta Pilot Breath Air Monitor (IPBAM), measures critical parameters related to the breathing gas. It will alert the pilot and help reduce the possible risk of physiological events (PE) during the flight.
O’Brien further stated: “The IPBAM alerts the user in low oxygen or pressure conditions by haptic indication to the breathing mask, similar to a stick shaker, and by visual indicators on the IPBAM main unit.”
The device helps assess the performance of the On-Board Oxygen Generation System (OBOGS).
The team of researchers completed the flight demonstration last month. AFRL intends to demonstrate two more devices, called Real-Time Air Quality Sensor (RTAQS) and Holistic Modular Aircrew Physiologic Status (HMAPS). (Source: airforce-technology.com)
10 Dec 19. China’s Norinco producing synthetic diamonds for potential use in laser-based weapons. The synthetic diamonds exhibited by a subsidiary of the China North Industries Group Corporation (Norinco), one of the country’s principal arms manufacturers, at the 2019 China International Jewellery Fair in Beijing may also be intended for use in laser-based weapons, according to a 4 December report published by the Global Times newspaper, citing comments by Chinese military analysts.
While Norinco is the principal supplier of tanks, armoured vehicles, and artillery to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), it is also a key player in the development of Chinese directed-energy weapons, along with Poly Technologies, which encompass laser- as well as microwave-based devices. (Source: Jane’s)
10 Dec 19. Wind River®, a leader in delivering software for the intelligent edge, today announced RISC-V open architecture support for its industry-leading VxWorks® real-time operating system (RTOS). VxWorks is the most widely deployed commercial RTOS to have support for the RISC-V open hardware instruction set architecture (ISA). The company has also joined the RISC-V Foundation, a non-profit consortium chartered to standardize, protect, and promote RISC-V ISA together with its hardware and software ecosystem for use in all computing devices. Adding RISC-V support for VxWorks comes on the heels of the recent wave of innovations made to the RTOS, making it the first to include support for C++17, Boost, Python, and the Rust collection of technologies.
“We are pleased to welcome Wind River into the RISC-V Foundation and our global ecosystem,” said Calista Redmond, CEO of the RISC-V Foundation. “VxWorks significantly extends the reach of RISC-V in the embedded developer space. We look forward to continued software developments by Wind River and the RISC-V community.”
“It’s exciting to see RISC-V gain significant industry traction as it brings the dynamism of open architecture development to hardware,” said Michel Genard, vice president of product at Wind River. “Wind River is very pleased to continue innovating VxWorks while contributing to the success of RISC-V with collaborations like the ones we have with SiFive and MicroChip providing support for their Unleashed and PolarFire® SoC FPGA boards.”
“Having VxWorks support for our RISC-V-based PolarFire SoC FPGA family brings an extremely compelling offering to embedded systems designers who increasingly need real-time, and Linux capable solutions that are low power, thermally efficient, and secure,” said Shakeel Peera, associate vice president, marketing, FPGA business unit at Microchip. “Our partnership with Wind River is an important one as we work together to advance the collaborative RISC-V ecosystem and community.”
“The adoption of RISC-V by Wind River in VxWorks is a great step in the ongoing enablement of the RISC-V ecosystem,” said Dr. Naveed Sherwani, president and CEO of SiFive. “The ability to run VxWorks on SiFive Core IP and devices will enable new application markets across the world.”
Wind River will be showcasing VxWorks on the SiFive RISC-V HiFive Unleashed board at the RISC-V Summit in San Jose in Microchip’s Booth #205, December 10-12, 2019.
09 Dec 19. BHS secures US DoD contract for prophylactic medical countermeasure. Pittsburgh-based protein engineering company BioHybrid Solutions (BHS) has won a $30m contract from the US Department of Defense (DoD) to develop a prophylactic medical countermeasure.
The US Government is sponsoring the five-year project through the Medical CBRN Defense Consortium (MCDC).
The US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) selected BHS to apply its NanoArmored protein engineering technology to improve pharmacokinetics of the prophylactic, reducing immunogenic side-effects.
BHS will develop NanoArmored drug candidates, demonstrate the functionality, scale manufacturing, and complete regulatory activities to secure approval of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
BioHybrid Solutions co-founder and CEO Alan Russell said: “We have developed a unique way to protect against the toxic effects of chemical warfare agents and are honoured to have been selected by DTRA to lead this very important programme.”
The company is leading the programme in collaboration with FLIR Systems, Ology Bioservices, Battelle, Allegheny Health Network, BTG (part of Boston Scientific) and the US Army.
BHS will use its high-throughput discovery technology to select the NanoArmor needed and then manufacture the drug candidate.
BHS co-founder and CSO Krzysztof Matyjaszewski said: “Our technology allows us to rationally tune protein performance through precision modification of proteins with a wide variety of synthetic polymers.
“To date, we have created thousands of different NanoArmored proteins for a variety of industrial and therapeutic indications.
“We are well-positioned to apply our technology to this important national security and public health application.”
BHS is a platform technology company that develops NanoArmored protein-polymer conjugates.
The company uses proprietary technology originally developed at Carnegie Mellon University to modify proteins with polymers to improve their stability and performance.
The company said that the NanoArmor technology can improve processes, resulting in higher throughput, less waste and lower costs.
BHS said that the NanoArmor technology also has the potential to open new routes of administration, including injectable to oral, reduce immunogenicity, and improve pharmacokinetics. (Source: army-technology.com)
09 Dec 19. EU unveils €3bn research fund to develop batteries. Seven member states to invest in the project, which is set to run until 2031. The EU has approved a €3.2bn fund to promote the research and development of batteries involving seven European countries, the commission said in a statement. Monday’s announcement comes as Brussels seeks to spot strategic areas where it can help companies expand and develop new technologies. Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden will provide funding of up to €3.2bn for the project, which the commission said it expects to lead to a further €5bn in private investment. The project is set to be completed by 2031, with differing timelines for each subsection. Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president in charge of promoting technology in Europe and competition commissioner, said: “Battery production in Europe is of strategic interest for our economy and society because of its potential in terms of clean mobility and energy, job creation, sustainability and competitiveness.” She added: “The approved aid will ensure that this important project can go ahead without unduly distorting competition.” Maroš Šefčovič, vice-president for interinstitutional relations and foresight, said: “Thanks to intensive efforts by seven member states, industry and the commission, Europe’s first major pan-European battery ecosystem is emerging, with lead projects in all segments of this strategic value chain.” The project will involve 17 direct participants, mostly industrial actors, including small and medium-sized businesses, the commission said. Representatives from the member states will monitor the project. (Source: FT.com)
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Oxley Group Ltd
Oxley specialises in the design and manufacture of advanced electronic and electro-optic components and systems for air, land and sea applications within the military sector. Established in 1942, Oxley has manufacturing facilities in the UK and USA and enjoys representation worldwide. The company’s products include night vision and LED lighting, data capture systems and electronic components. Oxley has pioneered the development of night vision compatible lighting. It offers a total package incorporating optical filters, equipment modification, cockpit and external lighting along with fleet wide upgrade services including engineering, installation, support, maintenance and training. The company’s long experience of manufacturing night vision lighting and LED indicators, coupled with advances in LED technology, has enabled it to develop LED solutions to replace incandescent and fluorescent lighting in existing applications as well as becoming the lighting option of choice in new applications such as portable military hospitals, UAV control stations and communication shelters.
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