Industry News
New York MTA Selects Lockheed Martin to Lead Security System Contract
The New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) has selected Lockheed Martin as the prime contractor for the cornerstone program initiating a comprehensive upgrade of MTA’s electronic security operations infrastructure. The Authority oversees the New York City Transit system, Long Island Railroad, Metro North Railroad, and MTA bridges and tunnels.
As the prime contractor for the Integrated Electronic Security System and Command, Communications and Control (IESS/C3) program, Lockheed Martin will lead a highly experienced team to design, develop and deploy a critical infrastructure protection system that integrates the command, communications and control capabilities across MTA facilities.
Work under the initial three-year contract, valued at US$212 million, will start immediately. The contract includes maintenance options that could extend the program through September 2013.
The companies have extensive experience working on integrated electronic surveillance, threat detection and deterrence, design-build engineering, electrical contracting, information technology, software engineering and communications infrastructure projects, she added.
The objectives of this project include optimum use of critical security resources, more efficient provision and management of MTA information, enhancement of electronic-based detection and deterrent functions, and more resilient and electronically connected emergency response and recovery services.
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U.S. Army Small-Caliber Ammo Award Establishes General Dynamics As Second Source for Ammunition
The U.S. Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Illinois, has awarded General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, a five-year contract to supply small-caliber ammunition to the U.S. armed forces. The initial award under the contract is for US$171 million for approximately 300 million rounds. The contract has a total potential value of approximately $1.2 billion if all options are exercised.
This contract establishes General Dynamics as a second-source prime contractor for the production of various types of 5.56mm, 7.62mm and .50 caliber ammunition. The company is already a leading supplier of medium- and large-caliber ammunition and bomb bodies to U.S. forces.
This award will expand the U.S. Defense Dept.’s small-caliber production base without incurring additional expense for upgrades to the existing government-owned, contractor-operated infrastructure. Members of the General Dynamics team are already filling emergency small-caliber ammunition orders for the U.S. government. Through this program, General Dynamics will serve as a flexible second source to quickly respond to growing demands in small-caliber ammunition for up to 500 million rounds per year.
General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems will be the prime systems contractor and logistics manager for the program, with its St. Marks Powder subsidiary providing BALL POWDER â propellant. A team of domestic and international partners will support General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems, including Olin Corporation’s Winchester Division; SNC Technologies, Inc. of Canada; Israel Military Industries Ltd. (IMI); and General Dynamics Santa Bárbara Sistemas, Madrid, Spain.
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Ericsson to Supply Full Commercial EDGE System to BASE
Ericsson has been awarded a contract by Belgian operator BASE for the upgrade of the existing radio access network with EDGE technology. The contract has a total value of about US$37 million and will provide nationwide coverage by summer 2006. Ericsson will be the sole supplier for a nationwide upgrade of BASE Mobile GSM network with EDGE technology.
Under the agreement, Ericsson will deliver all hardware, software and related services, such as implementation, project management, support, testing and training (turnkey project).
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Unwired Australia To Receive Aud$37 Million Investment From Intel Capital
Unwired Australia, a wireless broadband carrier, and Intel Corporation announced today that Intel Capital has agreed to invest in secured convertible notes issued by Unwired with a face value of AUD$37 million (approximately US$27.9 million at present exchange rates). The investment is part of the companies’ efforts to advance the deployment of WiMAX networks.
Unwired will use the proceeds primarily to expand its services to other major Australian cities.
As part of the announcement, the companies have agreed to jointly promote mobile wireless broadband capabilities using WiMAX networks in Australia. Unwired plans to adopt future Intel products that support the upcoming IEEE 802.16e standard for WiMAX solutions intended to be deployed in infrastructure equipment and notebooks.
WiMAX, which stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is a standards-based wireless technology that provides high-speed broadband connectivity over long distances to homes, businesses and mobile wireless networks. The upcoming IEEE 802.16e version will offer increased broadband Internet access mobility.
Unwired will initially deploy technology from U.S.-based broadband wireless access solutions provider, Navini Networks, for its WiMAX networks. Dual-mode customer modems and base stations, which can operate Unwired’s current proprietary technology and WiMAX-based technology concurrently, will be available in the first half of 2006.
Unwired’s shareholders will hold a meeting in October to obtain shareholder approvals for the investment. Details will be sent to shareholders shortly in the Notice of Meeting and Explanatory Memorandum which will be accompanied by an independent expert’s report from KPMG Corporate Finance (Aust) Pty Ltd.
The convertible notes would be issued in 45 days -- subject to approval by Unwired’s shareholders, fulfillment of regulatory requirements and completion of standard conditions to closing -- and would mature in August 2009.
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Australian Department of Defense Deploys AU$2.8 Million Network from Nortel
The Australian Department of Defense has deployed a Gigabit Ethernet solution from Nortel at its bases located throughout Australia as part of a countrywide network upgrade project.
The upgrade, estimated at approximately AU$2.8 million (US$2.1 million), provides increased bandwidth and reliability to improve the flow of information between the bases. It is allowing Department of Defense networks to move away from older network equipment installed at the time of the Y2K changeover to new Gigabit Ethernet technology.
Nortel is a member of the Preferred Computer Systems Panel and the Nortel solution was considered most suited to upgrade the Department of Defense network.
The Nortel solution includes Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 8600s, along with a number of smaller Ethernet Routing Switches that provide 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) speeds throughout the secure network grid. The additional bandwidth allows for extensive use of shared resources and applications scalable to thousands of users, and helps to ensure network performance irrespective of the number of users connected at any given time.
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Small Business Spotlight: Plexon Donates Brain Research Equipment to Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Plexon Inc., a developer of hardware and software for brain and nervous system research, announces it is donating one of its MEA Workstations to Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). Tracy Wiggins, Plexon engineer and wife of Plexon founder Harvey Wiggins, received her undergraduate degree from Jiao Tong where she studied biomedical engineering. The donation will be made in the name of Tracy and Harvey Wiggins.
Shanghai Jiao Tong will use the MEA Workstation to study how internal cell layers of the retina process light intensity and color. It permits 64 channels of neural signals from the cells of the retina, which have been placed on a multi-electrode array (MEA) plate, to be recorded and analyzed in real-time. The system computes and displays statistical features of the response of the retinal cells to light stimulation. Tracy Wiggins’ classmate of 20 years ago, Pei-ji Liang, D. Phil., is now a professor of biomedical engineering at Jiao Tong and is leading the research.
Plexon’s donation of neuroscience research equipment to Jiao Tong is believed to be the first of its kind by a U.S. company to a Chinese university. Plexon has already delivered six Plexon Multichannel Acquisition Processor (MAP) systems to East China Normal University. Several more sales in China are expected in the near future.
Plexon’s MAP systems are also deployed by the UTD Aging and Memory Research Lab. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, University of Texas at Dallas, Shanghai Zhizu Science-Based Industrial Park and Greater Dallas Chamber of Commerce signed a “four-corner” Memorandum of Understanding for joint intellectual and economic development for both regions.
“Plexon’s effort is an important step in the implementation of the joint development,” said Dr. Da Hsuan Feng, Vice President for Research and Graduate Education at UTD. “I am really pleased to see that Plexon has developed such a relationship with one of China’s premier universities.”
Plexon is continuing to build a strong relationship with China and has recently helped sponsor two Chinese conferences – The Third International Symposium on Brain Functional Genomics in Shanghai on May 26, and The First International Conference and USA-China Joint Workshop on Neural Interface and Control on May 26-28 in Wuhan, China.
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Raytheon Selected to Provide Open-Road Tolling Systems in Texas
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Texas Transportation Commission has approved Raytheon Company as the prime contractor to develop, build and maintain open-road toll collection systems in Texas.
Now that the selection process has been completed, Raytheon's Network Centric Systems and TxDOT will begin discussions aimed at executing a Comprehensive Development Agreement. This agreement will provide all the specific terms and conditions under which Raytheon would provide the open road toll collection systems for designated project segments over five years.
Raytheon will also be responsible for maintaining these toll collection systems for a period up to eight years after each goes into operation.
Raytheon is one of the most experienced suppliers of state-of-the-art open road, free-flow electronic tolling systems in the world. Its systems are in operation on three continents, including the world's first all-electronic, open road toll highway in Toronto, Canada. Raytheon's systems provide video tolling, transponder tolling and vehicle classification for all vehicles and allow all vehicles to use the toll road.
Raytheon's major subcontractors are Arcadis and Zachry. Arcadis is a leading, global, engineering service provider with $1 billion in annual revenue. The company has a strong presence in Texas and will provide civil engineering services for the project. Zachry is a privately-owned construction and industrial maintenance service company based in San Antonio, Texas. It has public- and private-sector projects for roadway infrastructure and system installations throughout the U.S.
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New Disclosures to Stimulate Creation of Cell-based Applications Beyond Gaming
Representatives of IBM, Sony, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., (Sony and SCE together referred to as "Sony Group") and Toshiba have announced the release of key documents that describe technical details of the revolutionary Cell Broadband Engine architecture. The documents are available at www.ibm.com/developerworks/power/cell and http://cell.scei.co.jp Toshiba will release the documents once it completes its customer support structure.
The announcement is the next major milestone in the Cell project, which began with the formation of the STI (Sony Group, Toshiba and IBM) Cell Design Center in Austin, Texas in March of 2001. High level technical specifications were released in much anticipated papers delivered at San Francisco's International Solid State Circuit Conference (ISSCC) in February, 2005.
By opening up a wide set of detailed technical specifications to software developers, business partners, academic and research organizations, and potential customers, IBM, Sony Group and Toshiba continue their work to aggressively stimulate the creation of Cell-based applications. The goal: establish a thriving community of interest and innovation around Cell, allowing all interested parties to rapidly evaluate and utilize Cell technology.
Specifically, the companies will make available documents describing the following components of the Cell microprocessor:
- The Cell Broadband Engine Architecture -- defines a processor structure directed toward distributed processing and multimedia applications. The architecture contains a control processor based on the Power Architecture, augmented with multiple high- performance SIMD Synergistic Processor Units and a rich set of DMA commands for efficient communications among processing elements.
- The Synergistic Processor Unit Instruction Set Architecture (SPU ISA) -- discloses the high performance SIMD RISC processor designed to accelerate media and streaming applications for systems based upon the Cell Broadband Engine Architecture.
- Synergistic Processor Unit C/C++ Language Extensions, Application Binary Interface, and Assembly Language specifications – which aid software developers in unleashing the full processing power of the SPUs.
