By: dl

The E.E.Herald recently interviewed Kontron CEO Ulrich Gehrmann during a trip to India “to strengthen [Kontron’s] relationship with its partners and to look into the possibilities of expanding development center as well as manufacturing option in India.” The article noted that Kontron, in pursuit of MIL/Aero and telecommunications business, has “built up its sales force in all the key areas of India’s embedded board market which include Mumbai-Pune zone, Bangalore-Chennai, the north cluster, and as well as Hyderabad.” The company claims to be “among the top three suppliers [in India] in most of the application areas,” and is “confident of achieving annual double-digit sales growth” there.

www.eeherald.com/section/news/nwg100020568.html

M&A
By: dl

Less than a month after acquiring backplane-specialist Hybricon,  Curtiss-Wright has purchased Specialist Electronics Services, Ltd. (SES) of Camberley, UK, for 15 million pounds (about $22 million). SES, founded in 1991, specializes in rugged, security-encrypted data recorders, processors, displays and software for aerospace and defense applications, and it expects its 2010 sales to be about 6.5 million pounds (about $9 million). “Key platforms” for the company’s gear include fixed-wing, rotary-wing and unmanned aircraft, tactical vehicles and navy vessels

Martin R. Benante, Chairman and CEO of Curtiss-Wright, said that “SES’s proprietary designs…based on commercial-off-the-shelf technologies [and] highly tailored with data security encryption and extreme environmental packaging, will enhance Curtiss-Wright’s leadership position in the aerospace and defense electronic systems market. While the United Kingdom represents SES’s largest current market, integration with Curtiss-Wright offers increased access to mainland Europe and North America.” 

ir.curtisswright.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=481615

DESIGN WIN
By: dl

Parvus parent the Eurotech Group has announced its “collaboration” with Freescale to “establish a range” of COM Express boards and development kits based on multicore QorIQ processors. Said Giampietro Tecchiolli, VP and CTO of Eurotech, “This initiative will expand Eurotech’s product portfolio and open new opportunities for growth in segments such as networking, defense and medical. It is expected that the availability of the new range of boards and development kits will continue the strong market adoption that QorIQ devices are experiencing.” 

www.parvus.com/News/newsdetails/10-06-14/Eurotech_and_Freescale_Collaborate_for_the_Development_of_Com_Express_Offerings_Based_on_QorIQ%e2%84%a2_Processors.aspx

DESIGN WINS, MIL/AERO
By: dl

Mercury Computer Systems has had a heckuva June so far. On the 10th, it announced a win for a radar system upgrade on a leading (but unnamed) tactical aircraft platform. The products at issue are OpenVPX SBCs and Serial RapidIO IP. The SBC in question is a 6U board with eight Power Architecture processor cores on board and, of course, the Serial RapidIO interconnect.

One week later, Mercury announced a $4.7 million win at Northrop Grumman in support of the U.S. Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program. Specifically, Mercury will provide computers, a heterogeneous operating system and services for processing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images.

What’s coming next week?

MIL/AERO
By: dl

Heading up a team of 15 organizations, including iRobot, Toycen Corporation and Indiana University, Concurrent Technologies Corporation has been awarded a contract from Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane to provide ground-robotics R&D. ”Robotics is emerging as a critical field, greatly expanding the military’s survivability and force protection capabilities,” the company said. The contract covers two base years and three option years, with a ceiling of $46 million. One focus will be on the development of unmanned robotic vehicle systems.

www.ctc.com/news/2010/10jun04_pr1.cfm

By: dl

Curtiss-Wright Controls has completed what it calls three “significant” international expansion initiatives in North America and Asia that will “significantly enhance [its] manufacturing and business opportunities.” Specifically, it has opened a new business center in China and expanded its manufacturing facilities in Ottawa, Canada, and Nogales, Mexico. “These investments will enable us to better serve our customers and the increasing demand for our technologies and products,” said David Adams, Co-Chief Operating Officer of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. “We expect each of these sites to play a key role in our expanding business operations as we continue to grow.”

www.cwcontrols.com/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?pressrelease_id=142

ACQUISITIONS
By: dl

The dam has begun to leak, and news of acquisitions is starting to trickle out. (See M&A: Everybody’s panacea) First AP Labs and now Hybricon have been gobbled up by larger companies looking to improve their positions in Mil/Aero markets.

Founded in 1976, Hybricon describes itself as a “world-class solutions company providing rugged electronic packaging solutions for mission-critical embedded computing platforms deployed in the world’s harshest applications for both new deployments and technical refresh programs.” With product lines covering OpenVPX, VPX, VXS, VME64X, CompactPCI and MicroTCA, it had 2009 sales of approximately $17 million, 85% of it in the defense market.

C-W and Hybricon have previously teamed-up on building OpenVPX systems, demonstrating the fruits of their collaboration at the Milcom show in October last year. C-W is buying Hybricon for $19 million in cash, with the transaction expected to close by June 1. Hybricon will operate under Curtiss-Wright’s Motion Control segment, within the Electronic Systems division.

Chairman and CEO Martin Benante pointed to Hybricon’s “expertise in advanced packaging and thermal management for deployed military system enclosures” as something that will strengthen C-W’s position.

ir.curtisswright.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=474193

ACQUISITION
By: dl

Kontron’s acquisition of San Diego-based AP Labs last week will enhance its Mil/Aero position and provide several other benefits, according to the company. Representing “a strategic investment in future security markets,” the move strengthens the company’s product portfolio and regional presence, expands its range of high-margin systems and gives the company “access to cost-efficient, local production capacities.” Twenty-six-year-old AP “is firmly established … as one of the leading system integrators in the areas of defense and aerospace,” Kontron said, projecting that it will contribute annual revenue of $30 million to the corporate coffers.

“The future lies in high-margin and highly complex systems and solutions, as delivered by AP Labs,” said Kontron CEO Ulrich Gehrmann.. “As an innovation leader, we aim to, and must, concentrate on this area. AP Labs’ strengths in the engineering area should also help Kontron to further optimize both future development costs and times to product launch. Time-to-market will also be reduced significantly as a result of the complete solutions product range.”

emea.kontron.com/about-kontron/news-events/kontron+acquires+us+company+ap+labs+group.3965.html

AMC, VPX, XMC
By: dl

Bittware’s next generation of signal processing boards will reply on Altera’s new Stratix V family of FPGAs, Bittware announced last week. The company’s 2011 roadmap for new S5 family boards covers three architectures: AMC boards aimed at wireless communications; rugged 3U and 6U VPX boards for mil/aerospace; and XMC boards.

Said Bittware President and CEO Jeff Milrod, “Altera’s leadership is on display once again with the Stratix V family of FPGAs. Combined with their best-in-class development tools, the performance, density, connectivity, and power of this next generation propels Altera’s high-end FPGAs far ahead of the competition.” 

www.bittware.com/media/press/pr.cfm?id=53

ATCA
By: dl

RadiSys will discuss the benefits of next–generation ATCA platforms for high–bandwidth, media–rich telecommunications at the PICMG/PRC Annual Conference and China Industrial Development Forum on May 20, in Shanghai. The focus will be on deployment strategies for service providers that will enable a smooth transition to 40G. 

www.radisys.com/News-and-Events/Press-Releases/RadiSys-To-Present-On-40G-Platforms-At-The-PICMGPRC-Annual-Conference.html