Posted by John McHale
Last week during a visit to SynQor in Boxborough, Mass., I received a lesson on cost-of-ownership by the company founder, who is also a former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor. SynQor makes high-reliability power electronics for demanding environments such as military avionics.
Martin Schlecht, SynQor's founder, president, and chief executive officer (CEO), was briefing me on their DC to DC converter product line and the defense market outlook when he asked if he could go slightly off topic and explain the concept of how long-term cost-of-ownership for a product can be more cost effective than buying the lowest price device.
He jumped up and immediately started drawing charts on the whiteboard in the conference room. I quipped "why don't you have a chalk board, you're a professor right?"
He said he has one in his office and that he prefers chalk boards -- the only draw back being that the "chalk dust always ends up in the cuffs of his pants."
Anyway, Schlect made the argument as he says he has made on many sales calls that products with outstanding mean-time-between-failure (MTBF) statistics result in a lower cost of ownership for the end user over the life of a product.
Schlect made a very persuasive argument with his makeshift graph and had me sold that a component with an MTBF of millions of hours can cost only about $3 to maintain even if it initially cost $3,000.
However, he says no matter how well cost of ownership is explained or understood, many of those in the defense community are under orders to procure electronics based on the product price rather than a cost-of-ownership equation.
Too bad, maybe a greater focus on cost of ownership would help with managing component obsolescence, the dark side of commercial-off-the shelf (COTS) procurement.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
GE and Fanuc call it quits
Posted by John McHale
As of yesterday GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is now called GE Intelligent Platforms after GE and Fanuc reached an agreement to no longer continue their original agreement.
What does this actually mean for the embedded military market? Probably not much.
I think GE Intelligent Platforms will pretty much go along as they have been going, making embedded single-board computers and subsystems for military programs. GE itself has become quite the defense behemoth. A recent market study from ASD Reports (www.asdreports.com) ranked them as one of the top 10 aerospace and defense suppliers alongside Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and EADS.
However, all of this has got me reminiscing about some of our old friends and advertisers gobbled up by GE Fanuc this past decade.
Some of those old friends included -- in no particular order -- Radstone Technology, SBS Technologies, Ramix, VMIC, DNA Computing Solutions, and Computer Dynamics. If I missed any I apologize.
That's quite a shopping list. Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing compiled a similar portfolio of defense electronics suppliers. I guess they saw our magazine as a buyer's guide.
I'm not complaining. I think all this activity is a positive. It shows our market to be one that is steady and continues to attract investment. The strong performance of many defense companies in the current economic downturn is evidence of that.
Yet it has me wondering which embedded defense supplier will get acquired next.
Any ideas?
As of yesterday GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is now called GE Intelligent Platforms after GE and Fanuc reached an agreement to no longer continue their original agreement.
What does this actually mean for the embedded military market? Probably not much.
I think GE Intelligent Platforms will pretty much go along as they have been going, making embedded single-board computers and subsystems for military programs. GE itself has become quite the defense behemoth. A recent market study from ASD Reports (www.asdreports.com) ranked them as one of the top 10 aerospace and defense suppliers alongside Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and EADS.
However, all of this has got me reminiscing about some of our old friends and advertisers gobbled up by GE Fanuc this past decade.
Some of those old friends included -- in no particular order -- Radstone Technology, SBS Technologies, Ramix, VMIC, DNA Computing Solutions, and Computer Dynamics. If I missed any I apologize.
That's quite a shopping list. Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing compiled a similar portfolio of defense electronics suppliers. I guess they saw our magazine as a buyer's guide.
I'm not complaining. I think all this activity is a positive. It shows our market to be one that is steady and continues to attract investment. The strong performance of many defense companies in the current economic downturn is evidence of that.
Yet it has me wondering which embedded defense supplier will get acquired next.
Any ideas?
Thursday, August 13, 2009
UAVs sharing civilian airspace
One of the topics of discussion this week at the Unmanned Systems North America show in Washington was what needs to be done technologically and culturally to manage the growing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in civilian airspace.
One of the topics of discussion this week at the Unmanned Systems North America show in Washington was what needs to be done technologically and culturally to manage the growing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in civilian airspace.
The key is to take a proactive air traffic management approach instead of reacting to problems such as collision avoidance, David Vos, senior director of Unmanned Airborne Systems and Control Technologies for Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, told me today.
The biggest challenge will not be technological or bureaucratic, but rather cultural, Vos said. Many in the commercial aircraft industry do not understand unmanned systems and they need to realize they are not just toys or model airplanes, he added.
In a presentation he made at the show this week Vos said that "as the need for civil UAVs increases and airspace continues to crowd, the NextGen (Next generation Air Traffic Management System), SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research), and increased automation are essential."
Vos also says those concerned must understand the rules as determined by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Eurocontrol.
If there comes a time when the Department of Homeland Security needs to use UAVs over New York City, they must have an open dialogue with commercial airspace authorities.
UAVs are not going to decrease in numbers, they are here to stay and in the long run will be more economical than manned aircraft, Vos said.
He predicted that there will come a day when commercial passenger flights are pilotless much the same way some trains are today.
Once people become more comfortable with the concept, the UAV business will explode.
Unmanned systems show was buzzing
Posted by John McHale
What a difference a year makes. Last year's Unmanned Systems North America show in San Diego was informative and well attended but seemed to be reflecting some of that Southern California June gloom. This year it was just the opposite with packed stands and busy aisles.
Maybe it's the fact that it is in Washington where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) attract more government and definitely more local press.
Highlights at the event include General Atomics discussing the new Predator C Avenger, iRobot officials announcing more orders for the Packbot unmanned ground system, and Insitu's ScanEagle surpassing 200,000 operational flight hours.
"In a year when people are wondering where the funding will come from funding for unmanned systems is one are that is definitely going up," one defense electronics supplier told me.
Every exhibitor I've talked to says traffic is strong and people are looking to spend money for autonomous programs.
Lots of non-traditional defense companies are also angling for a piece of the action. Sony, the maker of popular camcorders and televisions and monitors had a nice sized booth at the show.
No they weren't pushing flat screens, but rather they were showcasing their machine vision line of high-performance cameras for use on UAVs.
It's a market "we're exploring that has a potential for growth," says Drew Buttress, product manager for visual imaging products at Sony. He says Sony understands the military market and its long life cycles and that Sony supports its machine vision products for the long-term, still selling cameras that are nearly 10 years old.
It's heartening to go to a crowded trade show in a tough economic time. Maybe it's sign things are turning around.
What a difference a year makes. Last year's Unmanned Systems North America show in San Diego was informative and well attended but seemed to be reflecting some of that Southern California June gloom. This year it was just the opposite with packed stands and busy aisles.
Maybe it's the fact that it is in Washington where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs) attract more government and definitely more local press.
Highlights at the event include General Atomics discussing the new Predator C Avenger, iRobot officials announcing more orders for the Packbot unmanned ground system, and Insitu's ScanEagle surpassing 200,000 operational flight hours.
"In a year when people are wondering where the funding will come from funding for unmanned systems is one are that is definitely going up," one defense electronics supplier told me.
Every exhibitor I've talked to says traffic is strong and people are looking to spend money for autonomous programs.
Lots of non-traditional defense companies are also angling for a piece of the action. Sony, the maker of popular camcorders and televisions and monitors had a nice sized booth at the show.
No they weren't pushing flat screens, but rather they were showcasing their machine vision line of high-performance cameras for use on UAVs.
It's a market "we're exploring that has a potential for growth," says Drew Buttress, product manager for visual imaging products at Sony. He says Sony understands the military market and its long life cycles and that Sony supports its machine vision products for the long-term, still selling cameras that are nearly 10 years old.
It's heartening to go to a crowded trade show in a tough economic time. Maybe it's sign things are turning around.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Unmanned systems show is buzzing
What a difference a year makes. Last year's Unmanned Systems North America show in San Diego was informative and well attended but seemed to be reflecting some of that Southern California June gloom. This year it's just the opposite with packed stands and busy aisles.
What a difference a year makes. Last year's Unmanned Systems North America show in San Diego was informative and well attended but seemed to be reflecting some of that Southern California June gloom. This year it's just the opposite with packed stands and busy aisles.
Maybe it's the fact that it is in Washington where unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), undmanned ground vehicles, and unmanned undersea vehicles attract more government and definitely more local press.
Highlights at the event include General Atomics discussing the new Predator C Avenger, iRobot officials announcing more orders for the Packbot unmanned ground system, and Insitu’s ScanEagle surpassing 200,000 operational flight hours.
"In a year when people are wondering where the funding will come from funding for unmanned systems is one are that is definitely going up,"” one defense electronics supplier told me.
Every exhibitor I've talked to says traffic is strong and people are looking to spend money for autonomous programs.
Lots of non-traditional defense companies are also angling for a piece of the action. Sony, the maker of popular camcorders and televisions and monitors had a nice sized booth at the show.
No they weren't pushing flat screens, but rather they were showcasing their machine vision line of high-performance cameras for use on UAVs.
It's a market "we're exploring that has a potential for growth," says Drew Buttress, product manager for visual imaging products at Sony. He says Sony understands the military market and its long life cycles and that Sony supports its machine vision products for the long-term, still selling cameras that are nearly 10 years old.
It's heartening to go to a crowded trade show in a tough economic time. Maybe it's sign things are turning around.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
End of Altivec PowerPC digital signal processing chip spells headache for Serial RapidIO designers
Posted by John McHale
The next-generation PowerPC family from Freescale, the QorIQ, has a new CPU core -- the e500 -- which does not support the Altivec engine that commercial off the shelf (COTS) single board computer suppliers rely on for many of their military digital signal processing (DSP) systems. The Altivec is not being end-of-lifed, it is just not being offered in Freescale's next generation chip.
Designers that produce Serial RapidIO switched fabric interconnect products are especially concerned as the main alternative -- Intel's family of multicore devices with SSE -- do not have Serial RapidIO (SRIO) end points because Intel does not see the demand form the majority of their customer base, Michael Stern of GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms told me. I was interviewing Stern for a Technology Focus feature on I/O that will appear in our September issue of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine.
Stern says "whereas Freescale and Texas Instruments and other chip vendors have seen demand for Serial RapidIO enabled end points from a significant segment of their market -- defense and telecommunications -- Intel has not so far seen the need to support SRIO on chip."
This is not surprising as SRIO is most popular among military signal processing designers. During a panel discussion at our Military & Aerospace Electronics Forum conference last year Ron Parker of Intel said that the defense industry represents less than one percent of Intel's business.
Stern and others I talked to for the story agreed that going forward COTS embedded single-board computer suppliers will need to support multiple serial interconnect fabrics in addition to SRIO such as Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and PCI Express -- all of which Intel does support.
Some companies are working around this issue with a PCI Express to SRIO bridge/switch device but these devices are not yet available and those designing them are tight-lipped about what they are tinkering with.
Another solution Stern says is to offer FPGA based solutions that deploy custom IP to get from PCI Express to SRIO, however FPGA based solutions present a challenge because they "are costly in terms of power budget and card real estate."
In the mean time Freescale's QorIQ will be relevant to defense applications where the Altivec unit is not used, such as image processing, but not in intensive DSP applications, Stern says.
I'd love to hear what all of you think about this situation, so please feel free to comment.
The next-generation PowerPC family from Freescale, the QorIQ, has a new CPU core -- the e500 -- which does not support the Altivec engine that commercial off the shelf (COTS) single board computer suppliers rely on for many of their military digital signal processing (DSP) systems. The Altivec is not being end-of-lifed, it is just not being offered in Freescale's next generation chip.
Designers that produce Serial RapidIO switched fabric interconnect products are especially concerned as the main alternative -- Intel's family of multicore devices with SSE -- do not have Serial RapidIO (SRIO) end points because Intel does not see the demand form the majority of their customer base, Michael Stern of GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms told me. I was interviewing Stern for a Technology Focus feature on I/O that will appear in our September issue of Military & Aerospace Electronics magazine.
Stern says "whereas Freescale and Texas Instruments and other chip vendors have seen demand for Serial RapidIO enabled end points from a significant segment of their market -- defense and telecommunications -- Intel has not so far seen the need to support SRIO on chip."
This is not surprising as SRIO is most popular among military signal processing designers. During a panel discussion at our Military & Aerospace Electronics Forum conference last year Ron Parker of Intel said that the defense industry represents less than one percent of Intel's business.
Stern and others I talked to for the story agreed that going forward COTS embedded single-board computer suppliers will need to support multiple serial interconnect fabrics in addition to SRIO such as Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and PCI Express -- all of which Intel does support.
Some companies are working around this issue with a PCI Express to SRIO bridge/switch device but these devices are not yet available and those designing them are tight-lipped about what they are tinkering with.
Another solution Stern says is to offer FPGA based solutions that deploy custom IP to get from PCI Express to SRIO, however FPGA based solutions present a challenge because they "are costly in terms of power budget and card real estate."
In the mean time Freescale's QorIQ will be relevant to defense applications where the Altivec unit is not used, such as image processing, but not in intensive DSP applications, Stern says.
I'd love to hear what all of you think about this situation, so please feel free to comment.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Planes aren't selling
The commercial and general aviation markets and in turn the avionics industry have been hit hard by the recession, with no upswing expected in the short term. Major airlines are laying off thousands and holding off on airplane purchases.
The commercial and general aviation markets and in turn the avionics industry have been hit hard by the recession, with no upswing expected in the short term. Major airlines are laying off thousands and holding off on airplane purchases.
Business and general aviation customers are also keeping their checkbooks closed, especially those who typically by luxury jets -- large companies taking bailout money from the U.S. government. As a result aircraft manufacturers are not buying new avionics displays and avionics computers for new aircraft cockpits.
As one supplier said to me this summer if it wasn't for his military business he would have to shut his doors. Yet, even the military is cutting back on aviation evidenced by the impending cancellation of the F-22 Raptor Jet Fighter.
According to market analysts at the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) in Washington, worldwide shipments of general aviation aircraft were cut nearly in half over the first half of 2009, compared with the same period last year.
Officials at Bombardier say business aviation faces challenges such as "high pre-owned inventories, negative public perceptions, and a difficult economic climate." However, in the long term they predict strong growth with revenues of approximately $256 billion U.S. over the next ten years for the industry, according to their "Bombardier Business Aircraft Market Forecast."
While looking at the websites for Boeing and Airbus, I found that many of their purchase announcements typically numbered less than 50 airplane orders at a time, where in good times they have been in the hundreds.
Will it get worse before gets better?
Perhaps not. At the Paris Air Show earlier this month Airbus officials told me that they think the market has hit bottom, but that it is unknown when it will come back if it will come back slowly or dramatically.
Boeing officials in their latest quarterly earnings announcement stated that Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) second-quarter revenues decreased 2 percent to $8.4 billion on slightly lower airplane deliveries and lower volume in services while "operating earnings increased 5 percent and margins rose to 9.7 percent due to lower research and development expense partially offset by the lower services volume."
This is a good sign for Boeing and also a result of the company making major workforce cuts earlier in the year to offset the poor economy. Company officials also see India as a strong growth market -- the country's economy has averaged 7 percent annual growth over the past 10 years.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
F-22 program shot down
Posted by John McHale
President Obama's first major defense budget cut got past a major hurdle last month when both houses of Congress agreed last week to cut F-22 funding from a new bill, despite speculation that they might fight to keep the program alive to save jobs.
Specifically the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate removed funding for additional F-22 jets in an appropriations bill with $636.3 billion for military spending for 2010. In other words the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) will likely now stop F-22 procurement at 187 aircraft.
What does this mean for the industry? Too soon to tell. The F-22 prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, will most likely make major job cuts once it is official and this could lead to further job cuts at second and third their suppliers to the program.
But will it be the 90,000 plus layoffs that some in congress and at Lockheed have predicted? I don't think it will get that high.
The 2010 budget request -- which focuses on increased funding for special forces, unmanned systems, and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter -- makes sense for today's world. I'd like to think these funding areas represent new opportunities for electronics designers and integrators and that the defense market will remain steady if not grow stronger, despite the end of F-22 production.
One thing that I do find ironic however is that while one major program was practically canceled this past month the DOD rolled out a number of new aircraft over the same time period -- a new Global Hawk, the P-8A Poseidon, the new Navy Stealth Fighter, and a second E-2D Advanced Hawkeye to name a few.
That's a lot of roll outs. Coincidence?
Probably.
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