News Release from: DTI Global Watch Service
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 18 December 2003
Secondments speed Nalltech's learning curve
A rapidly expanding Scottish electronics company believes a DTI Global Watch Secondment to the United States could generate business worth GBP 5 million over the next two years.
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A rapidly expanding Scottish electronics company believes a DTI Global Watch Secondment to the United States could generate business worth GBP 5 million over the next two years. Nallatech has sent two senior engineers to America for 12 months to help develop products it hopes will form part of the next generation of military aircraft systems. The company, based in Cumbernauld, is the world's leading supplier of high performance FPGA systems and its advanced Dime-II architecture, combined with FPGA technology, provides a flexible hardware platform for highly complex electronics systems in aerospace and defence and other data intensive applications.
Nallatech has been developing new carrier cards and system configurations based on its Dime-II architecture.
Its major US customers, which include aerospace systems supplier Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMC), are keen to use these products in airborne systems and actively involve Nallatech in bids for US Department of Defense (DoD) contracts.
But before the products can be included in US aerospace systems they must be 'ruggedised' to withstand extreme conditions, which can vary from +50C in the desert to -50C when an aircraft is flying at 12,000m.
Nallatech also has to ensure that its products are certified to comply with the many standards the US Department of State lays down for components used in defence contracts.
To achieve these requirements, engineer Dave Bird has gone to Orlando to work on the ruggedisation project.
He is liasing with staff from LMC's Orlando site, General Dynamics and Naval Research in California, and Teledyne, a provider of airborne telephony systems, in Tennessee.
Bird is gaining knowledge of product and system design, component ruggedisation, software resilience, environmental and stress screening, manufacturing and testing, which will be transferred to Nallatech in the UK.
Eric Lord has gone to San Jose, California, to lead the DoD authorisation project.
He is working with LMC, Teledyne in Alabama, and Defense Research Associates in Ohio and will create and train a team of LMC engineers with specialist knowledge of Nallatech products and systems.
Professor Ian Hunt, Nallatech's Vice President and Business Development Director, says progress is being made.
'Dave has obtained details from LMC and General Dynamics on the environmental requirements for our products and Eric has been working with Naval Research in San Diego on the requirement for a new motherboard', he said.
Prof Hunt believes the DTI Global Watch Secondment will speed up the process of getting Nallatech's products to market.
'Time is of the essence', he added.
'To make sure that we are innovative and ahead of the game in terms of market potential and channels to market, we need to complete this project over the next 18 months.
This secondment is the only mechanism I could use to get there quicker'.
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