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Our
staff has been working with MIT Lincoln Laboratory since 1978
as a consultant and supplier of real-time computing products
for radar. We specialize in COTS products for I/O, digital
signal processing, parallel and cluster computing, real-time
display, high-speed networks, real-time recording, and data
archiving. We understand the nuances of designing architectures
that deliver cutting edge real-time performance for “bleeding
edge” mission critical radar systems in today’s
COTS, spiral development, cost sensitive environment.
Through our Principals, ESI makes available technology experts,
products, and systems
integration services. Our primary focus in the radar market
is to supply boards, “black boxes”, sub-level
systems, and FPGA programming and real-time software development
services to prime contractors which augment their in-house
staff’s capabilities to build turnkey COTS radar systems
for their military and commercial customers. ESI has also
worked with all of the major prime contractors in the radar
business that use the technology developed by MIT Lincoln
Laboratory to build production radars. These include Raytheon,
Lockheed Martin, ITT, and Northrop Grumman.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory was one of the early adopters of a
COTS philosophy. The Radar Open Systems Architecture (ROSA)
initiative funded by the U.S. Army Strategic and Missile Defense
Command and U.S. Air Force was developed by MIT LL and is
deployed at a number of sites including the Kwajalein Missile
Range and Millstone Hill radar facility. This highly successful
program paved the way for the adoption of commercial-off-the-shelf
(COTS) for radar systems by adopting a specification that
stated all components in an “open system” must
be fully defined, available to the public, and maintained
by a group consensus. In addition an open systems approach
was defined as an integrated technical and business strategy
that incorporated modular hardware and software and was built
from purchased rather than custom built components. Two of
ESI’s Principals, Pentek and DRS Tactical Systems (formerly
Catalina Research), were selected as ROSA suppliers. We subsequently
based our business strategy around helping customers design
systems using COTS only suppliers. COTS offers lower prices,
easy upgradeability (technology refresh) and modularity. Today,
the advantages of COTS are widely known.
Many of our suppliers are small businesses whose engineering
staffs possess high-level security clearances. This enables
them to work on classified projects. They conduct their business
with an entrepreneurial attitude free from much of the bureaucracy
of larger companies. This gives them the ability to make critical
design trade offs fast, control costs, and deliver products
on time or ahead of schedule. All of our suppliers are U.S.-based.
Several are capable of sourcing foreign manufactured components
and dealing with ITARS issues.
We also have relationships with 8A organizations for supplying
commodity embedded computing products through Hamilton Avnet.
Our customers find this additional ESI capability an asset
for meeting their small business and minority procurement
objectives.
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MIT
Lincoln Labs |
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Raytheon |
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Lockheed
Martin |
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Northrop
Grumman
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