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Silicon Graphics/Cray Receives DOE Contract to Provide Funding for Advanced Computer Interconnect Technology Research

EAGAN, Minn. — Silicon Graphics/Cray Research was awarded a $5 million research and development contract by the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) program of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The contract was issued under the ASCI PathForward program, which was announced by President Bill Clinton during a recent visit to Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The mission of the PathForward is to accelerate the development of advanced computing components and technologies. The research specified in the contract, which spans a period of four years, is designed to help create the 100- to 1,000-fold increase in computing power that will be required by ASCI, which is an element of the DOE's Stockpile Stewardship Program.

Secretary of Energy Federico Pena said, "The Department of Energy and its national laboratories are proud to rise to President Clinton's challenge: to develop technologies necessary to certify confidence in the safety and reliability of the enduring nuclear weapons stockpile. PathForward will help us meet this challenge."

In 1995, Clinton announced the United States' intention to pursue a "zero yield" Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty that would prohibit all nuclear testing. ASCI's goal is to replace nuclear testing with computer-based modeling, simulation and assessment of nuclear weapons systems.

"PathForward is a trail-blazing relationship between the U.S. government and the U.S. computer industry. Silicon Graphics/Cray and our other industry partners will work side by side with the U.S. Department of Energy in developing a technology base for the 30 to 100 trillion operation per second computers," said Gil Weigand, deputy assistant secretary for strategic computing and simulation, U.S. Department of Energy. "These companies will build upon current commodity computer systems to accelerate their technology plan to achieve the teraflops scale systems we need to meet the requirements of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty."

Under the contract, Silicon Graphics/Cray will develop and evaluate advanced interconnect and signaling techniques. These technologies are integral to high-speed internal communications within high-performance computers and to the networking protocols and devices that connect these computers within a lab or across the nation. Specifically, the technology could be used in future routers, switches, communication links, channels and interconnects.

Silicon Graphics/Cray expects to incorporate much of the signaling technology developed under this contract into its future high-performance computing products. The majority of the research will be conducted in Silicon Graphics/Cray's research and manufacturing facility in Chippewa Falls, Wis.

"We expect this effort to accelerate development of technology that will meet ASCI's aggressive goals while advancing availability of next-generation high-performance computing products," said Irene Qualters, president of Cray Research and senior vice president of Silicon Graphics. "The award of this contract to Silicon Graphics/Cray recognizes our emphasis on building balanced and scaleable high-performance systems that can take maximum advantage of continuing improvements in processor speed."

The focus on interconnect and signaling techniques reflects a growing need for faster interconnect technology. As processing power continues to increase, it is becoming more and more important to ensure that communications capabilities expand at a similar pace.

"Silicon Graphics/Cray has long had a competitive advantage in our high-speed interconnect technologies," Qualters said. "Improving signaling techniques helps us maintain a balanced high-performance system design."

The problems that ASCI will solve for Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship span the activities and responsibilities of the three Defense Programs Laboratories (Los Alamos, Sandia, and Lawrence Livermore). Cooperation and peer review among Defense Programs Laboratories is essential to identifying and solving these problems.

New Smart Rechargeable Battery Offers Interchangeable Solution For Consumer Electronic and Portable Computing Markets

KAUAI, Hawaii — NEC Electronics Inc. unveiled the ME210 rechargeable battery, the newest in NEC's line of battery products, targeted at the consumer electronic and portable computing markets. As part of its recent agreement with Moli Energy (1990) Limited, NEC is responsible for all marketing and sales of Molicel batteries to its North American customer base. The announcement came on the heals of another new Molicel lithium-ion rechargeable battery product that was unveiled last November.

The new product will target the notebook PC and portable data terminal markets, where increased energy and run-time are critical.

"As the notebook computer market continues to escalate, the need for long-life, higher density batteries becomes increasingly critical,” said Jim Buckley, NEC Electronics Inc. product marketing manager for electron components. “The ME210 is designed to offer notebook computer manufacturers a standard battery solution that is interchangeable with nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) products."

The new MolicelME210 lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack includes SBS-compliant circuitry, enabling complete smart capabilities such as the ability to measure, calculate, update, and communicate accurate information on battery status and usage to the host device. With SBS compliance, the product is able to communicate its charging requirements to an SBS-compliant charger, allowing it to configure the charging supply with the necessary current and voltage and therefore ensuring that it remains at full charge potential. This capability means the ME210 can be used as a direct replacement for NiMH batteries, provides various smart functions such as state-of-charge and battery usage data to the user.

Offering significant reduction in weight over comparable NiMH batteries, the ME210 is ideal for the portable computing market. Running at 11.1 volts (V) nominal, the battery provides 33 watt hours (Wh) of energy, leading to longer and stronger run times.

The ME210 is unique in that it offers designers a 3.0 Amp hour (Ah) lithium-ion battery in a standard format for applications such as palmtop and handheld computing devices. This provides ease-of-design, chemistry independence and reduced engineering time for these portable products.

In the fourth quarter of 1997, NEC Electronics joined forces with Moli Energy in an agreement that enables Moli Energy to focus on Molicel battery technology development and manufacturing while NEC handles North American sales and marketing activities.

The Moli Energy manufacturing facility, with plant capacity reaching millions of cells per year, is located in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, Canada, and supports lithium-cobalt and lithium-manganese technologies in a range of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries.

Bombardier's Dash 8Q Series 400 Makes First Flight

TORONTO — Bombardier Aerospace’s new de Havilland Dash 8Q Series 400 turboprop airliner — designed to meet regional airlines' requirements for larger, faster, quieter and more economical aircraft — took to the sky for the first time Jan. 31. During the three-hour flight, the aircraft reached a speed of 200 knots (370 km/h) and an altitude of 7,500 feet (2,286 m).

The flight was commanded by Wally Warner, chief engineering test pilot at de Havilland, assisted by engineering test pilot Barry Hubbard. Onboard instrumentation was monitored by lead flight test engineer Angelo Susi and flight test engineer David Monteith.

The flight was monitored using real-time telemetry between the aircraft and the flight test center mobile ground station at Downsview Airport, a first for a de Havilland product. Sensors aboard the aircraft monitored several hundred parameters and continuously transmitted them to engineers in the ground station.

The aircraft, Serial Number 4001, weighed about 50,000 pounds (22,680 kg) at takeoff, well below the basic aircraft's 60,250-pound (27,329 kg) maximum takeoff weight.

After several more flights from Downsview, the aircraft will be ferried to the Bombardier Aerospace Flight Test Centre in Wichita, Kan. It will be joined there in the coming months by the three other aircraft participating in the approximately 1,500-hour flight test program.

When it enters revenue service in 1999, the 350-knot, 70-seat de Havilland Dash 8Q Series 400 will meet regional airlines' requirements for larger, faster, quieter and more economical aircraft — larger to meet increasing capacity demands, faster to replace older technology jet aircraft on some routes, and more economical to help regional carriers maintain their lower cost schedules and consistent profitability.

Addition of the Series 400 to the de Havilland product line provides a family of common aircraft ranging from the 37-seat Dash 8Q Series 100 and 200, 50-seat Series 300 and 70- to 74-seat Series 400.

Collins & Aikman Plastics Acquires Automotive Kigass Automotive To Increase European Presence

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Collins & Aikman Plastics, a subsidiary of Collins & Aikman Corp., acquired Kigass Automotive Group, a privately-held, automotive interior plastic trim products manufacturer headquartered in Leamington Spa, England.

"Europe offers us a tremendous opportunity to market our plastics expertise," said D. Michael Weston, president of Collins & Aikman Plastics. "One of our primary objectives is to leverage our technologies with Kigass Automotive's engineering and manufacturing capabilities to grow our combined interior trim business globally. Collins & Aikman Plastics is the leading manufacturer of air registers for climate control and interior trim, and combined with Kigass Automotive can offer its European customers a full range of engineered interior trim products for their vehicles, including door panels, consoles, instrument panels, and climate control products."

Kigass Automotive has manufacturing operations in England at Warwick, Redditch, Sunderland, and Leamington Spa and has a separate Design and Engineering facility also located in Leamington Spa. Kigass supplies a large number of European OEM's including Ford, Honda, Rover, Jaguar, Nissan and Opel.

"This niche acquisition of Kigass Automotive is a significant move for us as we expand our international presence and automotive interiors product line," said Thomas E. Hannah, chief executive officer of Collins & Aikman. "With more auto manufacturers requiring complete automotive interior systems and engineering support on a global basis, this purchase helps us reach the European market for interior plastic systems," Hannah added.

Lockheed Martin Receives $330 Million Air Force Contract

DENVER — Lockheed Martin Astronautics began work on a $330 million contract with the U.S. Air Force to integrate spacecraft onto 20 Titan IV and five Titan II space launch vehicles through 2002. The contract was awarded in October 1997.

Integration involves the engineering, planning and other preparations necessary to ensure that the launch vehicle is configured appropriately to meet each spacecraft's specific requirements, including power and guidance, and that the launch vehicle's mission is tailored to place the spacecraft precisely in the desired orbit.

The Lockheed Martin/Air Force team successfully launched one Titan II and four Titan IV rockets in 1997, including the Oct. 15 Titan IV/B launch of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Cassini spacecraft on its mission to Saturn.

Overall, 23 Titan IV and six Titan II rockets have been launched. This new contract includes the integration of three Titan IV payloads launched in October and November 1997, along with 17 Titan IV and five Titan II rockets remaining to be launched. Three Titan IV and two Titan II rockets are scheduled for launch in 1998. The integration work is performed at three locations: Astronautics' facilities near Denver, where the company designs and builds the Titan rockets, and the two facilities from which they are launched: Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

"This integration effort now is in line with our existing contracts for Titan production and launches," said Raymond S. Colladay, president of Lockheed Martin Astronautics. "We look forward to extending the successful launch record of both the Titan IV and the Titan II."

Astronautics is under contract to the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, El Segundo, Calif., to complete production of a total of 40 Titan IV rockets with launches extending through 2003. As prime contractor and systems integrator, the company provides overall program management, builds the first and second stages and the Centaur upper stage used on some missions and provides launch services. Titan IV is the nation's largest, most powerful expendable launch vehicle, and provides the principal access to space for critical national security payloads launched from both coasts.

Also under contract to the Air Force, Astronautics has refurbished 14 Titan II intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) for use as space launch vehicles. Titan II ICBMs served as key elements of the nation's strategic deterrent for more than two decades. Titan IIs also launched 10 manned and two unmanned missions for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) during the Gemini program in the 1960s.

DuPont Completes Purchase Of ICI's Polyester Film Business

WILMINGTON, Del. — DuPont completed the purchase of ICI's polyester film business worldwide. With the completed purchase, DuPont gains polyester films facilities in Ibaraki, Japan; Rozenburg, The Netherlands; Wilton, England and Dumfries, Scotland in the United Kingdom; and Hopewell, Va. About 1,700 ICI employees are transferring to DuPont.

DuPont and ICI signed an agreement July 13 for DuPont to acquire ICI's white pigment business outside North America, its worldwide polyester films, resins and intermediates businesses and all related technologies. DuPont completed the purchase of the polyester resins and intermediates businesses on Dec. 31. The transaction regarding the white pigment business is pending.

DuPont will pay about $3 billion to acquire these businesses and will pay for this acquisition out of cash flow from operations and short-term borrowings.

Contract To Develop Low Emission, Propane-Powered Engine For Medium-Duty Trucks Awarded To IMPCO

CERRITOS, Calif. — IMPCO Technologies was awarded a contract from the Mobile Source Air Pollution Reduction Review Committee (MSRC) for the development and certification of a low emission propane-powered engine for medium-duty trucks. The contact is valued at $447,000.

The MSRC contract, which is administered by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), will supplement funding by IMPCO and General Motors to develop and certify the GM 7.4 liter engine for propane fuel operation in all 50 states.

IMPCO will certify the engine to emissions standards significantly improved over 1999 EPA and California Air Resources Board (CARB) emission standards. In addition, IMPCO will develop the fuel system's components and systems to meet strict durability requirements that ensure performance over the life of the engine.

IMPCO will provide the new propane engines for medium-duty trucks that will be sold in the 1999 model year in all 50 states.

School buses represent another potential market for the new propane-powered engine. Initially, IMPCO plans to outfit a combined total of 2,000 trucks and/or buses with the new engine.

Stewart & Stevenson Completes Sale of Gas Turbine Unit to GE

HOUSTON — Stewart & Stevenson Services, Inc., a Houston based manufacturer and distributor of industrial machinery, completed the sale of its gas turbine related businesses to General Electric Co. for $600 million. Stewart & Stevenson expects to recognize an estimated pre-tax nonrecurring gain in excess of $100 million on the sale during the fourth quarter ending Jan. 31, 1998.

The company previously announced its intention to use the proceeds from the sale of the gas turbine operations to reduce outstanding bank indebtedness, repurchase shares of its common stock and provide funds for the growth of its other lines of business.

"We are pleased to have completed this divestiture with General Electric." said Robert Hargrave, CEO of Stewart & Stevenson. "This sale is the right transaction at the right time for both companies. General Electric has been a valuable business partner for a number of years and their purchase of the turbine operations will enable them to consolidate their position as a leading supplier of power generating equipment. It will also allow Stewart & Stevenson to pursue growth opportunities in our remaining petroleum, airline, defense and distribution businesses."

The company's non-turbine products have experienced compound annual sales and earning growth of over 20 percent during the past five years. Sales excluding gas turbine operations will approach $1.1 billion for the most recent year ending Jan. 31, 1998.

In commenting further on the company's fourth quarter results, Hargrave said that the company expects to take a $37 million charge to operations related to its continuing businesses. He also stated that the estimated operating profit margin on sales of military vehicles pursuant to the 1991 FMTV contract have been reduced from 4.5 to 3.25 percent for fiscal year 1998.

ImageGenetics: An Object-Based Pattern Recognition System That Enables Computers To Recognize Objects or Patterns

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Have you ever tried to find a needle in a haystack? Perhaps not, but you have probably spent many hours on the computer sifting through irrelevant data, trying to find the information you really want, or analyze the information already found.

But what if the computer could learn to recognize objects and patterns? Imagine being able to immediately identify oil deposits buried in a terabyte of geological data because the computer knows what to look for.

Chroma Graphics, Inc. has completed the object recognition component of ImageGenetics, a patented technology that applies biotechnology techniques to finding patterns in data. ImageGenetics enables the computer to recognize and retrieve specific objects or patterns in images, audio, video or any other dataset, a capability thought impossible prior to Chroma's development of the first object-based pattern recognition system.

"ImageGenetics is a foundational technology that will enable the next wave of computer applications," said Peter Whitehead, chief executive officer for Chroma Graphics, Inc. "Every day we hear from IT and industry leaders about how this technology will change their business. It means vast improvements in medical imaging, data management, geological surveying — essentially anyplace where quickly locating and analyzing data is important."

Chroma's system is unique in its ability to find complex objects or patterns in data, such as a specific person in a large database, a breast lesion in an x-ray, or a land mine in a satellite image. It can also search on general classifications, such as people, buildings, or irregular patterns. Chroma is already working with one licensee to build searches for people and other taxonomies for web-based, media-rich searches.

"Analyzing natural data — pictures, seismic data, medical images and a multitude of other data types — has been an elusive task," said Chris Brandin, chief technology officer of Neo-Core, a company specializing in patented associative processing technologies. "Chroma Graphics has the first truly viable technology for natural pattern recognition, and it is an ideal match to Neo-Core's associative processing technology."

ImageGenetics is fundamentally different from existing model-based systems or query-by-image-content (QBIC) in its ability to automate data classification, and recognize and retrieve visual data. Current systems are not object-based and can be limited in their accuracy and ability to classify untagged data.

Chroma plans to license ImageGenetics, as well as deliver vertical applications and market-specific solutions for energy and medical markets. In addition, the company will introduce ProFILE (pattern recognition and object file system), which includes customizable libraries of searchable objects, an interpretive engine and a metadata format that can be embedded within any dataset to speed real-time searching. ProFILE is a licensable toolkit with planned availability in Q3 of 1998. Pricing has not been set.

Chroma is also working with several ASIC and microprocessor companies to develop the interpretive engine for future associative and parallel processing architectures, and expects an announcement in Q2 of 1998.

Dresser's Wellstream Unit Supplies Risers for Morpeth Development

DALLAS — The Wellstream unit of Dresser Industries, Inc. finalized a contract to design and manufacture four risers at its Panama City, Fla. facility for British Borneo Exploration's Morpeth development in Ewing Bank block 965 in the Gulf of Mexico.

The contract with J. Ray McDermott, Inc., valued at nearly $4 million, includes the supply of three dynamic production risers rated at 7100 psi and for sour service and one dynamic water injection riser rated at 6100 psi. The 4-inch ID (internal diameter) risers are each 2,900 feet in length and will be delivered in May 1998 for installation and tie-back to the Sea Star Tension Leg Platform designed and constructed by Atlantia Corp. in 1,700 feet water depth.

In a first for Wellstream, the dynamic production risers are thermally insulated to help retain the heat and maintain the flow of service fluids.

Physical Acoustics To Develop A Way To Detect Defects In Thick Composite Armor Laminates, Government and Business Will Benefit

Princeton, NJ — The United States Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command (US ARMY TACOM) awarded Physical Acoustics Corp. (PAC) a Phase I SBIR contract entitled “Acousto-Ultrasonic Defect Detection in Composite Armor Material.”

The primary objective of this project is to develop a technology for Acousto-Ultrasonic defect detection for thick composite armor laminates. Successful completion of this project will lead to a new methodology in detection of defects in composite armor laminates for various government and commercial applications.

Acousto-Ultrasonics (AU) is a nondestructive testing (NDT) technique that combines some aspects of Acoustic Emission (AE) methodology with ultrasonic simulation of stress waves. The AU approach uses analysis of simulated stress waves for detecting and mapping variations of mechanical properties. Acousto-Ultrasonics has been applied mainly to laminates and filament-wound fiber reinforced composites.

PAC is the worldwide market leader in the development and manufacture of Acoustic Emission Testing (AE) and nondestructive testing (NDT) instrumentation for computer-aided testing, inspection, process control and factory automation. The company also designs, manufactures and markets AE, Ultrasonic and Eddy Current systems for both laboratory and field applications. As experts in technology transfer, PAC provides its customers and strategic alliance partners with research and development, training and certification and field testing, all within one organization.

Technology, Design and Manufacturing Alliance Creates Protective Helmet Requested by Winter Olympics Athletes

La Jolla, Calif. — HighRES, Inc. of La Jolla, Calif. formed a strategic alliance with FastSURF of Sonora, and Mosa Sports of Hermosa Beach, Calif. HighRES/FastSURF bundles delivery of unprecedented reverse engineering and surface/solid modeling capabilities to Mosa Sports. “Installation of these advanced software tools enabled Mosa to produce 3-D computer models 60 percent faster than it used to,” said Doug Poe, co-owner of Mosa Sports.

Christiann Moore, director of marketing and sales of HighRES, Inc., said, “This complete and affordable desktop application is revolutionizing the CAD industry. These products satisfy a magnitude of diverse application in a 3D CAD environment.”

The high-powered technology and manufacturing alliance allowed Mosa to rapidly deliver a new snowboarding helmet that focuses on improved safety and comfort as requested by athletes already wearing the Pro-tec brand “Classic” model.

The increasing popularity of “extreme” sports (snowboarding, skateboarding and extreme in-line skating) has the attention of the industry and Mosa is delivering the new snowboarding ACE helmet to meet the needs of these athletes.

The new helmet is making its Olympic Snowboarding debut in Nagano, Japan in February 1998.

This technology and manufacturing alliance has allowed Mosa to maintain the Pro-tec fit and feel while developing a totally new product. Quick reverse engineering solutions, as provided in the software by HighRES, Inc., and creation of industrial strength manufacturable surfaces, as provided in the software by FastSURF, Inc. delivers the manufacturing integrity necessary to meet the stringent deadlines of product delivery worldwide. The need for better snow-sports protective head gear is increasing with the popularity of snowboarding throughout the world. Athletes crossing over from skateboarding and extreme skating competition into snowboarding, are quickly setting the trend for the next generation. In addition, last year, statistics show that 40 percent of the skiing population has already taken up the sport.

This endeavor sets a precedent and the standard for future helmet technology. Advanced technological tools and methods are critical to enable manufacturers to meet the needs of supply and demand by providing superior features, utilizing superior technology and delivering superior products. HighRES, Inc., headquartered in La Jolla, Calif. develops, markets and supports professional productivity-enhancing, reverse engineering solutions worldwide for Windows, NT and UNIX operating systems.

FastSURF, Inc., of Sonora, Calif. develops advanced surface modeling, solid modeling, and multiple surface machining software for the CADKEY environment.

Mosa Sports is a leading supplier of protective equipment for action sports enthusiasts and competitors worldwide.

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Mechanical Engineering Magazine Online's Weekly News Digest is compiled from original reporting and various print and online news sources. The Digest will be updated regularly.

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