CHELMSFORD, Mass., Aug. 29 — Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY) announced the breakthrough PowerStream(R) 6600 multicomputer, with 716 PowerPC GFLOPS of compute performance in a conduction-cooled enclosure, to enable powerful sensor computing on the move.
The performance density and rugged mechanical design of the PowerStream 6600 enables manned and unmanned vehicles to support C4ISR (Command, Control, Communication, Computers, Information, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) multimode missions. These include RADAR, and image and signals intelligence (SIGINT) processing.
“The PowerStream 6600 contains the enabling hardware and software building blocks necessary for mission systems to perform compute-intensive tasks, such as processing a 3D radar data cube, in real time,” said Eran Strod, Director of Product Marketing for the Defense business at Mercury.
The PowerStream 6600 has the processing capacity to enable advanced radar applications including multi-mode search, multi-target tracking, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, and space-time adaptive processing (STAP). Additionally, multi-mode sensor signal processing may be supported for cross-cueing of SIGINT detections with SAR or other imagery sensors aboard a mobile platform.
The 16-slot PowerStream 6600 is a complete system computing solution with data acquisition, high-speed I/O, PowerPC compute clusters, and FPGA processing integrated with open-standard software. From the inside out, the PowerStream 6600 is built using open and de facto standards: the Linux(R) and VxWorks(R) operating systems, Internet Protocol (IP), VPX-REDI (VITA 46 and 48), PMC-X/XMC, Ethernet, and the RapidIO(R) interconnect fabric. The PowerStream 6600 is aligned with open standards initiatives such as the Navy’s Open Architecture Computing Environment (OACE).
The PowerStream 6600 supports 34 GB/s of sustained RapidIO fabric throughput without requiring slots dedicated to fabric switching. Maximally configured, it can support either 64 processors or 21 FPGAs. The following modules will be available with first customer shipment:
* Quad 1.4 GHz MPC7448 High-Compute-Density (HCD) card
* FPGA Compute Node (FCN) board featuring three user-programmable Virtex-4
processors
* Dual MPC8548 smart carrier board supporting dual PMC-X or XMC mezzanine
I/O cards.
The PowerStream 6600 provides a path forward for Mercury’s classic MCOE software environment, as well as significant enhancements. The platform software supports the internet protocol (IP), allowing processors to be deployed as a network cluster running standard networking applications. This network-enabled software architecture will greatly ease the challenge facing developers who must support multi-mission computing and connect next-generation sensors to the global information grid (GIG). Applications will also benefit from having a wide range of data movement middleware options, including TCP/IP, CORBA, MPI, DRI and PAS(TM), all optimized to run over the RapidIO backplane fabric.
With the addition of the PowerStream 6600, Mercury now has the most comprehensive set of RapidIO- and PowerPC-based computers of any vendor in the COTS industry, with form factor support for VXS (VITA 41), AdvancedTCA(R), CompactPCI, MultiPort(R), and now, VPX-REDI.
PowerStream 6600 is scheduled to ship to customers in Q4 2006. For more information on the PowerStream 6600, visit www.mc.com/conductioncooled, or contact Mercury at (866) 627-6951. For more information on Mercury Computer Systems’ leadership in defense applications, visit www.mc.com/industries/aero.
About Mercury Computer Systems, Inc.
Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY) is the leading provider of high-performance embedded, real-time digital signal and image processing solutions. Mercury’s solutions play a critical role in a wide range of applications, transforming sensor data to information for analysis and interpretation. In military reconnaissance and surveillance platforms the Company’s systems process real-time radar, sonar, and signals intelligence data. Mercury’s systems are also used in state-of-the-art medical diagnostic imaging devices including MRI, PET, and digital X-ray, and in semiconductor imaging applications including photomask generation and wafer inspection. Mercury provides advanced 3D image processing and visualization software and optimized systems to diverse end markets including life sciences, geosciences, and simulation. The Company also provides radio frequency (RF) products for enhanced communications capabilities in military and commercial applications.
Based in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, Mercury serves customers in North America, Europe and Asia through its direct sales force and a network of subsidiaries and distributors. Visit Mercury on the web at www.mc.com.
Forward-Looking Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including those relating to the PowerStream 6600. You can identify these statements by our use of the words “may,” “will,” “should,” “plans,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “continue,” “estimate,” “project,” “intend,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, general economic and business conditions, including unforeseen weakness in the Company’s markets, effects of continued geo-political unrest and regional conflicts, competition, changes in technology, and methods of marketing, delays in completing engineering and manufacturing programs, changes in customer order patterns, changes in product mix, continued success in technological advances and delivering technological innovations, continued funding of defense programs, the timing of such funding, changes in the U.S. Government’s interpretation of federal procurement rules and regulations, market acceptance of the Company’s products, shortages in components, production delays due to performance quality issues with outsourced components, and inability to fully realize the expected benefits from acquisitions or delays in realizing such benefits, challenges in integrating acquired businesses, and achieving anticipated synergies, and difficulties in retaining key customers. These risks and uncertainties also include such additional risk factors as are discussed in the Company’s recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2006. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made.
Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. VxWorks is a registered trademark of Wind River Systems, Inc. PAS is a trademark, and MultiPort and PowerStream are registered trademarks of Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. Other product and company names mentioned may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective holders.