Sarsen Technology Pumpkin Challenge 2015

This year we decided to celebrate Hallowe'en with a little bit of pumpkin carving. It turns out we all have hidden artistic talents. Some are just more deeply hidden than others!

The use of the Jack O'Lantern originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack.”

As the story goes, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn’t want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. 

Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree’s bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as “Jack of the Lantern,” and then, simply “Jack O’Lantern.” 

The very nice people at the Food Gallery (a fabulous establishment in Marlborough for the most discerning of coffee drinkers) send two of their best and fairest to judge the competition. I think they picked a worthy winner. Well done Lynn!

Check out the rest of the pictures below, including some wonderful fancy dress!

Embedded Design Show 2015

We had a great time at the Embedded Design Show again this year, where we spent two days showcasing the latest technology from DAVE Embedded Systems.

The Embedded Design Show has been running alongside the Electronics Design Show and Engineering Design Show at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry for the last few years, with 2015 looking like the most successful year to date.

If you didn't get the chance to visit the show don't worry, just get in touch with the sales team to request a datapack, which will give you a great overview of the DAVE Embedded Systems' product line, covering FPGA technology, ARM Cortex-A architecture, Freescale and Texas Instruments processors and the new Xilinx 'Zynq' SoC.

If you'd like to know more about DAVE Embedded Systems, or the Embedded Design Show, please contact Sarsen Technology on +44 1672 511166

The McHale Report Roundtable - Border Security, COTS tech and VPX systems

Each month the McHale Report hosts an online roundtable featuring experts from the defense electronics industry.

This month the report discusses the Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) event and the European defense electronics market with exhibitors from the show.

Taking part this month are:
Joe Held - Director of International Sales, Omnetics Corp.
Nigel Norman - CEO - Sarsen Technology Ltd, and
Nigel Forrester - Technical Marketing Manager - Concurrent Technologies.


MCHALE REPORT: The Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) show was held this month in London. What trends regarding military designs and applications did you see emerging at the event?

HELD: We saw a continued movement towards threat detection (i.e. – advanced radar) and soldier worn electronics (communication, vision systems).

NORMAN: The biggest trend we are seeing this quarter is engineers at leading military and aerospace OEMs looking to make use of large FPGA devices in their new designs. The downside is that there is a shortage of competent VHDL & Verilog designers at many of these OEMs. This is an opportunity for specialist FPGA consulting design houses and for the implementation of initiatives such as OpenCL development for FPGA. The other continuing trend is the re-engineering of legacy CompactPC and VME systems to VPX and custom COM Express-based designs.

FORRESTER: DSEI is a wide-ranging show with military products from thermal underwear to complete battleships, but we didn’t pick up on a specific trend this time. There did appear to be more unmanned devices on display confirming a continued focus in this area. As an exhibitor we perhaps saw what we were looking for, the improved acceptance of COTS-based electronics products many of which used Intel processor technology.


See what the panelists think about the following questions by reading the full article on mil-embedded.com

McHALE REPORT: What are the hot application areas in the European military market such as unmanned systems, radar, avionics, etc.?
McHALE REPORT: How would you describe the defense electronics market in Europe -- growing, declining, or just flat? Why?
McHALE REPORT: How would you describe the demand for commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) products in Europe? What standards or products are hot?

Tech Source’s Tyton VS1 Rugged H.264 Video Encoder Delivers Dual HD-SDI Inputs and Bypass Video Outputs

Since their very first day back in 1987, Tech Source has been a pioneer in high performance computer graphics hardware solutions for niche markets. The product range has evolved and grown over the years, and now includes graphics, imaging and video capture boards, H.264 encoders and high compression video recorders.

The latest innovation from the team at Tech Source is the Tyton VS1 H.264 video encoder. Designed for military, aerospace and harsh environment C4ISR markets, it offers a rugged, small form factor box-level video encoding and streaming solution.

The product features a hardware implementation of CoT (Cursor on Target) and KLV (Key Length Value) metadata insertion supported via RS-232 or Ethernet. Control of encoding settings and retrieval of Tyton health information are all performed using an API built around SNMP for simple and secure communication.

Tyton VS1 is rugged enough to operate in extremely harsh environments (shock, vibration, humidity) and temperatures from -45°C to 85°C (MIL-STD-810 & IP67), and comes with dedicated mounting holes for mounting on to racks. In the default configuration, the product accepts two high definition video inputs in 3G-SDI, HD-SDI or SD-SDI format through BNC connectors. Audio, 1Gbps Ethernet & RS-232 are routed over a 22-pin rugged circular MIL spec connector.

DOWNLOAD DATASHEET

The low power, low latency Tyton VS1 is an operating system independent, hardware agnostic, stand-alone rugged video encoding system. A control API is available for Windows XP/7/8 and Linux users to permit feature customisation and IP address setting.

For more information on the Tyton VS1 or any other product from Tech Source, please email info@sarsen.net or call +44 1672 511166.

Also available - the Condor product line includes a range of XMC/VPX based COTS products that are targeted towards extended temperature and rugged applications such as avionics, defense and industrial applications.