We Wish You a Merry Christmas…. With the help of our lovely Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund Christmas Cards

As well as all the other stuff we get up to here at Sarsen, it’s very important to us that we support charities where we can. This year we have chosen to support the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund by buying all our Christmas cards from their wonderful collection.

The Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (PCRF) is a national charity dedicated to supporting research to improve diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer. It was founded in April 2004 by Maggie Blanks, following the death of her husband Alan from the disease in May 2003. The PCRF directly fund research into the disease by offering grants to researchers in universities, research institutes and hospitals in the UK and Ireland.

Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of all cancers – just 3% of those diagnosed in the UK survive for 5 years. It accounts for 5% of cancer deaths but attracts very little research funding. You can find out about the work the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund are doing in their newsletter.

You can buy their Christmas cards here, and the great thing is that with every PCRF Christmas card you send, as well as supporting them financially, you'll be making people aware of the charity and the world-class research it's funding to defeat pancreatic cancer. There are other ways to support the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund - Nigel is also offering his support by volunteering to help with research into pancreatic cancer at St Barts hospital in London. Find out more here.

Why not take a leaf out of our book and support a charity this Christmas - it'll give you a warm fuzzy glow faster than a hot toddy by an open fire!

Whats All That Noise? High Speed Recording for Radio Astronomy from Conduant

Working at Sarsen Technology exposes us to all kinds of exciting industries, few more exciting (in my opinion!) than space exploration.

Many of our manufacturers support applications outside our little earthly bubble, or are involved with projects that aim to push the boundaries of discovery further than ever before.

Conduant Corp have been working with MIT Haystack Observatory on a Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) solution.
Haystack Observatory is an interdisciplinary research centre of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) focused on radio astronomy, geodesy, and atmospheric science. MIT Haystack Observatory's project was to define and develop the next generation recording and playback system (known as Mark V) for use among the world's VLBI radio astronomy community.

Radio astronomy/Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) — Using multiple antennas to collect data from space to study other galaxies and phenomena such as black holes, quasars and pulsars.

Traditionally, the VLBI community has used large, reel-to-reel tape systems for recording and playback. These tape-based systems were not capable of high-speed recording, and maintenance costs continued to rise. Tape is difficult to search (i.e., no instant random access ability, requires rewinding) has become more expensive than disk. MIT concluded that the next generation of VLBI data systems should be based on commercial off-the-shelf components (COTS) using magnetic disk technology and standard IDE hard disk drives.

Conduant solution

The ideal solution for MIT combined low cost drives and a hardware configuration optimized for sustained high-speed recording. In early 2001, using an existing StreamStor® system, MIT put together and successfully demonstrated an ultra-fast, disk-based solution in less than two months costing less than one-tenth of existing tape-based system. 

 

 The Mark 5 VLBI data system, jointly developed by Haystack Observatory and Conduant Corporation, records data on removable magnetic-disk modules at sustained data rates to 1 Gbps. The system can also be used to move VLBI data over high-speed global networks directly from telescopes to correlators around the world. 

Today, MIT is using the latest StreamStor® technology to record data continuously, for days at a time, at sustained rates of 1 GB/s.

"StreamStor® has a lot of potential applications in other disciplines, too. Military, intelligence, as well as the radio noise from distant galaxies."
- Dr. Alan Whitney of MIT Haystack Observatory 

Sunny & Busy - Day 10 Defence & Aerospace Manufacturing Technologies Road Show 2010

Day 10 of the Road Show meant a short drive across the Wiltshire & Hampshire country side to Roke Manor Research in Romsey. Roke Manor is in a great location in the Test Valley and is a site that Nigel knows well. Nigel met with new and old contacts and had a very productive day - lots of discussions about TigerSHARC DSP, Altera FPGA and single board computer applications. A good end to the week in the September sunshine. The next stop on the Road Show is BAE Systems in Filton, Bristol and another busy day is expected so Gary & Nigel will be attending.

European Defence & Aerospace Manufacturing Technology Roadshow 2009 - Week 2

The roadshow has visited Roke Manor Research in Romsey, BAE Systems in Farnborough and Lockheed-Martin in Havant this week. Tomorrow it is Thursday so it must be GE Aviation in Cheltenham and on Friday it is BAE Systems Aerosystems International in Yeovil. This week the locations are very convenient for Sarsen as they are all about an hours drive north, south, east and west from Marlborough. Nigel's car sustained some damage returning from Goodrich last Friday. A tyre was punctured and then a truck ran over the jack whilst the wheel was being changed which resulted in the nearside wing mirror being ripped off. It could have been a lot worse but not the best way to end a long working week!