Friday, 29 June 2012

The Friday Round-Up from Sarsen Technology...


It’s nearing the end of the working week, and it’s been a busy one for Sarsen Technology. With visits to key customers and new products to get excited about, we are looking forward to a busy summer….. when it arrives!

Some of the new products we have been talking about this week -

Our friends at Tech Source have announced the Condor3000x-cc; a new conduction cooled and rugged version of the Condor 3000x XMC card. The Condor 3000x-cc is a leading edge XMC form factor graphics/video card, based on AMD’s E6760 GPU, for use in applications that require very high-end graphics and computation in a rugged format. 
  
The XCalibur1600 from Extreme Engineering Solutions, Inc. (X-ES) is a high-performance, 6U cPCI, single board computer supporting Freescale QorIQ P3, P4, and P5 processors. With eight Power Architecture e500mc cores running at up to 1.5 GHz, the P4080 delivers enhanced performance and efficiency for high-en military, communications and industrial embedded applications.

And in other news….

Sarsen Technology has decided to support Debbie Simpson in her bid to conquer the Marathon des Sables, to raise money for Facing Africa Noma, a great charity helping children overcome the legacy of the devastating disease noma.

Tim Norris, one of our account managers, is off to ‘Les Alpes’ this weekend on a mountain-biking holiday. Break a leg Tim. Oh, wait….   Follow Tim on Twitter @Embedded_Tim

Sarsen Technology has a brand new line card. If you’d like one sent out to you contact us at info@sarsen.net

Have a wonderful weekend!


Tuesday, 26 June 2012

Sarsen Technology sponsoring Debbie Simpson in the Marathon des Sables for Facing Africa Noma

Every year Sarsen Technology chooses a worthy cause to offer their support. Over the past couple of years we have sponsored the local U10s football team, and one of the two Physics laboratories at the new St Johns School. 

This year we have decided to support Debbie Simpson, who is taking part in the 2013 ‘Marathon des Sables’, an event described as The Toughest Footrace on Earth – a run of 150 miles over 6 days across the Sahara desert, in temperatures that can reach over 100°F. Each competitor has to carry everything they will need during the race (food, clothing, medical supplies etc) on their backs. 



Debbie is raising money for ‘Facing Africa Noma’, a registered UK charity that funds and organises teams of volunteer medical teams to operate on children who have survived the ravages of noma.
Noma is an acute and ravaging gangrenous infection affecting the face. The victims of Noma are mainly children under the age of 6, caught in a vicious circle of extreme poverty and chronic malnutrition. Noma begins with ulcers in the mouth, and without antibiotics develops into gangrene. After the scab falls away a gaping hole is left in the face. The scar tissue restricts jaw movement and a child who survives is unlikely to be able to speak or eat normally again. Facing Africa funds 2 - 3 two-week surgical missions every year to operate on children who have survived noma. Each team achieves 50-55 facial reconstructions, saving those children from becoming social outcasts.

Sarsen Technology is keen to support Debbie in this worthwhile cause, and have pledged to match any sponsorship donations she receives up to £5000. Debbie wants to help at least 12 children receive the surgery necessary to enable them to live a normal life, so her target is £10,000.

Please take a few minutes to take a look at the Facing Africa website: http://www.facingafrica.org  but please be aware, some of these images are distressing.


If you would like to support Debbie in her bid to reach her goal for Facing Africa Noma you can donate online by logging onto the Facing Africa website, clicking ‘Donate now’, the select yes as sponsoring a runner in the MdS. Add Debbie Simpson’s name to the box so your donation is added to her fundraising total.

Friday, 15 June 2012

BittWare to Exhibit at SIFMA 2012


June 19-20, 2012         Hilton New York

The Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) Tech Expo draws the top technology exhibitors providing services to the financial services industry. It brings together the shared interests of hundreds of securities firms, banks and asset managers. These companies are engaged in communities across the country to raise capital for businesses, promote job creation and lead economic growth.

BittWare has designed and developed a family of PCIe format Altera Stratix V FPGA hardware optimised for the financial trading market.  Ron Huizen, Darren Taylor and Chad Hamilton from BittWare will be exhibiting at SIFMA next week on booth #1823, showcasing their (growing) Stratix V family of PCIe cards.  


More than 70 senior regulators and industry experts will participate in 29 educational sessions on the foremost issues facing financial technologists, and the event is expected to bring together more than 4,000 industry-leading professionals to discover the latest trends and solutions.

If you would like to visit BittWare at the SIFMA Tech Expo please give us a call on +44 1672 511166 to arrange a time.

Please contact Sarsen Technology for full details of the full range of PCIe format Altera Stratix V FPGA hardware and software developed for this market. E - info@sarsen.net 

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Sarsen Technology DSEi Competition Winner

If you visited the Sarsen Technology Ltd stand at the Defence Security and Equipment International (DSEi) exhibition last September, you would have had the opportunity to add your business card to the hat and enter a prize draw to win a brand new iPad 3.

Sarsen had hundreds of visitors to the stand at the exhibition at ExCeL, many with a keen interest in the embedded computing and data acquisition COTS hardware, software & systems supplied by Sarsen to the world’s leading defence & aerospace OEMs. The BittWare embedded COTS hardware featuring the Altera Stratix FPGA is a key technology solution supported by Sarsen Technology. Steve Dodsworth of Altera drew the winning card from the hat.

The lucky recipient of the iPad 3 was Julien Loyer of Esterel Technologies. Julien had to wait until Apple released the iPad 3 until he could receive his prize at the Altera European HQ in High Wycombe.

Steve Dodsworth of Altera is pictured presenting the prize to Julien Loyer of Esterel Technologies. 



Left to right:
Bob Blake - Product & Corporate Marketing Manager, Altera Europe Ltd
iPad 3 Price draw winner: Julien Loyer - Sales Manager Northern Europe, Esterel Technologies
Steve Dodsworth - EMEA North Area Sales Director, Altera Europe Ltd
Nigel Norman - Managing Director, Sarsen Technology Limited

Monday, 28 May 2012

A Busy Week in the Life of the Sarsen Technology Team

Last week Sarsen Technology participated in both MAE 2012 in Reading, and ITEC 2012 at the ExCeL in London.

The MAE show is primarily focussed on embedded systems in military and aerospace equipment, a market in which Sarsen Technology are proven to be very successful. We were pleased to be joined by representatives from 2 of our principles. Jeff Milrod, from BittWare Inc., who presented a paper titled ‘Floating Point Co-processing for FPGAs Reduces Power Consumption while Increasing Productivity’, and Bob Senko from Extreme Engineering Solutions, who ran an interactive workshop discussing VPX and Small Form Factor Solutions Optimized for SWaP. The Sarsen stand was well attended, and we came away with some great new leads to follow up this week.

Meanwhile, about 50 miles east of Reading, Sarsen Technology were also at ITEC to support another of their manufacturers, this time United Electronic Industries.

ITEC is an exhibition for the military training, simulation and education sectors. UEI are leaders in the PC/Ethernet data acquisition and control, Data Logger and Programmable Automation Controller (PAC) markets. Their “Cube” form factor provides a compact, rugged platform, ideal for applications in the simulation sector. This is a relatively new market for Sarsen Technology, and it was a great opportunity to learn about the kinds of technology our customers are looking for in this particular industry.

And of course, not forgetting the Olympic Torch Relay, which passed right outside the Sarsen Technology office in Marlborough. The office was decked out in bunting and flags to help celebrate the historic occasion.

So it’s been a busy and productive week for Sarsen Technology. If we didn’t get to meet you at either of these exhibitions please feel free to give us a call to find out how we can support your embedded solution requirements, on +44 1672 511166, or email us at info@sarsen.net.

Monday, 16 April 2012

Sarsen Technology Sponsors MAE 2012 - Military, Defence & Aerospace Electronics Technical Conference & Exhibition

Sarsen Technology is one of the sponsors of MAE 2012 - Military, Defence & Aerospace Electronics Technical Conference & Exhibition. MAE has established itself as the UK's only dedicated event on embedded computing and integrated electronics for military, defence and aerospace applications.

Produced by engineers for engineers, the industry's premier one-day technology forum is focused on the design and development of military, defence and aerospace electronic systems. The conference is built around a day of technical seminars which have been carefully selected by our independent judging panel of experts to inform and educate engineering professionals on the key topics in this challenging environment, helping them to make more informed decisions for their current and future design projects.

Jeff Milrod of BittWare will be presenting a paper called "Floating Point Co-processing for FPGAs Reduces Power Consumption while Increasing Productivity" at 2.40pm. Bob Senko of Extreme Engineering Solutions (X-ES) will be presenting at a workshop focussed on VPX & COM Express technologies for demanding military & areospace applications. VPX systems are revolutionising rugged COTS applications and delivering extreme performance in extreme environments. As a proven supplier of rugged VPX and OpenVPX components and systems, X-ES has the experience to deliver VPX to your most demanding applications. The aim of the workshop is to detail the system design considerations for efficient military airborne and land vehicle projects using VPX and COM Express technologies.

This event will be held on 22 May 2012 at the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre, Reading.

Link to the MAE 2012 - Military, Defence & Aerospace Electronics Technical Conference & Exhibition web site: MAE 2012

Thursday, 29 March 2012

March Edition of News Bytes now online



The March 2012 edition of News Bytes includes news stories on BittWare Anemone™ Co-Processor for FPGA Boards, The Low-Latency Summit for financial trading 2012, Wildcat PCI-104 SBC with Intel Core 2 Duo processor, MIL-COTS LCD Touchscreen Monitor With Sealed Keyboard, United Electronics Industries (UEI) to Exhibit at ITEC 2012, Conduant SNAP12 Optical FPGA Card, BittWare BittWorks II Release Notes and Electronic Engineering Journal: Reducing Power Consumption and Increasing Bandwidth on 28-nm FPGAs.



Link to the March News Bytes Newsletter:

Sarsen Technology web site homepage