COMMUNICATIONS MARKET FUELING GROWTH FORECAST FOR RUGGEDIZED PC PRODUCTS.

According to new studies from Venture Development Corporation titled "The World Market for Fully Integrated Ruggedized Stationary PCs" and "The World Market for Modular Ruggedized PC Products", (www.vdc-corp.com/news/news00/pr00-41-frames.html) communications equipment and service providers are almost insatiable in their demand for ruggedized PC products as productivity tools for use in their businesses.

The overall worldwide market for ruggedized PC products is expected to grow from $1,498 million in 1999 to over $2,481 million in 2004, representing a 10.7% compound annual growth rate. However, total shipments of ruggedized PC products for OEM/system integrator communications equipment, and end communications service equipment is expected to grow from over $314 million in 1999 to almost $683 million in 2004, representing a 16.8% CAGR over the forecast period. These segments accounted for about 21% of the total market in 1999, and are expected to account for over 37% of the market growth through 2004.

Communications applications are high growth segments with the expansion of telephone and wireless network installations worldwide, expanding service features such as AIN, interactive voice response platforms, and a host of other innovative services being provided, and the rapid usage growth in the Internet, and related technologies. This infrastructure is utilizing more and more computers. Also, OEMs, systems integrators, and end users in the communications industry are increasingly realizing that "open" platform PC solutions are the way to go instead of proprietary designs. These offer quicker "time to market", are better understood by personnel, offer greater flexibility, and are less expensive.

However, users in the communications industry also increasingly recognize that commercial office grade PCs often lack the robustness and reliability needed in their operations. Down time can be very expensive. For example ISP providers have learned from recent fiascoes such as that encountered by eBay, that it is much more prudent to spend more up front to insure system up time than face potential public relations disasters and/or loose millions in lost income due to a system failure. Thus, there is increasing demand for higher reliability ruggedized PCs.

In particular the communications industry has adapted the CompactPCI bus standard that was initially developed for ruggedized industrial PC applications. The CompactPCI bus is an adaptation of the PCI specification for rugged and embedded applications that require a more robust mechanical form factor than desktop PCI. CompactPCI uses standard Eurocard mechanical components and metric connectors, providing a system optimized for rugged applications. A CompactPCI board uses a shielded 2-mm metric pin and socket connector and can be front loaded into a rack-mount system.

CompactPCI boards have connector card guides on both sides that firmly hold the boards into position, and also have a faceplate with an injector/ejector mechanism. The boards can be solidly screwed into the card cage. Boards are mounted vertically, allowing for natural convection cooling, which is often assisted by forced air cooling. Also, the pin-and-socket connector of CompactPCI boards is considered to be more reliable than the edge connector of standard PCI boards. Unlike standard PCI, the power and signal pins on the CompactPCI connector are staged to let the specification support hot swapping, a feature that is very important for fault-tolerant and high-availability communication systems.

The reports, "The World Market for Fully Integrated Ruggedized Stationary PCs" and "The World Market for Modular Ruggedized PC Products", are published by Venture Development Corporation of Natick, MA. In addition, VDC also has two other new studies titled: "The World Market for Ruggedized Notebook, Luggable, and Lunchbox Portable PCs"; and, "Trends in Industrial PC Software: Operating Systems, Programming Languages, and Applications Software."