Crossbow Technology, Leader in Advanced Sensors, Rides the New Acela High Speed Train; Company Worked with Bombardier/Alstom on Sensor-Based System.Business Editors/High Tech & Transportation Writers SAN JOSE San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. , Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 15, 2000 When the new high speed Amtrak Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corp., authorized to operate virtually all intercity passenger railroad routes in the United States. Amtrak was created by Congress in 1970 in response to more than two decades of continuous operating deficits by privately run Acela train completed its maiden voyage Noun 1. maiden voyage - the first voyage of its kind; "in 1912 the ocean liner Titanic sank on its maiden voyage" ocean trip, voyage - an act of traveling by water from Boston to Washington D.C. Monday Dec. 11, Crossbow Technology
Crossbow Technology, Inc. (also referred to as XBow) is a California-based company with two distinct product lines. One is based on MEMS inertial sensor systems. -- a leader in advanced digital sensor technology -- was along for the ride. The Amtrak Acela provides the first high speed rail service in the United States, and runs at 150 miles per hour. Its first 'revenue' run Dec. 11 followed an inaugural test voyage Nov. 20. Crossbow crossbow: see bow and arrow. crossbow Leading missile weapon of the Middle Ages, consisting of a short bow fixed transversely on a stock, with a groove to guide the missile and a trigger to release it. is an emerging growth company whose board includes Wind River Founder Jerry Fidler, Tensilica Chairman Harvey Jones, and UC Berkeley Engineering Dean Richard Newton. Among its customers are industry leaders such as Marconi, Raytheon and many of the major commercial aircraft suppliers. In 1997, Crossbow began work with Montreal-based Bombardier/ALSTOM, the manufacturers of the new Acela train cars, which are shortening the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of to Washington trip from almost three hours to just under two and a half hours. Together, the companies developed a custom lateral accelerometer accelerometer Instrument that measures acceleration. Because it is difficult to measure acceleration directly, the device measures the force exerted by restraints placed on a reference mass to hold its position fixed in an accelerating body. based on the Crossbow digital accelerometer and tilt sensor technology. The custom accelerometer monitors the train's tilt and if it exceeds a specified threshold, it activates a safety system that slows or stops the train. The Crossbow accelerometer was built and tested to high standards and levels of performance required in military applications, including Environmental Stress Screening Environmental stress screening (ESS) refers to the process of exposing a newly manufactured product or component (typically electronic) to stresses such as thermal cycling and vibration in order to force latent defects to manifest themselves by failure during the screening process. , which cycles the device multiple times over a very wide temperature range. The Acela train was commissioned by Amtrak to run in the Boston-NYC-Washington corridor. Travel time from Boston to New York has been reduced from five hours to three hours and fifteen minutes. Time from New York to Washington is cut from three hours to two and a half. The trains have attracted large numbers of commuters since their initial testing and first commercial runs. "We've been working closely with Bombardier on this very advanced accelerometer system and we're proud to have been taken for a ride on the first run," said Mike Horton, Crossbow founder and chief executive. "It's a very exciting new transportation technology that requires the kind of cost-efficient, digital sensor technologies that we have developed for the aviation, avionics, and similar markets." Crossbow Technology, Inc. is the leading supplier of low-cost, intelligent digital sensor solutions. Crossbow is located at 41 E. Daggett Drive, San Jose, CA 95134. Telephone: 408-965-3300. Fax: 408-324-4840. Email: info@xbow.com. Visit Crossbow at www.xbow.com. |
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