GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms and PrismTech Demonstrate Compact COTS Software Defined Radio.

Cost-effective alternative to custom and high-cost solutions for SCA-compliant development

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. & BURLINGTON Mass. -- At the Software Defined Radio Forum Technical Conference and Product Exposition (Denver, CO, November 5 - 9) today, GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms and PrismTech will together present a compact Software Defined Radio (SDR) demonstrator based on COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) hardware and software.

In the demonstration, a standard FM broadcast radio signal is received, translated to base band and demodulated, allowing the signal to be monitored. The signal is then remodulated, shifted to an RF frequency and retransmitted either as an AM or FM signal.

"The demonstration is designed to show how a COTS platform can deliver a solution to a requirement that many customers have," said Jonathan Jones, Sensor Processing Technology Leader at GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms. "In certain frequency bands, the spectrum is becoming so crowded that existing communications equipment is encountering a high degree of interference. Rather than obsolete the equipment, customers want to use the capability we are showing to translate the frequency to a different, less crowded, band for retransmission - and then do the reverse operation at the receiving end."

"A key feature of the demonstration," said Steve Jennis, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development of PrismTech, "is that it not only implements SDR compliance with the Software Communications Architecture (SCA) - a key emerging standard that facilitates waveform and application portability across platforms - but that it does so using only COTS hardware and software. Thus the business benefits of SCA-compliant SDR development become affordable for a whole new category of SDR developers."

The hardware platform for the demonstration features the GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms rugged PMC571 digital transceiver module, mounted on a rugged 3U CompactPCI IMP1A single board computer, operating under the VxWorks real time operating system and housed in a compact, rugged, conduction-cooled enclosure. The PMC571 provides radio frequency analog/digital signal conversion, FPGA-based digital signal processing including digital down conversion, digital up-conversion and digital/analog conversion.

PrismTech's software platform for the demonstration features the Spectra 2 OE (operating environment) and MDE (model-driven engineering) tool kit. Spectra 2 provides a complete SDR OE and tools solution and is a recognized leader in enabling waveform portability and hardware independence - across GPP, DSP and FPGA processor architectures.

About PrismTech

PrismTech is an acknowledged leader in advanced software integration solutions. The company develops, markets, and supports a wide range of standards-compliant, high-performance middleware products whose quality-of-service (QoS) properties significantly exceed those offered by conventional middleware. PrismTech also offers developer productivity tools and a comprehensive range of professional services. PrismTech's differentiators are most highly valued in markets where business-critical and mission-critical systems require high-performance middleware. These systems are pervasive in a number of vertical markets, such as Telecom, Mil/Aero, Finance, Utilities, Transportation, and Homeland Security, and range from Net-centric OSS to Software Defined Radio. PrismTech was founded in 1992 and is a privately-held group with US operations based in Boston, MA and Saddle Brook, NJ, and European operations in the UK, Germany, The Netherlands and France. For additional information about PrismTech, visit the web site at www.prismtech.com.

About GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms

GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms, a joint venture between General Electric (NYSE: GE) and FANUC LTD of Japan, is a high-performance technology company and a global provider of hardware, software, services, expertise and experience in automation and embedded computing, with products employed in virtually every industry, including manufacturing automation, defense, automotive, telecommunications, healthcare and aerospace. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms is a worldwide company head-quartered in Charlottesville, VA, and is part of GE Enterprise Solutions. For more information, visit www.gefanuc.com