SYSTEMS

Companies to design and develop a forward-deployable system for mapping courses of action in counter and human intelligence: Mercury Computer Systems and Barco Federal Systems announced a collaboration to design and develop a forward-deployable system for counter and human intelligence (HUMINT). Mercury and Barco have completed initial concepts in conjunction with the Battle Command Battle Lab at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The system will include a Mercury module based on the Cell Broadband Engine (BE) processor and the Mercury MultiCore Plus SDK (Software Development Kit), with visually rendered displays and a sensor acquisition subsystem from Barco. Designed to use algorithms involving human intelligence, modeling, and computer gaming features, including a high-performance physics engine, the concept system provides real-time intelligence for predictive analysis and decision support. "We're pleased to join forces with Mercury to develop a forward-deployed solution for this critical application," said Mike Forde, Vice President of Product Marketing and Sales, Barco Federal Systems. "Barco's sensor acquisition systems minimize bottlenecks, which will allow seamless sensor interfacing to the Cell BE processor for rapid transfer of data for image processing, fusion, exploitation and display rendering." Mercury's Cell BE processor-based products are optimized in size, weight, and power (up to 205 GFLOPS) to enable the war fighter to execute algorithms in a deployable platform that previously could not have been executed. Mercury's Cell BE processor-based solutions provide a marked increase in processing power over traditional fielded computer systems. "We believe the combination of our technology and expertise with Barco's will enable the power, performance, and reliability required by today's military forces for safe and accurate military actions," said Joel Radford, Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Alliances at Mercury Computer Systems.