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Industry Insider

Curtiss-Wright Signals Intent to Acquire VMetro

On 24 August 2008, VMetro ASA received a letter from Curtiss-Wright Controls stating that Curtiss-Wright Controls intends to make a voluntary offer for all outstanding shares of VMetro at a price per share of 12.06 Norwegian Kroner in cash (the Offer). The launch of the Offer is subject to completion of a limited due diligence and there being no material adverse change in the business and business assets of VMetro before the launch of the Offer. The completion of the proposed Offer will be conditional upon a 90% level of acceptance of the outstanding shares of VMetro and obtaining regulatory approvals, including from relevant competition authorities. Further, the Offer will be based on customary terms appropriate for a voluntary offer under Norwegian law and market practice, including, inter alia, that no event has occurred that has material adverse effect on the business or assets of VMetro.

Shareholders representing in total 13,325,875 shares and 55.7% in VMetro have given irrevocable undertakings to accept the Offer. The shareholder-elected representatives on the Board of Directors of VMetro believe that the offered price represents a fair pricing of the company`s shares based on its current knowledge. On this basis, the Board intends to recommend the VMetro`s shareholders to accept the Offer unless provided with material new information. In accordance with the Norwegian Securities Trading Act section 6-16, the Board will issue a statement regarding the Offer at least one week before the acceptance period for the Offer expires.

The Chairman of VMetro ASA, Tore Engebretsen states: “The Board of Directors considers Curtiss-Wright to represent an attractive industrial partner for VMetro and appreciates Curtiss-Wright`s industrial and long-term perspective on business development.”

Universal Graphic Module Standard Gaining Support

Kontron has announced that AMD will support the Universal Graphics Module standard (UGM). As a leading vendor of the well-known ATI computer graphics processing technologies, AMD’s support for the UGM standard is expected to accelerate its rapid and widespread acceptance.

The UGM standard provides off-the-shelf embedded graphics on an industry-standard modular platform with multiple display configurations to guarantee customers the shortest time-to-market. With its ATI product portfolio, AMD serves the particular needs of the embedded market. AMD’s support of the UGM Consortium should thus accelerate the adoption of AMD’s ATI advanced graphics technologies in the embedded market.

The UGM open standard has been especially created for scalable, high-end PCI Express Graphics (PEG) graphics with long-term availability. It represents a standard designed to fit the requirements of many new applications in the field of embedded computing: The latest high-resolution flat panels and operating systems as well as the latest CPUs and GPUs are now able to bring advanced graphics-driven technologies into embedded designs. Adoption of the UGM standard will change OEM solutions for many embedded industries, including medical equipment, casino gaming and arcade markets, vision control technologies for security and industry markets and simulation technologies.

UGM offers quick and easy implementation of advanced graphics functions in custom designs for all these applications–including all the necessary drivers. The specification of the new UGM standard is available for third-party providers at http://www.ugm-standard.org/.

Actel Increases TCA Market Commitment with Acquisition of Pigeon Point Systems

Actel has announced that it has acquired Pigeon Point Systems, a privately held supplier of telecommunications computing architecture (TCA) management components. With the acquisition, Actel now offers a comprehensive solution for proprietary and standards-based system management implementations in the industrial, military, telecommunications and medical markets. Defined by the PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG), the industry-standard TCA specifications cover the AdvancedTCA, Advanced Mezzanine Card (AdvancedMC) and the MicroTCA frameworks. According to industry estimates from market research firm VDC, the opportunity for the overall standards-based TCA system market is expected to be roughly $1.8 billion by 2009.

The acquisition of a TCA management company by a programmable logic company might at first seem counterintuitive. However, earlier this year, Actel and Pigeon Point announced a partnership to develop and market solutions based on the Actel Fusion mixed-signal FPGAs to speed the design of AdvancedTCA blade and AdvancedMC carrier blade management controllers. The two companies’ combined portfolio of reference designs, development kits, easy-to-use development environments and expert design services gives designers the capability to address system and power management issues throughout the design process. With more of the system management functionality moving onto mixed-signal FPGAs instead of separate components, the result is lower costs, reduced board real estate, lower power consumption and the ability of the OEM to more easily adapt base designs to their specialized needs by adding or modifying the IP on the FPGA.

Emerson Network Power Launches Value Added Partner Program

Emerson Network Power has announced the Value Added Partner (VAP) program for its Embedded Computing business. Formed to organize an ecosystem of partners that provides additional value to Emerson’s embedded computing solutions, the VAP program increases Emerson’s penetration into its traditional markets and extends its reach into new markets.

Current partners include ACT/Technico, Emtech LLC, NEI, Network Allies and Suntron Open Systems Solutions, companies with expertise in specific product and service offerings and/or market segments, including the telecommunications, defense and aerospace industries. This expertise facilitates the development of customized solutions by companies who are the most familiar with the challenges within a specific industry and application environment.

For example, a defense prime needed a solution that included the high performance of Emerson’s MVME6100 VMEbus single board computer (SBC) but also required extended temperature ranges. Using Emerson’s SBC, ACT/Technico created a customized solution by adding the extra thermal capability required by the customer, thus driving innovation and adding value. Partner benefits include direct communication, sales and technical training, as well as direct marketing support from Emerson Network Power. Consideration for the VAP program is at the sole discretion of Emerson Network Power.

Hybricon Receives Notice of Allowance for Liquid Cooling Flow Patent

Hybricon has announced that the United States Patent & Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance to Hybricon for its patent application entitled Card Cage With Parallel Flow Paths Having Substantially Similar Lengths. The allowance recognizes Hybricon’s Liquid Cooled technology.

This technology has been implemented in both standard and custom Liquid Cooled ATR solutions. The technology provides for superior thermal properties, while dramatically reducing the pressure drop of the coolant flow path. With Hybricon Corporation being the industry leader in standard and custom solutions for electronic packaging needs, we are extremely pleased by this patent allowance.

Hybricon is a company providing integrated system solutions, electronic enclosures and backplanes for military, telecom and commercial applications. Hybricon Corporation is an ISO 9001 registered company, dedicated to ensuring the highest level of quality–a necessity for products that must be able to function anywhere, anytime.

Intel Chairman Challenges Developers to Promote Social, Economic Growth Worldwide

During the Intel Developer Forum’s opening keynote, Intel Corporation Chairman Craig Barrett applauded the developer community for technology innovations that have contributed to advances in entertainment and business productivity during the past 40 years. He said the impact of their work is borderless and challenged them to collaborate and use their technology expertise to inspire and empower the billions of people who have recently joined the world’s free economic system.

Barrett also announced that Intel will award four $100,000 prizes to the most innovative ideas for applying technology to meet unmet needs related to education, health care, economic development and the environment. Ideas will be evaluated primarily for sustainability and innovativeness of the solution.

Intel’s Inspire•Empower Challenge is calling for the best technology solutions to address four areas of global need–education, healthcare, economic development and the environment. The contest will award seed funding of $100,000 to one winner in each category. The Challenge is designed to inspire developers, individuals and organizations to innovate and empower them to deliver new ways to apply technology to these issues. The Inspire•Empower Challenge advances the commitment of the Intel World Ahead Program–to connect people to a world of opportunity. More details on the Inspire•Empower Challenge are available at www.intelchallenge.com.

National Instruments and Lego Develop Robotics Platform for Elementary Students

National Instruments and Lego Education continue their long-standing educational robotics collaboration with the new Lego Education WeDo classroom robotics platform. Powered by NI LabVIEW graphical design software, Lego Education WeDo Software is a drag-and-drop, icon-based environment that students ages 7 to 11 can use to easily program their own robotics inventions. Using WeDo software, students learn basic programming skills while designing their robotics applications.

Teachers can incorporate the WeDo concept in a broad range of curriculum areas including science, technology, mathematics, language and literacy. When designing their robotics applications, students use creativity, teamwork and problem solving, which are crucial skills needed to compete in the global marketplace. WeDo software operates on the Intel Classmate PC running Windows XP, the One Laptop per Child XO running the Linux OS, any PC supporting Windows XP or Windows Vista (32-bit) and any Mac running Apple Macintosh 10.5.

Lego Education WeDo encourages teachers to issue curriculum-based challenges that students must solve. Working in teams, the children invent their own solutions by building Lego models and programming them to perform certain tasks. Cause-and-effect learning is enhanced by the models remaining tethered to a computer; similar to scientists in working labs, children can test and adjust their programming in real time. After reflecting on what did and did not work, students can consult with peers, adapt programming, adjust models or begin again.