Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the final Wind River – Aerospace and Defense Seminar Series lecture event of the year. It was an extremely informative day of seminars and networking with various vendors within the field of Embedded Systems. Attendees/Exhibitors included GE Fanuc, IBM Rational Software, Freescale Semiconductors, Curtiss Wright Controls, McObject, Aonix, and others.  Two of the seminars I attended were particularly informative and intriguing.

The first was the Industry Keynote speaker, Ken Krieg, former Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics.  He spoke in depth on historic defense cycle spending, and predicted off-record where he believes budgets will be tightened in the next few years. One of the most intriguing comments he made was in regards to project management and time-lines.  He explained how the Defense industry is the only place in the world where you can look forward 20 years and act as though it is the present.  Many projects are designed and funded to be worked on in the present, but as though the future is already here.  They do not simply look ahead and prepare, but rather, there is a truly unique mindset of considering the predictions of the future to be the present reality and acting accordingly.

The second most intriguing lesson was something I realized as I was considering their various marketing messages.  I attended a breakout session with Chip, a Wind River employee, who was speaking to the issue of how their software was designed to save weight on airplanes and UCAVs (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles).  Now, you might be saying to yourself, “software doesn’t weigh anything… so how can it save weight?”  Well, it does weigh a lot.  In fact, software may “weigh” mor depending on how complex it is.  Don’t forget that all software requires hardware to run.  Wind River has designed software that takes advantage of Multi-Core Semiconductor technology, essentially making it possible to run multiple operating systems on the same chip at close to full capacity.  By reducing the number of chips and boards necessary to run all of these systems, they save weight.  In fact, for the new Boeing 787, they were able to save 500 lbs of weight by using their HyperVisor.

A few weeks ago my manager told me that one of the most pertinent marketing messages to the UCAV market should be how they can reduce their payload by using our flex and rigidflex circuit boards.  I found it very interesting that the issue of weight is so important, even software companies are developing ways to meet that need, and it is one of their primary marketing message as well.

I would like to thank Wind River for sponsoring this series of seminars.  The time I spent at the event was very informative.  It was well attended, the food was fabulous, and many beneficial connections were made with potential customers.  It was a day very well spent and I look forward to it again next year.