Themis Computer

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Embedded Computing & Computer Server Solutions - Single Board Computers - Rugged Embedded Boards

Oto Melara Selects Themis VMEbus Single Board Computers and Graphics Adaptors for Control of Advanced Naval Guns

Themis® Computer's ruggedized USPIIe™ boards and TGA3D+™ graphics adaptors provide reliability for advanced, high-speed 76/62 gun systems used in Navies worldwide

FREMONT, California -- April 6, 2004 - Themis Computer announced the use of its USPIIe-USB VMEbus single-board computers and TGA3D+ graphics adaptors by Oto Melara for use in its 76/62 high speed, medium calibre gun systems. Oto Melara's 76/62 gun mount has been successfully adopted by 51 Navies throughout the world, and the company and its licensees have produced over 1000 units. The Oto Melara 76/62 guns are a major advance in gun evolution, and are more effective than other guns of similar calibre. Under the agreement, Themis Computer will provide the USPIIe-USB and TGA3D+ graphics adaptors for use in Oto Melara 76/62 naval gun systems.

Working closely with Goma Elettronica, one of the largest system integrators in Italy, Oto Melara selected Themis' USPIIe/1 boards and TGA3D+ graphics adaptors for use in its high-speed, 76/62 naval gun systems. The rate of fire (120 rounds per minute) ensures the highest delivery of payload per unit time, the accuracy is at highest levels and a large choice of ammunition is available. Due to its size and weight, the Oto Melara 76/62 guns can be installed on any class of vessels, and it offers its best performances in anti-aircraft, anti-missile and surface actions, resulting in a unique multi-role capacity.

"Our USPIIe-USB family of single board computers provide the high performance, and robustness of Solaris and SPARC hardware, required for mission-critical defense applications," stated William E. Kehret, president of Themis Computer. "As a supplier to Oto Melara with earlier USP-1v board products, it's gratifying to see our latest high performance boards selected ahead of others. Because our boards provide robust reliability for shock loads of up to 40 G's, and support a wealth of graphics tools, we believe they are a good match for the Oto Melara gun mount program. We strive to provide the highest performance and the best reliability for environmentally demanding, mission critical applications," Mr. Kehret added.

Designed for configuration flexibility and high performance, Themis' USPIIe-USB boards combine the latest 650 MHz UltraSPARC-IIi processors with a local PCI bus (PMC) peripheral controller slot and a high performance bridge. The USPIIe-USB is available in one-slot, two-slot and three-slot configurations. Each of the USPIIe-USB models includes a high performance VME64 interface, a dual Ultra3 80MB/sec SCSI port, up to two 10/100Base-T Ethernet ports, and up to six RS-232 serial ports. Memory is expandable up to 4 Gbytes using memory mezzanine cards.

The configuration selected, USPIIe-USB/2G, is a two VMEbus slot configuration of the USPIIe-USB board with the optional TGA3D+ graphics accelerator.

Oto Melara selected the TGA3D+ because of its support for native Solaris drivers and superior compatibility with Solaris X-Windows. The TGA3D+ is compatible with Sun Microsystems™ XVR-500 graphics processing board and operates with Themis' new USPIIIi VMEbus computer and USPIIe-USB single-board-computer products. All graphics components, including the geometry processor, raster engine, PCI bridge and host interconnect, are included on the single slot board. The TGA3D+ board also includes a 32/64-bit, 33Mhz PMC slot, to provide additional PMC expansion options. The TGA3D+ provides exceptional geometry and texture mapping performance, dedicated frame buffer memory support and a wide range of resolution options making it an ideal choice for demanding graphics applications, such as real-time volumetric displays.

Themis' USPIIe-USB boards and graphics adaptors support and are fully compatible with Solaris™, the industry's leading Unix® Operating System. Solaris 9, Sun's latest release, is today's preferred software development platform, with advanced multi-threading performance advantages, real-time characteristics, and a wide choice of off-the-shelf third party software. For demanding real-time applications, the USPIIe-USB also supports the latest operating system and development environment products.

Themis Computer's Environmentally Robust Servers and Single-Board Computers

Themis Computer is a leading provider of embedded computers for mission critical applications. Themis offers a broad range of compact, multi-vendor servers, including Intel, and Sun Microsystems-based dual and four-way SMP platforms, featuring rugged construction, high performance, superior scalability and ease of maintenance.

Themis provides a broad range of high performance VME and Compact PCI single board computers and graphics controllers for the embedded market. The family comprises the new USPIIIi™, USPIIe-USB™, the USPIIe-cPCI™, and TGA3D+™graphics card. Themis' single board computers have been performance tested to MIL-S-901D, class A standards, with equipment shock loads of 40 G's.

Themis' high performance servers, single-board computers and graphics controllers are now being integrated into new communications and defense systems worldwide. The Themis Computer family
of COTS VME-based boards and systems products provide increased processing power and system reliability to demanding application environments, while achieving a net reduction in total cost of ownership.

About Oto Melara

Oto Melara S.p.A., a Finmeccanica Company, has been established through the merging of Oto Melara and Breda Meccanica Bresciana, two world leaders in the field of medium calibre naval guns and national leaders in the production of weapon systems for the Army. Based in La Spezia, Italy, the Company has presently a turnover of 256 million Euro, a portfolio of orders of 1,107 million Euro and 1345 employees.

There is at least one of Oto Melara products operating in 53 countries around of the world, some of which are highly technologically developed such as the USA, Japan, Singapore, Australia and most of Europe. Oto Melara is known worldwide in the defense field for its reliable, advanced and highly qualified production of naval weapon systems, field artilleries, armored vehicles and gun turrets.
The description of Oto Melara products continues with the famous naval guns: the 127/54 Compact that is now under examination of the Italian Navy in its Light Weight version; the famous 76/62 mm gun, 1000 units of which have been sold all over the world and the smaller calibres, single or twins, with local or remote control, ranging from 25 to 40mm. For more information please visit www.otomelara.it.

About Goma Elettronica

Goma Elettronica S.p.A. is one of the largest System Integrators within the Italian embedded market.. Founded in 1977, and ISO 9001:2000 qualified, Goma Elettronica delivers leading edge solutions based on VMEbus, CompactPCI bus, Industrial PC platforms supplying its own mechanical racks, chassis and custom solutions tailored to the application, together with boards and integration services, ranging from pure h/w integration to complete system solutions including mechanics, boards, OSes, drivers, qualifications. For more information please visit www.gruppogoma.it.

About Themis Computer

Themis Computer is a leading developer and supplier of high performance VME and Compact PCI single-board computers, as well as systems based on ruggedized COTS motherboards and systems, for mission-critical telecommunications, military/aerospace, and industrial embedded applications. Themis provides open standards-based embedded computing platforms that support the Solaris™, Linux®, and Windows® NT operating systems. Themis' products incorporate features designed to ensure high reliability and availability while reducing the risks of failure caused by environmental extremes. An ISO 9001 certified company, Themis Computer practices Total Quality Management (TQM) in all areas of its business, from engineering and manufacturing to customer service. Themis Computer is headquartered in Fremont, California and offers worldwide service and support. For more information please visit www.themis.com or email: info@themis.com.

For more information, please contact:
THEMIS COMPUTER
William Hansen
47200 Bayside Parkway
Fremont, California 94538
Phone: (510) 252-0870
Fax: (510) 490-5529
Email: bhansen@themis.com
info@themis.com
Website: www.themis.com

In Europe contact:
THEMIS COMPUTER EUROPE
5, rue Irène Joliot-Curie
38320 Eybens, France
Phone: +33 (0) 476-14-77-86
Fax: +33 (0) 476-14-77-89
Email: europe@themis.com

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Themis, the Themis logo, USPIIe-USB, USPIIIi, and TGA3D+ are trademarks or registered trademarks of Themis Computer. Sun, Sun Microsystems, OpenGL, and Solaris are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective companies.