The RASSP Digest - Vol. 2, No. 1, 1st. Qtr. 1995
Exective Outlook
RASSP and the Lockheed-Martin Merger
by Mark Richards, RASSP Program Manager
Because the two RASSP prime contractors are Martin Marietta Laboratories and Lockheed Sanders, many people have asked about the effect of the proposed merger of the Lockheed and Martin Marietta Corporations on the RASSP program. After extensive discussions over the last few months, the Department of Defense, Federal Trade Commission, and the companies have agreed that the two RASSP primary development contracts will be continued essentially as is. Appropriate steps will be taken by the government and the companies to ensure that the two development efforts remain individually viable and competitive with one another.
Lockheed Sanders and Martin Marietta Laboratories were selected in the original RASSP competition because of their unique approaches to design methodology, digital signal processor architectures, and EDA infrastructure development. These attractive capabilities are not fundamentally changed by the proposed merger. Furthermore, the mechanisms established at the beginning by the RASSP program to ensure proliferation of RASSP design technology to the electronics design community at large remain in place and will still be effective after the merger. The continuation of both efforts provides the DoD the greatest possible breadth of technology development and impact on the EDA and defense supplier industries, and remains the best way to ensure the success of the RASSP program.
ARPA Manufacturing Technology Programs Ensure Military Access to Affordable Advanced Technology
by Mark Richards, RASSP Program Manager
(Note: portions of this column were adapted from a speech on technology partnerships given by Dr. Gary Denman, Director of ARPA in February of this year.)
As information technologies continue to become more capable, more compact, and more affordable, they will increasingly pervade forward deployed and mobile military systems. The Advanced Research Projects Agency's Electronic Systems Technology Office (ARPA/ESTO) has the charter to focus on electronic systems technology to produce the smaller, lighter, more mobile information systems needed by modern warfighters.
One of ARPA's technology investment areas which supports these goals is the electronic modules area. The Rapid prototyping of Application Specific Signal Processors (RASSP) program is an important component of the electronic modules program, but it is only a part of the story. Other ESTO programs in electronic module technology include Physical Electronic Packaging, Multi-Chip Integration (MCI), and Application Specific Electronic Modules (ASEM).
The Physical Electronic Packaging and MCI programs are developing multi-chip module (MCM) technology for digital systems operating at clock rates from 100 MHz to several GHZ, along with an order-of-magnitude reduction in manufacturing cost, development of a domestic supplier infrastructure, and acceleration of the acceptance and insertion of advanced multi-chip integration technologies. MCM technology offers the potential of 10-100X improvements in density, as much as 2-3X reduction in power, 10X improvement in reliability, and reduced cost.
The ASEM program strives to ensure the existence of an end-to-end capability to rapidly acquire electronic modules and subsystems. The program integrates and builds on the domain-specific building blocks such as physical packaging technology, packaging computer-aided design (CAD), flexible manufacturing processes and equipment, computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), intelligent tests, design, interface, and test standards. A recent addition to this program was the establishment of a quick turn-around, semi-custom foundry for SEM-E format printed circuit boards populated with MCM technology.
RASSP represents the next step up in the "food chain" in this progression of ESTO programs aimed at improving the ability to design, package, and manufacture electronic modules. A new ESTO program in electronic systems packaging currently under consideration will continue the progression. In combination with programs of other ARPA offices in devices and circuits and in computing architectures and communications, these programs address the U.S. electronics industry's capability to develop complex, state-of-the-art electronic modules all the way from materials to system-level architecture.
It should be evident from these descriptions that manufacturing and affordability concerns pervade ARPA's electronic modules programs. In fact, they are a critical component in all of ARPA's planning. In the last several decades, the defense industrial base has become more and more isolated from the national or commercial industrial base, but today this defense-unique industrial base is shrinking. Furthermore, the most advanced technologies are no longer emerging exclusively through Department of Defense (DoD) investment, nor is the DoD any longer the dominant customer for most high technology. The United States must move toward a national technology and industrial base that will serve military as well as commercial needs. This strategy will allow DoD to exploit the rapid rate of innovation and market-driven efficiencies of commercial industry to meet defense needs, thereby achieving access to leading-edge technology, affordable products, and the ability to rebuild military capability should the world situation call for it. Developing technologies, components, and subsystems today that leverage commercial know-how will make the DoD stronger and more capable of meeting our national security needs of the future.
And yet manufacturing technology, which includes the electronics module program and RASSP in particular, is one of several ARPA programs that have recently come under fire as not relevant to national security. Others include SEMATECH, Electronics and Materials programs, Advanced Simulation, and Computing and Communications Systems. On the contrary, these are historical ARPA programs that are part of the nation's most successful military high-technology operation and are more vital to national security today than ever before. ARPA has a long history of delivering leading edge technologies that have provided the military the technological superiority it needs to prevail in crises, and many of these technologies have proven to have commercial application as well. ARPA's focus on leveraging commercial investments and knowledge as part of its technology research and development program will help meet critical defense needs by breaking down the barriers between the commercial and defense industries. Industry-led commercial development as a spin-off of critical military technology development has an important consequence for present and future military budgets -- the broader the application of the technology, the lower the unit cost to the military.
Defense R&D dollars are carefully invested to satisfy military needs -- to promote lower costs and higher quality at increased performance. DoD maintains a strategy to do what it can to ensure U.S. commercial industry remains at the cutting edge in those technologies that are also critical to our military capabilities. This necessarily requires DoD to support leading-edge research and development that accelerates the development of emerging commercial technologies that simultaneously meets defense needs.
A personal note: It has been my privilege to serve as the RASSP program manager for the last two years. In early May, I will be leaving ARPA for a new assignment. I am pleased to announce that Mr. Randolph (Randy) Harr of ARPA/ESTO will take over at that time as RASSP program manager and see the program to its completion. Randy has extensive experience in EDA, most recently at Stanford University and Synopsys. He will be a tremendous asset to RASSP, and I personally could not be more delighted to have someone of his caliber take over the program or more encouraged for its prospects under his guidance.
The RASSP Digest - Vol. 2, No. 1, 1st. Qtr. 1995
newsletter/html/95q1/news_2.html