U.S. NAVY's LCAC Hovercraft Ruggidized Servers.
Problem: The Navy plans to update nine computer systems onboard its Hovercraft landing vehicle. The Hovercraft allows transport of Navy personnel and machines from a ship directly onto the beach, instead of dropping them off into the water. The nine computer systems on the Hovercraft will help the crew drive, maintain and protect the craft and the personnel it transports. Only minimal space can be allotted to the computers. Because of the salt air environment, the chassis must be capable of protecting the systems' delicate electronics from the salt air environment.
Solution: CSS Laboratories, Inc. will supply four of the nine computer systems on the Hovercraft. The advanced technology of the company's two-segment passive backplane and single board computers allows dual processing, thus significantly reducing space requirements. One of the dual systems will help control navigation; the other will help control the Hovercraft vehicle. CSS Laboratories, Inc. technology also provides redundant system hardware through the use of common parts for both dual-processor systems, thus reducing the number of spares needed for maintenance. CSS Laboratories, Inc. has designed and manufactured a fully enclosed aluminum chassis to prevent salt air from damaging the system's electronics.
City of New York's DYCD Project
Problem: The DYCD project was initiated by the mayor of New York City to offer legal assistance to immigrants in obtaining citizenship so they would not lose their benefits by 1998. The project required completion of large and wide area networks at nine sites within five county boroughs in two weeks. The network's 11 servers and 185 workstations had to accommodate Novell's GroupWise 5.0 e-mail system, with each workstation accessing a main MS SQL server. All sites were linked via T- lines.
Solution: The primary challenge CSS Laboratories, Inc. confronted in setting up this network was the short time frame allowed to complete the project. Much of the preparation work had to be done at the factory in order to focus on the cabling, hubs and routing protocols at all nine sites. Another major challenge was that of connecting to an existing network system. All installations were successfully completed ahead of schedule.
