Reporter’s Notebook November 20, 2008
L-3 Communications announced that its ACCOLADE wireless-mesh mine communications system has received final approval from the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration for all key system components. This approval enables mine operators throughout the country to incorporate L-3’s wireless mesh system into their federal- and state-approved mine-safety plans, according to the company. The wireless mesh system is the only MSHA-approved safety system that incorporates voice, data and tracking capabilities into a single system.
Metatomix introduced Discovery, a new a suite of tools designed to analyze and map information found in unstructured textual formats, and integrate that information with structured and semi-structured data using the company’s Semantic middleware platform. The product lets public-sector and commercial customers incorporate more diverse data sets for the purpose of a richer 360 degree view of a topic or entity, including law-enforcement background checks of suspects, according to the company.
TeleCommunication Systems received a $5 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense for its SwiftLink network systems. The contract is in effect through June 2009.
Atheros Communications, a developer of semiconductor system solutions for wireless and wired communications, announced the first members of its Align product family, a portfolio of wireless LAN solutions based on the IEEE draft 802.11n 1-stream specification. The solutions are also forward compatible to higher-performance, multi-stream, MIMO-based 802.11n, according to the company.