High productivity, determinism key to Aegis Open Architecture Program

Birmingham, UK, October 11, 2006 — Aonix®, the provider of the PERC® technologies for embedded Java™ developers, announced that Lockheed Martin has selected the Aonix PERC Ultra® virtual machine (VM) for the Aegis Weapon System Open Architecture Program. The Aegis Open Architecture team aims to enhance the capabilities and service life of the U.S. Navy's premier surface combat system while also reducing its cost. To help achieve these goals, Lockheed Martin selected the Aonix PERC VM based on its ability to provide deterministic, real-time performance and high productivity development.

The Lockheed Martin Aegis team was faced with programming language selection for its Open Architecture Program. Java™ was selected for several critical subsystems due to its superior tool and library support along with its superior productivity and portability. However, traditional Java offerings could not meet the challenge of the critical timing requirements for the Aegis project. In contrast to its competitors, PERC Ultra, with its deterministic capabilities and ahead-of-time compilation, offered Lockheed Martin the responsiveness it needed to meet its most demanding timing requirements. In addition to real-time threading and deterministic garbage collection, PERC Ultra provided the instrumentation and VM management tools necessary to support the mission-critical real-time requirements of the Aegis Weapon System.

“While increased developer productivity is a major motivator for using Java, most Java solutions lack the predictable performance required for mission-critical applications,” said Dave Wood, Aonix marketing director. “The experience of the Lockheed Martin Aegis program is yet another in a string of successes proving that PERC solves both the productivity and performance aspects of the equation for embedded Java developers.”

The Lockheed Martin-developed Aegis Weapon System is the world's premier naval defense system and the sea-based element of the United States' Ballistic Missile Defense System. The Aegis Weapon System is a Radar and missile system seamlessly integrated with its own command and control system, capable of simultaneous operation defending against advanced air, surface and subsurface threats.

Currently, Aegis Weapon System capabilities are on 80 cruisers, destroyers and frigates on station around the world, with more than 25 under construction or planned. In addition to the U.S. Navy, Aegis is the primary naval surface weapon system for Japan, Spain, Norway, Korea and Australia.

First introduced nine years ago, PERC Ultra is the most widely used real-time virtual machine available for Java™ developers, with fielded installations in telecommunications, telematics, avionics, deep space exploration, industrial automation, Military, and office automation applications. PERC supports most major real-time operating systems and a variety of target processors including PowerPC, XScale, ARM, and Intel x86 architectures.

Shipping and Availability

PERC Ultra is available for Linux, Windows, and Solaris hosts and supports a wide variety of processor architectures and real-time operating systems. PERC development tools are available at no charge. Maintenance contracts start at $3000 for a single user.

About Aonix®

Aonix offers mission- and safety-critical solutions primarily to the military and aerospace, telecommunications and transportation industries. Aonix delivers the leading high-reliability, real-time embedded virtual machine solution for running Java™ programs deployed today and has the largest number of certified Ada applications at the highest level of criticality. Headquartered in San Diego, CA and Paris, France, Aonix operates sales offices throughout North America and Europe in addition to offering a network of international distributors. For more information, visit www.aonix.com.

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Aonix, PERC, PERC Ultra, and PERC Pico are registered tdemarks and trademarks of Aonix. Java™ and all Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other tradenames and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2006, Aonix, all rights reserved.