Fidus Systems Introduces Customizable Automatic Identification System (AIS) Transceiver

eNavigation Conference, Seattle, WA - November 13, 2007 -- Fidus Systems Inc., an electronic product development company, today introduced a customizable Automatic Identification System (AIS) Transceiver. The Fidus Transceiver provides a flexible, easy to integrate AIS solution for a number of maritime systems supporting navigation, coastal surveillance, and port Security.

When incorporated into marine Radar systems, the Transceiver is a high performance Software-Defined Radio (SDR) that can track and identify marine vessels. The Transceiver enables customers to fuse radar and AIS information resulting in enhanced data for better management of ship traffic and collision avoidance. Increasingly, maritime organizations including ports, commercial shipping, search and rescue and recreational vessels are demanding better information on vessel traffic via ship-to-ship, ship-to-air and ship-to-shore.

Effective on December 31, 2004, the International Maritime Organizations SOLAS (Safety of Lives at Sea) Chapter mandated all vessels over 300 gross tonnage to have AIS to assist in safe navigation. Recognized as the most widely used system for identifying and monitoring maritime traffic, AIS combines GPS and VHF technologies in an intelligent manner to allow highly accurate positioning and identification. AIS can be used in shipboard broadcast transponder systems to provide valuable ship information such as identification, position, and heading information to other vessels, Search and Rescue, and AIS Base Stations.

“AIS is playing a critical role in the growing trend of maritime operations towards greater electronic enhancement of navigation for safety, security, accountability and environmental responsibility,” said Michael Wakim, President and CEO, Fidus Systems. “The introduction of our AIS Transceiver is timely given the increasing level of integration in maritime applications such as vessel traffic management, coastal surveillance, search and rescue and port security.”

“Developed with our leading-edge AIS-based intellectual property, the Transceiver combined with our extensive design services experience provides customers with a complete, customizable solution to significantly shorten their product development cycle and time-to-market,” added Wakim.

Fidus AIS Transceiver Features

The Fidus AIS Transceiver supports Class A, AIS Base Station and Search and Rescue aircraft applications. The Transceiver features a Xilinx Virtex™-4 FPGA, employing high-speed Digital Signal Processing to implement a multi-channel GMSK/FSK receiver and transmitter. Dual embedded PowerPC® processors handle high-level AIS processing, board supervision and message protocols as well as other tasks that are proprietary to different customers systems. Built originally in a VME64x form factor, the design is easily customizable for new form factors such as standalone, cPCI and PMC. The Transceiver operates within the full, industrial temperature range (-40 to +85C).

About Fidus:

Fidus Systems Inc. develops electronic products for a wide range of industries including aerospace, defence, consumer, medical, industrial, semiconductors and telecommunications. Fidus has extensive design experience and technology knowledge in turnkey product development and targeted design of System/Architecture, RF/Wireless, Signal Integrity/EMC, hardware, PCB board layout, FPGA/ASIC, Software/Firmware, Industrial/Mechanical, prototype testing, regulatory compliance and environmental, and reliability. Fidus has delivered on more than 500 products and projects for customers across North America. For more information, please visit www.fidus.com.