Three-phase program ensures long-term component and support availability

Chatsworth, Calif. October 2011 - Aitech Defense Systems Inc., a pioneer in true military embedded and mission critical computing technologies for environmentally-demanding military, defense and aerospace applications, now offers full support and a product availability guarantee for all boards and systems developed by the company for a minimum of 12 years from initial production date.

Unique in its long-term commitment to the industry, Aitech's three-phased COTS Lifecycle+ program ensures that, in a time when component obsolescence is on the rise in many military COTS applications, customers will be able to rely on Aitech to obtain the needed component parts and support to keep systems running effectively well into the future.

Each of Aitech's standard products consists of the three product lifecycles, each with a guaranteed minimum support period of four years. The active phase is the initial product lifecycle, where both the product and Aitech support are available for all existing and new programs. The supported phase extends this product availability and support for existing, program-specific designs for a minimum of another four years.

Lastly, the extended support phase, available through an agreement tailored to each customer to provide specific services and support needs based on the application, adds another four years and brings the full COTS Lifecycle+ program to a minimum 12 years of program support provided by Aitech.

The new COTS Lifecycle+ program complements Aitech's carefully-honed technology insertion design philosophy of developing products that are easily upgradeable to newer technologies as they become available. Both help end users maximize their embedded computing investments.

Doug Patterson, VP defense and aerospace business sector, noted, "Our customers implement large, complex and expensive computing systems that generally can't be replaced as easily as a cell phone every few years. They need the confidence that their initial system, which has significant amounts of time and money invested in it, will not be rendered useless due to component or entire board obsolescence once they move to production."

The Aitech COTS Lifecycle+ program was developed to ensure product availability for end users as well as to provide a base of stable COTS embedded computing components that allow systems and sub-systems to continue to function over an extended period of time, and at optimum performance.

Patterson continued, "Aitech's philosophy is to give our customers products that will maximize the dollars they invest by minimizing the impact of component obsolescence in their programs through extended product lifecycles. The C108, our newest addition to the C10x series, is the most recent example. "


"We designed the C108 to be pin-, I/O- and software-compatible with our legacy PowerPC board products, meaning our existing customers, through technology insertion, will be able to deliver subsystem applications well into the future, thereby protecting their investment. And the C108 is just at the beginning of the active phase, meaning its going to be around at least another twelve years," he noted.

For more information please call 888-Aitech-8 (888-248-3248), visit http://www.rugged.com or e-mail sales@rugged.com.