Wind River Helps JPL Search for Signs of Life with Mars Polar
Lander; <WIND.O>
Wind River Helps JPL Search for
Signs of Life with Mars Polar Lander; Company's Reliable, Compact
Embedded Software Is Operating System for NASA/JPL Missions
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 3, 1999--Wind River
Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:WIND), a leading provider of software and
services for smart devices in the Internet age, today announced that
Wind River's software is the computer operating system for JPL's Polar
Lander space project, scheduled to land on Mars on Dec. 3, 1999.
The NASA/Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) Polar Lander mission is charged
with searching for water and organic compounds on Mars -- a potential
indication of life on the red planet. Polar Lander is the latest in a
long series of missions, including Mars Pathfinder, Stardust, Deep
Space 1, and Climate Orbiter, which Wind River's reliable yet powerful
software has helped to successfully operate.
The complex Mars Polar Lander uses Wind River's VxWorks(R)
real-time operating system (RTOS) to control all flight and surface
communication operations. The VxWorks RTOS is controlling all flight
operations, including flight corrections, the spin of the vehicle and
its altitude as it nears Mars during its descent, to ensure that the
spacecraft reaches Mars.
Once the spacecraft has touched down near the Martian South Pole,
the VxWorks RTOS will run data collection and communications with
Earth.
In addition to NASA/JPL, many leading aerospace and defense
electronics (ADE) companies use Wind River's VxWorks RTOS and
Tornado(TM) development tools to build advanced, feature-rich embedded
products. The sensitive nature of ADE applications requires the proven
product reliability, portability, and open systems approach that
characterizes Wind River products.
That is why the VxWorks RTOS is the hidden intelligence in
millions of new and existing embedded applications, including those in
fire control; navigation and guidance; avionics; command, control,
communications, and intelligence; sonar and radar; space and missile
systems; communications; vetronics; unmanned vehicles; and simulation
and testing.
JPL customized the VxWorks RTOS, which has been used in many
previous NASA missions, to do several unusual computer processes,
including checking for and even replacing any damaged random access
memory (RAM) in the spacecraft's computer.
Another enhancement of the VxWorks RTOS gives the Earth-based
handlers a higher degree of interaction with the spacecraft so that
they can control and debug the entire software system during the
mission.
"Unlike Internet appliances and other consumer devices which can
theoretically run on a variety of operating systems, defense and
aerospace applications require the precision of a real-time operating
system like the VxWorks operating system," said Curt Schacker, vice
president of marketing and corporate development for Wind River.
"These missions require that responses to external events are not
only microsecond-fast, but also extremely predictable. Because the
market is demanding ever-increasing functionality and the VxWorks RTOS
delivers that level of performance, a significant portion of our
revenues comes from important aerospace and defense electronics
projects."
About Polar Lander
The Mars Polar Lander,
mars.jpl.nasa.gov, was launched on Jan.
3, 1999 to search the Martian South Pole for 90 days for evidence of
water on Mars. The search for water, including its availability for
some form of Martian life and its role in the Martian weather and
climate, is key to future Mars exploration.
The Lander will search for surface and near-surface ice evidence
of cyclic climate change as well as characterize physical processes
key to the seasonal cycles of water, carbon dioxide, and dust on Mars.
Images of Polar Lander can be found at
mars.jpl.nasa.gov.
Wind River Systems, Inc.
Wind River Systems, Inc., windriver.com, is a
worldwide leader in embedded software.
Wind River provides software development tools, real-time
operating systems, and advanced connectivity for use in products
throughout the Internet, telecommunications and data communications,
digital imaging, networking, medical, computer peripherals,
automotive, and aerospace/defense markets. Wind River is how smart
things think.
Founded in 1983, Wind River is headquartered in Alameda, with
operations in fifteen countries worldwide.
Note to Editors: Wind River Systems, VxWorks and the Wind River
Systems logo are registered trademarks and Tornado is a trademark of
Wind River Systems, Inc. Other names are registered trademarks or
trademarks of the respective companies or organizations.
--30--rl/sf* lmm/sf
CONTACT: Wind River Systems, Inc.
Pamela Sufi, 510/749-2340
pamela.sufiwindriver.com
www.windriver.com
Today's News On The Net - Business Wire's full file on the Internet
with Hyperlinks to your home page.
URL: businesswire.com
(c) 1998 Business Wire |
