Texas Micro Announces $18 Million Contract From Ford
11 August 1998
Texas Micro Announces $18 Million Contract From Ford for In-Vehicle Auto Test Equipment and Calibration Systems
HOUSTON--Aug. 11, 1998--Texas Micro, Inc. , announced today that it began shipments to Ford Motor Company in July, in accordance with a three-year contract with the auto maker for vehicle-mounted test and calibration computer equipment. Including spares and technical services, deliveries are expected to exceed $18 million. Texas Micro's CALVIN(tm) System (In-Vehicle Calibration System) is being used by Ford to increase accuracy and lower costs of testing Ford engines, powertrains and other vehicle components.
"This contract provides incentives for us to market the CALVIN System to other automobile and automotive systems manufacturers," said Texas Micro's president and chief executive officer, Michael Stewart. "The July deliveries are the culmination of 18 months of design and development work on CALVIN -- a standards-based vehicle testing system that provides more than twice the power of existing systems at half the cost.
"We believe this contract is also a win for Ford and the automotive industry in general," Stewart continued. "CALVIN will enable automotive engine developers to bring state-of-the-art engine control technology to market in less time and for less money."
Each test vehicle in the CALVIN system contains up to four compact, ruggedly packaged Intel microprocessor-based computers which are connected to a unique local area network running Microsoft's Windows NT network operating system. CALVIN systems are based on a new international standard for high-performance industrial computer platforms called CompactPCI, which was developed for telecommunications, industrial and other specialized applications where rugged packaging and compact size are critical. CALVIN systems accommodate a broad range of tasks, from very high-speed, real-time data collection to complex engine calibration routines.
Texas Micro is a market leader in supplying highly specialized Intel microprocessor-based computers to original equipment managers, systems integrators and end-users for industrial automation and communications applications. The company also develops, manufacturers and markets a wide range of single-board computers and robustly designed "passive backplane" systems, all fully compliant with industry standards for PC hardware and software. In addition, Texas Micro is in the forefront of computer safeguarding with its technology for bringing fault-tolerant protection to mainstream applications. Texas Micro is located at 5959 Corporate Drive, Houston, Texas, 77036. The web site is www.texasmicro.com