From a complement of just seven people three years ago the Pretoria-based high-tech company Kreon Technology (Kreon) has grown to a staff of 20 people of whom 13 are qualified engineers.
Over this same period the company has seen both turnover and profit grow at some 30% per annum and has expanded its premises to about 1000 m². While currently located in the Persequor TechnoPark, its future is very closely linked to Pretoria's Innovation Hub and Kreon is currently considering moving to the new Science Park. While the company board has up till now comprised the founding members and owners, it is being restructured to bring in independent expertise in the form of financial and marketing directors. Kreon Technology is actively engaged in negotiations with BEE partners who could add value to the business. The company is also enthusiastically preparing for certification to ISO9001:2000.
Kreon has been at the forefront of data logger technology for the past five years. Using Flash Disk Technology, it has been able to achieve the highest density storage and bandwidth for its datalogger products. The company is highly flexible when it comes to the customisation of datalogger interfaces according to specific customer needs. A wide variety of recording input interfaces are available for all products, which includes analog, serial, ARCNET LAN, and discrete digital signals. Datalogger products use a high speed 16-bit microcontroller from Texas Instruments, providing 150 MIPS processing capability.
The first range of dataloggers was developed for missile black box applications. This range of products is currently in third generation production and has successfully been used during Denel's Ingwe missile flight tests. The MKIII missile black box is used for a telemetry missile, which replaces the traditional expensive RF telemetry pack. Due to the ruggedised packaging, Kreon has had a 99% recovery rate of telemetry data after actual missile impact. The datalogger is retrieved in the field and the data extracted.
Another range of dataloggers has been developed for various vehicle monitoring applications. Kreon's GEDL III datalogger product is currently used in the Ratel anti-armour vehicle and has been developed according to MIL standards. It has also successfully been integrated into the Mokopa launcher of the Rooivalk attack helicopter and provides vital recorded information during the launch of the missile.
State-of-the-art data extraction and management tools accompany all datalogger products, which provide access to recorded data. Visualisation of data is seamlessly integrated with Matlab, providing the user with a powerful data analysis tool. These tools are provided for Windows NT, 2000, and Windows XP. Kreon's modular software code library base enables them to provide custom recorded data extraction tools to customers in short development times.
Due to its involvement with the Ingwe missile, developed by Denel Aerospace Systems, Kreon has developed a specialised PC platform simulator for this missile. This simulator simulates the behaviour of the missile during its launch conditions and verifies the communication behaviour between the launch platform and the missile. The complete fire sequence is simulated and the data recorded. The recorded data is then analysed, which qualifies the hardware and software.
Kreon are experts on short range wireless data communications. For example, the latest Zigbee technology for short range wireless communication is used for data communication between embedded and PC systems. The company is also an expert in data communication between embedded and PC systems using GSM/GPRS technologies.
The company has extensive knowledge of the RTCA-DO-178B standard for software development up to level B. As a system integrator, Kreon Technology has successfully developed and integrated the software for the Umkhonto-IR Missile Launch system, which is being installed in the MEKO-200 South African Navy Patrol Corvettes.
Kreon Technology has widespread knowledge of the Power PC processor family and has successfully developed a hardware core for the Power PC. The in-house developed hard realtime kernel ensures that Kreon is able to provide customer solutions with a fast turnaround time. The kernel software has been developed using a well structured layered approach and has been documented according to DO-178B Level C standards. This hard realtime kernel has also been designed with scalability in mind and can easily be ported to various other embedded processors. The kernel has proven itself in various applications over the last three years.
The company's engineers are experts in high-speed synchronous realtime hardware design using VHDL, being proficient with tools such as Actel Libero, Xilinx Foundation and ModelSim, while a structured hardware design process is enforced by existing company standards. All PCB designs and production are outsourced to established specialists in the field. Fast communication technologies such as Fire Wire and LVDS link have been established within the company while products have been successfully developed for CANbus, ARCNET, SPI, and USB applications.
A number of PCI and Compact PCI cards are being developed for various applications. Kreon is especially excited about the development of a new Compact PCI Power PC card, which employs the 440EP Power PC processor. The proven hard realtime kernel will also be available on this card, which will be available later this year.
One of Kreon's recent success stories is the development, in partnership with ASIC Design Services, of a digital down converter (DDC). This is an international niche product as there are only two DDCs currently commercially available. Kreon partnered with ASIC Design Services to develop a custom solution. This DDC is implemented in an Actel FPGA device and is designed into the new generation Ingwe missile. Kreon and ASIC Design Services intend to market their DDC solution to industrial and other users. The DDC can run at up to 60 MHz, has undergone extensive field-testing and will meet all industrial temperature requirements.
Production test equipment is another area in which Kreon Technology excels. Automated production test equipment is controlled by PC software developed in Visual C++. Building on its established data collection Win32 Service, the application collects data and controls all aspects of the production test equipment. A centralised database collects all test results and reports can be generated to suit customer requirements. Kreon also has substantial expertise in the development of Microsoft Windows-based realtime systems using Win32 API multithreading technology.
Although strongly focused on the defence sector (some 80% of revenue is currently generated here), Kreon takes on industrial challenges when they arise and carried out some very essential work for the diamond giant De Beers on its diamond sorting machines. These diamond sorting machines make use of imported digital signal processing (DSP) boards that needed to be replaced with an upgraded version. Kreon designed, produced and qualified a new state-of-the art DSP card for De Beers, which incidentally, is suitable for other industrial applications, and the technology resides with Kreon. At the end of the day, after amortising all of the design and development costs, the local DSP board costs 40% less than the imported product. As a result of the company's broad experience in the development of electronic test systems De Beers has also contracted Kreon to develop the test equipment for its diamond sorting machines.
As a company Kreon intends to continue to grow its defence business but will also focus on new opportunities in the industrial field. The company will also continue to develop niche products such as the DDC and DSPs for which it holds the intellectual property rights. An expansion of the company products will also lead to further expansion of its production facility to ensure a higher volume of products of exceptional quality. For its customers, Kreon offers a one stop solution, procuring the components and outsourcing PCB manufacture to partners.
For more information contact Nick Pieters, Kreon Technology, +27 (0)12 349 2646, [email protected], www.kreon.co.za
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