Abaco Systems buys 4DSP as well as Technobox I/O product line
NewsNovember 30, 2016
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama. It's been less than a year since Abaco left the GE umbrella when they were acquired by Veritas Capital out of New York City, but they have already started growing through acquisition with two embedded computing additions in the last month, acquiring 4DSP LLC of Austin, Texas as well as acquiring the Micro Mezzanine System (MMS) product line from Technobox in West Berlin, N.J.
"We needed to update our I/O and our digital signal-processing portfolios to face the design challenges of today," says Bernie Anger, CEO, Abaco Systems. "We had image processing in terms of high-speed data acquisition, but to meet new customer requirements we want to focus on developing box-level designs that ready to deploy for software development, which the 4DSP acquisition helps us do.
"We also needed more front-end data acquisition expertise and after canvassing the market, we found 4DSP to be the right choice not only for their engineering and technology expertise, but also for their customer metrics such as on-time delivery and customer satisfaction scores," he continues. "We also like the newness of their portfolio. While they have been in this space for 12 years, they have a very contemporary offering of signal processing solutions."
Acquisition efforts
Being an independent company is enabling Abaco to be more aggressive in their acquisitions.
"It has been infinitely easier to aggressively pursue an acquisition strategy as Abaco under Veritas Capital, than when we were part of GE," Anger notes. "As a stand alone company [At Abaco] we are able to make these strategic decisions and investments independently based on our market conditions and our appropriate scale.
"Going forward we see opportunities for improving our capability on the front tend and on the RF side of equation," he continues. "We also would like to expand our portfolio in storage and image processing."
For more on the acquisition by Veritas, read: "GE embedded computing business bought by Veritas Capital."
4DSP
Founded in 2004, 4DSP designs and manufactures commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) high-speed digital signal processing (DSP) and data acquisition solutions based on FPGA technology to address the specific requirements of aerospace, defense, biomedical, communications, and semiconductor applications. Military applications served by 4DSP include software defined radio (SDR), image processing, airborne surveillance, radar, and sonar. 4DSP products are complemented by its engineering services, which include the development of custom hardware, FPGA firmware and software, as well as turn-key solutions.
Pierrick Vulliez, CEO of 4DSP, and his team will join Abaco immediately. “They will stay in their Austin location, which we have decided to make Abaco’s Innovation Center for data acquisition and signal processing," Anger says. "The Austin area has become a hub for embedded computing technology with large players such as National Instruments headquartered there. It’s an attractive location for recruiting engineering talent.
"Regarding branding, 4DSP as a company name will go away and become Abaco, but we will retain the 4DSP brand as the name of the Abaco product line of data acquisition and signal processing offerings," he says.
Technobox
"Demand is increasing for general purpose I/O solutions in size, weight, and power (SWaP)-constrained environments so we took a hard look at the Micro Mezzanine System (MMS) product line from Technobox and though here’s an opportunity for us on a single slot to create the right combination of I/O signals in small space,"
Anger says. “[It enables] our customers to configure precisely the I/O the application requires – with minimal impact on the physical characteristics of the solution. It enables them to both speed and reduce the cost of development, allowing them to achieve much faster time-to-deployment.”
The solution also has support for multiple open architecture carriers including VPX, XMC, and PMC.
Abaco collaborated closely with the Technobox team – notably on the VPX carrier – prior to the acquisition of the MMS product line.
For more information, visit www.abaco.com.
