FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Michelene K. St. Amand
P: 617.876.8085 x144
F: 617.876.9208
mstamand@mak.com
I/ITSEC Booth #718

MÄK TECHNOLOGIES WINS SIMULATION NETWORKING COMPONENT OF CANADIAN "WAR IN A BOX" PROGRAM

MÄK RTI, IEEE 1516 Version, to be Standard for Canadian Department of National Defense’s War In a Box Program

I/ITSEC, ORLANDO, Fla., November 29, 2005 ―MÄK Technologies, the world’s leading supplier of distributed simulation software, has been awarded the networking component of the Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) War In a Box program. Under the contract, MÄK will provide the wide area and local area HLA communications for the program, as well as associated visualization tools at eight DND sites across Canada. War In a Box is a federation of federations architecture comprising new and existing federations. As part of this award, the MÄK RTI was chosen as the standard for all of the program’s new federations. This represents the largest sale to date of the MÄK RTI, IEEE 1516 version.

War In a Box is a definition phase activity for the Canadian Advanced Synthetic Environment (CASE) program, which seeks to provide a synthetic environment capable of meeting DND’s needs for joint concept development, experimentation, requirements definition, operational test and evaluation, and training and mission rehearsal.

As part of the contract, MÄK’s newest product, the VR-Exchange interoperability portal will be used by DND to bridge existing HLA federations that have different Federation Object Models (FOMs) and RTIs. VR-Exchange is a "Universal Translator" for distributed simulation allowing users to link together simulations using different HLA (High Level Architecture) RTIs (Run Time Infrastructure), different FOMs (Federation Object Model), and different protocols. Before VR-Exchange, HLA exercises needed to agree to use the same FOM and RTI in order to communicate.

- more -

Page 2

MÄK WINS WAR IN A BOX

"We are clearly pleased with this hotly contested IEEE 1516 win," says Warren Katz, MÄK Technologies’ chief operating officer.  "We are flattered and honored that the Canadian DND felt our suite of products best met their interoperability needs from a field of high-quality commercial competitors, and we commend them for continuing to rely on commercial products in lieu of custom in-house development."

Other MÄK tools to be used by the War In a Box program include: MÄK Gateway ―The MÄK Gateway allows legacy DIS simulations to participate in an HLA exercise. The Gateway uses VR-Link, taking full advantage of the networking toolkit’s FOM-Agile infrastructure. MÄK StealthXR ―MÄK StealthXR combines the best features of traditional 2D and 3D visualization systems into a single "exaggerated reality" (XR) 3D display. Built as an add-on module to the MÄK Stealth, StealthXR provides both a big-picture understanding of a battlefield situation and an immersive sense of perspective, all in a single tool. MÄK Data Logger ―The MÄK Data Logger records and replays networked simulations. MÄK Plan View Display ―The MÄK PVD provides a 2D map view of the virtual battlefield VR-Link® ―The best-selling networking toolkit for linking military simulations through both the HLA and DIS standards.

An RTI is a key component of the HLA networking architecture. The verified and fully compliant MÄK RTI has been chosen as the backbone of major simulation programs including: Northrop Grumman Mission Systems’ US Air Force Distributed Mission Operations lab, Lockheed Martin’s F-16 DMT Mission Training Centers, the NATO First WAVE exercise, the US Marine Corps Tactical Environment Network (TEN), and the Australian Defence Simulation Office Joint Simulation Capability program. The

- more -

Page 3

MÄK WINS WAR IN A BOX

MÄK RTI is consistently proven in third party studies to be the most efficient RTI available.

MÄK leads the industry in simulation interoperability solutions. The company develops commercial-off-the-shelf tools and toolkits that link simulations via the international standard HLA and DIS networking protocols. MÄK’s staff is also actively involved in developing these standards, and provides interoperability consulting and integration services.

MÄK’s other interoperability products include: MÄK HLA/DIS Toolbox ―Provides MATLAB® and Simulink® users the ability to network their simulations via HLA and DIS. MÄK Game-Link ―An HLA interface to the Unreal gaming engine.

About MÄK Technologies

MÄK Technologies develops software to link, simulate and visualize the virtual world.

We create tools and toolkits for distributed simulations, develop PC-based military tactical trainers, craft custom solutions, and research and develop the latest simulation technologies. We build commercial off the shelf simulation software that is flexible, portable and supported. Whether you choose our best-selling networking toolkit, VR-Link or our computer generated forces toolkit, VR-Forces, you have purchased a product backed by the industry’s leading distributed simulation experts. Our worldwide customers include ITT Industries, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Tenix, Dassault and BAE. Please call 617.876.8085 or visit www.mak.com for more information.

# # #

[next...]

logo