The Navy last week began testing what could be the next generation of shipboard computing in its Sea Based Battle Lab aboard the USS Coronado.
Currently, the lab is testing 27 computers that display programs running on the network's two servers as part of the Network Centric Q-70 (NC-Q 70) architecture. One server gives sailors access to files and databases. The other serves specific applications, such as the Global Command and Control System and personal tools like Microsoft's Word and PowerPoint programs.
The network is designed to allow users to access incompatible programs, such as Microsoft applications and Unix programs, from the same desktop.
All data is processed and stored on the servers, so the computers Navy personnel access have no operating systems or permanent memory. As such, they are called "ultra-thin clients," said Michele McGuire, a program manager in the Navy's Advanced Concepts and Technologies Program Directorate 13 (PD 13) in the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR).
SPAWAR is using the Sun Ray 1 thin client from Sun Microsystems Inc. that has been integrated into a flat panel monitor. A keyboard and mouse is attached to each system.
Sailors are not assigned specific computers. Rather, each has their own smart card that can be inserted into any of the 27 Sun Rays. A Sun Ray powers up when a smart card is inserted and shuts down when the card is removed. Plus, if a sailor must end a session, he or she returns to the same point as when they left, McGuire said.
The network went operational in March and SPAWAR expects to increase the computer stations to 60 by mid-summer.
For now, the NC Q-70 team will evaluate the feedback they get from the Sea Based Systems Lab and will further refine the technology before it goes out fleetwide, McGuire said.
The network is designed to be low-cost, with light units that take up minimal space and produce little heat. With such features, the NC Q-70 architecture could be attractive to other federal agencies, McGuire said.
Lockheed Martin Corp. is the prime contractor working to develop NC Q-70 along with DRS Technologies Inc. and Sun.
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