International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / The ability to dynamically configure our ground stations to support a wide array of fighter/attack aircraft programs has lead McDonnell Douglas Aerospace (MDA) to seek alternatives to commercially available ground stations. Cost effectiveness and fast response time to these widely varying needs is paramount to staying competitive in today's current defense environment. VME (Versa Modular European) architecture has provided a platform that fulfills these requirements while requiring a minimum of in house designs which can be expensive and time consuming to implement. MDA is now in its third generation of VME based ground systems. These systems are highly extensible due to their reliance on software and programmable hardware systems and are inexpensive due to their use of commercial grade VME cards. This paper describes the current generation TM/Quicklook Ground Station and the Data Editor (Preprocessor) Station and it also provides a perspective of how the designers solved some common problems associated with VME architecture. These stations are now in use at MDA test sights in St. Louis, Patuxent River NAWC, Edwards AFB, and Eglin AFB.

Essa dissertação, motivada pelo relatório de investigação do acidente do Veículo Lançador de Satélites VLS-1 V03, nas falhas em programas espaciais estrangeiros avançados e com suas recomendações de melhoria, analisa os processos existentes e propõe processos adicionais para a engenharia de sistemas do Veículo de Sondagem VSB-30. O VSB-30 é desenvolvido pelo Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço. Os processos são: gerenciamento de requisitos, desenvolvimento de requisitos, soluções técnicas, verificação, integração do produto e validação. Todos os processos estão baseados na análise do atendimento às melhores práticas do CMMI (Modelo Integrado de Capabilidade e Maturidade) e da utilização da notação IDEF0. Os processos existentes foram analisados usando a notação IDEF0 com relação ao CMMI. Os processos adicionais estão baseados nas melhores práticas do CMMI usando a notação IDEF0. Melhorias foram propostas aos processos que atendiam ao CMMI, e processos adicionais e seus respectivos diagramas IDEF0 foram propostos para as áreas de processos que não são cobertas pelos processos existentes. Usando os diagramas IDEF0, métricas de produto e processo foram derivadas para serem utilizadas em desenvolvimentos futuros. A capabilidade de processos e a maturidade da organização foram avaliadas baseadas nos níveis estabelecidos pelo CMMI. As conclusões dessa dissertação são que o CMMI pode ser utilizado como um modelo de referência para avaliação do nível da capabilidade dos processos do VSB-30 e de outros veículos, bem como da maturidade da organização e, que a notação IDEF0 fornece a visibilidade necessária para identificar oportunidades para melhoria de processos como, por exemplo, um melhor gerenciamento de requisitos de sistemas e subsistemas, e a rastreabilidade dos requisitos no ciclo de vida de um programa espacial. / This thesis, based on VLS-1 V03 accident investigation report, advanced foreigner space programs faults and their improvements recommendations, analyses existing processes and proposes additional ones for the systems engineering of Sounding Rocket VSB-30. VSB-30 is developed by Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço. The processes are: requirements management, requirements development, technical solution, verification, product integration and validation. All processes are based on compliance with CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) best practices and the use of IDEF0 notation. Existing processes were analysed in comparison with CMMI using IDEF0 notation. Processes proposed are based on CMMI best practices using the IDEF0 notation. Improvements were proposed to the process complying with CMMI and additional processes and their respective IDEF0 models were proposed to processes areas not covered by existing processes. Using IDEF0 models, product and process metrics were derived in order to serve as a reference for future developments. Process capability and organization maturity were assessed based on CMMI scale. Conclusions are that CMMI may be used as a reference model for assessing the status of current and other rocket processes capability as well as the organization maturity and that IDEF0 provides the necessary visibility for identifying opportunities for processes improvement as better systems and subsystems requirement management and the traceability of requirements during a space program life cycle.

No description available.

La Très Petite Entreprise (TPE) / Petite et Moyenne Entreprise (PME), comme toutes entités socioéconomiques, est confrontée à des risques variés durant la conduite de ses activités (Incendie, perte d'un fournisseur important, Accident du travail, échec d'un partenariat, espionnage industriel,…). A la différence de leurs homologues de grande taille, celles-ci n'ont pas à leur disposition d'outils dédiés pour les gérer dans leur globalité et donc assurer leur pérennité. Fort de ce constat, le Groupe AFNOR en collaboration avec le Centre de recherche sur les Risques et les Crises de Mines ParisTech, a initié une réflexion qui permettrait d'apporter des réponses à cette problématique.Cette thèse présente donc les fondements et la conception d'une démarche de maîtrise globale des risques des TPE / PME. Les résultats de ces travaux s'adressent bien entendu aux dirigeants des TPE / PME mais également aux différents « acteurs relais » (associations d'entreprises, des CCI, des CRCI, des Chambres des Métiers, des assureurs …) qui les accompagnent et assistent dans le cadre de leur démarche de maîtrise des risques.Elle repose sur la définition et la construction d'un outil de diagnostic qui permet la mise en évidence et la réduction des vulnérabilités des TPE / PME face à leurs risques majeurs. Pour cela, la caractérisation des vulnérabilités des TPE / PME a abouti à la mise en évidence de leur caractère transitoire grâce au concept de cycle de vie. Une fois décrites, leur modélisation conduit à l'identification des critères qui font varier la nature et / ou la gravité des dommages quand un Évènement Non Souhaité (ENS) survient. Ces critères de vulnérabilités sont les constituants prépondérants du diagnostic. Ce dernier permet de mettre en évidence les faiblesses de l'organisation afin d'apporter des propositions adaptées d'améliorations (formation, diagnostic ou autodiagnostic spécifique, accompagnement, conseil, sensibilisation,…). / As every socio-economic entities, the Very Small Business (VSB) / Small Business (SB) faces various risks related to its activities (fire, loss of an important supplier, work accident, failure in a partnership, industrial espionage,…). If large companies have at their disposal dedicated tools to manage them all and to ensure their durability, VSB / SB do not. Armed with this knowledge, the Group AFNOR (the French national body for standardization) in collaboration with the Center for research on Risks and Crisis of Mines ParisTech initiated a joint reflection to give an answer to this situation.This thesis presents the basis and the design of an approach for global risks mastery within VSB / SB. Obtained results of course concern to VSB / SB owners but also to all “intermediary actors” (businesses associations, (regional) chamber of commerce and industry, trade chambers, insurers,…) who accompany and support them in their risks management initiatives.It rests/is based on the definition and the construction of a diagnostic tool which allows to identify and to reduce the vulnerabilities of VSB / SB when they are confronted to their major risks. For this, the characterization of VSB / SB vulnerabilities led to highlight their transitory characteristic through the lifecycle concept. Once described, their modeling results in identifying criteria which explain variations of the nature and / or severity of damages when an event occurs. These criteria are the main constituents of the diagnostic tool. The latter allows to point the weaknesses of the enterprise in order to bring adapted improvements proposals/offers (training, specific diagnostic or self-diagnostic, coaching, consulting, sensitization,…).

Notre thème de recherche est parti du constat que les entreprises individuelles de moins de cinq salariés constituent la quasi-totalité des créations d'entreprises à Madagascar et qu’elles sont instables et éphémères. Nous les avons baptisées « petites entreprises de proximité » ou PEP, et appelé « imperfections » leur instabilité dans la durée, du point de vue de leurs activités, de leur statut institutionnel et en termes de croissance. Nous avons observé que leur multiplication traduisait l’engouement des entrepreneurs à leur endroit lequel traduisait leur adaptation à l’environnement. Dans un pays où les ménages étaient confrontés de manière endémique au problème d’emplois et de revenus, le phénomène de la PEP à travers la problématique suivante représente un sujet d’actualité et un enjeu majeur : - Si nous présumons que les "petites entreprises de proximité" sont adaptées à leur environnement, pourquoi sont-elles inaptes à durer, à grandir et à perdurer dans leur statut et dans leurs activités? - Et pourquoi les entrepreneurs continuent-ils d’en créer en dépit de « leurs imperfections » ainsi décrites ? Pour y répondre, nous avons avancé la proposition d’explication suivante sur les imperfections de la PEP : 1) Elles traduisent que la proximité instable, variable et complexe est à la fois un raccourci et un contre-exemple d’environnement ; 2) Elles sont nées des fonctionnalités structurelles et des mécanismes organisationnels mis en œuvre pour équilibrer l’adaptation tronquée de la PEP à l’environnement ; 3) Elles sont les facteurs de la dynamique d'intégration transformant des proximités agies en foyers de survie collective. Nous avons retenu deux postulats théoriques dans notre travail : l’existence d’écosystèmes pour la survie de la PEP, et un référent théorique fait d’écrits scientifiques et de connaissances renvoyant à la construction logique de son processus de survie. Nous avons mené le travail en trois étapes: _ Dans un premier temps, l‘étude des écarts entre la construction sociale de la réalité de la PEP et le référent théorique de son processus de survie a permis en partie de comprendre le phénomène de son adaptation et d’expliquer ses imperfections (Partie 1: Le positionnement théorique de notre proposition). _ Ensuite nous avons observé lesdits écarts mis à l’œuvre dans des processus empiriques de PEP en action, pour conclure qu’ils constituaient à la fois des symptômes de singularité d’organisations et des signaux de phénomènes traduisant de nouvelle manière de survivre (Partie 2 : La corroboration empirique de notre proposition). Nous avons ainsi avancé l’hypothèse théorique sur le maintien individuel de la PEP par sa survie collective avec ses parties prenantes en ces termes : Les PEP se forment grâce à des opportunités nées des imperfections des environnements qu'elles exploitent sous la forme de sous marchés résiduels. Elles se maintiennent en intégrant des proximités agies qu'elles transforment en niches dans une perspective de survie collective avec leurs parties prenantes. Leur mode d'adaptation les oblige à rester petites, éphémères et variables dans leurs activités. _ Enfin nous avons étudié les leçons d’expériences tirées de nos travaux et les pistes de réflexions qu’elles nous ouvraient. (Partie 3 : Les apports théoriques de notre étude sur la PEP). Nous nous sommes concentré sur les nouvelles tendances dans les formes organisationnelles adaptées à un environnement perçu à travers sa transformation, et sur celles d’un entrepreneuriat surfant sur le relationnel, la marginalité et la rareté des ressources. Nous avons conclu notre travail sur la PEP sur l’intérêt d’appréhender l’aptitude à la survie en termes d’écosystèmes. / Our research theme is based on the observation that individual companies with fewer than fiveemployees constitute almost all the enterprises created in Madagascar and that they are unstable and ephemeral. We called them "small proximity businesses" or PEP in french, and called "imperfections" their instability over time, from the point of view of their activities, their institutional status and in terms of growth.We observed that their multiplication reflected an entrepreneur's enthusiasm for creating them, which reflected their skill in adapting to their environment.In a country where households were confronted to an endemic problem of joblessness and lack ofincomes, the phenomenon of PEP through the following issue is a topical and a major concern:- If we assume that "small proximity businesses" are adapted to their environment, why are they unfit to last, grow and prosper in their status and activities?- And why do entrepreneurs continue to create them in spite of "their imperfections" thus described? To answer this question, we have proposed the following explanation on the imperfections of PEP:1) They show that the unstable, variable and complex proximity is both a shortcut and acounterexample of environment 2) They stem from structural functionalities and organizational mechanisms implemented to balancethe truncated adaptation of PEP to the environment; 3) They are the factors of the dynamics of integration transforming the agitated proximities into foci of collective survival.We retained two theoretical postulates for our research: the existence of ecosystems for the survival of PEP, and a theoretical referent made of scientific writings and knowledge referring to the logicalconstruction of its survival process. We conducted the work in three stages:_In a first step, the study of the differences between the social construction of the reality of the PEP and the theoretical referent of its survival process allowed but partly to understand the phenomenon of its adaptation and to explain its imperfections (Part 1: The theoretical positioning of our proposal)._Then we observed the called deviations through the empirical processes of PEPs in action, and concluded that they constituted as well symptoms of singularity of organizations and phenomena in a new way of surviving (Part 2: Empirical corroboration of our proposal)We have thus advanced the theoretical hypothesis on the individual maintenance of PEP by itscollective survival with its stakeholders: PEPs are formed through opportunities arising from the imperfections of the environments they exploit in the form of residual sub-markets. They are maintained by integrating agitated proximities that they transform into niches in a perspective of collective survival with their stakeholders. Their mode of adaptation forces them to remain small, ephemeral and variable in their activities._ Finally, we studied the lessons of experiences drawn from our work and the avenues of reflectionthey opened up to us. (Part 3: The theoretical contributions of our study on PEP) We focused on new trends in organizational forms adapted to an environment perceived through itstransformation, and on those of an entrepreneurship running through networks of contacts, marginality and scarcity of resourcesWe concluded our work on PEP on the importance of understanding survivability in terms of ecosystems

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 27-30, 1997 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / For many years VME has been the platform of choice for high-performance, real-time data acquisition systems. VME’s longevity has been made possible in part by timely enhancements which have expanded system bandwidth and allowed systems to support ever increasing throughput. One of the most recent ANSI-standard extensions of the VME specification defines RACEway, a system of dynamically switched, 160 Mbyte/second board-to-board interconnects. In typical systems RACEway increases the internal bandwidth of a VME system by an order of magnitude. Since this bandwidth is both scaleable and deterministic, it is particularly well suited to high-performance, real-time systems. The potential of RACEway for very high-performance (200 Mbps to 1 Gbps) real-time systems has been recognized by both the VME industry and a growing number of system integrators. This recognition has yielded many new RACEway-ready VME products from more than a dozen vendors. In fact many significant real-time data acquisition systems that consist entirely of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) RACEway products are being developed and fielded today. This paper provides an overview of RACEway technology, identifies the types of RACEway equipment currently available, discusses how RACEway can be applied in high-performance data acquisition systems, and briefly describes two systems that acquiring and capturing real-time data streams at rates from 200 Mbps to 1 Gbps using RACEway.

Ce travail de recherche est dédié à l’analyse des décisions de financement des Très Petites Entreprises (TPE)françaises. Le premier chapitre de cette thèse décrit le cadre de l’étude, à savoir les TPE. Le second chapitre revisite les principales théories de la structure financière à la lumière des spécificités des TPE, et motive l’utilisation du cadre théorique du financement hiérarchique. Le troisième chapitre propose un test de la théorie du financement hiérarchique sur un large échantillon de TPE françaises. Le quatrième chapitre propose d’adapter ce modèle aux choix et aux contraintes de financement de la TPE, notamment en y intégrant une hiérarchie infra dettes.Ce chapitre propose également un test empirique portant sur l’arbitrage entre dettes financières et comptes courants d’associés. La principale contribution de cette thèse est certainement la généralisation de la théorie du financement hiérarchique aux TPE françaises. Ces firmes préfèrent le financement interne au financement externe, et la dette à l’émission d’actions. Néanmoins, les firmes en excédent de financement ne cherchent pas à se désendetter rapidement, ce qui peut se traduire par l’anticipation de déficits de financement futurs, d’autant plus difficiles à combler que ces entreprises sont soumises au rationnement de crédit. La théorie du financement hiérarchique ne permet cependant pas d’expliquer la préférence des dirigeants de TPE pour les dettes financières, par rapport aux comptes courants d’associés. Les TPE étant généralement détenues et dirigées par la même personne, il est possible d’analyser ce comportement sous l’angle de la théorie de la diversification.Les actionnaires-dirigeants privilégient la diversification de leur patrimoine personnel à la minimisation des coûts d’asymétrie d’information / This research work is devoted to the analysis of financing decisions of French Very Small Businesses (VSB).The first chapter of this thesis describes the object of the study, namely the VSB. The second chapter revisits the main theories of capital structure in the light of the specificities of VSBs, and motivates the use of the theoretical framework proposed by the Pecking Order Theory. The third chapter tests the Pecking Order Theory on a large sample of French VSBs. The fourth chapter suggests adapting this theory to the evidence of financing choicesand financial constraints of VSBs, particularly by incorporating an infra-debt hierarchy. This chapter also provides an empirical test of the trade off between financial debts and partners' current accounts. The main contribution of this work is certainly the generalization of the Pecking Order Theory to the French VSB universe. These firms prefer internal financing to external financing, and debt to issuing shares. However, firms with excess of financing do not try to reduce debt quickly, which can be translated by the anticipation of future financing deficits, which become even more severe as these businesses are subject to credit rationing.Nevertheless, the Pecking Order Theory still does not provide any explanation for the preference of the VSBs’ managers for financial debt, compared to partners' current accounts. The fact that VSBs are generally owned and managed by the same person makes it possible to analyze their financial behavior under the diversification theory. Share holder-managers prefer diversifying their personal wealth rather than minimizing costs of information asymmetry