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The History of HUNT ENGINEERING

HUNT ENGINEERING was founded in 1988 to address the needs of the real-time parallel processing market. Much of the early work was performed using the Transputer, an ideal vehicle for high performance real-time applications in its time.

Almost the only common theme to these applications was that they all processed real-world data. Everything else was different - the amount of processing, the interfaces to real-world signals - even the format of the boards varied between ISA, PCI and VME. Some required huge computation; others required little processing but with complex I/O.

Building systems that met our customers' time to market demands was hard - especially when they were all completely different! When the TIM-40 modular DSP specification was proposed, we could see it would allow us to build the processing unit in modular form, bringing both cost and time to market advantages. As a result, we were a key player in developing the specification. Our own GDIO series I/O modules brought the same modular concepts to the I/O subsystem, while our HUNT ENGINEERING API software API completed the picture. The fusion of processing, I/O and software allowed hugely diverse systems to be created in a building-block fashion.

The modular concept proved to be a success. Today, all our systems are modular, providing huge flexibility in what we can achieve. Our latest range of products are based on HERON - a modular system for creating high performance DSP solutions quickly and easily.  They build on our legacy of high performance modular systems - the same HUNT ENGINEERING API interface software is used.

The modular approach has very few disadvantages. We can deploy new technologies fast when we need to. We can provide exactly the right kind of I/O - and where it doesn't exist, we have the possibility develop a new module, far easier than a whole board. Because the modular concept extends to software as well, we can migrate customers from simple low-end systems through to leading-edge compute engines offering Giga-FLOPS performance; even when that migration means moving from one processor generation to another. And, because each module is a standard part, it is remarkably cost effective.

One core team has been responsible for all this development. It's remarkably unchanged from the original group - testimony to the fact that the close-knit environment at HUNT ENGINEERING is a fun place to work! Our staff are all from a technical background, giving us a unique depth of knowledge and experience in our industry. We specialise in the Virtex FPGAs from Xilinx and DSP processors from Texas Instruments, so can focus on providing the best solution to a problem - rather than joining the "Chip of the Month" club. We do all our own design and manufacturing, giving us a unique ability to control our own destiny.

Today, HUNT ENGINEERING is one of the most respected suppliers in the DSP industry. Many of our customers come back to us for project after project - a clear sign of their satisfaction with our products and philosophies. Our aim is to continue - retaining our position as "The World's Favourite Supplier of Real Time DSP"...