San Diego, California, May 15th, 2013 * * * In support of its growing customer base in the Americas, congatec Inc. today announced the opening of a new engineering design center located in Boca Raton, Florida. The new design center is congatec’s first to be located in The Americas, and the fourth for the company worldwide. The company also operates an R&D center within its global headquarters in Deggendorf, Germany and two in the Czech Republic.
congatec’s latest R&D center will be led by two new hires, Ron Valli and Michael DeLoye. Both are well-known industry specialists who come to congatec with a wealth of experience in the embedded computing market and will be responsible for supporting key customers and jointly designing core products that will be sold around the world. In addition, the new design center will also provide BIOS design and Ross Watanabe, who has been with the company for the last year, will step up to lead the BIOS team.
“Our new R&D center will support our current customers as well as continue to grow congatec’s tier-one account base. We are very fortunate to have such a top-notch team leading the design efforts in Florida. Ron, Michael and Ross have vast experience in the embedded computing space, including a number of vertical markets such as military and aerospace.” stated Ron Mazza, president and CEO of congatec Inc.
About The New Design Center Team
Dr. Ron Valli comes to congatec after 11 years with DRS Technologies where he held a senior principal engineering position including various engineering design and management positions. Dr. Valli’s background also includes 17 years with IBM's PC division as a hardware architect and designer. In addition, he has held positions at Racal-Datacom and NCR Corp. Dr Valli holds patents at IBM and Racal-Datacom. He received a BS and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and a MS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia.
Michael DeLoye was most recently principal engineer at DRS Technologies where he was responsible for the design of processor boards used in a ruggedized, military environments. Prior to that, he served as chief technology officer at Ener1 Inc. (formerly Inprimis Technologies) where he was responsible for the technology strategy. He has also held senior engineering positions at IBM Inc., where he was recognized with several Outstanding Technical Achievement awards and Invention Achievement awards. He holds two US patents and three European patents. DeLoye received an MBA and MS in Engineering Management from the University of Florida, and a BSEE from Case Western Reserve University.
Ross Watanabe was most recently principal BIOS engineer at DRS Technologies where he was responsible for BIOS and firmware integration for DRS Technologies’ hardware platforms. Prior to his time at DRS, Ross spent 9 years with Intel Corporation developing legacy and UEFI-based BIOS for cPCI, ATCA, and various other hardware architectures. He also spent 5 years in engineering leadership roles at Phoenix Technologies Ltd. He holds a BS degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from California State Polytechnic University – Pomona.
How Computer-on-Modules (COMs) Help Enable Electronic Design Success
Embedded COMs enable developers and OEMs to efficiently design new features into their devices and applications because they integrate the core computing functions of a system on to a swappable module. This allows for a longer product life cycle because the systems can be upgraded later on by simply swapping the module for a COM, with more current features, without the need to redesign the entire system. In recent years, COMs have become more popular in small- to large-sized embedded projects because developers are free to concentrate on their core competencies and are able to get their products to market faster. COMs are one of the fastest growing product segments in embedded computing and offer the most flexibility for the designer when it comes to off-the-shelf solutions.
About congatec, Inc.
congatec, Inc., with its headquarters in San Diego, California, is the leading supplier of industrial computer modules using the standard form factors Qseven, COM Express, XTX and ETX. congatec’s products can be used in a variety of industries and applications, such as industrial automation, medical technology, automotive supplies, aerospace and transportation. Core knowledge and technical know-how includes unique extended BIOS features as well as comprehensive driver and board support packages. Following the design-in phase, customers are given support via extensive product lifecycle management. The company’s products are manufactured by specialist service providers in accordance with modern quality standards. congatec, Inc. is a subsidiary of the German based company congatec AG, which has additional entities in Taiwan, the Czech Republic, Japan and Australia. More information is available on our website at www.congatec.us.
