DSI and Frontgrade Sign Agreement to Develop and Distribute Next Evolution of 2TB Mass Memory Unit for Space

BREMEN, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 20, 2024--

Representatives from DSI Aerospace, a provider of high-performance electronics and mass storage systems for airborne and space applications, and Frontgrade Technologies, the leading provider of high-reliability, radiation-assured solutions for the defense, commercial, and civil industries, signed an agreement at Space Tech Expo to develop Frontgrade’s SpaceStor ™ 2TB Mass Memory Unit. After DSI completes design of the MMU, Frontgrade will assemble and test at its Colorado, U.S. facility, and serve as the exclusive storefront for SpaceStor in North America.

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Under this newly signed agreement, Frontgrade will leverage its own 60-year space flight heritage with DSI’s proven expertise in flash memory controller IP and full mass memory unit hardware. The SpaceStor MMU is being designed to meet the demanding requirements of today’s Space environment and missions where reliable data storage is paramount. This rad-tolerant MMU offers a flexible, low power, and cost-effective data storage solution for the harshest environments.

David Meyouhas, Vice President of Product Management at Frontgrade, and Elias Hashem, Chief Executive Officer at DSI Aerospace, were joined at the signing ceremony by Bremen’s Governor, Dr. Andreas Bovenschulte; Bremen’s Senator for Economic Affairs, Ports and Transformation, Kristina Vogt; and Dr. Walther Pelzer, Director General of the German Space Agency at DLR.

“By bringing together Frontgrade’s extensive subsystem and flash heritage with DSI’s proven mass memory solutions, we will bring to our customers the next generation in high-performance Mass Memory Units needed to ultimately span the entire range of missions from LEO to GEO and beyond,” Meyouhas said. “We look forward to disrupting the MMU market by introducing a low SWAP-C, 2-terabyte product to North America.”

The SpaceStor MMU benefits from a combination of well-established software, firmware, and hardware elements carrying flight heritage into producing a powerful and scalable space-assured, mass memory solution.

Hashem added, “We are thrilled to enter into this agreement with such a well-established partner in the North American market. Together, we bring decades of expertise, combining our rich heritage of state-of-the-art solutions that will be incorporated into Frontgrade’s SpaceStor -- engineered in Germany and made in the USA.”

The SpaceStor MMU is provided in a 3U SpaceVPX form factor with a mezzanine that implements up to 2TB of EDAC protected NAND storage and, as a result, can be easily and rapidly customized for mission-specific storage requirements. Frontgrade and DSI expect to begin shipping prototypes in late 2025.

About Frontgrade

Frontgrade Technologies is the leading provider of high-reliability, radiation-hardened solutions for defense, intelligence, commercial, and civil applications. The Company offers a complementary and integrated suite of mission critical electronics. Key products include rad-hard components, mission processing subsystems, high power amplifiers, custom ASICs, motion control systems, waveguides, antennas, and power management solutions. For more information, visit www.frontgrade.com.

About DSI Aerospace GmbH

DSI Aerospace GmbH, established in 1997 in Germany, is an enterprise with a notable track record of over 150 failure-free years in space. With around 105 employees, DSI specializes in the development of high-end electronics for Earth Observation, Science & Exploration, and Space Safety missions. Their product line includes On-Board Computers, Data Handling and Processing Units and Ground Support Equipment, designed for optimal performance in space applications.

The company offers comprehensive services supported by advanced facilities for design, testing, and development. DSI Aerospace is dedicated to advancing space technology through innovative solutions and reliable products.

From left at podium: David Meyouhas, Frontgrade Vice President of Product Management, and Elias Hashem, Chief Executive Officer at DSI Aerospace, signed an agreement at Space Tech Expo to develop Frontgrade’s SpaceStorTM 2TB Mass Memory Unit. Frontgrade expects to introduce the new low SWAP-C MMU to the North American market in late 2025. (Photo: Business Wire)

MEUDON, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 20, 2024--

Artificial intelligence is the central theme of this year’s European Cyber Week from 19-21 November in Rennes, Brittany. In a challenge organised to coincide with the event by France's Defence Innovation Agency (AID), Thales teams have successfully developed a metamodel for detecting AI-generated images. As the use of AI technologies gains traction, and at a time when disinformation is becoming increasingly prevalent in the media and impacting every sector of the economy, the deepfake detection metamodel offers a way to combat image manipulation in a wide range of use cases, such as the fight against identity fraud.

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AI-generated images are created using AI platforms such as Midjourney, Dall-E and Firefly. Some studies have predicted that within a few years the use of deepfakes for identity theft and fraud could cause huge financial losses. Gartner has estimated that around 20% of cyberattacks in 2023 likely included deepfake content as part of disinformation and manipulation campaigns. Their report 1 highlights the growing use of deepfakes in financial fraud and advanced phishing attacks.

“ Thales’s deepfake detection metamodel addresses the problem of identity fraud and morphing techniques, ” 2 said Christophe Meyer, Senior Expert in AI and CTO of cortAIx, Thales’s AI accelerator. “ Aggregating multiple methods using neural networks, noise detection and spatial frequency analysis helps us better protect the growing number of solutions requiring biometric identity checks. This is a remarkable technological advance and a testament to the expertise of Thales’s AI researchers. ”

The Thales metamodel uses machine learning techniques, decision trees and evaluations of the strengths and weaknesses of each model to analyse the authenticity of an image. It combines various models, including:

The Thales team behind the invention is part of cortAIx, the Group’s AI accelerator, which has over 600 AI researchers and engineers, 150 of whom are based at the Saclay research and technology cluster south of Paris and work on mission-critical systems. The Friendly Hackers team has developed a toolbox called BattleBox to help assess the robustness of AI-enabled systems against attacks designed to exploit the intrinsic vulnerabilities of different AI models (including Large Language Models), such as adversarial attacks and attempts to extract sensitive information. To counter these attacks, the team develops advanced countermeasures such as unlearning, federated learning, model watermarking and model hardening.

In 2023, Thales demonstrated its expertise during the CAID challenge (Conference on Artificial Intelligence for Defence) organised by the French defence procurement agency (DGA), which involved finding AI training data even after it had been deleted from the system to protect confidentiality.

About Thales

Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies specialising in three business domains: Defence & Security, Aeronautics & Space and Cybersecurity & Digital Identity.

The Group develops products and solutions that help make the world safer, greener and more inclusive.

Thales invests close to €4 billion a year in Research & Development, particularly in key innovation areas such as IA, cybersecurity, quantum technologies, cloud technologies and 6G.

Thales has 81,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2023, the Group generated sales of €18.4 billion.

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12023 Gartner Report on Emerging Cybersecurity Risks.

2Morphing involves gradually changing one face into another in successive stages by modifying visual features to create a realistic image combining elements of both faces. The final result looks like a mix of the two original appearances.

(c)Thales