ARINC
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Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated (ARINC), established in 1929, is the leading provider of transport communications and systems engineering solutions for five major industries: (aviation, airports, defense, government and transportation). ARINC has installed computer data networks in police cars and railroad cars and also maintains the standards for line-replaceable units. ARINC is currently owned by major US airlines. In July 2007 ARINC shareholders announced the sale of 90% of the ownership interest to Carlyle Group for about $1 billion. [1][2] The deal is expected to close by October 2007. ARINC is headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland and has two regional headquarters: London (established in 1999) to serve the Europe, Middle East and Africa region and Singapore (established 2003) for the Asia Pacific region. ARINC maintains more than 3200 employees at over 120 locations worldwide.
HistoryARINC, as it is known today, was incorporated in 1929 as Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated. It was chartered by the Federal Radio Commission (which later became the Federal Communications Commission) in order to serve as the airline industry’s single licensee and coordinator of radio communication outside of the government. The corporation's stock was held by four major airlines of the day. Today the stockholders include some 20 airlines and other aviation-related companies such as Boeing. Not much later ARINC took on the responsibility for all ground-based, aeronautical radio stations and for ensuring station compliance with FRC rules and regulations. Using this as a base technology, ARINC expanded its contributions to transport communications as well as continuing to support the commercial aviation industry and US military. In the 1950s ARINC developed the science of reliability analysis. ARINC also developed the standards for the trays and boxes used to hold standard line-replaceable units (like radios) in aircraft. These permit electronics to be rapidly replaced without complex fasteners or test equipment, usually returning the aircraft to service in a short time. In 1978 ARINC introduced ACARS© (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System), which is a datalink system that enables ground stations (airports, aircraft maintenance bases, etc.) and commercial aircraft to communicate without voice, but data, due to the datalink system being integrated with aircraft systems via a Communications Management Unit (CMU), such as fuel quantity, weight on wheels, FMS, etc. ARINC has expanded its business in government/defense/enforcement through its ARINC Research subsidiary. ServicesIn addition to ACARS, ARINC operates many communications services for the transportation industry including:
Corporate GovernanceAs of July 4, 2007, members of the ARINC Board of Directors are John L. Bartlett, John M. Belcher, Robert C. Cordes, David M. Davis, Stephen M. Dickson, Robert J. Newman, Zane Rowe, Gulsen Sanyer, Stephen R. Stetz. Standards Categories
StandardsARINC 404 and ARINC 600 define the ATR and MCU form factors for line-replaceable electronics units in aircraft. These standards date back to the 1930s. [3] ARINC 424 is an international standard file format for aircraft navigation data.[4] ARINC 429 is the most common standard, as all modern aircraft from Airbus, Boeing and Embraer use this protocol. It provides the basic description of the functions and the supporting physical and electrical interfaces for the digital information transfer system. This protocol works either with 12.5 to 14.5 kHz or 100 kHz, and 32 bits of data length. Using the low speed mode of operation tolerances of 10% apply, whereas only 5% tolerances apply to the high-speed operation mode. ARINC 429, like the ARINC 561 standard, is based on the ARINC 575 data format. ARINC 610B is a guidance for use of avionics equipment and software in simulators. ARINC 615 is a family of standards covering "data loading", commonly used for transferring software and data to/from avionics devices. ARINC 624 is a standard for aircraft onboard maintenance system (OMS). It uses ARINC 429 for data transmission between embedded equipements. ARINC 604 is a standard and guidance for the purpose of designing and implementing the Built-In Test Equipment (BITE). The description of the Centralized Fault Display System (CFDS) is included in this standard.[5] ARINC 629 is a multi-transmitter protocol where many units share the same bus. It was a further development of ARINC 429 especially designed for the Boeing 777. ARINC 633 is the air-ground protocol for ACARS and IP networks used for AOC data exchanges between aircraft and entities on the ground. ARINC 653 is a standard for partitioning of computer resources in the time and space domains. The standard also specifies APIs for abstraction of the application from the underlying hardware and software. ARINC 661 normalizes the definition of a cockpit display system (CDS), and the communication between the CDS and User Applications (UA). The GUI definition is completely defined in binary definition files (DF). The CDS software is constituted of a kernel which is able to create the GUI hierarchy specified in the DF during initialisation, thus not needing to be recompiled if the GUI definition changes. The concepts used by ARINC 661 are close to those used in user interface markup languages, except that the User Interface (UI) language is binary and not XML-based. ARINC 664 defines the use of a deterministic Ethernet network as an avionic databus in modern aircraft like the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 787. ARINC 708 is the standard for airborne weather radar. It defines the airborne weather radar characteristics for civil and military aircraft. This standard also defines the way to control and get information from the radar. ARINC 739 is the standard for communication between the MCDU and the systems attached to it. ARINC 828 is an interface standard used to connect EFB, e.g. Laptops, to aircraft. See alsoReferences
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