The U.S. Army is upgrading, recapitalizing and redeploying materiel, with electronics a key part of the process.

It seems like a simple choice. You need to upgrade a platform’s computing capabilities—whether on a ground vehicle, a fast-delivery ship, a signal’s intelligence airplane or in a server room—but some of the existing hardware still is salvageable. Rather than do a complete upgrade from scratch, it is possible to leverage much of the existing technology and retain existing racks, power supplies and mass storage in the retrofit.

It makes perfect sense: Why throw away parts that seem to be working? But a closer inspection might reveal a different answer. Let’s peel back a few layers and see why—and when—it might make sense to throw away existing equipment and start over.

You never know what’s behind the walls

As with a home contractor, when vendors perform a retrofit, there’s always one line left open on the contract because they don’t know what they’re going to find. The contractor might find termites, faulty plumbing or other damage. In the high-performance computing industry, initial testing to determine the viability of existing equipment can be time-consuming and costly as the customer pays for design services and fixes.

Ben Sharfi

CEO and Chief Architect
General Micro Systems, Inc.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.