Mercury Computer Systems is Selected by Hughes to Provide AdvancedTCA Products and Services for Commercial Satellite Base Station Platform

CHELMSFORD, Mass., Dec. 13 -- Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY), the leading supplier of RapidIO(R)-based AdvancedTCA(R) (ATCA) and MicroTCA(R) (uTCA) solutions, announced it was awarded a multi-year contract by Hughes Network Systems, LLC (Hughes) to provide ATCA-based modules as part of a fully integrated communications platform. The contract will support multiple Hughes programs, including a satellite base-transceiver subsystem (S-BTS) and a satellite base station subsystem (SBSS).

The contract calls for delivery of multiple RapidIO-based, DSP Advanced Mezzanine Cards (AMCs) mounted on ATCA blades from the Mercury Ensemble(TM) product line. The Mercury solution will support signal processing computing requirements necessary to provide mobile phone access to consumers, using a combination of satellite and terrestrial links in less densely populated areas.

"Mercury is a valuable system-level supplier in providing high-bandwidth, high-density computing platforms based on open standards," said Matthew Mohebbi, vice president and general manager of the Mobile Satellite Division at Hughes. "We chose Mercury for its mature ATCA products and expertise in RapidIO technology, which have become integral to our mobile satellite base station systems."

"We are very pleased to be selected by Hughes for this new commercial satellite communications opportunity," said Mark Skalabrin, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Advanced Computing Solutions business at Mercury. "Mercury has taken a leadership role in developing flexible ATCA and uTCA solutions that support a range of processor types and I/O requirements. Combined with our software and professional services support, we are uniquely positioned to assist Hughes on their application development and get to market quickly."

Mercury's unique approach to solving complex computing problems stems from 20+ years of architecting systems that enable scalable, parallel processing for very high performance. In its full configuration, the Ensemble platform is designed to interconnect more than 160 latest generation DSPs and to deliver more than 500 gigabits of streaming I/O.

Initial modules were delivered in November 2007. For more information on Mercury's ATCA and uTCA offerings, visit www.mc.com/ATCA.