CalREN-2 Initiative Attracts Three New Industrial Partners

LOS ALAMITOS, CA - June 30, 2000: Thirty years of intense collaboration and resource sharing among the federal government, private sector laboratories, and the higher education community created today's Internet. Creating tomorrow's Internet requires that same intensity and partnerships technology enterprises are embracing the capabilities of CalREN-2 in their quest to develop and to bring to market the next generation of Internet technologies and applications.

CalREN-2 is a high-speed, advanced services network that connects 40 California research and education institutions at unprecedented speeds of over 1000 times faster than the commodity Internet. CalREN-2 is the first project of the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC), founded in 1997 by California's major research and academic universities. CENIC established an Associates program to engage commercial research partners.

Three diverse corporations are the newest CENIC Associates

• AVT Corporation, headquartered in Kirkland, Washington, provides enterprise solutions that enhance productivity and increase mobility;
• General Atomics, headquartered in San Diego, California, specializes in diversified research and development in energy, defense, optical film, and other advanced technologies; and
• Raytheon, headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts, collaborates with the Alaska SAR Facility (ASF). ASF's primary mission is to acquire, process, archive, and distribute satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data for the U.S. government and research communities. ASF is one of several Distributed Active Archive Centers (DAACs) sponsored by NASA as part of the Earth Observing System initiative.

Collaborating with researchers at CENIC institutions enables the development and testing of pre-competitive communications services, software and equipment in support of advanced information technology applications crucial to the emerging network-driven economy.

"Over the last three decades, technology transfer from California's higher education community played a leading role in the development of the Internet, and hundreds of network technology enterprises grew out of this rich environment," noted Thomas W. West, President of CENIC. "By participating in the CENIC Associates program high technology businesses can delve into new, revolutionary applications employing the high bandwidth network capabilities of CalREN-2. CENIC welcomes the participation of AVT, General Atomics, and Raytheon in pushing the development of the next generation of information technology products and services."

The CENIC Associates program offers qualified companies the opportunity to collaborate with CENIC in pursuit of the goal of providing the most advanced network services for research and education.

About CENIC

CENIC is a not-for-profit corporation formed by the California Institute of Technology, the California State University, Stanford University, the University of California, and the University of Southern California to advance the use of communications technology in research and education at California1s universities. The CENIC Associates program also includes Cisco Systems, IBM, Pacific Bell and Sun Microsystems as founding partners.

CENIC operates CalREN-2 for qualified public and private sector institutions for research and learning purposes. CalREN-2 is California's segment of the national Internet2* initiative, partially funded by the National Science Foundation.

More information about CENIC's Associates program is available at http://www.cenic.org.

More information about AVT, General Atomics and Raytheon is available at each company's web site:
http://www.avtc.com
http://www.ga.com
http://www.raytheon.com and/or http://www.asf.alaska.edu/