Datum Systems is a small, but highly respected design and
manufacturing company in the heart of Silicon Valley. Some of the questions that
people occasionally ask about us, as well as our policies and interesting tidbits
of information are presented below.
Who We Are:
There are four main contacts within Datum Systems .
Each has a significant amount of
experience in high tech communications and manufacturing within their area.
Michael Boutte - President, Engineer
David Bagby - Vice President, Engineer,
and chief modem designer
Cindy Patterson - Order Entry, Purchasing and
Manufacturing Management
Jim Pennell - Production Engineering/Test
and Tech Support.
Datum Systems is wholly and privately
owned. We have been in business since 1986, and incorporated since 1995.
Originally Datum Systems designed modems and various communications gear for
other companies, and started manufacturing our own satellite modems in 1996.
Many of our first modems went out with someone else's name on it. Today over
50% of the equipment we ship carries our own name.
We have a lot of pride in our name and
our reputation. Our goal is to design, manufacture and sell the best, most
reliable equipment that you can buy for the money.
What We Do:
Datum Systems is an OEM, or Original Equipment
Manufacturer of satellite modems. We do not buy and resell modems from other
manufacturers. All of our modems to date are fully designed in-house,
including the modem itself, the front panel, all of the sheet metal, basically
everything but the power supply. There are a few peripheral parts from other
manufacturers that we either recommend or sell as adjuncts to our modems such
as interface converters.
We have over 30 years of electronic
design experience, and familiarity with
sophisticated communications systems ranging back farther. We also have
experience with microwave equipment and design up to 14 GHz, although we
currently are only building for frequencies up to 2 GHz.
Datum Systems also writes all of its own
software in-house. Our modems include multiple embedded processors running
reliable sophisticated real time software written entirely in assembly
language. It is fast, virtually bug free and does not require a "reset"
function to correct its mistakes. Our 100 MIPS digital signal processor with
integrated software is how we achieve the fastest acquisition on the market.
Our Product Design Philosophy:
Our product portfolio is fairly small
including mainly satellite modems. Each is rigorously designed to provide the
absolute best performance at a low cost. The low cost is achieved by design,
not cutting corners. The equipment is designed to be manufactured and built
extremely efficiently. The actual assembly of the complex PCBs that we design
is done in one of many high tech assembly houses here in Silicon Valley. The
mechanical design is allows very efficient top assembly. Testing is virtually
all automated, from initial checkout through full calibration test to burn-in
and to final testing before units are shipped.
The electronic design features zero adjustments, and
comprehensive digital processing. Extensive use of Digital Signal Processing and FPGAs keeps the
complexity hidden inside high reliability chips. Our hallmark is our direct
modulation and demodulation, which gives us superior performance with fewer
parts and higher integration. We directly modulate and demodulate at 70 MHz,
140 MHz and also at L-Band! We also do not use the standard radio "chip sets"
that our competitors use - that gives us better performance and more control.
Most of the signal processing is
accomplished in Field Programmable Gate Arrays or FPGAs. The design of these
incorporates communications and logic processes written in high level hardware
design language, all done in-house.
If you compare what's inside our modem to virtually any
competitor you will find that, by comparison, their
equipment appears overly complex. We did we leave
out a few items - the IF stages and adjustments. We directly modulate and demodulate in our modems, that means no super-heterodyne functions of mixing and
filtering along with all of the adjustments. If you look at most of our
competitors, they have from 5 to 20 adjustments that have to do mainly with
the IF sections.
Look at our mechanical design. We call it
a 3 x 3 because it has three pieces of metal (chassis, front plate and cover)
housing three pcb assemblies (modem, front panel and power supply). The standard modem
is very easy to assemble! Look at our
competitor's equipment - some of it is 7 or 8 boards with cables and
connectors between them and 10 or more pieces of metal fabrication to be
assembled.
We invite you to compare our modem's
design and performance to any
competing product. Many of our customers have performed extensive comparative
testing and found that our modems
significantly outperform any other modem on the market. This means that your
satellite spectrum cost is lower using our equipment than any other modem.
Our Business Model:
What's Missing Here?
Datum Systems has no defined sales force or field offices. Our products partly sell themselves, but it is our resellers and system integrators that interface with end
users and prospective buyers. Many technical and business discussions are
carried out on the telephone, and we try to provide a high level of support
and information on this web site.
We have resellers in different
areas of the satellite business and in different geographic areas to promote
and sell our modems. We have large and small companies in Asia, South America,
Australia, Africa and Russia who are selling our gear within their "Home"
markets. We try to work with Teleports and service providers, especially here
in the US. At the same time we help "System Designers" by making certain that
our products meet their sometimes unique needs. This last part of our business
model has led us to the absolute fastest acquisition modem available that also
meets the requirements for a DAMA modem.
Our modems are designed to be low cost.
We want to be the equipment chosen because of both price and performance. When
there is competitive bidding on a job, we want to be the modem selected for
inclusion by the majority of bidders.
Our Pricing Policies:
This is a very competitive business. We personally know
many of people who run the competition, and respect them. Many of them have
large marketing organizations, field offices and sales forces. We have
the advantage of cost and performance. Since much of our sales is through
third parties, we have
developed a pricing policy to attempt to be fair to everyone.
All resellers and integrators get the
same price from us for the same sales volume. We do not bend this rule. Each
purchaser can be assured that he is getting equipment prices that are
identical to someone that he may be competing against for a sale. Thus no one
has an advantage and we show no "favoritism". We also make no exclusive
contracts for selling in a region (except Russia) or to a type of customer.
If we know we are dealing with a small
volume end user, then we try to direct them to one of our resellers, thus
supporting their efforts.
Longevity and the Future:
Datum Systems has outlasted many of our
major competitors and many of our large and small customers. We think that
this is because of our superior products and conservative business model. Since
we are relatively young, with no outside forces to drain our resources, we see
no reason that Datum Systems will not be around for a long time.
We are constantly developing new products and improvements
to our existing products. Our engineering time limits the speed that we make
these changes, but also insures that they are done correctly. This tight
in-house control and development, plus our self financing means that Datum
Systems and its equipment should be around for a long time.
Our Logo:
In case anyone is curious about our name or logo, here is
the straight story. When we first started Datum Systems we needed
a name and logo. After weeks of searching names that we generated on a computer,
Dave came up with the name "Datum", which refers to the reference or reference
line from which other measurements are made. We liked it, so I started making a
logo on an old Macintosh computer. It is meant to represent a two dimensional
reference mark.
