NEED
An oil field service company required a low-cost, highly accurate A/D
converter card with special security features. Since our customer leased
their Windows(TM)-based well logging system on a monthly basis,
the code had to run securely, with no possibility of theft of running
code or resulting data collected by the unattended system.
Also, if their customer continued their lease past the end of the
month, then typing in a software password would activate the hardware
for another 30 days, increasing the lease automatically.
SOLUTION
Mitsi developed a combined security system and A/D converter card. It
supports 16 single ended or 16 differential analog-to-digital converter
channels.
Additional EPROM sockets and a battery backed RAM memory were also
provided on the card. Key parts of the software were placed in the EPROM
to stop unlicensed users from using duplicated disks. The database of
well logs was stored in the battery powered RAM in case of power
failure, and it is periodically written to disk. In addition, the RAM
contains the current run time for the system and passwords for verifying
lease agreements.
RESULTS
Mitsi produced the product under a cost shared agreement, where Mitsi
retained manufacturing rights to the technology in exchange for a
reduced engineering fee. The product has successfully passed all field
tests and is now in production.
