Tsunami Tsoftware Frequently Asked Questions

Will additional functionality just require a new license and configuration file or is a new executable required?

This will require delivery of a new executable. The licensing dongle will still be valid.

Does Tsunami Tsoftware provide engineering support to the prime contractor for integration, meetings, acceptance testing, and configuration audits with the end-user customer?

Basic engineering support for integration and acceptance testing is included with the basic MMRS system. Using a host emulator and the standalone testing functionality built into the system, Tsunami Tsoftware ensures that the acceptance test procedures tailored for each MMRS and SERF and approved by the customer, runs with no discrepancies. The system is shipped with instructions for setup and operation. If problems arise that cannot be solved by email and phone, an engineer may be sent to the customer site to fix them. In addition, we will provide extended periods of on-site standby integration support and participate in additional management meetings, reviews, and audits as needed to support the prime contractor. These efforts will be quoted separately.

Can the MMRS and SERF run on the same system?

Yes, if projected usage of the SERF does not conflict with the simulation schedule since they cannot be run simultaneously. Using a single system for both functions makes configuration control of the database more difficult. Sufficient disk storage for the current run-time databases as well as development source data and databases under test, is also a consideration.

What optional database development services are available?

Optional Database Services include planning and coordination with the visuals subcontractor to gain access to database source, test and evaluation of sample areas. When the customer is satisfied with the test area, Tsunami will coordinate the formatting, delivery, and acceptance testing of the remainder of the database.

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Is there a multiple system discount?

The basic MMRS software license has a 10% discount on additional systems. Warranty and options are discounted at 50% for additional systems. Of course, non-recurring customer-specific customization charges apply only to the first system.

What is the lead time between purchase and delivery?

A Basic MMRS can be delivered in 6-9 months, depending upon the availability of radar requirements, host interface information, and database requirements and data.

Can a source license be purchased so that future upgrades can be made by the customer?

Tsunami has not planned to offer a source license.

Can a customer purchase just a software license and provide their own hardware?

Yes. The computer platform must meet our system requirements for number of processors, cpu speed, memory, disk space, etc. All components must meet the industry standards for the level of system specified. In order for us to warrant the MMRS and SERF software on customer-provided platforms, we require that one is shipped to us for a test cycle.
Problems that are due to faulty hardware that was not provided by Tsunami Tsoftware will not be covered under warranty and may result in technical support charges to the customer.

Can a license be upgraded for additional functionality?

Yes. Upgrade pricing depends upon the nature of the upgrade and the vintage of the original version of MMRS and SERF. Beware that an upgrade may force migration to a newer generation of the product which may have an impact on certification and testing of the trainer.

Is the license node-locked? Can we move it to another computer?

The software license is via a dongle on the parallel port. The MMRS and SERF may be moved to another system or may even be installed on multiple systems. However, since the dongle must be physically present at run-time, only one system per license may run at any given time.

What kind of Warranty is provided? Are Extended Warranties available?

A one-year software warranty is offered which can be extended. This covers all requirements in the specification accepted at contract award. Hardware is covered by the COTS manufacturer’s warranty or for 90 days after delivery, whichever is later.

Since this is primarily a software product where problems and fixes would be identical in multiple systems of the same radar model, is there a multiple system warranty discount? Can we purchase a warranty for only one of a multiple system acquisition?

Systems 2 through n have up to a 50% discount on their warranties. The warranty must be purchased for all or none. The reasoning behind this is that multiple systems get more usage and exercise more scenarios, and therefore are more likely to come across 'corner case' problems that require warranty work.

What kind of free or paid support is available after the warranty period?

Tsunami will provide some limited tech support via email and telephone after the warranty period. If it becomes evident that a customer is having ongoing problems that require significant attention, we will require a purchase order for continued support.
At some point, we plan to have knowledge-based help on our website, but since each radar model is different, this will only cover basic and generic information.

Will product updates and service patches be made available for general improvements and fixes to the MMRS and SERF products (that are not tied directly to tailoring for any specific radar or customer)?

Although each MMRS radar shares much of the same code base, they have program-specific executables and configuration data. From time to time we may offer to create a new set of executables to include bug fixes or generic upgrades for a nominal fee. In this case, the customer is responsible for any reverification of system performance.

Which Operating Systems are supported?

Windows 2000 and Linux.

How much of the MMRS/SERF is made up of third party Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) hardware and software?

All hardware and device drivers for the MMRS and SERF are COTS running on a standard Windows 2000 or Linux operating system. With consumer-level COTS components, replacements and spares are cheaper and more readily available from multiple sources.

Does the MMRS use a specific graphics accelerator? What are the minimum requirements for a graphics card?

For cost-effectiveness and maintainability, the MMRS and SERF use industry-standard API's that are supported by most PC-compatible graphics adaptors. Any middle-of-the-road consumer graphics card with DirectX or Xlib support will be sufficient. We recommend a mainstream manufacturer such as Matrox or ATI for better driver reliability and for a Microsoft certified product for Windows systems. If Linux is selected, the choices of graphics cards may be more limited.

Is a high-speed disk drive needed to provide sufficient bandwidth for database retrieval?

We recommend at least UDMA-100 at 7200 rpm. This is standard in most larger capacity consumer-market disk drives.

Can additional disk drives be added later if database needs increase?

The number of EIDE channels are limited by the hardware system, so this depends upon if any spare channels are available for another disk. Note that large EIDE drives are inexpensive (a 40GB drive is a little over $100) so the initial system specification will include ample spare storage. Note also that if SCSI drives are selected, initial cost is higher but expansion is easier.

What video formats and connectors are supported?

The basic MMRS supports standard VGA raster output and connectors. Other raster formats such as NTSC or PAL can also be supported.

What types of host interfaces are supported?

The basic MMRS supports a Fast Ethernet interface to the host. Our engineers are familiar with a wide variety of simulators and can optionally adapt the MMRS to other legacy interfaces such as Scramnet, HSD, and Reflective Memory.

What radar effects are simulated by the MMRS?

Can we do our own tuning and reconfiguration to further customize the MMRS?

There are a limited number of changes that can be made to the system configuration after delivery. For run-time efficiency, much of the tailoring and configuration is via source level parameters that are compiled into the executables and used in a proprietary manner that is not exposed to the end-users. However, the MMRS has been designed to be easily configurable so that most tuning and other common changes can be performed quickly and cost-effectively, without a need for new executables.

How are classified radar characteristics handled?

The MMRS software itself never contains information such that it would need to be classified. Testing is performed with "dummy" data and the classified parameters are loaded at run-time, allowing the customer to create and keep complete control over the data at the simulator site.

How many targets can the MMRS support?

A maximum of 5 simple (specify position, small/medium/large, and orientation) moving or stationary targets are included in the basic system for use with Real Beam Mapping modes. With the Target Option, the MMRS handles a maximum of 128 stationary and 16 moving targets active simultaneously in a single image. This option can be extended to support high definition models for high resolution modes. Targets have all the applicable spatial and radar effects as if they were database features. For more than 128/16 targets, additional processing load analysis and hardware upgrades may be needed.

How many storms can the MMRS handle? Can the user create their own weather patterns?

Three simultaneous storms may be dynamically positioned when the Weather Option is selected. A library with 3 different patterns is provided with this option as well as a weather pattern editor for creating new storm patterns. For more than 3 storms, additional processing load analysis and hardware upgrades may be needed.

How many mission functions (e.g. target occult status) can the MMRS process?

With its scalable, expandable architecture, the number of non-displayed, optional mission functions that can be supported by the MMRS is limited only by the hardware configuration.

Can the MMRS correlate with a visual system or other sensor systems comprising a flight simulator?

Correlation is a function of a common database source, common earth mapping models, target range, geographic latitude, and computational accuracy. If a common database is used or an existing system's database can be exported to a standard format and the earth model is known, then a high degree of correlation between systems can be achieved.

Which out-the-window databases can be correlated to the MMRS?

OpenFlight is the standard SERF input data format. However, the distributed features (areals) and 3D features in this data must have usable radar attribution such as some sort of feature type identification code and/or surface material type identification. It also needs to have enough areals and 3D features to present a reasonably cluttered image. Completely geo-specific textured databases where there is no surface material identification provided with the imagery require augmentation from other sources for a realistic scan.

What other source formats can be used to create an MMRS database?

Optional out-the-window correlated input sources include anything that can be exported into DTED/DFAD, SIF, or SEDRIS formats. If the out-the-window database does not fall into any of these categories, a custom import option can be developed by the Tsunami Tsoftware engineering staff.

Is the database stored in geodetic coordinates?

There is a choice between geodetic and flat earth database coordinate systems. Larger databases will be geodetic.

How many Levels of Detail (LOD's) are used?

The number and resolutions of the LOD's are configurable. The standard MMRS configuration supports up to 9 LOD's. It is not necessary to have a contiguous set of LOD's; missing resolutions are texel-replicated

What resolution of SAR is supported?

Each texel at LOD 0 represents 8x8 feet in the default configuration. The MMRS and SERF will support finer resolutions, limited only by the availability of source data at those resolutions.

Are there limits to database gaming area size?

Gaming area is limited by available disk storage and for geodetic databases, by latitude (no higher than 80 degrees latitude).

What are the disk storage requirements per square nautical mile?

Storage size may vary as a function of feature density and active resolutions, but a typical average is approximately 10KB per square nautical mile.

What if the customer is just replacing an older radar simulator and does not want to spend a lot of money redeveloping their database?

For correlation purposes, the MMRS database is built from the out-the-window database so that most of the development effort and budget is spent on the IG database. If the image generator is not being replaced and no back-transformed or exported source is available, Tsunami Tsoftware can add a custom import of the old radar database to SERF. Beware that old radar databases may be too sparse to show to advantage on the MMRS without augmentation from other sources.

Do you provide the source data for radar simulation databases?

To ensure correlation with the rest of the trainer's visual cues, the radar database should be built from a common source that is normally provided by the visuals subcontractor. In the case where an application does not require correlation, it is the customer's responsibility to provide the database source to Tsunami Tsoftware for the desired areas of coverage.

What database development support is included with the basic system?

A basic database analysis is part of the proposal process. Tsunami will evaluate your requirements in the context of available source data and the basic SERF formatting capabilities. Recommendations will be made on storage requirements and special formatting needs.


	Sales and Licensing FAQ's Is there a multiple system discount? The basic MMRS software license has a 10% discount on additional systems. Warranty and options are discounted at 50% for additional systems. Of course, non-recurring customer-specific customization charges apply only to the first system. What is the lead time between purchase and delivery? A Basic MMRS can be delivered in 6-9 months, depending upon the availability of radar requirements, host interface information, and database requirements and data. Can a source license be purchased so that future upgrades can be made by the customer? Tsunami has not planned to offer a source license. Can a customer purchase just a software license and provide their own hardware? Yes. The computer platform must meet our system requirements for number of processors, cpu speed, memory, disk space, etc. All components must meet the industry standards for the level of system specified. In order for us to warrant the MMRS and SERF software on customer-provided platforms, we require that one is shipped to us for a test cycle. Problems that are due to faulty hardware that was not provided by Tsunami Tsoftware will not be covered under warranty and may result in technical support charges to the customer. Can a license be upgraded for additional functionality? Yes. Upgrade pricing depends upon the nature of the upgrade and the vintage of the original version of MMRS and SERF. Beware that an upgrade may force migration to a newer generation of the product which may have an impact on certification and testing of the trainer. Is the license node-locked? Can we move it to another computer? The software license is via a dongle on the parallel port. The MMRS and SERF may be moved to another system or may even be installed on multiple systems. However, since the dongle must be physically present at run-time, only one system per license may run at any given time. Will additional functionality just require a new license and configuration file or is a new executable required? This will require delivery of a new executable. The licensing dongle will still be valid. back to top

	Warranty and Support FAQ's What kind of Warranty is provided? Are Extended Warranties available? A one-year software warranty is offered which can be extended. This covers all requirements in the specification accepted at contract award. Hardware is covered by the COTS manufacturer’s warranty or for 90 days after delivery, whichever is later. Since this is primarily a software product where problems and fixes would be identical in multiple systems of the same radar model, is there a multiple system warranty discount? Can we purchase a warranty for only one of a multiple system acquisition? Systems 2 through n have up to a 50% discount on their warranties. The warranty must be purchased for all or none. The reasoning behind this is that multiple systems get more usage and exercise more scenarios, and therefore are more likely to come across 'corner case' problems that require warranty work. What kind of free or paid support is available after the warranty period? Tsunami will provide some limited tech support via email and telephone after the warranty period. If it becomes evident that a customer is having ongoing problems that require significant attention, we will require a purchase order for continued support. At some point, we plan to have knowledge-based help on our website, but since each radar model is different, this will only cover basic and generic information. Will product updates and service patches be made available for general improvements and fixes to the MMRS and SERF products (that are not tied directly to tailoring for any specific radar or customer)? Although each MMRS radar shares much of the same code base, they have program-specific executables and configuration data. From time to time we may offer to create a new set of executables to include bug fixes or generic upgrades for a nominal fee. In this case, the customer is responsible for any reverification of system performance. Does Tsunami Tsoftware provide engineering support to the prime contractor for integration, meetings, acceptance testing, and configuration audits with the end-user customer? Basic engineering support for integration and acceptance testing is included with the basic MMRS system. Using a host emulator and the standalone testing functionality built into the system, Tsunami Tsoftware ensures that the acceptance test procedures tailored for each MMRS and SERF and approved by the customer, runs with no discrepancies. The system is shipped with instructions for setup and operation. If problems arise that cannot be solved by email and phone, an engineer may be sent to the customer site to fix them. In addition, we will provide extended periods of on-site standby integration support and participate in additional management meetings, reviews, and audits as needed to support the prime contractor. These efforts will be quoted separately. back to top

	System Requirements and Hardware FAQ's Which Operating Systems are supported? Windows 2000 and Linux. How much of the MMRS/SERF is made up of third party Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) hardware and software? All hardware and device drivers for the MMRS and SERF are COTS running on a standard Windows 2000 or Linux operating system. With consumer-level COTS components, replacements and spares are cheaper and more readily available from multiple sources. Does the MMRS use a specific graphics accelerator? What are the minimum requirements for a graphics card? For cost-effectiveness and maintainability, the MMRS and SERF use industry-standard API's that are supported by most PC-compatible graphics adaptors. Any middle-of-the-road consumer graphics card with DirectX or Xlib support will be sufficient. We recommend a mainstream manufacturer such as Matrox or ATI for better driver reliability and for a Microsoft certified product for Windows systems. If Linux is selected, the choices of graphics cards may be more limited. Is a high-speed disk drive needed to provide sufficient bandwidth for database retrieval? We recommend at least UDMA-100 at 7200 rpm. This is standard in most larger capacity consumer-market disk drives. Can additional disk drives be added later if database needs increase? The number of EIDE channels are limited by the hardware system, so this depends upon if any spare channels are available for another disk. Note that large EIDE drives are inexpensive (a 40GB drive is a little over $100) so the initial system specification will include ample spare storage. Note also that if SCSI drives are selected, initial cost is higher but expansion is easier. What video formats and connectors are supported? The basic MMRS supports standard VGA raster output and connectors. Other raster formats such as NTSC or PAL can also be supported. What types of host interfaces are supported? The basic MMRS supports a Fast Ethernet interface to the host. Our engineers are familiar with a wide variety of simulators and can optionally adapt the MMRS to other legacy interfaces such as Scramnet, HSD, and Reflective Memory. Can the MMRS and SERF run on the same system? Yes, if projected usage of the SERF does not conflict with the simulation schedule since they cannot be run simultaneously. Using a single system for both functions makes configuration control of the database more difficult. Sufficient disk storage for the current run-time databases as well as development source data and databases under test, is also a consideration. back to top

	MMRS FAQ's What radar effects are simulated by the MMRS? For specs on the Tsim MMRS click here Can we do our own tuning and reconfiguration to further customize the MMRS? There are a limited number of changes that can be made to the system configuration after delivery. For run-time efficiency, much of the tailoring and configuration is via source level parameters that are compiled into the executables and used in a proprietary manner that is not exposed to the end-users. However, the MMRS has been designed to be easily configurable so that most tuning and other common changes can be performed quickly and cost-effectively, without a need for new executables. How are classified radar characteristics handled? The MMRS software itself never contains information such that it would need to be classified. Testing is performed with "dummy" data and the classified parameters are loaded at run-time, allowing the customer to create and keep complete control over the data at the simulator site. How many targets can the MMRS support? A maximum of 5 simple (specify position, small/medium/large, and orientation) moving or stationary targets are included in the basic system for use with Real Beam Mapping modes. With the Target Option, the MMRS handles a maximum of 128 stationary and 16 moving targets active simultaneously in a single image. This option can be extended to support high definition models for high resolution modes. Targets have all the applicable spatial and radar effects as if they were database features. For more than 128/16 targets, additional processing load analysis and hardware upgrades may be needed. How many storms can the MMRS handle? Can the user create their own weather patterns? Three simultaneous storms may be dynamically positioned when the Weather Option is selected. A library with 3 different patterns is provided with this option as well as a weather pattern editor for creating new storm patterns. For more than 3 storms, additional processing load analysis and hardware upgrades may be needed. How many mission functions (e.g. target occult status) can the MMRS process? With its scalable, expandable architecture, the number of non-displayed, optional mission functions that can be supported by the MMRS is limited only by the hardware configuration. Can the MMRS correlate with a visual system or other sensor systems comprising a flight simulator? Correlation is a function of a common database source, common earth mapping models, target range, geographic latitude, and computational accuracy. If a common database is used or an existing system's database can be exported to a standard format and the earth model is known, then a high degree of correlation between systems can be achieved. back to top

	Database and SERF FAQ's Which out-the-window databases can be correlated to the MMRS? OpenFlight is the standard SERF input data format. However, the distributed features (areals) and 3D features in this data must have usable radar attribution such as some sort of feature type identification code and/or surface material type identification. It also needs to have enough areals and 3D features to present a reasonably cluttered image. Completely geo-specific textured databases where there is no surface material identification provided with the imagery require augmentation from other sources for a realistic scan. What other source formats can be used to create an MMRS database? Optional out-the-window correlated input sources include anything that can be exported into DTED/DFAD, SIF, or SEDRIS formats. If the out-the-window database does not fall into any of these categories, a custom import option can be developed by the Tsunami Tsoftware engineering staff. Is the database stored in geodetic coordinates? There is a choice between geodetic and flat earth database coordinate systems. Larger databases will be geodetic. How many Levels of Detail (LOD's) are used? The number and resolutions of the LOD's are configurable. The standard MMRS configuration supports up to 9 LOD's. It is not necessary to have a contiguous set of LOD's; missing resolutions are texel-replicated What resolution of SAR is supported? Each texel at LOD 0 represents 8x8 feet in the default configuration. The MMRS and SERF will support finer resolutions, limited only by the availability of source data at those resolutions. Are there limits to database gaming area size? Gaming area is limited by available disk storage and for geodetic databases, by latitude (no higher than 80 degrees latitude). What are the disk storage requirements per square nautical mile? Storage size may vary as a function of feature density and active resolutions, but a typical average is approximately 10KB per square nautical mile. What if the customer is just replacing an older radar simulator and does not want to spend a lot of money redeveloping their database? For correlation purposes, the MMRS database is built from the out-the-window database so that most of the development effort and budget is spent on the IG database. If the image generator is not being replaced and no back-transformed or exported source is available, Tsunami Tsoftware can add a custom import of the old radar database to SERF. Beware that old radar databases may be too sparse to show to advantage on the MMRS without augmentation from other sources. Do you provide the source data for radar simulation databases? To ensure correlation with the rest of the trainer's visual cues, the radar database should be built from a common source that is normally provided by the visuals subcontractor. In the case where an application does not require correlation, it is the customer's responsibility to provide the database source to Tsunami Tsoftware for the desired areas of coverage. What database development support is included with the basic system? A basic database analysis is part of the proposal process. Tsunami will evaluate your requirements in the context of available source data and the basic SERF formatting capabilities. Recommendations will be made on storage requirements and special formatting needs. What optional database development services are available? Optional Database Services include planning and coordination with the visuals subcontractor to gain access to database source, test and evaluation of sample areas. When the customer is satisfied with the test area, Tsunami will coordinate the formatting, delivery, and acceptance testing of the remainder of the database. back to top


	Frequently Asked Questions Sales and Licensing FAQ's Warranty and Support FAQ's System Requirements and Hardware FAQ's MMRS FAQ's Database and SERF FAQ's		Want to know what an acronym stands for? Click here.