Abaco Announces Expansion of Austin, Texas Innovation Center

Abaco Systems announced plans to grow the company’s presence in Austin, Texas, the home of its DSP Innovation Center. This expansion follows Abaco’s February move to new headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama and is further evidence of the company’s investment in innovation and continued growth.

This significant expansion sees the facility grow almost 50% to over 16,000 square feet, and comes as a result of rapid growth in demand for Abaco’s digital signal processing solutions that are designed for advanced electronic warfare applications.
The additional space, which opened in July, will enable the expansion of the engineering facilities at the DSP Innovation Center. Not only will it receive substantial technical upgrades and additional laboratory facilities, but it will also benefit from re-equipping of the entire new workspace. This will provide a more ergonomic environment that will facilitate the collaboration that is at the heart of Abaco’s innovation.

Abaco is actively recruiting engineers, the addition of whom will see the current site headcount increase by more than 50% over the coming 18 months to more than 65 employees.

The expansion follows the announcement in February of Abaco’s move to new headquarters in Huntsville, Alabama in response to continuing growth across the company’s business.

“Austin has an outstanding reputation as being a great place for leading edge technology companies to do business, and that makes it a perfect fit for our company – not least because of the access it gives us to the country’s most talented engineers,” said Rich Sorelle, President and CEO of Abaco. “This expansion of our DSP Innovation Center, in terms of both space and people, will allow us to continue to develop the innovative, pioneering computing solutions that enable our customers to provide our warfighters with a vital competitive edge.”

Abaco’s five Innovation Centers are at the heart of the company’s success. The team in Austin is responsible for the development of leading edge solutions based on advanced technologies including DSP, FPGA, and RFSoC. Innovative products designed and manufactured on site include the VP430 and the VP460.
The Austin facility also provides the in-depth technical support customers sometimes require – all the way from design through development through optimization through deployment.

The VP430 Direct RF Processing System, which was the first 3U VPX COTS solution to feature the all new Xilinx® ZU27DR RF system-on-chip (RFSoC) technology, is also one of the densest analog FPGA DSP boards available, with eight ADC and DAC synchronized channels. It features the ability to synchronize multiple boards for even larger system applications.

The success of the VP430 led to the announcement of its 6U VPX counterpart, the VP460 Direct RF Processing System, which is aligned with the SOSA™ standard designed to deliver the cost-effective interoperability required by the US Air Force, Army, and Navy.

Austin has long been home to some of the highest profile technology organizations. In the defense industry that Abaco primarily serves, BAE Systems, Boeing and Northrop Grumman have facilities in the city. The growing tech city also drew interest from the U.S. Army, who chose Austin for the headquarters of Futures Command, which is aimed at modernizing military weapons, combat vehicles, and more.

Texas is one of the top states in the U.S. for aerospace and defense manufacturing.