25th Aechelon Technology's Anniversary: A Story of DoD Innovation and The Pursuit of the American Dream

DISCLAIMER: This post reflects solely my private views and not those of my company.

A few weeks ago, at our new South San Francisco Headquarters, I was celebrating with all the employees the 25th Anniversary of our company. We founded the company on 9/11/1998. My thoughts wavered about the significance of this date and how we always celebrate the company's Anniversary the week before out of respect.

During the celebration with two other co-founders, we shared stories and perspectives of our journey with our ~200 employees. I want to share some of those stories, as my personal analysis might bring to light the real story of how technology got us here and where its future is in our industry.

I summarized and abstracted complex events and contributions to keep this article concise, so I apologize in advance for anybody missing; however, I believe it to be accurate. This is not a story about me but rather my golden opportunity as a witness to the sweat and tears of hundreds of people.

Although certain aspects of our work remain classified, I believe sharing select glimpses into a portion of our unclassified commercial offerings provides valuable insights into present roadmaps and future use cases, benefiting both the U.S. DoD and Allied Nations. I honestly believe some factors and trends are being overlooked.

I hope my narrative is not too spicy for the reader, so welcome to the 1st amendment!

Business and Duty

As a strategist, my first thought is the moment you stop innovating, you are not risking enough. It is a tricky balance in business between short-term and long-term gains of innovation because you have a duty to your employees and customers to keep the company profitable to invest in the future, or you will fall short of the customer's needs.

You see, in my view, private medium-sized companies have a duty to increase our nation and its Allies' readiness and advantage with technology. Should the unthinkable happen, as we witnessed in Ukraine and recently Israel, we must be proactive, not reactive. You cannot bend time as investments in technology, scalability, and the appropriate dissemination to our Allies have to allow for time to get approved ahead of the need if we are to fight as a cohesive force.

?Our American System

I believe that our company was not a "founder product" but a consequence of the American system. The only place on earth in which - without prejudgment - you can be welcomed from afar and be allowed to take the risks inherent in new ideas. Your mileage might vary, but that is my vantage point.

I do not state this from the point of superiority – I believe that our Allied Nations with similar values also have technologies beneficial to the U.S. and, therefore, consider my commentary as a personal journey.

Our roadmap benefited not just from our own U.S. development but also from fruitful collaboration with homegrown technologies from Finland, Norway, and Spain. You must be cognizant and mindful of all applicable export control regulations AHEAD of your projects and set things in advance to avoid afterthoughts by never bending the rules. But most important of all, use common sense.

Chapter 1: The Silicon Graphics Revolution

In the early 90s, before Aechelon, we were all employed by Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI) in Mountain View, California.

In the 80s and early 90s, the flight simulation industry was dominated by custom-built hardware with no programmability, at extraordinary expense, and little or no interoperation. Still, the engineering accomplishments of the original CompuScenes, Medallions, Vitals, and ESIGs should always be credited; in fact, during that time, we were all admirers of what was accomplished with limited hardware available.

When you consider those years, we just tried to match a very narrow feature set rather than thinking OUTSIDE of the box. However, that was about to change.

1990, Palo Alto, California: Polaroid picture of the author with Silicon Graphics and VPL Research while working on early "EyePhone" Virtual Reality units, which were eventually used for the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics Games (Image Credit: myself)

Our team at SGI played a pivotal role in a technical revolution that replaced "legendary" systems with general-purpose Unix-based supercomputers. That phase sowed the early seeds and blooming of technologies that allowed geo-specific simulation and virtual reality to come into play.

We were lucky to be part of the Advanced Graphics Division team, as they were the predecessors of today's Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and runtime engines. GPUs are custom-designed processors optimized to compute in real-time 3D polygons, lighting, and textures at speeds that general-purpose CPUs could not match and render motion video simulating the environment around the user.

We applied this technology on moon shots ("impossible problems to solve") ranging from large volume rendering visualization for the Department of Energy at Los Alamos National Labs to NBC's real-time video processing, which earned two of the co-founders an Emmy Award and led to the Geo-Specific Flight Simulation revolution.

Fully Geo-Specific simulators feature real-world imagery and terrain and require on-the-fly processing of large amounts of data to create a digital twin of the earth suitable for mission rehearsal and training. The Geo-Typical simulators we replaced used?“typical” textures and models, which limited the amount of data but impacted the realism in the reproduction of the real-world scenes for the simulator.

From this very same group, we all started what later became the companies you know today: Aechelon Technology, Intrinsic Graphics/KeyHole, and a diaspora to NVIDIA, ATI, ARM, and many others.

Innovation Never Ends: Reinvesting all profits into R&D

Chapter 2: The Geo-Specific Revolution

It is hard to imagine today, but some of our ?"crazy" ideas in the 90s ?were deemed by the industry as "impossible and impractical," yet we made it the industry standard (geospecific simulation with sensors). This standard has Aechelon Technology? DNA all over it, even though the public may never know the truth of its inception.

Funny enough, reading all the 80's Image Conference technical papers about geo-specific technologies, one would assume these technologies would have a key use in classified environments. At the time, this seemed beyond our reach.

Our team's expectation was to open the door into a SCIF and find these technologies in use. That turned out not to be true. In reality, it turned out that those implementations were never fully deployed or produced in volume. This became an open invitation, and ?"we were it" for quite a while to be later joined by other companies.

As we progressed, I cannot convey the number of times we were told that Geo-Specific simulators were not practical and did not have a future. The key thing as a business, should you hear the word impossible, is to pay attention because that is a business opportunity.

1998, U.S. Air Force Research Lab, Mesa, Arizona: A snapshot of the "impossible" running with eight channel mini-domes at a solid 60Hz and 1730x1350. The 3D content and textures are real-world specific representations of the Nellis AFB and Red Flag areas (Image Credit: Aechelon)

1999, U.S. Air Force Research Lab, Mesa, Arizona: Colonel Lynn A. Carroll was instrumental and visionary in early Industry/Government partnerships, resulting in integrating four four-ship F-16 configurations, which in many ways are the predecessors of today's JSE centers. Picture showing younger Aechelon co-founders receiving an honorary award for the first geo-specific systems. These same systems were later used after 9/11 to visualize Afghanistan in their simulators shortly after the events. (Image Credit: Aechelon/U.S. Air Force)

Aechelon, A Game Engine, Google Earth, and the CIA

Chapter 3: Game Engine and Shaders Technology for DoD Use

After the big diaspora out of SGI, while Aechelon devoted itself to Geo-Specific Military Simulators, a sister company named Intrinsic Graphics developed the most advanced multi-platform game engine at the time and also created KeyHole that later became Google Earth.

What followed is the first time I have mentioned it in a public forum.

Although part of the story is reflected in books about Google Earth's inception and also incorrectly in the Netflix series, they missed the importance of the phase that led to the game engine and shader technologies in use today for our defense market. These were created and refined during the transition period of SGI to Aechelon Technology and NVIDIA and our adoption of game engine technology with shaders. In those transition years, we were all friends and attended each other's weddings, supporting each other and licensing relevant components.

Shaders are customizable computer programs that run on the fly in GPUs and allow your own computations for each 3D polygon and pixel. This was a revolution since, until then, the functionality of the GPUs was fixed for polygons, textures, and lighting.

1998,?I/ITSEC Orlando, Florida. Our first Aechelon Image Generator system was running on Silicon Graphics Systems on the big Unix racks in the front. This picture was taken running the "impossible"?at the U.S. Air Force booth in a full 8-channel mini-dome and Night Vision Goggles (Image Credit: Aechelon)

During the early Aechelon years (1998-2000), we were primarily based on SGI Unix-based hardware, but when the time was right, we had the vision to bring P.C. Game Engine technology into geo-specific simulators for the Department of Defense, so we adopted our friend's engine.

2000, Santa Clara, California: Aechelon’s First public demo of shaders under the game engine running one of the early generation NVIDIA GPUs. Every pixel and vertex in the scene is running programmable shaders computing light and shadows. (Credit: Aechelon)

The timing could not have been better because the investment arm of the CIA (InQTel) saw the same advantage and also invested in the use of gaming engines. Aechelon Technology, together with Google Earth, Niantic (PokemonGo), and the CIA (InQtel) inherited the full source code of Intrinsic Graphics, the engine that powers Google Earth, and many games on multiple generations of PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and P.C. as it is a modern portable middleware which supported the shader revolution in-game systems while other engines were still moving the code to the GPU.

In 2000, we ran our first P.C.-based unit clusters with full geo-specific databases and sensor support on an ultra-high resolution multi-channel 60Hz mini-dome. Although we can run that same load today within a SINGLE 4U P.C. with eight GPUs, and we run channels at 120Hz and even 240Hz 4K and 8K, our old performance seems to be an elusive goal for Legacy vendors trying to adopt this same technology 23 years later at lower resolutions.

2000, U.S. Air Force Research Lab, Mesa, Arizona: First unit delivery of our shader-based game engine phase. It ran with full geo-specific databases and sensor support on an ultra-high resolution multi-channel 60Hz mini-dome. Although we can run that same load today within a SINGLE 4U P.C. with eight GPUs, and we run channels at 120Hz and even 240Hz 4K and 8K, our old performance seems to be an elusive goal for Legacy vendors trying to adopt this same technology 23 years later at lower resolutions. (Credit: Aechelon)

Chapter 4: Legacy Visual Suppliers Paying The Ultimate Price

Learning the hard way the value of investing

A few American companies – Aechelon being just one of them - adopted modern game technology long ago. Other visual processing technologies ran out of steam on their Image Generator technology and started the path to losing market share.

In my opinion, suppliers using legacy technology fell so far behind due to their lack of R&D investment that when they realized their positions, it was too late to catch up. So, with the need to maintain market share and relevance in the industry, they resorted to shortcuts and outsourcing graphic rendering to a specific game engine in the industry, but they still have a very long way to go.

Unfortunately, these shortcuts and outsourcing come with a price. The U.S. Government, our Allies, and Congress, which funds everything directly or indirectly, should research who controls the technology that is being applied to synthetic rendering systems.

Let me be a little more direct: no DoD contractors can have TikTok installed on their phones and computers, but synthetic environments for virtual war are open game to benefit Chinese investors?

I am not implying any wrongdoing or impropriety; just optics are bad. ?

At a personal level, it is aggravating as a U.S. Taxpayer.

The Machine Learning & Mixed Reality Transition

Chapter 5: Joint Synthetic Environment at wartime scale

These new technologies have graduated from labs into practical devices and have reached several Ready for Training systems that are currently used every day by U.S. and Allied forces in training systems today. It took a considerable effort, many years, and millions of dollars of profits reinvested by us, but it paid off for our users.

The future is already here; it is just not yet widely distributed. We have extensive capabilities in Machine Learning and Mixed Reality that are complemented by the integration of multi-domain databases, support, and complement use cases beyond the training environment every day.

We are serving some of the most significant highest fidelity Joint Synthetic Environments (JSE) at scale, setting the standard for multi-domain security and immersive visualization for simulation, training, and faster decision-making, with an unparalleled track record across DoD and the intelligence community of more than 900 flight training systems worldwide.

JSE centers are necessary because it is impossible to train at war scale in our air space with the new capabilities and ranges of modern sensors and weapons, together with stealth, without exposing them to adversary nations before a war. Our role is to help governments build multispectral digital twins of the earth, which are processed in real-time in the GPU, enabling experiencing theaters of war to stimulate, train, and develop and test new capabilities.

For security reasons, I cannot show you mission rehearsal details and sensors or a JSE environment, but at least a small glimpse of a commercial version. The following images are from our unclassified commercial unit.

2023, Somewhere in Europe, pictured through a head-mounted Varjo XR-3 Focal: Mixed Reality combined with Machine Learning, has changed how we respond to conflicts worldwide. Now, portable systems in an office space are as high-end for certain tasks as systems that used to cost tens of millions of dollars and took years to deploy versus weeks. Country-wide areas of interest now capture every tree and every building with snow accumulation for the mission, thanks to our investments in machine-learning processes honed over many years. (Credit: Aechelon)

Our systems have been used in real-life special operations that made a difference and that carry more value to us than any amount of money or recognition. Mission Rehearsal use cases provide advanced skill sets and improve outcomes by preparing for all scenario possibilities with highly realistic mission-relevant graphics, visuals, and sensors for the specific mission.

Virtual ISR is amplifying situational awareness by enhancing drone-feed visualization with sophisticated virtual sensors and data feeds.

Synthetic multi-domain 3D data is also revolutionizing A.I. and ML Training, using real-world synthetic theaters of war at total density. A.I. and ML model training is faster and easier than ever with synthetic data and image generation.

Actual weather and environment are also redefining realism by taking training to the next level with realistic virtual environments that leverage physics-based dynamic weather, brownout, and aero-turbulence.

Lessons Learned Growing A Business

Lesson 1: Burn the box

Don't just think out of the box. BURN THE BOX! Our products transitioned from training to mission rehearsal and are now on their way into operational equipment. Because of that trend, we make a difference in both readiness and actual missions. Providing realism is not just for our servicemen and allied forces but especially for innocent civilians who may be impacted by reducing mistakes and 'collateral' damage.

Lesson 2: Perseverance is necessary but not sufficient

Entrepreneurship is not a joy ride. It is a roller coaster of ups and downs, which no degree of forecasting, technology, academics, logistics, funding and/or preparation can warrant success. You must have a combination of long-term vision and perseverance over the hard times and economic shifts.

The technological, financial, and emotional energy that this market takes cannot be conveyed with words. I related to our 20th Anniversary five years ago, which I compared to one of my 100-mile Ultra-Marathons.

All through the challenges of COVID shutdowns, Continuing Resolution, Government shutdowns, supply chain woes, and now Congressional dysfunction forces privately owned small businesses to procure it at risk to protect our customers from supply chain impacts. We have become, in many ways, the last line of defense for many programs with little or no credit for it.

?Other ups and downs might include technical, production, and procurement challenges, so be ready to suffer because many of these are outside of our control.

2015, Donner Pass, California: ?Hard climbing at mile 50 of Castle Peak 100K felt as painful as COVID and Government Shutdowns to any small business in the U.S. Defense Market. (Image Credit: Donner Party Mountain Runners)?

?What gets you through these challenges is perseverance wrapped in technology. Complaining serves no purpose. We have learned over the years to not just push through rumors of shutdowns but also to navigate a few unethical bait-and-switch schemes. It will happen multiple times, but don't expect?actionable?help from the small business office. By the time they take action, it is too late, so you better toughen up. What does not kill you makes you stronger!

Lesson 3: Procurement Heroes

Regardless of my criticism, there are also unrecognized heroes in the government procurement process. You never hear about them, but we have seen many civil servants who still prioritize the good of the country and make things happen based on sound capabilities analysis rather than politics despite their furloughs, frozen pay, and the lawyering up of a few unethical contractors. Some people, including civil servants, will do the right thing and will not buckle to pressure. I have witnessed this over many decades, with recent examples during the first days of the Ukraine invasion and when time and lives are at stake. Those guys and gals will not get a medal or recognition, either. Thank you!

External Factor: Politicians not doing their job

While we are all either at work, creating jobs, or executing real missions, it again makes my blood boil to see both political parties placing party above country - and this applies to both parties. The politician's job is supposed to be finding what we have in common as Americans, not to find more ways to divide us. It takes more bravery to do the right thing when you have something to lose and reach a compromise than just preaching to your own choir.

Let's put aside any partisan hats and stop trying to make up facts to fit one's narrative and, for goodness sake, stop the Congress and Government dysfunction on BOTH parties and govern the country instead of playing politics. You are risking businesses in a delicate DoD ecosystem and, worst, lives as adversaries of the civilized world do not sleep.

John Adams, in 1796, put this very well in a letter: "There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution."?

WRAPPING THIS UP

A Glimmer of Hope

I see it every day, not just at work but in society, with young, small grassroots groups seeking the common good and getting things done. A message - STOP demonizing people with whom you don't agree, no matter left or on the right, and get back to work. No matter how much you disagree with your political foe, believe me, you have more in common with them than with Putin's Russia or Xi Jinping's China.

We can start with having more civility and stop being impolite/rude to people with whom we disagree. I am not the king of protocol, but I find the current politicians' overtones and threats of payback to each other disrespectful to the democratic institutions and the rule of law. Shame on you, no matter which party you belong to.

Final Lesson

You have a duty to perform better than the contract. Exceeding contractual requirements in favor of excellence should not be the exception but the standard. Sucking less is not enough. Your values are only real when you have something to lose: remember the families of the fallen when doubt or the suffering of the Ukrainian people.?

Were we naive 25 years ago? I don't know. But it turns out that we were right. You can put your customers first, reinvest everything in R&D, and still be successful. Call it the win-win of conscience-minded capitalism.

The Pursuit of the American Dream

This was my personal biased account of a long journey; what you do with it is up to you - welcome to America. If you never ever give up, treat people with respect, and smile while you are at it, you will (eventually) get to where you are going and will feel good about it.

2023, Mammoth, California, pursuing happiness, earning my turns before a Ski Mountaineering race. (Image Credit: my wife)

Respectfully

Javier Castellar

#aechelon #dod #mixedreality #vr #flightsimulation #sensorsimulation #gameengine #GPU #nvidia #afrl