History

A-Systems was founded in 1975 by Floyd Artrip, a native Virginian with a background in both Engineering and Management. Mr. Artrip holds degrees from The University of Virginia and The George Washington University. He drew on his engineering experience working for Sperry Marine Systems, Melpar and Ridge Electronics to establish A-Systems with the goal to develop new products for our customers utilizing state-of-the-art technology. A-Systems was incorporated in 1976 in Ivy, Virginia and in 1978 relocated to a 1700 square foot facility in Charlottesville. The next major move was in 1985 when we occupied a new 4500 square foot facility. In 1999 we were certified to ISO 9001. In 2003 we moved to a 11,000 square foot facility where we are currently located.

Our Engineering staff has a track record of successful development of projects ranging from switching power supplies to personal computer based biomedical instruments. We have designed microprocessor motor controllers, optical positioning systems, acoustic intrusion detection devices, voltage-to-frequency converters,voice encryption equipment, optical lens grinder controls and heart rate monitors for premature infants. Other products include battery chargers, monolithic integrated circuits and controls for mobile radios.

Our Engineering staff has had additional experience during earlier assignments. This includes design of active and passive airborne and shipboard RADAR, ECM, ECCM, Acoustic and infrared intrusion detection systems, high speed computer printers, LSI chip designs and servo mechanisms. Additional experience includes communications interface circuitry, electronic systems for submarine periscopes, control systems for drone aircraft and helicopters, drone aircraft surveillance and RADAR jamming systems, missile tracking systems, voltage-tuned magnetron jammers and microwave antenna designs. In addition, we draw on a cadre of hardware and software engineers from the local community as projects demand.

We have been manufacturing products containing Surface Mount Technology since 1984 and have produced tens of thousands of various products. We have manufactured tens of thousands of units of various products containing microprocessors ranging from the 8008 to the 68HC705 families.

A-Systems has manufactured products in quantities of one to 23,000. Examples include numerous large production runs of very complex electronic products having multi-layer printed circuit boards, surface mounted components, microprocessor ICs and RF circuitry.

Some of these products were of our own design, some were turn-key designs which were built to customer prints. We normally test all products before shipment and, when required, we burn-in the product including hot-cold temperature cycled burn-in test.

One product which we produced incorporated an 8031 microprocessor, TTL and CMOS logic, displays, analog and switching circuitry. We produced more than 14,000 units of this product.

This product contained 4 multi-layer boards and 35 surface mounted components. We carried this product design from a six page schematic to the final production form including the design of the injection molded package in less than six months.

Another of our products is a low cost linear 13.8 volt, 13 Ampere power supply/battery eliminator. This U/L listed product is our own design. We have manufactured more than 23,000 units to date. We also manufacture switching power supplies up to 400 watts.

We have produced a National Security Agency approved Voice Encryption/Decryption product. This product has multi-layer circuitry, a mask programmed 16 Bit microprocessor, DES encryption IC, and emissions filtering. This was strictly a build-to-print job. We manufactured more than 4000 units.

We have produced hundreds of a shipboard satellite navigation receivers containing eleven printed circuit boards, RF and IF circuitry, a switching power supply (designed by A-Systems twenty-four years ago) and a CRT display. We have manufactured more than 5000 computer printers. We have manufactured tens of thousands of Printed Circuit Board Assemblies for the MILES LASER Target Scoring System for the Army along with various support test equipment for calibration including a optical LASER bore site alignment fixture.

We have built more than 1200 power supplies for IBM point-of-sale equipment. We have shipped thousands of power supplies for shipboard radar and gyrocompass systems.

We built prototypes of a research instrument for monitoring the variability of heart beats in premature infants. Other biomedical products have included a blood flow monitoring system capable of measuring the volume of flow in capillaries and determining the percent of oxygen carried in the blood.

We built a very low noise, low drift DC coupled amplifier which amplified thermocouple signals in the 0.1 microvolt range up to 3 million times while providing a switchable bandwidth limiting function. This was for a biomedical application. A significant side requirement for this amplifier development was to design a precise signal source suitable for calibration of the equipment.

A number of years ago a customer came to us for help in designing solid state controls for an optical lense grinding machine which they were manufacturing. At the time they were using relays and cam followers. We designed a control system using PAL technology. We have since produced many thousands of these controls and they are still in production. We now produce a variety of products for that customer including microprocessor based controls for a new generation of their product line.

A new product area for A-Systems, Incorporated has been the development of monolithic Integrated Circuits to replace older IC designs which are no longer available. To date, we have completed both analog and digital designs. We have also developed pin-for-pin SMT replacements for obsolete monolithic memory chips. All these devices have been qualified for temperature, shock, vibration and humidity requirements. In 1999 we established A-Systems Semiconductor Division as a separate division for our semiconductor operation,.

A-Systems has designed and/or manufactured numerous products for Acme Visible Records, Albemarle County, AMF, Cardio-Research, Inc, Commonwealth of Virginia, Ericsson, E-Systems, GE , GE/Fanuc, Genicom, Genie, Hubbell Lighting, IBM, Sperry Marine Systems, Lockheed Martin, Loral, National Optronics, N-View, Norfolk/ Southern, Philip Morris, Raytheon, Reynolds Metals, Robertshaw, Saab, Unitech, University of Virginia and the UVA Hospital, UVA’s Biomedical Engineering Department., and many others.

Phone: (434) 295-7200
Email: A-Systems Incorporated^TM

	History A-Systems was founded in 1975 by Floyd Artrip, a native Virginian with a background in both Engineering and Management. Mr. Artrip holds degrees from The University of Virginia and The George Washington University. He drew on his engineering experience working for Sperry Marine Systems, Melpar and Ridge Electronics to establish A-Systems with the goal to develop new products for our customers utilizing state-of-the-art technology. A-Systems was incorporated in 1976 in Ivy, Virginia and in 1978 relocated to a 1700 square foot facility in Charlottesville. The next major move was in 1985 when we occupied a new 4500 square foot facility. In 1999 we were certified to ISO 9001. In 2003 we moved to a 11,000 square foot facility where we are currently located. Our Engineering staff has a track record of successful development of projects ranging from switching power supplies to personal computer based biomedical instruments. We have designed microprocessor motor controllers, optical positioning systems, acoustic intrusion detection devices, voltage-to-frequency converters,voice encryption equipment, optical lens grinder controls and heart rate monitors for premature infants. Other products include battery chargers, monolithic integrated circuits and controls for mobile radios. Our Engineering staff has had additional experience during earlier assignments. This includes design of active and passive airborne and shipboard RADAR, ECM, ECCM, Acoustic and infrared intrusion detection systems, high speed computer printers, LSI chip designs and servo mechanisms. Additional experience includes communications interface circuitry, electronic systems for submarine periscopes, control systems for drone aircraft and helicopters, drone aircraft surveillance and RADAR jamming systems, missile tracking systems, voltage-tuned magnetron jammers and microwave antenna designs. In addition, we draw on a cadre of hardware and software engineers from the local community as projects demand. We have been manufacturing products containing Surface Mount Technology since 1984 and have produced tens of thousands of various products. We have manufactured tens of thousands of units of various products containing microprocessors ranging from the 8008 to the 68HC705 families. A-Systems has manufactured products in quantities of one to 23,000. Examples include numerous large production runs of very complex electronic products having multi-layer printed circuit boards, surface mounted components, microprocessor ICs and RF circuitry. Some of these products were of our own design, some were turn-key designs which were built to customer prints. We normally test all products before shipment and, when required, we burn-in the product including hot-cold temperature cycled burn-in test. One product which we produced incorporated an 8031 microprocessor, TTL and CMOS logic, displays, analog and switching circuitry. We produced more than 14,000 units of this product. This product contained 4 multi-layer boards and 35 surface mounted components. We carried this product design from a six page schematic to the final production form including the design of the injection molded package in less than six months. Another of our products is a low cost linear 13.8 volt, 13 Ampere power supply/battery eliminator. This U/L listed product is our own design. We have manufactured more than 23,000 units to date. We also manufacture switching power supplies up to 400 watts. We have produced a National Security Agency approved Voice Encryption/Decryption product. This product has multi-layer circuitry, a mask programmed 16 Bit microprocessor, DES encryption IC, and emissions filtering. This was strictly a build-to-print job. We manufactured more than 4000 units. We have produced hundreds of a shipboard satellite navigation receivers containing eleven printed circuit boards, RF and IF circuitry, a switching power supply (designed by A-Systems twenty-four years ago) and a CRT display. We have manufactured more than 5000 computer printers. We have manufactured tens of thousands of Printed Circuit Board Assemblies for the MILES LASER Target Scoring System for the Army along with various support test equipment for calibration including a optical LASER bore site alignment fixture. We have built more than 1200 power supplies for IBM point-of-sale equipment. We have shipped thousands of power supplies for shipboard radar and gyrocompass systems. We built prototypes of a research instrument for monitoring the variability of heart beats in premature infants. Other biomedical products have included a blood flow monitoring system capable of measuring the volume of flow in capillaries and determining the percent of oxygen carried in the blood. We built a very low noise, low drift DC coupled amplifier which amplified thermocouple signals in the 0.1 microvolt range up to 3 million times while providing a switchable bandwidth limiting function. This was for a biomedical application. A significant side requirement for this amplifier development was to design a precise signal source suitable for calibration of the equipment. A number of years ago a customer came to us for help in designing solid state controls for an optical lense grinding machine which they were manufacturing. At the time they were using relays and cam followers. We designed a control system using PAL technology. We have since produced many thousands of these controls and they are still in production. We now produce a variety of products for that customer including microprocessor based controls for a new generation of their product line. A new product area for A-Systems, Incorporated has been the development of monolithic Integrated Circuits to replace older IC designs which are no longer available. To date, we have completed both analog and digital designs. We have also developed pin-for-pin SMT replacements for obsolete monolithic memory chips. All these devices have been qualified for temperature, shock, vibration and humidity requirements. In 1999 we established A-Systems Semiconductor Division as a separate division for our semiconductor operation,. A-Systems has designed and/or manufactured numerous products for Acme Visible Records, Albemarle County, AMF, Cardio-Research, Inc, Commonwealth of Virginia, Ericsson, E-Systems, GE , GE/Fanuc, Genicom, Genie, Hubbell Lighting, IBM, Sperry Marine Systems, Lockheed Martin, Loral, National Optronics, N-View, Norfolk/ Southern, Philip Morris, Raytheon, Reynolds Metals, Robertshaw, Saab, Unitech, University of Virginia and the UVA Hospital, UVA’s Biomedical Engineering Department., and many others.	A-SYSTEMS Chronology
		-1975- A-SYSTEMS founded- first contract to develop switching power supply for NAVIDYNE OMEGA Navigation System.
		-1980- A-SYSTEMS develops high effeciency (Blue Flame) Oil Burner Controls for The UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.
		-1981- A-SYSTEMS develops MAGIC AISLE movable shelving controls for ACME VISIBLE RECORDS.
		-1984- A-SYSTEMS awarded contract to develop S950 CONTROL HEAD for GE MOBILE RADIO in Febraury. A-SYSTEMS ships1700 S950 units by end of year.
		-1985- A-SYSTEMS awarded contract for ESZ4000 SATELLITE NAVIGATION RECEIVER production A-SYSTEMS awarded contract for GE VOICE GUARD ENCRYPTION equipment production
		-1986- A-SYSTEMS ships 14,000th S950 A-SYSTEMS awarded contract to develop U/L DELTA POWER SUPPLY for GE MOBILE RADIO A-SYSTEMS develops 77122 Control for Optical Lense Grinder for NATIONAL OPTRONICS
		-1989- A-SYSTEMS awarded contract for GENICOM 760 Computer Printer production
		-1991- A-SYSTEMS ships 23,000th DELTA Power Supply A-SYSTEMS SHIPS 4,000th VOICE GUARD
		-1992- A-SYSTEMS ships 5,000th 760 Printer
		-1995- A-SYSTEMS awarded contract to develop IBM Power Supply- ships first U/L Approved units in 60 days
		-1998- A-SYSTEMS awarded first contract to develop replacements for obsolete Integrated Circuits
		-1999- A-SYSTEMS Certified to ISO-9001 A-SYSTEMS ships 4,000th Lense Grinder Control Unit A-SYSTEMS establishes new SEMICONDUCTOR DIVISION - ships first Integrated Circuits .



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