Raytheon

Raytheon, founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1922 as the American Appliance Company, adopted its current name in 1925. Raytheon initially gained expertise in radio tubes and became a leading producer of radar tubes and systems during WWII. Over the years, Raytheon achieved notable successes with inventions like the Radarange microwave oven, NASA communication systems, Patriot missiles, and Terminal Doppler Weather Radar. Today, Raytheon is one of the top industrial companies in the United States, serving customers in more than 80 foreign countries.

Raytheon is a major provider of defense electronics to the U.S. Currently, Raytheon is working on a project to migrate an expert system application from MicroVAX/VMS to the Windows NT (Intel) platform to enhance performance. This application is a missile-tracking program composed of 10,815 lines of C code across 44 modules, along with substantial RMS data files. Written over 10 years ago, the original developers are no longer available for consultation.

The project involves migrating an OpenVMS Patriot missile system from VAX to IBM Netfinity running Windows NT. The VAX C language code is converted to Visual C++ for NT using a Sector7 language conversion tool. The file structure, based on DEC’s RMS file system, was successfully migrated using Sector7’s RMS migration products.

• Migration of 10,815 lines of C code in 44 modules from VAX to IBM Netfinity Windows NT.
• Conversion of the missile-tracking system from VAX C to Visual C++ using Sector7’s conversion tool.
• Migrating the RMS file system using Sector7’s RMS migration products.
• Ensuring compatibility and high performance in the new environment.

IBM and Sector7 were selected from among many qualified candidates. Given the project’s defense focus, Raytheon required companies with deep expertise in the software and reliable future support. Sector7, with over 15 years of experience in porting VAX applications, partnered with IBM, whose experience in high-caliber projects ensured a successful migration. Raytheon was confident in this team’s ability to handle this critical task.