National Instruments Transport Forum
June 25, 2008
Versaille, France

NIWeek 2008
August 5-7, 2008

AutoTestCon 2008
September 8-11, 2008

SAE Convergence 2008
October 20-22, 2008

International Test Conference
October 28-30, 2008

Averna Helps CN Upgrade Its Mission Critical Control System
Using Latest National Instruments' Technologies

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Montreal, June 28, 2005 – Averna Technologies, a system integration corporation providing leading edge test automation and control solutions to Aerospace and Transport industries, announces that it has been selected by CN, a major North American railroad, to assist in upgrading its data acquisition and control system for railway classification yards. System upgrade is based on real-time PXI technology from National Instruments.
The mission critical control system requires highly reliable solution for signal conditioning, real time acquisition, and signal generation while interfacing with existing process sensors and control infrastructure. As the train wagons are dropped in the classification yard, their weight, speed and location are all monitored by the control system that manipulates the wagon speed and sorts these into outgoing tracks. Sensors and actuators are distributed throughout the yard, providing data to a very comprehensive and redundant acquisition and control system. While presenting robustness of an industrial process, the real time control decision is based on numerous inputs with some as sensitive as ambient air speed and wind direction!

"Developing our control system with PXI hardware and LabVIEW RT is showing us unprecedented flexibility and capacity,” said Jean Donato, Project Manager – leading the development team at CN in Montreal Canada. “Our system involves more than a thousand field signals and we are excited to attempt and resolve these challenging acquisition and conditioning requirements with technology from NI."

"PXI and FPGA I/O from NI are dream tools for control and systems engineers," said Shahzad Sarwar, Averna’s Director for Real-Time and Industrial Solutions. "CN is one of our many customers achieving success with these revolutionary products while creating their application with great reliability and flexibility."

About AVERNA Technologies
AVERNA is a privately-held Canadian corporation founded in 1999. The company focuses on manufacturing productivity improvements through information and automation systems that combine proven technologies from partners such as National Instruments with today's business management best practices. AVERNA has delivered solutions for several companies such as Honeywell, Alstom, Bombardier, CAE, Canadian Space Agency and Mecaer. For more information about AVERNA Technologies, visit their Web site www.averna.com.

About CN
Canadian National Railway Company (CN) spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key cities of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, St. Louis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America.

Source:

Averna contact:
Richard Maltais
Vice-President Sales & Marketing
AVERNA Technologies
(514) 842-7577, ext. 301

Karym Lahjioui
Director, Business Development, Aerospace & Transport
AVERNA Technologies
(514) 842-7577, ext. 415
sales@averna.com

Mark McCondach
Manager System External Communications
Canadian National
(514) 399-7210
Mark.McCondach@cn.ca