GAITHERSBURG, MD, 03/15/2000 --

With the start of the U.S. Census, Data Capture System 2000 (DCS 2000), developed by Lockheed Martin for the U.S. Census Bureau, has begun one of the largest and most sophisticated information capture jobs ever undertaken, the processing of a veritable avalanche in information that will ultimately provide an updated picture of the U.S. as this new century begins.

DCS 2000 will read the handwriting on Census returns from an estimated 120 million U.S. households and over the next several weeks process some 1.5 billion pages of information, capturing data provided by citizens across the country and converting it into electronic format for subsequent analysis.

Lockheed Martin engineers and U.S. Census Bureau systems experts have a high level of confidence in the system, which marks the most extensive use of technology to process a Census and the first time that automated recognition technology has been used to read handwriting in the Census taking.

The system has undergone several test runs and dress rehearsals during the course of its development over the past two and one half years to assure its readiness for the task that began officially this week.

Last month, in a final test of readiness, the DCS 2000 systems at all four Census processing locations, took on a full production load, working continuously over two shifts for four days.

The results provided a full confirmation of readiness in all regards since the test brought together both administrative and site processing operations, said Clyde Relick, DCS program manager for Lockheed Martin Mission Systems. We simulated the entire operations spectrum over the four-day period, using the final release of software, and it performed flawlessly.

Relick noted that the system was available during the entire test and that some 3.2 million forms were processed with all production goals met.

DCS 2000 supports the entire Census processing from check-in of arriving forms to the point where the final captured data is forwarded to Census Bureau computers, ready for analysis by scholars and planners, citizenry and press and others. While some keying of information will be required and human operators will assist throughout the operation, the number of people needed to support the operation has been reduced by as much as 75 percent due to the efficiency of DCS 2000, said Relick.

DCS 2000 systems are operational at the four Census processing locations, including Baltimore, Md; Jeffersonville, Ind; Phoenix, Ariz; and Pomona, Calif.

A leader in mission critical systems integration and information operations, Lockheed Martin Mission Systems serves customers including U.S. and international defense and civil government agencies. Mission Systems employs approximately 2,700 at major facilities in Gaithersburg, Md., Colorado Springs, Colo., Manassas, Va., and Santa Maria, Calif., and is a business unit of Lockheed Martin Corporation.