spreading code

An engine for research & development.

What is the meaning of this?

Spreading Code is a holding company for several software projects devoted to supporting public and private research and development activities. More on that later. But what does the name mean?

It’s a double entendre.

Spreading codes are used to smear a narrow bandwidth radio frequency signal across a larger portion of the RF spectrum. The result is a spread spectrum signal.

What’s the point? Spread spectrum communications are harder to detect; they resist eavesdropping; are harder to jam; and perhaps most importantly, they permit multiple users to transmit on the same frequency band without interference.

The other meaning is a playful reference to our history writing software (i.e. code) for disparate research and development projects across various domains including intelligence and Earth science.

I thought the name of this entity ought to have some meaning. As a former signals analyst turned software developer, “spreading code” just makes sense.

Now you’re armed with the knowledge to hunt down the meaning of our logo.