GE-Harris selected ICS as its partner because of ICS’s experience and expertise in successfully developing large embedded software systems under aggressive schedules. ICS engineers are integrated into the GE-Harris team developing the ICON embedded product.

ICON will enhance the capabilities, performance and efficiency of today’s railroads. ICON will modernize and reduce the size of onboard railway electronics, improve reliability, and offer a design for a 20-year life span in a 24/7 open architecture environment.

ICON also offers enhanced diagnostics and software reliability through consistency and reuse, and it reduces cab clutter. Maintainability is improved by converting computers to software cards residing in a single chassis, thus repair will involve replacing a card versus restoring an entire unit.

ICS is applying SCL, its premier command and control product, to the ICON simulator and testset. SCL will be used for the entire lifecycle of ICON product development and manufacturing test, qualifying hardware and software components of the ICON Integration Hub (IHUB). SCL will also perform environmental testing and screening of units prior to shipment.

“We’re excited to be part of such a significant technical effort, one that will have such a positive effect on the railway system. Our work with GE-Harris is another example of our diversification from Space into the commercial product arena. It again demonstrates the successful application of SCL to industrial monitoring and control environments,” said Brian Buckley, ICON Simulator Lead and ICS executive vice president.

SCL currently provides autonomous embedded command & control capabilities for the recently launched Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) spacecraft, allowing FUSE to perform astronomical observations autonomously for periods of 24 hours or more. SCL was also onboard NASA’s Clementine mission in 1994, and will be onboard the Interim Control Module (ICM) for the International Space Station and the Navy Earth Mapping Observer (NEMO) satellite, both scheduled for launch in the year 2000.

ICS is a privately held company with main offices in Columbia, MD, and Melbourne, FL. The product development and engineering services firm specializes in the development of real-time, embedded, and autonomous command and control software systems.