UCOS in the News

Here's what industry editors have to say about CSI and our open automation solutions.

"One of the most important decisions is often the very first decisions in upgrading a SCADA system: do you upgrade with an internal resource or hire and outside consultant?" - Pipeline and Gas Journal, (two parts) Sept. 2005 - January 2006
This article explains how one good idea is to partnership with a qualified vendor, like CSI before upgrading a SCADA system.

"Inside Scoop on SCADA, Control Systems International, Inc., USA, explains how to enhance the process of selecting and buying a SCADA system by understanding the vendor's point of view." - World Pipelines, August 2005
This article takes a step-by-step approach from an upgrade expert's point-of-view on the land mines and pitfalls of buying a SCADA system without plenty of planning, technological knowledge, and vetting vendor background.

"UCOS is designed for companies that want to move away from the limitations of traditional DCS, SCADA, or PLC+HMI systems. UCOS includes all the standard capabilities of these systems, such as real-time logic solving, built-in diagnostics, component redundancy, graphic displays, trending, and both TCP/IP and serial communications." - Managing Automation, April, 2005
This Managing Automation story reports on the features of UCOS including features no one else can offer, such as configure regulatory, discrete, and sequential control in a single interface.

"UCOS (User Configurable Open System) v5.0 reduces time to design and implement process control automation projects and reduces risk of inconsistent implementations." - ThomasNet, August 2004
ThomasNet reports that the UCOS process control software uses supervisory templates. Templates can be used to control behavior of multiple devices within industry-specific projects. Templates can be duplicated, and turning software switches on and off can modify functionality of individual devices. UCOS also provides run-time tools, diagnostics, and support for open hardware architecture.

"Control Systems International, believes that paying for a system integrator's experience is often worth the cost." - Control Engineering - July, 2004
Vance VanDoren's interview with CSI reveals that most end-users do not understand the work that goes into planning and executing a system integration project. Most experienced system integrators, like CSI know how to sit down with a client and discuss their expectations and can determine if they are in line with their goal, budget, and schedule.

"Alyeska Pipeline Services Company has broken away from the traditional pipeline SCADA systems and turned to a newer, more efficient technology called UCOS." - Pipeline & Gas Journal - February 2004
This article explains how the UCOS Pipeline SCADA System will monitor and control the Trans Alaska Pipeline. The pipeline is more than 800 miles long, climbs and descends three mountain ranges, and provides 17% of America's domestic oil. Read the entire article online.

(With UCOS) "The cost savings would be significant, not to mention the improved consistency and resulting reliability of the system." - WORLD PIPELINE - February 2004
This article explains how UCOS's object oriented SCADA pipeline technology saves development time and enforces standardization throughout the system. It also saves money because in many cases there is no rewiring because UCOS is pre-configured and pre-tested for most off-the-shelf hardware.

"Pipeline monitoring system uses object-oriented interfaces, real-time displays" Control Engineering (online) - February 12, 2004
A new SCADA technology is expected to bring added efficiency to the Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. In a move that breaks with traditional pipeline SCADA systems, the company is installing UCOS (User Configurable Open Systems) as the primary SCADA master station and data historian interface for the Trans Alaska Pipeline. Read more about this project in Control Engineering.

"UCOS (User Configurable Open Systems) applies object-oriented programming and user interface techniques, executes on standard, off-the-shelf hardware, and can be integrated with existing field equipment that often requires no rewiring." - OilonLine - February 2004
This article tells how Alyeska is using the UCOS Pipeline SCADA System to replace the Trans Alaskan Pipeline's aging SCADA system. Read more about UCOS at OilonLine.

City of Phoenix chooses UCOS for water/wastewater automation. WaterWorld October, 2003
In less than nine days, live, and with no downtime, the City of Phoenix Water Department installed a new control system at its five-million-gallon-a-day Cave Creek water reclamation plant. This story in WaterWorld tells how the City of Phoenix Water Department was able to accomplish this feat, drastically reduce development time, and save millions of dollars and thousands of hours by using UCOS, a state-of-the-art distributed control system, at its water/wastewater facilities.

System Brings Water Department Under Control. Water Engineering & Management September, 2002
WEM magazine describes the UCOS system at the Yuma County Water Users' Association pointing out that "UCOS allowed the YCWUA engineers to design a complete SCADA system from a single engineering workstation using a library of pre-configured, pre-tested templates that defined both the logical and human machine interface (HMI) characteristics of each device in the system."

Yuma County Water Users' Association uses Control Systems International, Inc's UCOS SCADA system for remote control. Control Engineering October, 2001
Control Engineering magazine explains how the "UCOS SCADA system uses TCP/IP enabled Ethernet modem radios to extend its LAN and link its single-workstation central control facility with UCOS controllers which send back real-time data on a report-by-exception basis."

"UCOS has helped to make the NVO Borg El Arab soybean refinery one of the most efficient and cost-effective soybean processing facilities in the world." Powder Handling and Processing Magazine April/June 2001
This article explains how UCOS's industry-specific, pre-configured device templates and pre-configured logic saved hundreds of hours in development and installation time at the world's third largest soybean refinery. UCOS monitors and controls the entire process from start to finish.

"V3.3 of UCOS uses object-oriented templates to develop any type of control application in the process industry." Control Magazine Feb. 2001
This is from an article discussing new products and their unique features. It talks about UCOS's supervisory templates which allows the user to set up a distributed system that controls multiple PC-based control devices and coordinates sequencing and interlocking among the various controllers.

"Operators appreciate the vastly improved graphics and faster response times of the new system ... (UCOS)" Bulk and Solids Handling Oct/Dec 2000
This article explains how AGREX, Inc. installed UCOS at its Elm Creek, Nebraska site to improve efficiencies and reliability for moving and storing grain.

"Airport System Moves Fuel and Data," Control Engineering, Mid-December 1999.
This article talks about CSI's fuel control systems installed in the new Hong Kong airport. It describes how CSI's sophisticated logic delivers fuel to the right plane at the right time keeping unexpected problems from turning into delayed flights. It's, "A business solution capable of tracking bulk movements, inventories, and load rack transactions for the 12 suppliers that deliver fuel to more than 50 airlines." Read more about this exciting project in Control Engineering magazine.

"Software: Open source OSs, objects, Web-based communications challenge status quo" I&CS, July 1999
In this article about operating systems and Web-based communications, Senior Technical Editor, Wayne Labs interviews Rob Lewis, VP of R&D at CSI. "We like this OS because of its maturity and reliability. Our customers feel confident having QNX in charge of their critical real-time processes. We have found QNX to be very easy to integrate with the Windows NT-based UCOS engineering and operator workstations," says Lewis.

"Traditional DCS Vendors Reshape their Tools," I&CS, October 1998
In his yearly review of DCS technology, editor Wayne Labs describes UCOS as an open control system which provides hot back-up capabilities for its PC-based controller (Field Control Unit).

"Be Careful What You Ask For," Control, January 1998
What is an open control system and how can it benefit you? This article by Editor in Chief Paul Studebaker includes descriptions of CSI's approach to an open system architecture and quotes UCOS user Rich Fuzzby of Agrex on the advantages.

"MegaSCADA Integration at Hong Kong Airport," InTech, November 1997
The cover story in this issue describes the advanced systems integration techniques used by CSI engineers on the Building Management and SCADA systems project.

"Open System Delivers on Control Promises," Chemical Engineering, November 1997 Chemputers editor Ken Fouhy explains how Device Diagramming, the object-oriented development tool used by UCOS, reduces the amount of programming required to implement a system.