Safety-critical computing needs reusable, independently certifiable blocks.
That thesis produced the reference-design-plus-COTS model, the licensable platforms and the open library strategy. It is now being applied to space through ICE.
The industry benefits from breaking supplier lock-in. That is not an altruistic position: it is the market NEAT sells into. An infrastructure manager who can buy a certified computing platform without buying an entire signalling system has more suppliers to choose from, and NEAT is one of them.
What the thesis produced
- A platform licensable as a reference design, so an OEM can build its own hardware
- The same platform instantiated and certified as a product, for those who would rather buy
- Protocol libraries sold independently of the hardware they run on
- Engineering tools that work without any NEAT computer in the room
- An open source library, with commercial support beside it
And where it goes next
ICE applies the same model to space: a validated, customisable reference design with early software readiness, rather than a bespoke computer per mission. The coherence is worth pointing out, because it is the reason a space prime can read the railway pages and recognise how NEAT will behave.
Research and innovation.
- ESA programmes, including the ICE GSTP activity
- INFN and ASI collaboration on the CSES missions and SpaN
- MISE and Regione Lazio co-financing on SPES
- railML.org standardisation work
- University collaboration and thesis programmes
The open collaboration position.
design4rail was a brand. What it stood for was a strategy, and the strategy survives the brand: open interfaces, published evidence, and tools a customer can extend without asking permission.