The Enginelab Control system is the most sophisticated software architecture running on the fastest and most state-of-the-art hardware available in the world. The software system, known as the EngineLab Machine, is designed to enable the user to efficiently design a complex control model. EngineLab has focused on removing the complexity of the real time firmware back end of the control system allowing the developer to focus on the system behavioral model.

The EngineLab Machine is tightly coupled to the Host Console application on the host PC, which allows for the fastest performance and most accurate user interface to the target hardware. The computation processing of the EngineLab Machine is all handled in hardware with a 32 bit floating point unit. Many of the current systems in the market have legacy support that require fixed point integer math, whereas the EngineLab architecture is designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the latest features of the math coprocessor.

The professional space offers several solutions where the user can develop and prototype control algorithms. The algorithm design process involves simulation and testing with third party software tools. The prototyping generally involves third party hardware platforms with custom software that allows the user to apply the simulation to the real-world application. The development process in this environment requires compilers, assemblers, linkers and other complicated software. The development team might consist of control system engineers, firmware engineers and hardware engineers with expertise across several difficult skill sets in order to deliver a quality product. The control system development in this environment can be very expensive with software licensing, custom prototyping hardware and diverse engineering resources.

The EngineLab solution is a direct approach to control system design. The performance of the latest generation of microprocessors, along with the robust set of hardware on-chip resources, has enabled EngineLab to formulate a novel solution. The EngineLab Machine is built on a real time operating system and exposes a simple application development interface to the control system designer. The EngineLab Machine does not require any compilers, assemblers, linkers or firmware development. The control algorithms are developed directly on the production level target hardware platform. The EngineLab solution brings professional-level control system development at an affordable price. With a little practice, EngineLab's interface is clear and understandable. The firmware of the EngineLab Machine does not contain a fixed function behavior model. The EngineLab firmware, apart from some low level timing control, contains no behavioral model code at all. The entire control system of the EngineLab Machine is downloaded to the system using the Host Console application. The EngineLab Machine consists of a set of building blocks that are connected together to generate a desired behavior. What are these building blocks? The behavior of the system would be comprised of math calculations, table lookups, conditional statements, timing control and hardware signal input and output. These are the building blocks of the system. The EngineLab Machine provides the user with a toolbox of these building blocks and a canvas on which the user can build any desired behavior. The developer can design the control system to generate the correct mathematical computation and sense the hardware input and drive the hardware output using the correct specified timing. This might all sound complicated, but EngineLab also provides several working setups so the user can have a plug-and-play experience. Just download the configuration that best fits the desired application, and get started.