Paranor AG

ORBexpress® is the linchpin for the Monitoring, Control, and Alarm System (MCAS) that replaces conventional shipboard controls and instruments with touch screens and track balls aboard a huge, high-tech catamaran. The French boat builder Kingcat SA chose Paranor AG of Berne to integrate varied and often highly sophisticated information flows and ship system controls into a single unified graphical user interface. MCAS is the heart of the five-computer bridge system. The suite is written in Ada and Java. It runs under Windows NT® and can also be used with OpenVMS™. Its distributed object architecture is based on ORBexpress.

MCAS is a classic example of a mission critical system. In mid-ocean, the lives of a ship’s passengers can depend on a captain’s decision-making skill, and on the quality and reliability of the information available to him. “That is why, for the mission critical components, we used Ada™, the most robust object-oriented programming language available.” explains Paranor’s project leader, Reto Weiss. “And we chose ORBexpress because communications within MCAS had to be as reliable as Ada. ORBexpress‘s compliance with the CORBA standard was so good that we could talk to other ORBs without ever having difficulties in terms of incompatibilities.” Weiss also cited the “excellent customer support provided to us by Objective Interface staff, and the professional implementation and outstanding performance of the product itself.”

Paranor is an independent integrator of systems and software for varied technical applications ranging from air traffic control to laboratory automation and military command and control systems. It enjoys a 100% successful track record in developing customer-specific and often ground-breaking solutions for achieving complex technical objectives. The quality of Paranor’s solutions arise from creative thinking, mastery of the technology, and the astute use of modern software engineering methods and equipment. Established in 1978, Paranor is headquartered in Wahlendorf, a suburb of Berne, Switzerland.