Triconex is a Schneider Electric brand that supplies products, systems, and services for safety, critical control, and turbo-machinery applications.
They presented the plan for a TMR (triple modular redundant) system named "Tricon" that would improve the safety and reliability of industrial applications.
Pitsker and Wimer presented the business plan to Los Angeles-based investor Chuck Cole, who was also a professor at USC.
Cole was interested, so he contacted his personal attorney, future two-time Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.
Riordan agreed to invest $50,000 and Cole's venture capital team matched it, providing the seed money for Triconex.
At the end of his term, Triconex became the leading safety system in a market it largely created, made acquisitions, and completed an initial public offering.
Among the software engineers who worked for Triconex were Phil Huber and Dennis Morin, who later left the company to found Wonderware.
The Tricon provides error-free, uninterrupted control in the presence of either hard failures of components, or transient faults from internal or external sources.