DeWITT — Critical Link, LLC expects increasing amounts of revenue in the coming years from its own line of products.

The firm began in 1997 working with customers on ground-up development of advanced computing components. Along the way, it developed its own line of processors that are now key components in everything from wind turbines and medical products to industrial instrumentation and quality-control technology.

About a quarter of Critical Link’s revenue comes from its products with the remainder generated from its continuing contract work for clients on product development and engineering. The goal for the next few years is to flip that ratio, says Thomas Catalino, vice president and a co-founder of the company.

“It’s an exciting time for us,” he says. “We’re in a market that’s growing. More and more customers are heading this way with their designs. The market has kind of developed alongside of us.”

Critical Link began developing its line of processors around 2004 to help address overseas competition for its services-based business, Catalino says. The product that resulted, known as the MityDSP, helps customers take advantage of the increasing computing power made possible by technology from firms like Intel and Texas Instruments (TI).

The firm released the latest product in its line, the MityARM-3359, in May.

The type of component Critical Link designed has been growing in popularity over the years. That means more competition, but also more opportunity, Catalino says.

The company is bullish on the prospects for its products in part because of the close relationship it cultivated with TI, he adds. The firm is one of about two dozen companies around the country designated as platinum members of TI’s Design Network.

The group represents the TI’s elite-level design partners, Catalino says, and the relationship is providing a strong boost for Critical Link. The partnership also helped connect the company with some of the leading catalog distributors in the semiconductor space, including Mouser Electronics, Digi-Key, and Avnet.

“Customers are now able to just go on the Web, find our product, click buy, and grab it,” Catalino says. “They’re going all over the world.”

Critical Link’s products now routinely wind up as far away as Europe and China, he adds. The relationship with the catalog distributors is also helping the company tap into industry sectors it wouldn’t have accessed as quickly on its own.

The company employs about 30 people and is looking to add three or four more in the coming months, Catalino says. The firm, he adds, is just at the beginning of its growth potential.

And while product revenue is expected to grow, it won’t come at the cost of the company’s service business, Catalino says. Its product sales will simply make up a bigger overall slice of total revenue.

In fact, product sales can drive more contract work since clients often need help with designs based on Critical Link’s processors.

Critical Link declined to disclose its revenue total.

Catalino founded Critical Link with John Fayos, Omar Rahim, and David Rice. All four founders are still involved with the company. The firm is based in a 12,000-square-foot office at 6712 Brooklawn Parkway in DeWitt.  

When New York lost out two years ago on federal funding for an ambitious, statewide effort focused on developing companies and new technology in the energy-efficiency space, organizers could have simply walked away.

Instead, the group of more than 100 partners, led by Syracuse University (SU), decided to press ahead. The first phase of their plans is now becoming a reality. The state last year awarded the effort, known as the New York Energy Regional Innovation Cluster, $3 million as part of the Regional Economic Development Council initiative

The innovation cluster project was a key piece of Central New York’s proposal for the regional council initiative, which awarded $200 million in competitive funding and a total of $785 million. Central New York’s plan won $103.7 million.

The $3 million for the innovation cluster will go toward outfitting the Syracuse Center of Excellence with new labs for research and testing of products. The total cost of the project is $8.7 million, with the remainder coming from federal grants and private funding, including money from SU.

Some of the technologies studied in the labs could include fuel cells, combined heat and power systems, smart-grid applications, photovoltaic-power generation, wind-power generation, and battery storage. The initial state funding will also add new transportation infrastructure at the center, including a special parking surface outfitted for testing stormwater-management technology and charging stations for electric vehicles.

The work the partners put in while developing the proposal for federal funds convinced them the state has the resources to be a major player in the energy-efficiency space, says Edward Bogucz, director of the Syracuse Center of Excellence, which will serve as a hub for the innovation cluster. 

“We were enthusiastic about the team we put together,” he says.

The center and its more than 200 collaborators at companies and institutions throughout upstate New York work on issues related to clean and renewable energy, indoor environmental quality, and water resources.

The innovation cluster could establish New York as a national and international hotbed for energy-efficiency research and commercialization, Bogucz says. The full project would cost $225 million and involve programs aimed at all stages of product development from basic research to manufacturing, he adds.

Partners haven’t nailed down where that funding would come from, but the idea is for $75 million to come from state sources. Those dollars would in turn attract further investment from private sources such as the universities involved, Bogucz says.

In addition to a focus on research and product development, the cluster will concentrate on connecting upstate companies with the New York City market. The Big Apple has plenty of buildings that could benefit from efficiency upgrades, according to Bogucz.

In fact, New York City policies mandate that some building owners undertake improvements aimed at reducing energy use, he adds.

“They’re driving the market for buildings to become more energy efficiency,” Bogucz says.

The city is also an international hub.

“It essentially becomes a global showcase for products from upstate New York companies,” Bogucz says.

Some of the first companies to work in the new Center of Excellence labs will be DeWitt–based NuClimate Air Quality Systems, Inc., Pulaski–based Fulton Cos., and Syracuse–based Ephesus Technologies, LLC.