  IceCube is a kilometer-scale high energy neutrino detector that builds on the
wealth of experience accumulated with its smaller predecessor, AMANDA. An
international collaboration has begun construction of key components of the
IceCube detector and deployment operations at the South Pole will begin in late
2004.
  The underlying design of the IceCube detector and of the DAQ system are
presented here, emphasizing the digital optical modules (DOMs) as the smallest
discrete IceCube building block. The event reconstruction critically relies on
a relative timing accuracy from DOM to DOM of a few nanoseconds over inter-DOM
separations of up to 1 km.
