Publications Details

Modular economical PC-based alarm display system

Clark, C.M.; Christoffersen, D.A.

Historically, large scale safeguards alarm and communication systems have required the expensive computational power of a mainframe of midsize computer. Due to the widespread availability and reduced cost of PC-based technology, this class of machine is a much preferred solution. This paper will discuss a development program integrating this technology with inexpensive local area network (LAN) hardware to support (1) many touch panel based operator graphics consoles, (2) redundant LAN communications, (3) fault-tolerant LAN communication, (4) redundancy in subsystem failure, (5) modularity in design, (6) fault-tolerant video communication, (7) inexpensive PC-based video annotation and switcher design, (8) inexpensive video replay capability, (9) use of fiber optic communication media, (10) distributed parallel processing, and (11) minimized overall system cost. The Intel BitBus architecture was selected for network communications between PC CPUs. The network supports both fiber optic and copper media and insures message integrity/receival. Custom boards have been developed to transform PCs modular expandable routing switchers with video presence detection and annotation. 1 fig.