Migration of the LABIHS simulator from the PA-RISC architecture to the PC architecture

Resumo

The LABIHS compact nuclear power plant simulator is operating at the IEN, Brazil. The simulator was developed under a PA-RISC server. All modeling components were written using the Fortran programming language. In 2008, this hardware/software framework was discontinued, what makes it difficult to maintain. Technological progress during this period enabled the PC architecture to have enough processing power to run the simulator framework. Our work group has been working to port the simulator software to the PC architecture. Part of this effort includes rebuilding the graphical interface using modern software tools and programming languages compatible with the PC architecture. There are two important steps to achieve in the simulator migration from the obsolete architecture to the PC one. The first step is the development of a new Interprocess Communication Module, which allows the data exchange between the simulator currently running at the old architecture and software running on modern PC computers. This step is important because it allows us to work on the new Graphical Interface while the older NPP simulator is still operating. The second step is the development of the new graphical interface for the LABIHS simulator, currently under development using the LabVIEW software suit. In the Figure 2 is shown the Frontal Panel of Reactor Coolant System screen made on LabVIEW. The last step, also currently under development, is to conclude the port of the simulator software for the PC architecture, so that the simulator may run on our Linux-based PC server.