CAE Electronics, Ltd: Power Plant Simulation

In 1989, CAE Electronics in Montreal, Canada, began using SGI servers as computational platforms for nuclear power plant simulation after concluding that proprietary technology was too expensive and unreliable. SGI offered a unique combination of reliability, open architecture, and real-time capabilities not available from traditional real-time system vendors. CAE Electronics now has an extensive installed base of simulators, which are based on CHALLENGE^TM servers.

All aspects of power plant operation are simulated, from the nuclear reaction through the distribution of electric power. Real-time simulation is deterministic, as verified in acceptance tests, which can last up to 20 weeks. CAE Electronics' simulators typically run at a fixed frame rate of 20 Hz and are built around a 4-processor CHALLENGE server running IRIX with REACT. One processor is assigned all system and I/O functions; the other three processors run distributed math models. Over 20,000 I/O points are interfaced using multiple Ethernet^TM connections.

The success of CAE Electronics' first simulator based on SGI servers has led to the establishment of CHALLENGE servers as the de factor standard platform for every power plant simulator supplier in North America.