Why FPGA/ASIC is considered as a key technology for the future of IC in the power industry at EDF?

摘要

In order to extend the life time of their Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), most utilities are facing difficulties to maintain the existing instrumentation and control (I&C) systems and are looking for renovation. For the moment, the I&C systems that are proposed by the suppliers are Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) systems which are microprocessor-based products. If these digital products provide some advantages (as much functions as needed in a standardized hardware), a lot of drawbacks are to be taken into account: more and more complex components and system software layer, more and more difficult to qualify, very short lifetime. Electricite de France (EDF) Research & Development division, as power utility support and Data Systems & Solutions (DS&S), as a long-term supplier of nuclear instrumentation and control (I&C) systems, propose to share a prospective vision of the future of I&C systems for the nuclear power industry, in a context of an always increasing rate of change and innovation of digital technology, driven by the personal computer and high-tech product market: the new I&C systems generation for nuclear power plants could be favorably based on the FPGA or ASIC technology, with some additional work to be done regarding their qualification.