COMPACT PCI – A CANDIDATE FOR RACK-MOUNTED SURVEILLANCE EQUIPMENT

The International Atomic Energy Agency uses the Digital Multi-camera Optical Surveillance System (DMOS) for unattended surveillance in nuclear facilities. In 2002, the Agency authorized the DMOS system for routine use. After several years of operation under different in-field conditions, the Agency and the manufacturer have acquired great experience regarding the reliability of the DMOS system. A central component is the DMOS server which is commercial-offthe- shelf (COTS) equipment. As COTS equipment is heavily subject to market trends, several generations of servers have already been used in the DMOS system and their performance has been evaluated. One result is that, in order to ensure sufficient system reliability, a 2-years maintenance interval has been recommended for the DMOS system. This takes into account that some components have an operating lifetime of about 20,000 hours. Normally, system manufacturers do not specify reliability and operating lifetime. However, it is assumed that computers from different manufacturers more or less have comparable operating lifetimes, as they have the same components. The Agency is interested in extending the in-field operating lifetime of the DMOS system. To this end, different approaches are being studied. For instance, structural changes could involve the introduction of redundancy, and technological changes could involve the introduction of alternative servers, industrial PCs or controllers. The results of these studies will be presented in the paper.