Implementing a control application on an FPGA Platform - 356

Today, many I and C system suppliers propose FPGA-based I and C platforms. In that context, EDF has set up a project to assess the use of such platforms for safety-related systems and to enhance EDF's ability to manage this technology for the upgrade of existing I and C systems or for new constructions. One aim of the project is to assess the adequacy of these platforms for the development of control functions. This paper presents the development of a case study on a Radiy FPGA-based platform in a Hardware-In-the-Loop configuration, and the comparison with a Dymola Model-In-the-Loop and a Siemens T2000 S7 Hardware-In-the-Loop approach. The case study is a part of the level control of steam generators of French PWR NPP. The control flow diagram uses complex analog elementary blocks coded with fixed point format for the analog values. The use of IP cores of the FPGA supplier was avoided to enable a complete mastership of the VHDL code, to provide evidence of compliance with safety-related requirements, and to allow porting this code to another FPGA platform. The case study has highlighted the specificity of using a FPGA, and has shown that a complex control application in a FPGA-based PLC presents no major differences in precision and response time with a processor-based PLC. (authors)