Achieving a "SIL 1" TCR Monitoring System

SIL 1 (Safety Integrity Level 1) refers to the quantification and measurement of the availability, reliability, maintenance and safety of the monitoring system. In the last few years the computer infrastructure used to acquire and to diffuse data to the TCR has evolved very rapidly. A number of measures in hardware, software and management have been introduced to cope with this situation. These include: the Multipurpose Monitoring Device (MMD), a standard data acquisition platform used in the renovation of old front end monitoring equipment, the Smart Equipment Controller (Dsec), a driver that reduces the layers in the data diffusion pyramid, the multiplatform monitoring software to integrate the different SCADA systems, a software configuration tool (RAZOR) for problem tracking and version control, and a complete development environment reproducing a real installation for thorough testing of any changes. To achieve SIL 1 objectives, while mastering the evolution of our systems will be the challenge for the computer team.