A testbed for advanced MC and A concepts

Advanced concepts in materials control and accounting include distributed databases in a distributed processing environment and on-line instrumentation. To test various ideas in this area, the authors developed a testbed consisting of three personal computers (PCs) with several input devices and suitable software. The principal design aspects being tested include database structure, communication between various network nodes, data-base update on the host, speed of transaction processing, data input from on-line instrumentation, data input from on-line instrumentation, and a user-friendly interface with the operator. An IBM PC/XT at the local level is used to collect data using a barcode reader and balance in a mockup glove box. These represent typical examples of simple on-line instrumentation in nuclear material facilities. Custom software is called PC/DYMAC, a materials accounting package developed by Robert Bearse in cooperation with Argonne National Laboratory-West under the direction and funding of the Los Alamos Safeguards research and development program. It was developed using dBaseIII PLUS but was compiled with foxBASE+ under the Santa Cruz Operations XENIX operating system.