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Emerging Technology Research

FPGA Design Guidelines

The objective of this research project is to develop a comprehensive process for confirming that using a safety system design based on a field programmable gate array (FPGA) is in conformance with NRC regulations and associated standards.

As a first step, the research will review the regulatory approaches used by other countries (e.g., France, Finland, Japan, and Korea) and other U.S. agencies (e.g., the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Defense) for licensing or certifying FPGA-based safety systems and will compare the regulatory approaches with the regulatory criteria now used by the NRC. The research also will identify standards regulating the use of FPGAs to determine their suitability for endorsement as regulatory guides.

In addition to using the regulatory experience and associated guidance developed above, FPGA subject-matter experts will be used to develop guidelines for reviewing FPGA-based safety-related applications. These guidelines will follow the hierarchical structure described in NUREG/CR-6463, “Review Guidelines on Software Languages for Use in Nuclear Power Plant Safety Systems,” which provides guidance to the NRC for reviewing software programs for safety systems for 10 high-level languages. The FPGA guidance will expand the scope of NUREG/CR-6463 to include software, hardware, and system aspects.

The draft FPGA-based design guidelines will be validated using a safety-related FPGA application in accordance with domestic cooperative research agreements with one or more nuclear power plant licensees.

Draft regulatory guidance is scheduled for completion in late 2007, and final regulatory guidance should be completed in mid-2008.

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Thursday, September 06, 2007