Experion Cache
A sophisticated and critical operator interface was implemented using the
Honeywell Experion system as a base. Due to the data-intensive nature of the
live objects making up the screens, callup time was unacceptably long, exceeding
30 seconds
KSC was called in to advise on a possible solution (various staff members having
long backgrounds as Honeywell employees, or users of the Experion system). A
system was devised of holding slow-changing and expensive parameters (alarm
limits, ranges) in memory, implemented as a COM object hosted in a Windows
service.
The caching service learned the required parameters over time. The Experion API
was used to acquire current values behind the scenes, and hold them ready as
required by the graphics. The system supported the "aging-out" of old values,
and also pseudo-parameters required by the screens that were not supported by
the underlying Experion server. The graphics were rewritten to request the
slow-changing parameters out of local memory, rather than across the network
(and in many cases, down to the control layer).
The net results was a tenfold improvement in graphic callup time, enabling the
project to meet the performance specification of the project.