µP‑D

RARPC - an instrument monitoring and data communication application

The New Zealand Government required the earliest possible notification of French nuclear tests and evaluation of the size of the explosion.

Microprocessor-Design programmed a dedicated PC on the island of Rarotonga in Modula-2 to monitor RS232 serial output from an EARSS instrument in real-time, analyse the data, and decide whether it fitted the parameters for a suspected nuclear explosion in French Polynesia.

If so, the application would:

• dial up a mainframe computer in Wellington
• transmit the data
• start up an automated process on the mainframe to decide finally if it were indeed a bomb test.

Total code for the completed project was about 2000 lines.

Data communication with an early modem over satellite voice telephone links presented a particularly challenging problem, as it was critical that no unforeseen hang-up should tie up an international call, and politically important that no nuclear explosion go undetected.

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