OPERA: a CORBA-based architecture enabling distributed real-time simulations

The mission of the EU-funded OPERA (Operator Training by Distributed Real-Time Simulations) project (ESPRIT Project No. 24950) is the training of operators in the chemical industry by means of flexible and configurable simulation applications running in a cost-effective IT environment. This paper outlines how the problem of real-time operation combined with the requirement for high-performance computing may be solved in a standard environment. The OPERA system provides a way to integrate hybrid simulation models and is highly scalable. It runs either on a single computer or on a multiprocessor LAN cluster. OPERA's results appear to be useful for solving many problems, far beyond the initial requirements in the domain of distributed simulation.