The Advanced Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) is the integrating element of the $4.5 billion NWS Modernization program. AWIPS allows the NWS forecaster to quickly assimilate the vast quantities of data that arrive at a Weather Forecast Office (WFO), produce analyses and forecasts, and disseminate those forecasts to the customers of the NWS. This paper will describe how the NWS AWIPS has been ported to the Microsoft Windows NT operating system.
The NWS AWIPS is currently being fielded, with 152 systems at 135 geographic locations. The NWS AWIPS has been developed and implemented based on the UNIX operating system. From the early beginnings of AWIPS development, UNIX was the operating system of choice. UNIX could support the required processing power, and process the complex high-speed data streams, and support a multitasking environment. The AWIPS software runs on Hewlett-Packard (HP) platforms and the HP UX 10.20 operating system. In addition, it has been designed to be POSIX-compliant, and is thus an open system. This is important for portability.
Potential users have requested the Windows NT operating system. In fact, there is a significant market demand for NT-based systems rather than UNIX systems, in part because the Pentium processors that run Windows NT are significantly less expensive than UNIX platforms. This is evident in all market sectors. For example, the U.S. Air Force and Navy have mandated the use of Windows NT with substantial efforts underway to migrate command and control systems from UNIX to Windows NT. In the AWIPS case, the use of Windows NT would allow AWIPS to be hosted on a Pentium PC, a less expensive platform than UNIX platforms.
In response to market demand, PRC initiated an effort to port AWIPS from UNIX to Windows NT. This port utilized the OpenNT migration tool developed by Softway. At the time of this port, it was the largest Windows NT port attempted by PRC and Softway. The Windows NT version of AWIPS supports the same functionality provided by the UNIX version of AWIPS.
This paper will review the market drivers for UNIX to Windows NT migration.
It will also describe the methodology used to port AWIPS from UNIX to
Windows NT, and the technical issues that were addressed and resolved.
This paper will describe the process that will be used to migrate new
AWIPS releases to Windows NT as they become available.