Author: Harrison, J.J.
Paper Title Page
THDAULT04 Embedded Linux on FPGA Instruments for Control Interface and Remote Management 1271
 
  • B.K. Huang, R.M. Myers, R.M. Sharples
    Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom
  • G. Cunningham, G.A. Naylor
    CCFE, Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom
  • O. Goudard
    ESRF, Grenoble, France
  • J.J. Harrison
    Merton College, Oxford, United Kingdom
  • R.G.L. Vann
    York University, Heslington, York, United Kingdom
 
  Funding: This work was part-funded by the RCUK Energy Programme under grant EP/I501045 and the European Communities under the contract of Association between EURATOM and CCFE.
FPGAs are now large enough that they can easily accommodate an embedded 32-bit processor which can be used to great advantage. Running embedded Linux gives the user many more options for interfacing to their FPGA-based instrument, and in some cases this enables removal of the middle-person PC. It is now possible to manage the instrument directly by widely used control systems such EPICS or TANGO. As an example, on MAST (the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy, a new vertical feedback system is under development in which waveform coefficients can be changed between plasma discharges to define the plasma position behaviour. Additionally it is possible to use the embedded processor to facilitate remote updating of firmware which, in combination with a watchdog and network booting ensures that full remote management over Ethernet is possible. We also discuss UDP data streaming using embedded Linux and a web based control interface running on the embedded processor to interface to the FPGA board.
 
slides icon Slides THDAULT04 [2.267 MB]