ICALEPCS2011 - List of Authors (Luchetta, A.)

Paper

Title

Page

Use of ITER CODAC Core System in SPIDER Ion Source

801

C. Taliercio, A. Barbalace, M. Breda, R. Capobianco, A. Luchetta, G. Manduchi, F. Molon, M. Moressa, P. Simionato
Consorzio RFX, Associazione Euratom-ENEA sulla Fusione, Padova, Italy

In February 2011 ITER released a new version (v2) of the CODAC Core System. In addition to the selected EPICS core, the new package includes also several tools from Control System Studio [1]. These tools are all integrated in Eclipse and offer an integrated environment for development and operation. The SPIDER Ion Source experiment is the first experiment planned in the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility under construction at Consorzio RFX, Padova, Italy. As the final product of the Test Facility is the ITER Neutral Beam Injector, we decided to adhere since the beginning to the ITER CODAC guidelines. Therefore the EPICS system provided in the CODAC Core System will be used in SPIDER for plant control and supervision and, to some extent, for data acquisition. In this paper we report our experience in the usage of CODAC Core System v2 in the implementation of the control system of SPIDER and, in particular, we analyze the benefits and drawbacks of the Self Description Data (SDD) tools which, based on a XML description of the signals involved in the system, provide the automatic generation of the configuration files for the EPICS tools and PLC data exchange.
[1] Control System Studio home page: http://css.desy.de/content/index_eng.html

WEPMN036

Comparative Analysis of EPICS IOC and MARTe for the Development of a Hard Real-Time Control Application

961

A. Barbalace, A. Luchetta, G. Manduchi, C. Taliercio
Consorzio RFX, Associazione Euratom-ENEA sulla Fusione, Padova, Italy
B. Carvalho, D.F. Valcárcel
IPFN, Lisbon, Portugal

EPICS is used worldwide to build distributed control systems for scientific experiments. The EPICS software suite is based around the Channel Access (CA) network protocol that allows the communication of different EPICS clients and servers in a distributed architecture. Servers are called Input/Output Controllers (IOCs) and perform real-world I/O or local control tasks. EPICS IOCs were originally designed for VxWorks to meet the demanding real-time requirements of control algorithms and have lately been ported to different operating systems. The MARTe framework has recently been adopted to develop an increasing number of hard real-time systems in different fusion experiments. MARTe is a software library that allows the rapid and modular development of stand-alone hard real-time control applications on different operating systems. MARTe has been created to be portable and during the last years it has evolved to follow the multicore evolution. In this paper we review several implementation differences between EPICS IOC and MARTe. We dissect their internal data structures and synchronization mechanisms to understand what happens behind the scenes. Differences in the component based approach and in the concurrent model of computation in EPICS IOC and MARTe are explained. Such differences lead to distinct time models in the computational blocks and distinct real-time capabilities of the two frameworks that a developer must be aware of.

Poster WEPMN036 [2.406 MB]

Paper	Title	Page
WEPKS011	Use of ITER CODAC Core System in SPIDER Ion Source	801
	C. Taliercio, A. Barbalace, M. Breda, R. Capobianco, A. Luchetta, G. Manduchi, F. Molon, M. Moressa, P. Simionato Consorzio RFX, Associazione Euratom-ENEA sulla Fusione, Padova, Italy
	In February 2011 ITER released a new version (v2) of the CODAC Core System. In addition to the selected EPICS core, the new package includes also several tools from Control System Studio [1]. These tools are all integrated in Eclipse and offer an integrated environment for development and operation. The SPIDER Ion Source experiment is the first experiment planned in the ITER Neutral Beam Test Facility under construction at Consorzio RFX, Padova, Italy. As the final product of the Test Facility is the ITER Neutral Beam Injector, we decided to adhere since the beginning to the ITER CODAC guidelines. Therefore the EPICS system provided in the CODAC Core System will be used in SPIDER for plant control and supervision and, to some extent, for data acquisition. In this paper we report our experience in the usage of CODAC Core System v2 in the implementation of the control system of SPIDER and, in particular, we analyze the benefits and drawbacks of the Self Description Data (SDD) tools which, based on a XML description of the signals involved in the system, provide the automatic generation of the configuration files for the EPICS tools and PLC data exchange. [1] Control System Studio home page: http://css.desy.de/content/index_eng.html

WEPMN036	Comparative Analysis of EPICS IOC and MARTe for the Development of a Hard Real-Time Control Application	961
	A. Barbalace, A. Luchetta, G. Manduchi, C. Taliercio Consorzio RFX, Associazione Euratom-ENEA sulla Fusione, Padova, Italy B. Carvalho, D.F. Valcárcel IPFN, Lisbon, Portugal
	EPICS is used worldwide to build distributed control systems for scientific experiments. The EPICS software suite is based around the Channel Access (CA) network protocol that allows the communication of different EPICS clients and servers in a distributed architecture. Servers are called Input/Output Controllers (IOCs) and perform real-world I/O or local control tasks. EPICS IOCs were originally designed for VxWorks to meet the demanding real-time requirements of control algorithms and have lately been ported to different operating systems. The MARTe framework has recently been adopted to develop an increasing number of hard real-time systems in different fusion experiments. MARTe is a software library that allows the rapid and modular development of stand-alone hard real-time control applications on different operating systems. MARTe has been created to be portable and during the last years it has evolved to follow the multicore evolution. In this paper we review several implementation differences between EPICS IOC and MARTe. We dissect their internal data structures and synchronization mechanisms to understand what happens behind the scenes. Differences in the component based approach and in the concurrent model of computation in EPICS IOC and MARTe are explained. Such differences lead to distinct time models in the computational blocks and distinct real-time capabilities of the two frameworks that a developer must be aware of.
	Poster WEPMN036 [2.406 MB]